In Daly City, California, authorities are investigating a crypto scam in which a man lost $ 27,000 worth of bitcoin. A 48-year-old man claimed the crooks tricked him into giving them the keys to his wallet.
The fraudster posed as a representative of a crypto wallet hardware company
According to KTVU FOX 2, the nameless victim received a text message from someone posing as a representative of T-Mobile, a telecommunications provider in the United States. In the SMS the fraudster informed him that suspicious activity had occurred in his T-Mobile account.
In fact, the bogus agent for the cellular operator claimed there had been attempts to change his account password. The scammer asked him to call a phone number, claiming it was an official T-Mobile phone line.
However, the impersonator only used one such instance to explain the fraud. In fact, he received a new passcode for an old email address that he had used on a Bitcoin wallet. Police believe that scammers also managed to hack the victim’s email account.
After that, the 48-year-old man received a call from an unknown number. The caller claimed to be a Ledger representative, a crypto wallet hardware company. The fake Ledger employee informed the victim that his wallet had been hacked.
Since the victim was desperate to recover his allegedly hacked wallet, the scammer informed him that he would take care of the recovery of his wallet.
However, the man fell into the trap: the impersonator asked him for the passcode and anonymous account identification numbers. Immediately afterwards, the victim sent the requested information.
When the California-based man checked his allegedly hacked wallet, all of his Bitcoin funds ($ 27,000 at the time of the theft) were gone.
Recent Bitcoin-related phone fraud incidents
In Michigan, Farmington Hills Police Department warned residents of the return of bitcoin phone scams amid a string of scams. Scammers are asking victims to deposit into a Bitcoin ATM to pay overdue bills from local businesses.
However, Canada is another hotspot for Bitcoin-related phone scams, with cases increasing in 2020. On January 22, 2021, Ontario provincial police warned residents of the Brantford area of bitcoin scams in the area.
The modus operandi is the same as in Michigan’s story: scammers asking people to deposit money into a Bitcoin ATM.
What do you think of this crypto scam? Let us know in the comments below.
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