Attack on Cryptocurrency Scam
Letitia James, the New York lawyer general, is currently engaged in court business in order to get back more than $2 million in cryptocurrency that was obtained through a scam that targeted people looking for work from home.
The scammers sent out text messages that offered flexible and well-paying positions, asking the victims to set up cryptocurrency accounts, transfer money into them, and make fake reviews about websites imitating real businesses.
The victims were tricked into giving their money away by conmen who told them that the money was just for ‘data legitimation’ convincing them that they would be given a full reimbursement along with earning significant commissions.
Never were they able to receive any compensation losing their funds in the process. As stated by James on January 9, “Scammers sent messages offering good-paying, flexible jobs, only to manipulate victims into purchasing crypto and stealing it from them”.
With the collaboration of the U S Secret Service, the authorities have managed to seize the stolen crypto. James further added, “Coning hard working New Yorkers with remote job scams was just uncalled for and utterly cruel. He inquired the people to be wary of unsolicited job opportunities received through phone messages and other channels without any verification.”
This case comes a bit after the FBI’s warning regarding a sudden surge in remote working opportunity scams, issued sometime around mid-2023. The FBI explained how these scammers target an individual in the first place by cold calling them without any consent, or even sending them unsolicited messages with so called easy money tasks like reviewing a restaurant or optimizing specific services. In order to gain access to more work, victims are required to purchase cryptocurrencies, money that the scammers never intended to give back in the first place.
In a related development, a resident of California has brought a lawsuit against three different banks which operate on a pan-Asian model for inability to take prevent the losses incurred through a cryptocurrency fraud to the tune of almost a million dollars.
It further explains that the fraud breached their due diligence over specific period of time, allowing the conmen to trick the victim. The fraudster in this case, Ken Liem claims that he was approached over LinkedIn which was prompted by someone using the guise of a giant return of investment in a new cryptocurrency.
In 2024 alone, the figures presented further portray that hacking and fraud amounted to over 1.49 billion dollar losses for the crypto sector, this being lower the loss’s figure in comparison to 2023 by almost 17 percent. A cybersecurity organization presented a report detailing blockchain technology whereby hacks amounted to 1.47 billion, which accounts for as much as 98.1% of the previously mentioned 192 incidents.
Scams and rug pulls in entirety accounted for 28 million dollar losses amounting to 1.9% and this loss category rise stood at 72%. Such an improved figure can be attributed to the bump in security protocol, given that the successful breaches have also decreased by 27.5%, with 2024 coming back at 232 successful attacks as compared to 320 in 2023.
