NORFOLK, Va. – People are always looking for a way to make their money grow and cryptocurrency is getting more popular for investing.
It’s most popularly known as Bitcoin, which is a digital payment system that doesn’t rely on banks to verify transactions.
If you’re not careful, you can fall into trouble because as hard as you’re working to keep money in your wallet, criminals are doing just the same to steal it.
Criminals are getting savvier because crypto operates outside of the traditional banking system, and it’s not regulated, so you don’t have the same protections.
The Better Business Bureau has a Scam Tracker to keep track of any local cases. A person from Virginia Beach recently lost more than $400 by falling for a message they received through Instagram.
Needless to say, the person on the other end was not the investor they claimed to be.
Barry Moore, the President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau serving Central Virginia, said the number of people who have been taken advantage of by using Bitcoin has tripled in the past three years, jumping from number seven on the FTC’s list to number two.
“If it’s that easy in one year to move seven to two, let’s assume [these crimes have] the ability to go to number one,” said Barry Moore.
In 2020, the FBI reports receiving more than 35,000 complaints where people used cryptocurrency and then lost it. The losses accounted for more than $750 million.
Moore said once the money is gone there’s a very small chance that you will…
