Johns Creek Police Warn Residents as Crypto Scams Cost Americans Billions

The pitch arrives like a message from someone you trust: an old contact resurfacing on a messaging app, a new online acquaintance with investment advice, or a voice warning that your bank account has been compromised and funds need to move fast. By the time a victim realizes the money sent as cryptocurrency is gone, there is almost no recourse.

The Johns Creek Police Department issued a public warning Monday alerting residents that Americans lost between $6.5 billion and $9.3 billion to cryptocurrency scams last year. The figure is not an outlier. An FBI Internet Crime report released the same day placed the 2025 national total even higher, at $11.4 billion, a 22 percent increase from 2024. In Georgia alone, cryptocurrency accounted for $132 million of the $152 million in investment fraud losses that state residents reported to the FBI in 2024, and that tally captures only the cases that actually reached authorities.

The department described three distinct scripts scammers deploy most often. In the first, a stranger or impersonated contact pitches a cryptocurrency investment opportunity with promises of quick profits. In the second, the scammer builds a relationship over days or weeks through a messaging platform before asking the target to transfer money. In the third, a caller or sender claims the victim's existing savings are at risk from a government freeze, a hacker, or a bank failure, and instructs them to convert funds into cryptocurrency for safekeeping. All three rely on the same mechanism: urgency calibrated to prevent the target from pausing to verify anything.

Investment fraud remains the primary driver of crypto-related losses, accounting for nearly 49 percent of all scam-related complaints. People over 60 reported the highest losses of any age group in 2024, accounting for 41 percent of reported losses totaling $2.8 billion, according to FBI data. Suburban communities with a concentration of retirees and tech-savvy professionals are among the most targeted demographics.

If a request like this reaches a family member, the Johns Creek advisory supports a clear sequence. Stop responding immediately and do not send any funds. Screenshot every message thread, the sender's profile or username, any wallet address, and any payment link provided; investigators need this documentation to trace networks. Call your bank before converting any savings into cryptocurrency, because a wire transfer can sometimes be flagged or delayed at that stage, but once a blockchain transaction completes, nothing can be reversed. File a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov and with the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov; both agencies use aggregated reports to identify and dismantle scam networks. Then contact Johns Creek PD at 404-843-6670, the department's non-emergency line, so investigators can log the incident locally. The department's public information officer, Lt. Deb Kalish, can be reached directly at 678-477-8968 during office hours, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and is a practical first call for anyone unsure how to connect a family member with police resources.

The department's core guidance stands regardless of how convincing the approach seems: never send money to someone you have not met in person, treat any guaranteed investment return as a warning sign, and verify any financial request independently before acting on it through a screen.