Payments Dive
With crypto, “there’s lots of consumer fraud going on, because there’s tons of bad actors that know this is bleeding edge, they know there’s tons of gaps all over the place, so they’re taking advantage,” said Cliff Gray, a senior associate with the industry consulting firm Strawhecker Group.
The Consumer Sentinel Network collects reports from consumers themselves, as well as from law enforcement agencies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Better Business Bureau, nonprofits and others, according to an FTC news release. Witt noted more reports were collected from international sources in 2021.
He attributed the 70% increase in fraud losses to various factors, from the rise in business imposters to the FTC’s revamped online complaint portal. “It’s an amalgamation of all of those things,” Witt said. “It’s not uncommon to see an increase over the previous year, and we always have new data contributors.”