MIDLAND, Texas — The FBI is no stranger to scams, but over the past few years they've had something new added onto phone and social media scams to keep track of.
Cryptocurrency scams are on the rise, and that includes right here in West Texas.
Since the year began, the FBI says there have been 3,000 reports of scam in Texas, totaling a loss of $3 billion.
In Midland, there have been 23 reports totaling over $700 in losses.
So what can you do if you find yourself involved in a scam like this?
"You can go to the FTC website and report it, or you can also go to IC3.gov. This helps the FBI and yourself as well," said FBI Special Agent Liam McGrail.
"A lot of these schemes aren't committed by one person targeting one person. It's one person or one group targeting hundreds if not thousands of people. Your IC3 complaints allow us to collaborate with other law enforcement agencies, build a package of, okay how many other people were actually victimized, what's the total loss and go after these people," McGrail said.
According to the FBI's website, some ways these scams can come across are as blackmail attempts, where the scammer claims to have knowledge of your information or secrets and won't release them until you pay in Bitcoin, or in investment scams where you are offered a new cryptocurrency for an investment.
In addition to reporting these scams, you are encouraged to do extensive research into anything you might consider investing in and make sure you do not provide bank account information to people who are not on the account.