It was another big year for digital asset offons in 2024, revealing a new report and estimated that cyber criminals stole over $ 12 billion from their victims.
The report “Crypto Scam Revenue 2024” from the chain revealed The fact that the actual figure lost to the “crypto” fraud was $ 9.9 billion. However, the analytics company expects to identify more illegal addresses linked to last year’s fraud and drive the figure to $ 12.4 billion.
Since the chain analyzes first published its annual “crypto” fraction report, criminal income has increased by an average of 24%.
High -return investment fraud (HYIS) and swine retained their positions as the two largest types of fraud, which account for over 80% of all funds lost by victims of 2024. HYIS fraud, often presented as zero risk investments with extremely high returns, were introduced over half of all the funds lost Scammers despite a decrease of 37% year to year. This dip was compensated by a 40% strong force in pig -lending fraud.
‘Crypto’ drainage fraud, usually done by phishing links and fake sitesAnd Rug Pulls were the other remarkable fraud.
The most remarkable HYIS fraud from 2024 was Smart Business Corp., a prolonged Ponzi schedule which only recently incorporated digital assets. Last year it received $ 1.5 billion in ‘Crypto’, of whom it was paid out, but named, mainstream exchange.
Pig slaughter fraud registered the highest growth of any “crypto” fraud last year, with revenue that grew 40%, while individual deposits to the fraudsters’ addresses increased 210%. However, the average deposit dipped 55%. The chain analysis believes that this indicates a change in tactics, with fraudsters who are now spending less time based on their goals and quickly to kill, resulting in lower revenues per individual.
Pig slaughter fraud originates in Southeast Asia, where they still retain a prominent footprint in the midst of a global expansion. In December last year, Nigerian authorities Arrested 800 individuals who run a pig slaughtering fraud in Lagos. Other arrests made in CaliforniaThe NamibiaThe Peru and Isle of man View the global reach of these fraud.
Traditionally, Pig Butching has relied on developing personal and romantic relations with the victims before deceiving them. However, researchers observed that in 2024, fraudsters used increasingly false job posts to direct desperate job seekers, who then paid through digital assets to secure employment.
“These scams are particularly disgusting because everyone who has put their resume out there looking for a job can easily be connected by these, especially the desperate after work,” commented Eric Heintz, a global analyst at International Justice Mission, which was the first to be the first to reported on fungal fraud in Asia.
Scammers continues to rely on centralized exchanges
The Kedalase report further revealed that centralized exchanges (CEX) remain the leading channel for fraudsters trying to get their criminal income.
Criminals have long relied on CEX with Salmon kyc and Aml Program to get out of pay. However, Kedalalys data shows that they now also use the regulated platforms with industry -leading compliance mechanisms.
Since 2021, CEX has been the most widely used platforms despite a wave in Defi platform Use over the past two years.
The supervisory authorities have failed to knock down this checkout. In a few cases, the authorities have charged some exchanges to facilitate transactions from criminals and failure to implement sufficient KYC and AML programs. Binancefor example, was convicted of salmon aml 2023, and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, was Sentenced to just four months in prison. Others like Kukoin and Bitmex Have got away with fines.
Other authorities, such as the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have used preventive measures, such as notifying potential victims of “crypto” fraud before they divorced their money.
In a report last week, the FBI revealed that it had reached over 4,000 individuals in the United States who were in the middle of the pig’s slaughter fraud and informed them of the imminent danger. The FBI appreciates that the initiative saved the target victim $ 285 million in 2024.
“The victims are requested to spend money on an investment opportunity,” said James Barnacle, Deputy Director of the Agency’s Criminal Investigation Department. He added that the fraudsters show the victims lucrative returns on paper or through a doctorated website, but “When the victims try to withdraw their money, they are denied.”
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