Scammers are luring victims by impersonation government and law enforcement to go to a store with a cryptocurrency ATM, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warned in a public alert. Bad actors convince victims to buy a cryptocurrency with a special QR code that contains their address in it. Once a victim buys the cryptocurrency, the money gets transferred to the scammers.
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"Here is the main thing to know: nobody from the government, law enforcement, utility company, or prize promoter will ever tell you to pay them with cryptocurrency," the FTC emphasized.
Last May, the FTC recorded a tenfold increase in crypto-related investment fraud. One of such scams involved impersonating Elon Musk. The bad actors stole over $2 million in 6 months. Between October 2020 and March 2021, the FTC reportedly received 6,792 reports of attacks. The total amount of stolen funds exceeds $80 million.
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