It’s an unfortunate reality of Facebook that many cybercriminals abuse the platform to scam unsuspecting users. And according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), one of the fastest-growing scams on Meta-owned platforms involves cryptocurrency. According to a recent report from the government organization, Instagram and Facebook account for the majority of crypto scams on social media.

In this report, the FTC revealed that 32 percent of all social media crypto scams occur on Instagram, while 26 percent occur on Facebook. Meanwhile, Meta-owned WhatsApp hosts nine percent of this fraudulent content.

“Reports point to social media and crypto as a combustible combination for fraud. Nearly half the people who reported losing crypto to a scam since 2021 said it started with an ad, post, or message on a social media platform,” the FTC said in its report. “During this period, nearly four out of every ten dollars reported lost to a fraud originating on social media was lost in crypto, far more than any other payment method.”

Of course, scam artists will always try to squeeze money out of people no matter what, and crypto is just the latest method to achieve this. However, as reports like this make clear, social media platforms like Facebook have an obligation to do a better job hunting down and removing this content before more innocent people get taken for a ride.

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