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Online scams cost Americans almost $150B last year – 7x more than reported
['Ben Lovejoy', 'Zac Hall', 'Benjamin Mayo', 'Marcus Mendes', 'Ryan Christoffel', 'Dell Curved Monitor']
9to5Mac
The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) estimates that online scams cost Americans almost $150 billion last year – seven times the amount reported to the FBI.
CNET notes that a federal survey found that only around 14% of financial fraud victims reported the crime to any law enforcement body.
Applying that ratio to the total sums reported leads to the CFA’s estimate of total losses amounting to $148.2 billion.
More than half of the losses reported to the FBI involved cryptocurrency.
Victims reported losing nearly $11.4 billion in crypto-related incidents, up about 22% from the previous year.