HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) – Cryptocurrency-related scams are spreading at an alarming rate nationwide, even making a digital footprint in Virginia, now expanding to more than 1600 cases reported last year since 2020, per the FBI’s Internet Crime Criminal Complaint Center.
Hampton Roads residents are increasingly becoming targeted, according to Eithan Raviv, CEO of Lionsgate Network, a cybersecurity company which specializes in recovering stolen crypto funds.
Crypto scams are typically laced with a variety of organized tactics, but they all have one thing in common, an enticing proposal.
“Scammers spend a lot of time in grooming these people, essentially taking their funds,” Raviv says.
Victims in turn will send money to a fake trading platform, mimicking an official one.
“You can send all of your 401K, essentially realizing that you’ve really relinquished that to people you will never meet,” Raviv explained.
For example, a person may transfer funds directly to a legitimate Coinbase Account. The moment the money leaves your Coinbase is when the recover process can begin. Companies like Lionsgate Network work with local law enforcement agencies in Virginia and other states to help scam victims retrieve their stolen funds.
“Crypto, unlike real money, is not about tracing people,” he says. “It’s about tracing a code. And we will be tracing that code and tell you if there is recovery probability. So we’re tracing your money across various blockchains and infinity of wallets and transactions.”
The goal is to generate the right amount of evidence needed for a law enforcement agencies to onboard a case and issue a subpoena. The most common crypto scams in Virginia and Hampton Roads involve investment fraud, or what’s called Pig Butchering, according to the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office.
“So 36% of the cases in the area of Virginia are pig butchering, meaning emotional induced opportunity to get into crypto,” he says. “The rest are mostly trading platform fake trading platforms. There are also job scams and task scams that are now becoming the new thing.”
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