According to a recently issued report from Bloomberg, cryptocurrency investors in the United Kingdom have had to suffer losses of up to $200Million in 2021.
Details in the Report
The cryptocurrency space has never seen a huge growth rate of this level, compared to the previous years, as an increasing number of investors and traders have been pouring into the market. But despite all of the sunshine and rainbows, criminal and fraudulent activities in the crypto space have also had a huge spike, especially in the United Kingdom, where Bloomberg has reported financial losses that have managed to reach around $200Million this year.
The report from Bloomberg mentions that nearly 7,000 unique cases of fraud and other criminal activities have been reported to the authorities, which has led to nearly $200Million in losses for individuals who could not suspect them, as mentioned above. The report also mentioned that the amount of loss had had an increase of 30% compared to that of last year, highlighting the significant increase of criminal activities in the cryptocurrency space.
Targeting the Younger Individuals
The report revealed demographics, in which it was found out that the majority of affected individuals were in the age range of 18 to 45 years old. Crypto investments have become quite popular, especially for the younger age individuals, who have started to prefer digital assets over traditional currency, but because they don’t have the significant experience needed to work in the market, they are easily trapped by fraudulent schemes.
Celebrity Power
The report highlights that these young individuals are often baited using attractive fake celebrity endorsements, which have led to about 79% of the total number of complaints being related to these fake endorsements. These types of fraudulent endorsements are spread all around the world, as they are an easy way for criminals to lure individuals into their traps.
The names of many celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk have been used extensively in order to promote fake cryptocurrency schemes, becoming of the celebrity’s huge involvement with the space. Kim Kardashian had promoted the cryptocurrency Ethereum Max on her Instagram, which led a ton of investors to purchase the asset in support of her, which shows the level of convincing power they have when talking about basically anything.