Ireland’s national police force has warned that almost half of all reported investment fraud cases involved cryptocurrencies.

According to a report from the Irish Independent, 44% of all investment fraud incidents in Ireland between January 2020 and August 2024 involved Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Most cases involved scammers posing as investment managers and defrauding victims by “cloning webpages and targeting victims through online and social media adverts.”

Scammers managed to steal over €75 million (roughly $83 million) from over 1,117 victims between January 2020 and August 2024, with €13.5 million stolen so far this year. 2023 saw the most losses, with €28 million stolen, a figure higher than the combined total for 2021 and 2022.

The report detailed one crypto-related incident where a victim saw an advertisement on a social media platform offering an investment opportunity into a mobile app-based trading platform. Upon signing up for the scheme, the scammers contacted the victim and socially engineered him into transferring €45,000 (roughly $50,000).

The scammers later informed the victim that their investments had supposedly generated over €727,000 (approximately $808,620) in profits, allegedly held in (USDC) stablecoin within an Ethereum-based Atomic Wallet. However, when the victim tried to withdraw the funds, they were asked to pay an additional $40,000 in dirty tax to gain access to the funds.

A dirty tax involves scammers falsely claiming that a victim must pay a fee or tax to access funds or profits. This is typical in investment fraud cases, as seen in a warning issued by the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions in July. In this case, scammers tricked victims into dubious crypto trading-related investments but froze their accounts when they tried to cash out their profits, demanding additional funds.

Michael Cryan, Detective Superintendent of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, warned that the scammers usually target “ordinary, decent people” and urged caution when transferring money internationally.

“The fraudsters involved in fraudulent investment schemes will sound convincing and claim to have insider knowledge but they are career criminals that are following a well-rehearsed script.”

Michael Cryan, Detective Superintendent of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau

Crypto investment scams have become increasingly prevalent across various regions, with fraudsters enticing victims with promises of substantial returns. One of the largest crackdowns in recent times involved the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, which took down 615 websites linked to crypto investment scams.

Before that, Australia’s competition regulator sued Meta over a surge in Facebook advertisements that promoted crypto scams.