BC Business
The Better Business Bureau of Canada reveals that cryptocurrency just surpassed advanced fee loans as the No. 1 scam to look out for in this country.
Investing in crypto? That virtual money you’re hoarding might not be, well, real.
Cryptocurrency fraud tops the 2021 list of riskiest scams in the country, according to the Better Business Bureau of Canada. Before last year, advanced fee loans was No. 1. Way to go, crypto! I knew you could do it.
READ MORE: 10 things to know about the troubled world of cryptocurrency
That doesn’t mean that cryptocurrency scams were the most reported, though. Crypto accounted for only 4.7 percent of fraud reported to the BBB Scam Tracker (an online platform where users can report attempted and successful scams). That’s much less than online purchase scams, which made up 32.5 percent of all reports.
Where cryptocurrency really shines is in the amount of loss reported—in other words, the average crypto scam will set you back much farther than the average online purchase scam. The average loss from a single successful act of crypto fraud in 2021 was $1,500.
Compared to the median loss from all scams—$169—that’s a lot. So while we might report credit card fraud often than fake virtual money, it only takes one crypto scam to seriously hurt your bank account.
The BBB found that in 2021, 53 percent of people shopped online more and 56 percent spent more time browsing or on social media. “Scammers are using social media and other means to promise investment opportunities with great returns and low risks, which is a huge red flag,” executive director Melissa Lanning Trumpower said in a release. “We received many reports of people being targeted on a variety of social media platforms after their friends’ accounts were hacked.”
The report also showed that folks unable to keep up with their bills are more likely to report losing money when targeted by a scam (classic bully behaviour—kicking someone when they’re down). Age-wise, Canadians 45 and older reported falling for scams more often than in 2020, while those under 45 reported being fooled less often.
In fact, the 18-24 age group saw the most significant decrease: they were successfully scammed 52.1 percent of the time in 2020 and 39 percent of the time last year. It’s Gen Z’s world; we’re just living in it.
Here’s the BBB’s full list of the top 10 riskiest scams reported in 2021.