More than 20% of all cryptocurrency fraud happened right here in California last year, and the FBI San Francisco Field Office was kept busy, dealing with a staggering $260 million in crypto scams in 2023 alone.

If you follow tech news or specific sources like Web3 Is Going Great, you may feel like you hear about cryptocurrency scams every day.  And maybe you do! Just yesterday, a disbarred Beverly Hills lawyer was sentenced to five years in prison for a $9.5 million crypto scam that sold customers on “trading bots” that did not exist. Last month, an East Bay grandmother got scammed out of $50,000 by con artists impersonating her grandson and claiming he needed cryptocurrency for DUI bail. And also last month, an LA man was arrested for his role in a crypto theft and laundering scheme that fraudulently netted an eye-popping $230 million.

The FBI reported in early September that nationwide, that agency had reported $5.6 million in crypto fraud in 2023. But today we got more detailed regional numbers. And the FBI’s San Francisco office announced that California had the most crypto fraud in 2023, with $1.15 billion in losses, more than 20% of all crypto fraud in the nation.    

“The FBI’s 2023 Cryptocurrency Fraud Report reveals that California experienced the highest cryptocurrency-related losses in the nation, totaling $1.15 billion,” the FBI SF Office said in a statement. “Within the FBI San Francisco Field Office’s territory, losses amounted to $260,313,902, with 1,226 victims across 15 counties, including Alameda, San Francisco, and Santa Clara.”

These are 2023 numbers, so they don’t even count the Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX scam, as FTX declared bankruptcy in 2022. Nor would they include that Twitter hack of 2020 where the accounts of Apple, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Kanye West had Bitcoin scammers taking over their accounts.  

But when even the Republican nominee for President of the United States is pushing a crypto scheme, you know we’re in uncharted waters.

The FBI iterates that legitimate law enforcement or government agencies would never ask for payment in cryptocurrency. They also warn of scammers that use websites that appear to be legitimate, but are knock-offs of respected brands. You can file a report with the FBI if you're a victim.

And here’s something wild we discovered while researching this story — there is actually a cryptocurrency token called SFIST! We have nothing to do with it, I cannot tell you want any of those words above even mean, and their “SFist” actually stands for the word “SuperFIST.” But if someone says they’re trying to sell you some SFist crypto, well, we don’t know anything about it, man.

Related: Sigh, Someone’s Trying to Do This NFT-Only Club and Workspace Thing Again, Calling It a ‘Crypto Sanctuary’ [SFist]

Image: SAN ANSELMO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 15: In this photo illustration, the Coinbase and Bitcoin logos are displayed on a phone screen on February 15, 2024 in San Anselmo, California. Coinbase stock has risen 5 percent ahead of the company reporting fourth-quarter earnings today on news that Bitcoin has surged above $52,000. (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)