SAINT LOUIS, Mo. — From conferences across the country to Bitcoin ATM’s in St. Louis, the interest in cryptocurrency is soaring.
It’s an electronic form of money you can buy, that grows in value and, theoretically if the value goes up, will make you richer.
Buying and selling cryptocurrency is completely legal. But now scammers are trying to steal it and they’re quickly becoming successful.
“Scams are always adapt, they’re like viruses. They mutate, they adapt, they find stuff that works,” said Steve Baker, an international investigator with the Better Business Bureau. “Then they expand in those nations and they have really found cryptocurrency.”
Baker said so many people have fallen for cryptocurrency scams – it’s become their second-largest type of fraud reported. Victims lost $750 million nationwide last year alone, most of those victims were between the ages of 25 and 44.
“Like all frauds… they gain your trust,” Baker said. “Con man is short for confidence-man. What they do is gain your confidence.”
The schemes are familiar: romance scams promising love, or lottery scams telling you won and collect your winnings after a cryptocurrency payment.
Scammers are even pretending to be investment companies, using highly complex websites to convince you they’re authentic. They’ll send a victim a QR code to scan and send them cryptocurrency, which you’ll never see again.
“Put in $20 or $50 bills and then the crooks send you a QR codes from your phone,” Baker said. “You just scan it on the screen and gives it the address the Bitcoin is going to go to. And your money’s gone and you have no idea where in the world it just went to.”
Their best advice is to verify who’s requesting or proposing a crypto-investment and be wary of unsolicited emails or phone calls.
“You don’t know what country it went to or where in the world it is,” he said. “It’s very hard to get your money back. In fact, it’s about impossible to get your money back.”
Cyrptocurrency doesn’t have fraud protections like typical credit or debit cards, which means it’s nearly impossible to trace. It’s even more difficult to do so than wire transfers.
Meaning once your cryptocurrency is gone, it’s not coming back.