The Con is On: Beware of Scams Associated with Cryptocurrency

It’s one of the oldest professions in history: confidence men, aka conmen. Their game is peddling snake oil, selling bridges in Brooklyn, and playing three-card monte on the boardwalk, using distractions and deceit to make you believe something that’s just not true. They will often leverage current events to prey on their victim’s compassion to collect money to support a phantom charity or a victim’s fear to demand fees or information related to some fictional infraction.

Recently, the IRS has released a communication about sending letters to 10,000 people about the tax implications of their cryptocurrency activity. Immediately after this communication was made, the conmen had their next attack plan, using phishing scams to either convince you to “register your cryptocurrency credentials with the IRS,” to “pay your fees using cryptocurrencies,” or some other confidence trick the threat actors come up with. Any email, purporting to be from the IRS, related to this subject, especially if it calls for financial action or requests a link to be clicked, is likely fake since the IRS only mentions ‘letters.’ Emails about this subject should be heavily vetted before you act on it.

Are you concerned about computer or information-based threats and attacks? Are your security protections really working and able to alert you of an incoming attack?

Let us tell you about our Incident Simulation and Incident Response services. Call Citrin Cooperman’s Cybersecurity Practice team at 401.421.4800 or email us at TRAC@citrincooperman.com.