FBI has issued a warning regarding an increasing number of fraudulent individuals who are impersonating attorneys from fake firms and are specifically targeting cryptocurrency scheme victims.
The FBI has issued a warning regarding a recent development: fraudsters who pose as attorneys are now offering cryptocurrency recovery services. The agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) had previously issued a warning regarding the growing number of fraudulent law firms that claim to assist unsuspecting users in recovering their assets from previous frauds.
The fraudsters deceive their victims into believing that they are collaborating with the government, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the FBI to recover lost digital assets, according to the FBI.
The fraudsters also provide false connections to authentic financial service providers and money exchanges to persuade their victims to believe in their service and their ability to trace and recover the funds, as reported by Bleeping Computer.
Fraudsters seized more than $10 million from victims of crypto schemes between February 2023 and February 2024, according to estimations by the FBI. These fraudsters present themselves as attorneys who are eager to assist victims in reclaiming their tokens. The FBI earlier this year also issued a warning that crypto schemes were more detrimental to the US economy than ransomware, with reported cases estimated at approximately $4.7 billion.
“Be cautious of advertisements for cryptocurrency recovery services.” The most frequently employed strategies involve obtaining personal information from victims, such as banking information, in order to facilitate the recovery of their investments. Additionally, the perpetrators request that victims “repay taxes and other expenses in order to reclaim their funds.”
While state authorities and agencies may monitor stolen crypto, block it, and/or recover it by sending it to more secure wallets or the victims’, fraudsters request a portion of the fee to begin the recovery process, with the remaining balance due upon the complete recovery of the funds.
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