Avoiding Scams

Criminal actors choose to take advantage of crisis situations to cause fear and confusion among their intended victims. Typically, they pretend to be from a government agency, a tax or bill collector, banking institutions, or even someone you know. They take advantage of the alarm or confusion to convince their targets to send them money, often in the form of cryptocurrency because the payment is immediate and irreversible.

If you receive a call or email requesting a cryptocurrency or other response involving payment or personal information, ask yourself these questions before you act:

• Have you met the receiver in person?
• Can you be sure they are who they say they are?
• Can you verify whether the person is who they say they are?
• Is the receiver located in another country?
• Are the circumstances of the transaction request unusual?
• Are you feeling pressured to act urgently?
• Are you being asked to provide any personal information, such as your social security number, bank account number, wallet address, or access to any of your financial accounts?
• Is the person asking for money claiming to be from the government or an attorney’s office? The police, the government, and legitimate attorneys DO NOT EVER accept payment in cryptocurrency.

These are all potential indicators of fraud, and you may be at risk of losing your money.

Artificial intelligence can be used to impersonate anyone’s voice, including someone you know. AI generated voices can sound very real because they are based on a sampling of someone’s real voice.

Criminal actors who replicate someone’s voice typically target the person’s loved ones by calling them pretending to need money urgently. The scammer may claim that a loved one is in jail or in danger to induce fear and convince you to send money to get them out of trouble or danger.

Scammers ask you to pay or send money in ways that make it hard to get your money back. If the caller says to wire money, send cryptocurrency, or buy gift cards and give them the card numbers and PINs, those could be signs of a scam.

Some common scams include:

• Family emergency scam

  Scammers pretend to be a loved one who has been jailed, and they convince their targets to send bail money immediately.

• Court Officials or Police scams

  Scammers claim that you failed to report to jury duty and there is a warrant for your arrest. They may convince you to provide financial or other personal information over the phone.

• Social Security Administration scam

  Scammers call claiming that your social security number is being used to commit crimes and there is a warrant for your arrest which you can only take care of providing money quickly.

• Tech Support scam

  Your computer displays a malware warning and gives you a number to call for help. The scammers at that number charge you money, or claim that you overpaid them and they need to reimburse you, thereby gaining your bank account information.

Before you send any money to someone based on an unexpected phone call from a loved one who is in distress, protect yourself by verifying the information. Hang up and call them back on a number you know to be theirs, or call someone else who knows them.

View these government websites that issue alerts describing common scams:

• The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation’s Crypto Assets webpage;
• The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Enforcement Actions webpage;
• The Commodities and Futures Trading Commission’s Digital Assets webpage; and
• The Federal Trade Commission’s Cryptocurrency Consumer Advice webpage.