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The FBI on September 9 released its Cryptocurrency Fraud Report for 2023. In 2023, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Centerreceived more than 69,000 complaints from the public regarding cyber-enabled crime and financial fraud involving the use of cryptocurrency, with over $5.6 billion in reported losses.
Criminal actors exploit cryptocurrencies for all schemes, to include tech support, confidence and romance, investment, and government impersonation scams. Investment fraud was the most reported cryptocurrency scheme in 2023 and also saw the most reported losses, with about $3.9 billion lost.
“Scams targeting investors who use cryptocurrency are skyrocketing in severity and complexity,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The best way to help stop these crimes is for people to report them to ic3.gov, even if they did not suffer a financial loss. The information allows us to stay on top of emerging schemes and criminals’ use of the latest technologies, so we can keep the American public informed and go after those who commit these crimes.”
In 2022, the FBI formed the Virtual Assets Unit (VAU), a specialized team dedicated to investigating cryptocurrency-related crimes. The VAU centralizes the FBI’s cryptocurrency expertise, providing technological equipment, blockchain analysis, virtual asset seizure training, and other sophisticated training for FBI personnel.
The FBI, along with the Department of Justice’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and other partners, works hard to investigate and prosecute those who abuse cryptocurrency to defraud the American people. The FBI encourages the public to submit complaints through ic3.gov, even if a financial loss did not occur…”
Your tax dollars are funding a $64 billion scam
Raw Story: “…Medicare Advantage is not Medicare. These plans are private health insurance provided by private corporations, who are then fully reimbursed by the Medicare trust fund regardless of how much their customers use their insurance.
Thus, the more they can screw their customers and us taxpayers by withholding healthcare, the more money they make. With real Medicare, if your doctor says you need a test, procedure, scan, or any other medical intervention you simply get it done and real Medicare pays the bill. No muss, no fuss, no permission needed.
Real Medicare always pays, and if they think something’s not kosher, they follow up afterthe payment’s been made so as not to slow down the delivery of your healthcare. With Medicare Advantage, however, you’re subject to “pre-clearance,” meaning that the insurance company inserts itself between you and your doctor: You can’t get the medical help you need until or unless the insurance company pre-clears you for payment.
These companies thus make much of their profit by routinely denying claims — 1.5 million, or 18 percent of all claims, were turned down in one year alone — leaving Advantage policy holders with the horrible choice of not getting the tests or procedures they need or paying for them out-of-pocket. Given this, you’d think that most people would stay as far away from these private Medicare Advantage plans as they could.
But Congress also authorized these plans to compete unfairly with real Medicare by offering things real Medicare can’t (yet). These include free or discounted dental, hearing, eyeglasses, gym memberships, groceries, rides to the doctor, and even cash rebates…”