A cybersecurity expert publicly supported Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering legislation during a recent U.S. Senate hearing.
Senator Elizabeth Warren of the United States has drawn attention to the dangers of cryptocurrency scams that prey on elderly Americans, and a cybersecurity specialist has endorsed her legislation on digital assets to thwart such schemes in the future.
Warren described the notable rise in cryptocurrency scams aimed at US senior citizens during a recent Senate hearing:
“Last year, we saw a 350% increase in crypto investment scams targeting seniors. That is the biggest spike among all age groups. That added up to more than $1 billion that seniors lost in crypto scams.”
As Warren has described, renowned cybersecurity and scam expert Steve Weisman noted during the hearing that cryptocurrency presents more transparency challenges than credit card fraud, which can be quickly detected, stopped, and tracked.
He emphasised again how much harder it is to trace cryptocurrency once it has gone through mixers.
“Once it goes into the mixers, then you have problems. There is a legitimate privacy concern that people may have, but it does not come anywhere near to the scammers”.
Warren’s Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, which aims to make sure that digital assets are governed by the same anti-money laundering (AML) regulations as traditional fiat currency, has the support of Weisman. “Your laws are much overdue. It makes perfect sense,” Weisman said. This comes in the wake of recent reports showing a sharp rise in cryptocurrency hacks and scams in the most recent quarter when compared to 2022.
Compared to the same period in 2022, the blockchain security company Immunefi reported a 153% increase in attack incidents targeting Web3 and cryptocurrency projects from July to September of 2023. Losses in the most recent quarter came to about $686 million.
Nine additional U.S. senators have openly endorsed the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, according to information disclosed by Warren.
Notable proponents of the effort include Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Gary Peters, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.