The FBI has issued a warning about scammers posing as recruiters for legitimate companies and using fake remote job ads to steal cryptocurrency from job seekers in the United States. These scams typically involve easy-to-accomplish tasks like rating businesses online or optimizing a service, luring victims with promises of simple work-from-home opportunities. The scammers then design confusing compensation structures requiring victims to make cryptocurrency payments to earn more money or unlock additional tasks, with payments going directly to the scammers.
Scammers often enhance the credibility of their schemes by asking victims to use a fake portal that displays how much money they’ve purportedly earned, although they can’t cash out any funds. Red flags for these scams include being asked to make cryptocurrency payments to an employer, job descriptions involving overly simple tasks, and not being asked to provide references from previous jobs during the hiring process. The FBI advises job seekers to be wary of unsolicited job offers and to avoid clicking on links or downloading files in such messages.
To protect against these scams, the FBI recommends never sending money to an alleged employer and not paying for services that claim to recover lost cryptocurrency funds. Additionally, job seekers should refrain from sending financial or personally identifiable information to people offering unsolicited job opportunities. The FBI also encourages victims of these scams to report suspicious activities to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), providing detailed transaction information, including cryptocurrency addresses and transaction IDs.
In August 2023, the FBI issued further guidance for reporting cryptocurrency scams. Since the beginning of the year, the FBI has also warned against using unlicensed cryptocurrency transfer services, which can lead to financial loss if these platforms are shut down by law enforcement. According to the FBI’s 2023 Internet Crime Report, there has been a 22% increase in reported losses compared to 2022, with a record $12.5 billion lost to online crime in a single year.
