Bitcoin scam is on the rise, and scammers are managing to steal money from user’s crypto wallet. Various incidences have occurred across the world relating to Bitcoin scams. The emerging technology is expanding and so are fraudulent activities. Recently, the New York Police Department (NYPD) has issued a warning to the public to be aware of a phone call related to scams, the scammers are pretending to be government officers and are requesting defrauders to pay in bitcoin or use prepaid gift cards or by any other technique.
The New York’s Police Department warned people regarding the scam and also mentioned that the scammers managed to steal more than $2 million dollars by pretending as Social Security Administration (SSA) officers. The pretending officers have requested victims for bitcoin and bank wire based transfer.
According to NYPD, over $2 million dollars have been stolen by cheating more than 200 people, within a year. The victims informed that the callers said that their Social Security number has been used to carry unlawful activities such as in money laundering activities or in drug smuggling in-order to save their money or to stop being detained, victims must transfer money in digital currency, mostly Bitcoin(BTC), to a specific address.
Previous year, three people registered a similar type of complaints with the NYPD and were all directly related to bitcoin. Scammers are not behind in using technology, they have made use of ‘spoofing’ technology to carry out the fraudulent activity.
The ‘spoofing’ technology helps victims to believe that they are receiving the phone call from the government office. The ‘spoofing’ technology displays the Social Security Administration number or other government agencies number on the victim callers ID thus making the victim fall in the trap of scammer. Sometimes, the scammers have even used real names of the officers, the NYPD mentioned.
Chief community affairs officer of NYPD, Nilda Hofmann informed:
“Sophisticated phone scams use the trust victims have in their own government and law enforcement agencies against them. Victims of this type of phone scam are not limited to senior citizens- these criminals are targeting every stratum of society, and every demographic is vulnerable.”
More than 200 complaints registered
The NYPD confirmed that scams related to cryptocurrency, pretending scammers to be government officers have increased. Within a year, there were 200 complaints registered with NYPD and the loss of more than $2 million has been mentioned by these victims. However, only three complaints related to Bitcoin have been received in the year.
The government based department made it clear that they will never call people asking for money or to get any kind of information through such phone-calls.
If you assume phone call to be a Scam
Hofmann said that the NYPD is working deliberately with its associates within the financial sectors. The police department is committed to finding the culprits and investigating the matters to hold them accountable for scams. She advised people if they ever get a phone call and if you assume it to be a scam then immediately call NYPD.