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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Tens of millions of buyers have jumped into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and rip-off artists are attempting to capitalize on all the excitement.
Brandon Larsen just lately downloaded an app he thought was associated to the web site he makes use of for trades. However the app was a pretend, and all the cash he put in vanished. Larsen misplaced $384,006.
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“I’ve shed quite a lot of tears, I’m not gonna lie,” he mentioned.
Christopher Leach with the Federal Commerce Fee mentioned these kinds of scams have skyrocketed and Individuals have misplaced greater than $80 million in cryptocurrency scams between October 2020 and March 2021, a 1,000% enhance from the earlier 12 months.
There are a number of completely different scams on the market, together with one the place con artists place pretend adverts on-line promising to triple your funding.
“However it requires you to provide them your cryptocurrency. Usually what occurs is that – poof – the cryptocurrency is gone while you try to take away it from the funding fund,” mentioned Leach.
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Scammers additionally ship emails posing as celebrities, together with well-known crypto-investor Elon Musk.
“And saying, should you give me some cryptocurrency you may be entered right into a drawing to win an entire lot extra cryptocurrency,” Leach mentioned.
Larsen mentioned it’s a must to watch out who you belief, however he’s nonetheless going to commerce.
“There’s nonetheless an incredible alternative to generate profits in crypto, and I’m nonetheless going to benefit from that,” he mentioned.
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Larsen reported his huge loss to authorities, however since crypto-crimes are sometimes untraceable, he doesn’t anticipate to see that cash once more.
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