Celebrity-endorsed cryptocurrency scams in the UK are on tempo to nearly double this yr, Banco Santander SA’s native unit mentioned.
“Case volumes” jumped 61% in the primary quarter from the prior three months, Santander mentioned in a press release on its web site on Tuesday. The common worth of the scams was £11,872 (RM63,752), up 65% from a yr earlier. Around £2mil (RM10.73mil) was misplaced to such schemes in the quarter, based on the financial institution.
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We’re seeing a worrying rise in ‘celebrity-endorsed’ cryptocurrency scams, the place acquainted faces are being misused on social media in order to con folks out of usually life-changing sums of cash,” mentioned Chris Ainsley, Santander UK’s head of fraud threat administration, mentioned in the assertion.
Crypto scams are getting elevated consideration as regulators and politicians grapple with easy methods to encourage technological innovation whereas on the identical time defending unsuspecting customers. Santander mentioned it expects the variety of celebrity-endorsed crypto scams to rise 87% in 2022 primarily based on the present charge of progress.
British billionaire Richard Branson introduced consideration to the difficulty this month, telling Bloomberg he’s stepping up efforts to cease his title from getting used in fraudulent crypto schemes. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey in April mentioned cryptocurrencies are the brand new “front line” in the varieties of felony scams regulators try to fight. – Bloomberg