This article briefly:

Portland, Maine police have issued a scam warning for area residents.

Bad actors may send you notifications about a purchase or some kind of problem with your personal account.

They then ask to deposit the money into a Bitcoin ATM, but the real destination is their wallet.

Maine is a new battleground in the fight against cryptocurrency scammers, and Portland police have issued a warning about a tactic many of the scammers are using.

While impersonation scams are not new, the modus operandi of these bad actors is to induce fear in their victims. Thereby pressuring them to send money.

Portland police warn of crypto scammers' tactics

According to a statement from Portland police on Tuesday, scammers are busy sending "urgent, frightening-sounding messages" that appear in pop-up windows and text messages.

These messages usually state that Amazon, PayPal, or another online retailer is experiencing a billing problem. The customer needs to do what the scammer says to fix the problem. Or the unfortunate target's bank account is not secure and action needs to be taken.

Whatever the excuse, scammers insidiously use the threat of serious legal and/or financial trouble to pressure victims into depositing funds into a Bitcoin ATM.

As the police warn, the real destination is the bad guys' digital wallets. Once deposited there, the money is gone forever.

An unnamed police spokesperson elaborated:

"Remember, these scammers can be convincing and use fear, urgency and scare tactics to get you to comply. If you receive this warning via a pop-up banner on your computer, email or text message, do not call the number provided on the screen."

Source: Fletcher/Digital Planet

Elon Musk may have promised to clean up Twitter/X, but cryptocurrency scammers and other bad actors are free to exploit the platform.

Cryptocurrency fraud is on the rise

While scams may induce fear and alarm in victims, those that take a “friendlier” or “gentler” approach are just as predatory. They blatantly exploit psychological factors. That is, many people feel reassured when they see a public figure’s face attached to a product or service.

Some scams use artificial intelligence (AI) to create fake videos featuring celebrities. These videos appear on TikTok and purport to show Elon Musk or another trusted public figure endorsing an investment opportunity.

In October 2022, Musk acquired X (then known as Twitter) for $44 billion. The problem worsened despite Musk's promise to reshape the platform and purge its many unpleasant features, especially spam bots. These also featured the likenesses of celebrities to attract investment.

Some accounts try to increase their credibility by claiming to belong to respected journalists or other commentators. Their professional purpose is to warn people about the dangers of scam accounts. Don't let them become a victim of one of them. #诈骗   #加密货币