The week of October 3 was celebrated as World Investor Week, a great time to remember that the too-good-to- be-true investment opportunity often is exactly that. Investment scams are among the oldest out there. With lots of people looking for a way to make money on investing, there are at least as many looking to take it away. One area where investment scams have thrived as of late is in cryptocurrency, which has taken a quantum leap recently.
The Federal Trade Commission received nearly 6,800 complaints of cryptocurrency investment scams from October 2020 through March 2021, up from 570 in the same period a year before. Reported losses during that time grew more than tenfold, to above $80 million.