March 27, 2024
  • The Financial Conduct Authority added 172 firms to its list of unregistered crypto businesses during the six-month period
  • More people checked the safety of cryptocurrency using the FCA’s ScamSmart Warning List tool than any other investment opportunity

Reports of potential crypto scams shot up in the middle of 2021, according to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as the regulator seeks to further crack down on actors causing investor harm.

The FCA had roughly 16,400 reports of possible scams between April and September of 2021, according to agency findings published Thursday — up from 12,400 over the same period the year prior.

Boiler rooms were the most commonly reported scam, where fraudsters cold-call investors offering them worthless, overpriced or even non-existent shares or bonds.

The three other most common reports were of cryptocurrency scams, FCA impersonation scams and recovery rooms — where fraudsters offer to help investors who were scammed or lost money on an investment get their money back for an upfront fee.

Overall, the FCA stopped 32 new firms, or 25%, from entering the consumer investments market between April and September.

Of the more than 16,000 scam inquiries, about 3,000 were related to cryptocurrencies — up 14% from the previous six months.

The FCA also offers a ScamSmart Warning List tool, which allows people to check the…

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