Cryptocurrency fraud doubles in 2022

The Procurator of the Portuguese Republic has reported that complaints over cryptocurrency fraud more than doubled in 2022 from 38 reported cases in 2021 to 94 last year.

Since 2016 the number of reports of cybercrime has grown 20 times in Portugal. Of the complaints passed on to an inquiry last year, 8.62% were linked to crypto assets.
It comes after the PGR’s office of cybercrime has received increasingly more complaints about frauds worth several thousand euros related to supposed online cryptocurrency trading platforms and on the exchange market.
The office adds that it has received complaints about fraud related to online platforms that were supposedly trading on the cryptocurrency and currency exchange markets in “an organised criminal activity of great dimension.”
The Public Ministry has drawn attention to the fact that there are multiple fraudulent pages on the Internet that advertise investments in cryptocurrencies and the foreign exchange markets, claiming to attract investments promising great returns, and using aggressive telephone marketing tactics to persuade people to invest.
One of these methods was to persuade victims to transfer quantities of money for supposed investments in cryptocurrencies and in the exchange markets and simulated profit for the investor to persuade them to make further and higher investments that can reach tens of thousands of euros which the investor never sees again.

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