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FBI Warns of Fake Remote Job Ads Being Used for Cryptocurrency Fraud
Today, the FBI issued a warning about scammers using fake remote job ads to steal cryptocurrency from job seekers across the United States by posing as recruiters for legitimate companies.
These work-from-home scams are designed to lure potential victims with easy-to-perform tasks such as evaluating various online businesses or “optimizing” a service.
“Scammers pose as a legitimate business, such as a staffing or recruiting agency, and may contact victims via an unsolicited call or text,” the FBI says warned.
“The scammers design the fake job to have a confusing compensation structure that requires victims to make cryptocurrency payments to earn more money or ‘unlock’ the job, and the payments go directly to the scammer.”
To make their fraudulent schemes more persuasive, scammers will also ask victims to use a fake portal that shows how much money they have earned, although they cannot cash out the funds.
The FBI says red flags that should alert people targeted by these scams that they are dealing with scammers coming for their money include being asked to make cryptocurrency payments to the employer as part of an assignment employment, job descriptions that involve simple tasks, and not being asked to provide references from previous jobs during the hiring process.
To guard against such scam attempts, the FBI advises unemployed Americans looking for work to:
- Be wary of unsolicited job messages and avoid clicking links, downloading files, or opening attachments in these messages.
- Never send money to a supposed employer.
- Don’t pay for services that claim to be able to recover any lost cryptocurrency funds.
- Do not send financial or personally identifiable information to people making unsolicited job offers.
The FBI asked victims to report to the FBI if they have been targeted by fraudulent or suspicious activity Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and provide transaction details associated with the scam, including cryptocurrency addresses, cryptocurrency amount and type, date and time, and transaction ID (hash).
This August 2023 public service notice provides additional reporting guidance for those who may have fallen victim to a cryptocurrency scam.
Since the beginning of the year, the FBI has also warned against its use Unlicensed cryptocurrency transfer services can result in financial losses if these platforms are deactivated by law enforcement.
Also the FBI’s IC3 has released its 2023 Internet Crime Reportrevealing a 22% increase in reported losses compared to 2022, amounting to a record $12.5 billion lost to online crime in just one year.