The ever-increasing crypto scams have been a concern to regulators, lawmakers as well as industry participants. According to a recent survey released by Kaspersky, a cybersecurity firm, about one in every three Americans had fallen prey to a crypto scam.
Kaspersky surveyed over 2,000 American individuals and revealed that one-third of respondents to the survey said they had been victims of crypto thefts. Additionally, the victims reported an average of $97,583 in crypto to have been stolen.
Notably, across generations, generation Z investors were reported to be the most exploited group. Generation Z, also known as zoomers, is the group succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s i.e. around 1996-97 as starting birth years and the early 2010s i.e. 2010-12 as the ending birth years.
While Gen-Z is believed to be a tech-savvy generation, data suggests that shockingly 47% of the respondents aged 18-24 were lured by crypto scammers. On the contrary, just 8% of respondents over the age of 55 (mostly generation boomers) fell victim to crypto thefts.
Even though the average value of the theft was $97,583, about 15% of the survey respondents lost cryptocurrencies in the range of $100,001 to $1 million. The chart below shows the percentage of reported scams in the respective value ranges.
The increasing threat from malicious actors has severely doomed investors. These cybercriminals use various sophisticated and complex techniques to target users’ cryptocurrencies.
Marc Rivero, Senior Security Researcher, suggests some very small measures for individuals to be cautious and vigilant towards their safety and resources. He advises:
From scams to malware to crypto-jacking, there is a long list of threats lurking online to target cryptocurrencies. Users should be very careful where they invest their money, keeping a close eye out for phishing scams and fake websites. They should employ any extra security measures that are available to them, such as multi-factor authentication, and should use strong, unique passwords across all accounts.
Additionally, decentralized finance (DeFi) users should always be more vigilant whenever they connect their wallets. A lot of phishing websites empty out users’ asset holdings as soon as they connect their wallets.
To fool people, bad actors have increased the use of social media spam campaigns in the name of airdrops, free mints, giveaways, whitelist access, etc. Before clicking on any link in social media platforms, users should verify if it’s from an official account and check the authenticity at all times.
Scammers impersonate influencers and projects by creating fake accounts with a slight change in username and even worse they hack official accounts to spread bogus giveaways. Lastly, instead of storing private keys in devices connected to the Internet, users should write them down on hard paper and keep them secured.
While Kaspersky’s survey highlighted gen Z to be the most vulnerable group falling prey to crimes associated with crypto, Todayq News reported a survey in January that tagged boomers to be the most cautious investors.
The report found that boomers are the ones that put in the most time doing their analysis. They were ranked as the most cautious and risk-savvy investors, with 34% of the population spending a few days carrying out their research. Their research activity was found to be around 50% more than other generations before investing.