Crypto fraud in U.K. jumps by one-third to above $270M - report

Cryptocurrency fraud in the U.K., which is dealing with a cost-of-living crisis, mounted to 226M pounds (US$271.5M) in a single year, climbing 32% from October 2021 to September 2022, the Financial Times reported, citing data from the country's police unit, Action Fraud. The data also showed that the number of reported losses gained 16% to 10.03K at the time. “Whenever times are tough, fraudsters always seek to prey on less experienced investors by promising huge returns," said Hinesh Shah, a forensic accountant at Pinsent Masons, as quoted by the FT. He added that scams involving cryptos were greatly targeted at smaller and less sophisticated investors that were desperate to make a quick profit during last year's bull run and this year's bear market. It would be interesting to see if the number of crypto-related financial losses rose even more after the ongoing fallout from crypto exchange FTX, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier in November. Action Fraud did not immediately respond to Seeking Alpha's request for comment. Previously, (Sept. 22) U.K. government unveiled bill to "seize, freeze and recover" crypto .