l’FBI sound the alarm: beware of applications that promise earn with cryptocurrencies. The Bureau uncovered more than $42.7 million worth of crime. Money stolen by defrauding at least 244 different people.
Cyber criminals – noted the FBI – are contacting US investors, fraudulently claiming to offer legitimate services to invest in cryptocurrencies. In this way, the criminals try to persuade the investor to download software for a PC or smartphone
reads a note from the agency. Needless to say, behind the interface of a normal exchange to buy cryptocurrencies, the programs actually hide a scheme for: steal money from investors.
The FBI has identified a group using the fictitious company YiBit – responsible for stealing more than $5.5 million from various investors. Another illegal group, which always uses the same method, is said to have stolen at least $3.7 million from its victims.
In the case of YiBit, the victim is persuaded to deposit their cryptocurrencies within the application. The user then receives a message warning him that he must pay tax, on pain of freezing all funds. Needless to say, once paid, the cryptocurrency however, they will not be returned to their rightful owner. The investor loses all his money.
According to an FTC report, cryptocurrency-related scams would have stolen the equivalent of more than $1 billion from investors in 2021 alone. We’ve talked about it here:
2021 will be remembered as the black year of cryptocurrency fraud
Source: Lega Nerd
