Cryptocurrency Scams Soar, With Americans Losing Over $11 Billion Since 2025

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro is sounding the alarm on a growing threat to Americans: cryptocurrency scams. According to the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report, 181,565 people reported falling victim to these schemes, resulting in total losses exceeding $11.3 billion.

Pirro warns that most crypto scams begin with seemingly harmless messages from strangers online. Scammers use social media platforms like Facebook Messenger and Instagram to establish a rapport with their victims before convincing them to invest in legitimate-sounding cryptocurrency sites.

The scammers' tactics have become increasingly sophisticated, with some even gaining access to their victims' funds after they've seen initial returns. To combat this threat, Pirro launched the Scam Center Strike Force in November 2025, which aims to target transnational criminal scam enterprises that con Americans out of large sums of money.

The strike force's latest operation resulted in the shutdown of 13 Chinese-run scam compounds and the seizure of $52 million in cryptocurrency stolen from Americans. However, Pirro emphasizes that this is just one part of a much larger problem, with September seeing losses of over $767 million due to hacks, exploits, and phishing attacks on cryptocurrency platforms and users.