Santander reports 61% rise in celebrity-endorsed crypto scams

The number of celebrity-endorsed crypto scams linked to high-profile individuals rose 61% in January–March from Q4 2021, according to Santander analysts cited by Bloomberg.

Average losses per such incident rose 65% year-on-year to £11,872 ($14,540), and total damage exceeded £2 million (≈$2.45 million).

We are seeing a worrying rise in ‘celebrity-endorsed’ crypto-scam cases, said Chris Ainslie, head of the Fraud Risk Management unit at Santander in the United Kingdom.

At the current pace, the year-end increase could reach 82%.

Earlier in 2022, the owners of a fake YouTube channel linked to MicroStrategy chief Michael Saylor duped an unknown user out of 26 BTC (more than $1.1 million at the time).

Earlier, Elliptic identified transactions linked to illicit activity involving the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

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