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Criminals are using cryptocurrency to "improve" old fraud methods.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned users of a new type of cryptocurrency ATM fraud. Fraudsters convince a person to purchase funds from a cryptocurrency ATM and send the purchased digital currency to a specific address via a QR code. While the fraudulent scheme is actually relatively low-tech, this use of technology shows how criminals use cryptocurrency to “improve” old methods.
According to experts, the scammers contact their potential victim and trick her into sending money to a certain account. The scammers ask the victim to take cash and head to an ATM that sells cryptocurrency and supports reading QR codes. Once at such a device, the victim scans the fraudster's QR code, and the cryptocurrency is sent to the attacker.
Using cryptocurrency is beneficial to fraudsters as it takes less steps to complete a transaction than a regular bank transfer. For wire transfers, a form must be completed and it is also possible to give this form to a real person (who can potentially conduct transaction checks). While interacting with the ATM, the victim will have less time to think that she is going to send money to a stranger. In addition, in most cases, the perpetrator will not have to teach his victims how to buy digital currency and transfer them to another wallet, since the victim may know how to scan a QR code.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned users of a new type of cryptocurrency ATM fraud. Fraudsters convince a person to purchase funds from a cryptocurrency ATM and send the purchased digital currency to a specific address via a QR code. While the fraudulent scheme is actually relatively low-tech, this use of technology shows how criminals use cryptocurrency to “improve” old methods.
According to experts, the scammers contact their potential victim and trick her into sending money to a certain account. The scammers ask the victim to take cash and head to an ATM that sells cryptocurrency and supports reading QR codes. Once at such a device, the victim scans the fraudster's QR code, and the cryptocurrency is sent to the attacker.
Using cryptocurrency is beneficial to fraudsters as it takes less steps to complete a transaction than a regular bank transfer. For wire transfers, a form must be completed and it is also possible to give this form to a real person (who can potentially conduct transaction checks). While interacting with the ATM, the victim will have less time to think that she is going to send money to a stranger. In addition, in most cases, the perpetrator will not have to teach his victims how to buy digital currency and transfer them to another wallet, since the victim may know how to scan a QR code.
