Currency and crypto scams totaled 27 million pounds (34.38 million U.S. dollars) in the last financial year in the UK, with average losses of 14,600 pounds per victim, according to an Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) statement released on Tuesday. 

As scammers often use social media to promote their “get rich quick” online trading platforms, reports scams more than tripled in the year that ended in April to 1,800, said the statement.  

“Investors will often be led to believe that their first investment has successfully made a profit,” it added.

The fraudster then contacts the victim to invest more money with a false promise of greater profits. The customer account was later closed and the scammer disappeared, the FCA said.

According to the statement, FCA would run advertising to raise awareness of online trading scams.

“We're warning the public to be suspicious of adverts which promise high returns from online trading platforms,” said Mark Steward, the FCA's executive director of enforcement and market oversight.

Not only in the UK, currency and crypto scams also took a fortune from the U.S. investors.

One of the scams busted this February was My Big Coin Pay Inc., founded by Randall Crater, who falsely claimed his virtual money was backed up by gold, reported the Association Press.

According to AP, Randall Crater was later arrested in New York, charged by Massachusetts prosecutors with wire fraud and money laundering, in which he cheated investors out of millions of U.S. dollars.

(Cover photo: A Bitcoin displayed in Paris, France, November 20, 2018. /VCG Photo)