The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has printed a doc searching for to warn residents of the growing prevalence of scams executed via fraudulently posing as technical help employees for an organization. The FBI’s notes that digital currencies have gotten “increasingly targeted by tech support criminals.”
Also Read: Mailchimp Latest Company to Ban Cryptocurrency Advertising
Cryptocurrency Tech Support Theft on the RIse
The FBI has issued a warning emphasizing the “widespread” nature of “Tech Support Fraud” – which “involves a criminal claiming to provide customer, security, or technical support in an effort to defraud unwitting individuals.” The FBI’s IC3 division reviews a rise in tech help fraud of 86% throughout 2017 compared with 2016 – with final 12 months’s claimed losses “amount[ing] to nearly $15 million.”
The report states that “Some recent complaints [have] involve[d] criminals posing as technical support representatives for […] virtual currency exchangers,” with particular person sufferer losses typically within the 1000’s of {dollars}.”
The FBI states that “Criminals pose as virtual currency support,” luring “Victims to contact fraudulent virtual currency support numbers usually located via open source searches. The fraudulent support asks for access to the victim’s virtual currency wallet and transfers the victim’s virtual currency to another wallet for temporary holding during maintenance. The virtual currency is never returned to the victim, and the criminal ceases all communication.”
In different situations, criminals conducting tech help fraud “who have access to a victim’s electronic device use the victim’s personal information and credit card to purchase and transfer virtual currency to an account controlled by the criminal.”
FBI Pressures Social Media Networks to Ban Cryptocurrency Ads
The FBI seems to be taking growing motion within the cryptocurrency sphere, with reviews indicating that the establishment has been actively working to steer main social media platforms to crackdown on the promoting of cryptocurrencies and ICOs.
Last month, a senior investigator on the Manitoba Securities Commission and the chairman of Canada’s Binary Options Task Force, Jason Roy, revealed that Canadian and U.S. authorities had been pressuring Facebook to enact a prohibitive coverage as regards to cryptocurrency promoting.
Mr. Roy said “What happened is that Canada’s Binary Options Task Force, as well as the FBI, explained to Facebook what the concerns were and that these types of ads are leading to people becoming victims. We’ve been talking to Google and had similar discussions and are waiting for them to take similar action.”
Have you ever fallen sufferer to a tech help rip-off? Share your expertise within the comments part below!
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