FTC issues public warning about new crypto ATM scam

[_act_]

You can check it from this site: https://mtmcrypto.com/2022/01/11/ftc-issues-public-warning-about-new-crypto-atm-scam/
The original site: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2022/01/new-crypto-payment-scam-alert

It works like this: someone might call pretending to be from the government, law enforcement, or a local utility company. Maybe a romantic interest you met online calls, or someone calls to say you’ve won the lottery or a prize. They’ll wind up asking you for money.

If this is not new to me, it will not be new to many people on this forum. I have known this scam many years ago. The scam is not only about crypto ATM but there are ways scammers are using fiat to do it too. Also if the victim is having knowledge about bitcoin and can make use of wallet, the scammer can tell the victim to use bitcoin wallet instead of crypto ATM. Some people use gift card for this scam in a way the the scammer will tell the victim to send gift card.

The purpose of this thread is to create awareness to new people that do not have experience about scammers. Greed is one of the reasons some people are scammed, but there are some people that are scammed because the scammers pretend to love them, not knowing they are devil and scammers. Some will act like a government official telling victim that s/he has been evading tax, the victim may not evade any tax but this will be worrying and cause them to panic.

[mk4]

Yea, there's nothing really new here besides the fact that the theft ends up being in crypto rather than in cash transfers. Funny how for all the existing and more sort of "effective" scams, this is the one the FTC chose to warn people with lol.

[Lucius]

I remember there were scams in Canada that involved crypto ATMs and fake calls to people to pay taxes that way. What is even more interesting is that the targets were mostly immigrants to Canada who proved to be easy targets for fear of being deported.

It’s amazing how people think and then even sue the company that owns ATM as the culprit for what happened to them. The case of a woman who lost as much as $62 500 in this way, and after that a lawsuit against the company, became known around the world.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-bitcoin-scam-1.4860187

[dkbit98]

Generally speaking, when you receive a call or a email message form unknown number or email address, you should consider it's probably a scammer.
It's the same type of scammers that are doing fake tech support scams, but they expanded their service to include cryptocurrencies and crypto ATM's.
I remember watching Kitboga before who was busting many of this scammers in a funny way by changing his voice, and I see his last video is also mentioning crypto scammers.
Good thing about his videos is that you can learn how scammers work, and you will learn how to protect against this attacks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNKERzNED28

[SFR10]

Funny how for all the existing and more sort of "effective" scams, this is the one the FTC chose to warn people with lol.

I quickly scrolled through their "blog posts" and it appears that they do warn people of all sorts of scams, but the strange part is why they just posted a warning now, for something that "FBI released a PSA" back in November of last year!

[lovesmayfamilis]

There is another question. If fraudsters use this, then there are people who believe that one day an expensive gift will fall from the sky.
No matter how we warn you here and talk about the fact that many are aware of this scam, there is a demand for it. As long as people are naive, fraudsters will create more and more new ways to deceive.
Whether we like it or not, it's time to conclude that the Internet has become a dumping ground for deception and fraud. Trusting someone online is like shooting yourself in the foot.

[Lucius]

~snip~

The world is full of naive people and those who take advantage of it, the internet and cryptocurrencies are unfortunately being abused to the extreme. I do not see that anyone can put an end to this in the near future, the matter has simply spiraled out of control and resembles me of this pandemic in which we now live. It is true that we have medicines, but they are not nearly as effective as one would like them to be. It is similar with the fact that we have the police, special departments for financial crime, and a whole miracle of things on a declarative level - but in practice, they only touch the tip of the iceberg.

Trusting someone online is like shooting yourself in the foot.

In general, this is true - although there are specific cases when we can still adjust this rule. A good example is this forum where trust can be gained over time, but we are also sometimes unpleasantly surprised by people we have had great confidence in.

[_act_]

Yea, there's nothing really new here besides the fact that the theft ends up being in crypto rather than in cash transfers. Funny how for all the existing and more sort of "effective" scams, this is the one the FTC chose to warn people with lol.

That is right but there are some scam that are through fiat. The scammers that know about crypto will prefer to use a private key wallet address for victim to send to it because it is anonymous.

Whether we like it or not, it's time to conclude that the Internet has become a dumping ground for deception and fraud. Trusting someone online is like shooting yourself in the foot.

This is what that can not be changed, scammers are everywhere and they are scamming people successfully, everyone can not be helpful but awareness had helped some people in life. If a few person are helped through awearness to avoid scam, at least someone is helped.