The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned Monday that fraudsters are about to unleash a surge of coronavirus cryptocurrency scams. Fraudsters are leveraging increased fear and uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic to steal your money and launder it through the complex cryptocurrency ecosystem.
FBI said that they are targeting people of all ages by various fraud schemes like Blackmail attempts by Threatening emails asking for personal information and demand payment in bitcoin to release that information. Also, they blackmail that they infect you and/or your family with coronavirus unless payment is sent to a Bitcoin wallet.
Work from home scams posing as remote workers collecting “donations” via email and safety equipment vendors working beyond established e-commerce, or even as “charities” that take cryptocurrency.
Although there are legitimate charities, investment platforms, and e-commerce sites that accept payment in cryptocurrency, the pressure to use a virtual currency should be considered a significant red flag.
FBI has given the following tips to protect yourself from frauds -
- Verify that a vendor/charity is legitimate and accepts cryptocurrency before sending payments/donations.
- Conduct extensive research on potential investment opportunities.
- Do not use your personal bank accounts for a work-from-home business-related activity or provide your bank account information to someone who is not named on the account.
- Contact law enforcement before paying out blackmail and/or extortion attempts and before converting your money into cryptocurrency to pay them.
This warning is the largest government level warning about COVID-19 Crypto Scams as the number of Scams has increased a lot around the globe. Other Crypto Scams related to the coronavirus are:
>> Chainalysis research indicates that Coronavirus has erased 33% of Crypto Scammers' Revenue.
Scammers are taking advantage of this critical pandemic situation also. In this serious situation, we all should be careful and protect ourselves from frauds. I am sharing this warning to know how scammers can take advantage of the situation and scam us. We should be aware of it!
Source:
https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-expects-a-rise-in-scams-involving-cryptocurrency-related-to-the-covid-19-pandemic
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fbi-warns-covid-19-scammers-040000772.html
https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/covid-19-cryptocurrency-scams