California AG Releases Crypto Scam Prevention Resources; U.S. Internet Scam Losses Hit $20.9 Billion in 2025
SAN FRANCISCO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on October 19 that, in response to the large volume of cryptocurrency-facilitated scams occurring across the United States, his office was releasing prevention information and resources, including new avenues for victims to seek recovery of stolen funds. Citing FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center data, the announcement said Americans lost $20.9 billion to internet-based scams in 2025, $11.4 billion of it to cryptocurrency scams.
Bonta said the schemes use the same psychological playbooks as traditional gift-card and cash fraud but leverage digital assets to move money faster and bypass physical safeguards, and that reports of Gen Z victims being targeted on platforms such as Twitch, TikTok and Instagram have risen sharply. He said cryptocurrency fraud has become the nation's costliest cybercrime, with syndicates using generative SI, deepfakes and malicious smart contracts to drain digital wallets in minutes.
The announcement listed six common schemes: sextortion; SI-driven scams using voice clones and deepfake videos to impersonate loved ones or public figures; "liquidity mining" schemes that trick victims into connecting their wallets to fraudulent platforms before a malicious contract drains them; recovery fraud, in which victims are targeted a second time by fake recovery experts or impersonated law enforcement; "rug pull" schemes that hype low-priced stocks or cryptocurrencies before the promoters sell off; and confidence scams in which criminals build trust as mentors or advisers before steering victims to cloned investment platforms.
On enforcement, the announcement said Senate Bill 1208, sponsored by Bonta and recently signed into law, gives law enforcement a new tool: agencies that seize digital assets under a search warrant may petition a court to return them to fraud victims even when the perpetrators are outside U.S. jurisdiction and cannot be convicted, with undistributed assets going to the State Restitution Fund administered by the California Victim Compensation Board. It said the California Department of Justice has shut down more than 100 fraudulent websites in recent years that cost victims at least $8.3 million, including six fake FBI websites, and is advising in an estate case in which a defendant allegedly diverted Bitcoin and Ethereum — worth over $4 million at the time of the alleged theft and about $50 million today — that were to be split between the decedent's elderly parents.
Victims can report scams to the California Department of Justice at oag.ca.gov/report, and the attorney general's office has launched a webpage collecting red flags, complaint channels and precautionary resources, the announcement said.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：一台比特币 ATM（资料照片）。Nicolas Vigier 摄，CC0 1.0 公共领域授权，经 Wikimedia Commons 发布。Photo: a Bitcoin ATM (file photo). By Nicolas Vigier, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
