In some cases, a romance angle is used to win trust, and that trust is later turned into fake investment offers or bogus tax demands. This staged approach has let scams run longer and capture bigger sums from fewer victims.
Behind many of these schemes are groups that act like small companies. They hire people, sell tools, and reuse scripts to run campaigns in many places.
Deepfake Calls And Targeted HacksWhen the meeting “needed a patch,” victims were urged to install what was actually malicious software. These methods have been linked to North Korea–connected groups and were flagged by security researchers last year.
While the scams became more sophisticated, the market evolved too. Bitcoin was trading in the range of $88,000 to $90,000 in late January 2026 as investors considered macro news and policy developments.
This market context is important: as prices increase, the urgency and authenticity of crypto scams may seem more plausible, and the risks for both victims and law enforcement may be higher.
Scam Proceeds Compared To Illicit Flows OverallIllicit inflows to crypto assets reached a record high of $158 billion, a substantial increase due to improved monitoring that brought more illicit activity to light.
Meanwhile, scam-related wallets saw a slight decrease in proceeds to around $35 billion in 2025, from $38 billion in the previous year.
However, the total volume of criminal activity increased substantially, even as the portion attributed to scams increased marginally.
It appears that scam-detecting technology is improving, but scams are evolving rapidly. The increasing use of AI-based tools makes generic advice less helpful, as the scams now sound more authentic.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
