Scammers are now infiltrating leading job portals LinkedIn and targeting users through cryptocurrency investment schemes. In a recent interview FBI’s special agent Sean Ragan called it a “significant threat” to the platform and consumers.
Fraudsters usually get in touch with victims by posing as a professional, luring the user with attractive returns through a crypto investment. They then steer the latter to drop funds in a site controlled by them. And the funds are promptly drained from the account.
One Florida native Mei Mei Soe revealed how she lost her entire life savings to the tune of $288,000 to a scammer on LinkedIn. “It began with the person asking me if I’m on LinkedIn for professional networking or if I’m looking for a job,” Soe said.
The conversation eventually shifted to investment, Soe continued. “He showed me how he’s profiting from his investments and told me I should start investing with crypto.com which I know is a legitimate website. I started with $400.”
The fraudster directed her to move her holdings to a site he controlled. Over the course of several months, Soe made a total of nine transactions. Soon, she found out that the person isn’t the one he claims to be. And before she could do anything, Soe lost all of her funds.
Crypto Scammers Often Use Social Media As Their Launchpad
Acknowledging that there has been a rise in fraud cases on its platform, LinkedIn released a statement,
“We work every day to keep our members safe, and this includes investing in automated and manual defenses to detect and address fake accounts, false information, and suspected fraud. If a member encounters or is the victim of a scam we ask that they report it to us and to local law enforcement.”
Crypto.com said it immediately takes down accounts that it finds are linked to a scam.
According to research conducted by US Federal Trade Commission on June 3, scammers took away $1 billion in cryptocurrency last year, an increase of more than five times from 2020 and over a sixty-fold jump from 2018.
The majority of these attacks exploited social media platforms, TronWeekly reported.