The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has warned crypto users in the US of impersonation scams in which scammers mimic employees from crypto exchanges. By pretending to be official personnel representing the exchanges, they gain access to user accounts by creating fake urgency among users to act immediately to protect their funds. Thus, their funds get stolen.
In an X post, the FBI mentioned, “The FBI is warning of scammers impersonating cryptocurrency exchange employees to steal your money! If you have been a victim of this scam report the activity associated with it to ow.ly/wqPa50SPg7J. ow.ly/7GX850SPg7L.”
The agency also offered an explainer on how these scams occur to enable users to identify them and the steps to take if one has lost their funds to such devious maneuvers. Regarding how scammers approach potential victims, the FBI said, “The scammer contacts the victim via an unsolicited call or message and pretends to be a cryptocurrency exchange employee.”
They then “claim there is a problem with the victim’s account, or someone is attempting to compromise the victim’s account.” With that, the scammers convince their targets to “safeguard their account by providing log-in information, clicking on a link, and/or providing identification information.” Finally, they obtain access to victims’ accounts and wreak havoc.
“If you receive a call or message indicating any kind of account problem or compromise, do not respond, even if it appears official and indicates you must act immediately,” the FBI notice read. It advised crypto users to reach out to exchanges through their official channels to check for issues and refrain from following any links sent by scammers. Of course, providing sensitive account information to anybody is a big no-no.
Furthermore, the FBI has asked victims to report scams to its channels. “The FBI requests victims report activity associated with this scam to the FBI IC3 at www.ic3.gov.” It added, “The FBI also requests victims provide any transaction information associated with the scam.”
