Honolulu officials are sounding the alarm after police told state lawmakers Wednesday that Oahu residents have already lost more than $7 million to fraud this year. Community groups and legislators singled out cryptocurrency kiosks and impersonation scams that are disproportionately hitting kupuna.
Honolulu police financial-crimes detectives reported that 222 Oahu residents have filed fraud complaints this year, with reported losses totaling roughly $7.7 million, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Police gave lawmakers a breakdown of the schemes and victim ages during an informational briefing at the State Capitol.
The local numbers sit against a broader statewide trend: the FBI’s Internet Crime Report says Hawaii residents lost more than $55 million to online crime last year, and investment and cryptocurrency scams drove a large share of those losses, according to the FBI. The federal data have prompted calls for better reporting and consumer protections at the state level.
Crypto Kiosks And Impersonation Schemes In The Hot Seat
At Wednesday’s informational hearing, lawmakers and AARP Hawaii described how scammers sometimes instruct victims to feed cash into cryptocurrency kiosks and then walk them step by step through transferring funds to an attacker’s wallet. Witnesses warned the machines can convert cash into hard-to-trace crypto in minutes, making it extremely difficult to claw money back, as reported by Hawaii News Now…