The commodity futures trading commission (CFTC) is expanding its approaches to prevent consumers from being duped by crytocurrencies fraudsters. The Office of Customer Outreach and Education (OCEO) has worked with several credible organizations to provide specific anti-fraud message. This move is in line with the ongoing efforts to educate the public on the rising cases of crypto scams that have targeted investors.
According to a recent report, CFTC is currently focusing on is ‘pig butchering’. This type of scam is a form of relationship-based fraud where the scammer cultivates a relationship with the victim before stealing their money. The CFTC says that these scams have been ripping off Americans to the tune of billions of dollars, and therefore, it remains one of the primary concerns of the agency.
CFTC’s Key Partnerships
As a way of enhancing the efforts towards the solution of this problem the CFTC has teamed up with the American Bankers Association Foundation as well as other federal regulators. Both are involved in the process of designing and disseminating information to assist consumers to detect and avoid such scams. Among the tools they have created there is a one-page infographic describing what the scam is in a plain language.
The infographic provides a step by step description of the process of the fraud, the methods used in the process of defrauding the victims. It also provides some guidelines as to what one should do in case they think they have been a victim.
Collaborative Consumer Protection
Melanie Devoe, Director of the OCEO noted that through these partnerships the CFTC is able to reach more people with the message it wants to convey. Through partnership with federal and state regulators as well as consumer protection agencies, the OCEO aims at educating people before they are cheated.
Besides the infographic, the CFTC collaborates with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy as well. It also works with the FINRA and NASAA regulators and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. This partnership has led to creation of investor alert which is a consumer protection tool that helps in explaining to the consumers how these fraudsters work.
The investor alert is about ‘pig butchering’ scams and provides guidance on how to protect yourself. A very important suggestion is to not reply to any messages that are received out of the blue from unknown people. The public is also encouraged to forward or block the messages by using the ‘report junk’ button on their phones or send the messages to a specific number.
As cryptocurrency frauds are on the rise and getting more complex, the CFTC’s initiatives to engage with other organizations are considered as the important measures to increase public awareness. With such partnerships, the agency aims at offering useful information to assist consumers in preventing fraud and victims from being defrauded.
