Online scams involving cryptocurrency are often targeting Alaskans and particularly older residents of the state, according to new data from federal authorities.
The FBI released its 2024 Internet Crime Report late last month. It shows that Alaskans’ losses from online crime, as reported to the bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, fell from $31.7 million in 2023 to $26.2 million last year – bucking a nationwide trend, as U.S. losses rose from $12.5 billion to $16.6 billion.
“In Alaska, approximately 45% (over $11.7 million) of reported losses were cryptocurrency related,” the FBI’s Anchorage office said in a statement discussing Alaska details from the report.
The report shows that about a third of last year’s statewide losses online, about $8.2 million, were suffered by people age 60 or older, who accounted for just 7% of all online crimes reported.
“The (center’s) accompanying state report indicates all age groups in Alaska were impacted by internet crimes; however, those over the age of 60 accounted for the highest reported losses, including the highest reported losses involving cryptocurrency transactions,” the office’s statement said.
Rebecca Day, the FBI special agent in charge of the Anchorage office, said Wednesday that “prevention is key” in protecting yourself from online crime. That’s especially true when scams involve the use of cryptocurrency, which often can’t be recovered due to how quickly it can be moved.
“To send that cryptocurrency to the other person that is immediate, and then what we see is those fraudsters immediately take that transaction and move it overseas, where law enforcement cannot get to it,” Day said. “However, if you utilize a traditional banking transaction, typically that has a day or two of processing.”
The top three types of online crime encountered in Alaska, accounting for more than half of last year’s losses, included investment scams, compromised business emails and tech-support fraud.
Day said many investment scams take the form of Ponzi or pyramid schemes, and “usually offer large returns with minimal risk.” Business email compromise typically involves people posing as colleagues or business partners, as well as fraudulent password-reset requests that can provide your credentials to scammers. Fraudulent tech support often involves contacts made by scammers rather than victims.
“If you have someone contacting you for tech support that you have not initiated, that would be a big, big red flag,” Day said.
Day urged people to stop and think before committing to suspicious transactions, particularly when they’re being pushed to act fast.
“Please look for those red flags,” Day said. “It's really important to take a beat and stop and think about what you're doing before you make these transactions. If somebody is pressuring you to do this quickly, or telling you not to tell anybody else about it, those are huge red flags and that's a good time to stop.”
Day urges Alaskans to report online crimes to the FBI, other law enforcement agencies and financial institutions. She also said it’s important to discuss scams in advance with friends and loved ones, to keep them from being victimized.
“Talk to your loved ones about this, especially that more vulnerable population out there,” she said. “Make sure that they understand some of these red flags, and that you go ahead and establish that relationship that they view you as a trusted person to talk to about this.”
A defining element of online crime, Day said, is how personal the losses can be.
“This isn't just stolen money. It’s stolen savings, retirement funds, education funds of our next generation,” she said. “It's all these funds that hard-working Americans have saved up, and not only that, it’s siphoned from our local economy.”
The FBI has posted a variety of information for avoiding online scams, including a set of resources and a breakdown of common cryptocurrency scams.
