The FBI issued a warning about scammers posing as employees of crypto exchanges to deceive users and steal their crypto.
How Scam Works
- The scammer contacts the victim via an unsolicited call or message and pretends to be a cryptocurrency exchange employee.
- The scammer conveys urgency and may claim there is a problem with the victim’s account, or someone is attempting to compromise the victim’s account.
- The scammer claims the victim must safeguard their account by providing log-in information, clicking on a link, and/or providing identification information.
- The scammer obtains access to the victim’s account and steals the cryptocurrency.
Tips The Protect Yourself
- 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.
- Hang up. Call the cryptocurrency exchange’s official phone number to verify if there is a problem. Do not use any phone number the caller provides.
- Do not go to any websites or click on links the caller sends you. Navigate to the official cryptocurrency exchange website separately.
- If anyone asks for your account log-in information at any point, do not provide it.
- Avoid clicking links, downloading files, or opening attachments in unsolicited messages.
- Be cautious of services that claim they can recover any lost cryptocurrency funds.
The FBI requests victims report activity associated with this scam to the FBI IC3 at www.ic3.gov.
