By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa have ranked high among the leading countries in Africa from where investors were swindled at least $5.9 billion globally last year through cryptocurrency scams.
According to a report by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, the three countries came top from where scammers generated the most revenue per user in 2022 using investment and giveaway tricks that promised high yields in return.
According to the report released at the weekend, in the giveaway scam, swindlers tricked users into sending them their crypto assets promising to send them more in return. It says this means was particularly more prominent in Kenya and Nigeria, which are also the leading in crypto adoption on the continent.
In South African, users were tricked into nvestment scams where the fraudsters promote a non-existent investment company promising huge returns on investment.
Other scam tricks in cryptocurrency did not hit Africa hard while North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, where crypto adoption levels are higher bled more from activities of fraudsters.
According to Chainalysis, romance scams, which defrauded about $15,559 per user last year, and impersonation scams which ripped every investor off averagely $5,746, were mostly in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.
Africa’s leading guiles — giveaway and investment cons — cost victims averagely $1,834 and $995 respectively, while Non-Fungible Token (NFT) fraud lost each user about $462 each.
Chainalysis says, the locations of those who fell victim to crypto scams last year were “likely due to the location of the scammers themselves, as this will impact their ability to pitch victims based on their shared language and cultural context.”
“But the geographic trends in scamming also match the geographic trends we have seen in the wider cryptocurrency ecosystem” Chainalysis said
