FAYETTEVILLE — FBI officials in Arkansas say cybercriminals have begun targeting victims in a scam involving home computers, a threatened breach of Social Security accounts and cryptocurrency.
“We are seeing an uptick in this sophisticated play on an old scam,” Kevin Curlew, supervisory special agent with the FBI, said in an interview.
“The victim will get a pop-up on their computer telling them a virus has been detected and to call this number,” Curlew said. “If they call, they’re told their computer has been hit by viruses and they’re the victims of identity theft and need to be issued a new Social Security account.”
Curlew said once the scammers have a victim on the line, they’re told an official from Social Security is going to call them. The scammers then “spoof” a number making it appear to be from the Social Security Administration and tell the victim they need to close all their bank accounts and transfer their money to bitcoin.
“Several victims have called in to say they’ve lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of their life savings,” Curlew said. “They go to the bank and transfer their money to bitcoin and deposit it in a wallet. If we can be notified within a few hours, 24 hours at the most, there’s a chance we can recover the money, but if too much time goes by it’s almost impossible.”
Curlew said the growing popularity of cryptocurrency made it almost inevitable that people involved in this kind of criminal activity would incorporate it into the scams.
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