Operation Level Up: FBI approach to prevent cryptocurrency investment fraud losses

HOUSTON - The FBI is taking a new approach to help save victims from cryptocurrency investment fraud.

It's called Operation Level Up, and they say it's already saved thousands of victims more than $285 million.

Victims reported losing nearly $4 billion to investment fraud related to cryptocurrency in 2023, according to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3.

But victims don't always stop interacting with scammers, even after reporting being scammed.

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The FBI is now reaching out to victims. 

Florida man lost $315K to an investment scam

The backstory:

"They were promising outstanding returns," said a Florida man who reported he was duped in an investment scam.

Speaking anonymously with our sister station, he described how he was duped by someone on a messaging service into investing $315,000 in a bogus online investment program.  

"People think it could never happen to you. But I’m an extremely pragmatic fellow, and it happened to me," he said.

In a few months, he says his account showed $6 million.

"They were exaggerating the investment returns. That was one of the things that made me suspicious," he said.

The FBI says investment scams are all too common.

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They say a scammer will send you messages over text or social media, befriend you, then bring up an investment opportunity.  Sometimes they'll create fake websites, showing fake profits, or let victims withdraw some profits just to get them to invest more.

"When we have people reporting being victims, we have victims reporting their losses, it allows us to look at the trends, the typologies, to match up the type of criminals that we see out there," said James Barnacle, FBI Deputy Assistant Director.  

What's next:

The FBI launched Operation Level Up, saying they've contacted 4,300 victims so far who reported being scammed to IC3.gov, and stopped them from losing an additional $285 million.  

"We call them, and we talk to them, and we tell them they are the victim of a scam," said Barnacle.

"And not only are we saving people's money, but we're saving lives by doing this," said Julia MacBeth, FBI Supervisory Special Agent.

Sometimes they'll refer victims who are distraught to the FBI Victim Services Division.

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"If we can stop somebody from just investing that little bit, or catching them before they pay the final fees to get out of this scam, then we may be making a big difference in their lives," said MacBeth.

Back in Florida, the victim says the Port St. Lucie Police were able to get his money back.  But most investment scam victims are not so lucky.

What you can do:

If you've reported being scammed and the FBI contacts you, they say it will be by phone or email, and give you a way to verify that it's really the FBI.

If you think you're being scammed, they say take a beat. Scammers will often create a false sense of urgency.

Report it right away to IC3.gov and your bank.

Reach out to family and friends for support and let them know what to watch out for, too.