Work

AI-Enabled Cryptocurrency Scams and Investor Vulnerability: Evidence on Scam Sophistication, Adoption, Financial Access and Losses

Year: 2026

Type: preprint

Abstract: Cryptocurrency fraud is among the largest categories of financial crime, and generative AI may be raising the scale and persuasiveness of scams. We link AI-enabled scam sophistication, cryptocurrency adoption and financial access to investor losses, using public blockchain-analytics, survey and World Bank data. Scam operations linked to AI tooling earned about 4.5 times more than other operations, a descriptive comparison. Across eleven countries, loss prevalence ranges from 1% to 36%, and exposure alone does not explain the gap. Crypto adoption is unrelated to losses (Spearman ρ = 0.21; interval − 0.46 to 0.74). Account ownership is negatively associated with losses (ρ = −0.74), but is confounded with income and region. We discuss implications for regulators, exchanges and AI providers.

Source: Research Square

DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-11383134/v1

Authors: Sahila Chellamuthu, Mcxin Tee

Institutions: SRM Institute of Science and Technology, INTI International University

Language: English

Topic: Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies

Subfield: Law

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W7225620119

Cites: 13

Cited by:

Related to: