The year 2022 has not been very lucrative for scammers targeting crypto platforms and investors. With the fall in prices, their revenue fell a lot, totaling $5.9 billion. Chainalysis estimated this drop at 46% compared to 2021. However, it appears that two types of scam did not meet the same fate.
Romance and gift scams are more profitable!
In 2022, different types of crypto scams have been observed. These include investment scams, NFT-related ones, and romance-related ones. A Chainalysis report published on February 16 makes an important revelation. It indicates that two types of offenses remained immune while revenue from other scams fell. These are gift scams and romance scams.
“Scam revenue throughout the year tracks bitcoin price almost perfectly, consistently maintaining a three-week lag between price movements and revenue changes», said Chainalysis. The cabinet added:However, not all scam types follow this pattern. Some types of scams see revenue changes increase when crypto prices fall“.
He then explained that “romance and gift scams do not show a positive correlation with bitcoin price“. It appears that romance scams recorded low revenues overall. Nevertheless, this category of scam recorded the highest average victim deposit amount, in 2022. There were on average $16,000 deposited by each victim. This amount is 3 times higher than in the case of gift scams.
It should be noted that in the context of romance scams, the scammers first seek to establish a relationship with their victims. Once that’s done, they trick them into thinking they need help. They therefore rely on the compassion of their victims, not on their greed. In this context, this type of scam is more likely to persist in bear market times, according to Chainalysis.
Chainalysis explained that romance scams would be effective regardless of market trends. “Because the victim’s primary goal is not to get rich quick, but rather to help someone they believe to be a potential romantic partner.“, he underlined.
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