The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a warning on June 12 regarding a surge in impersonation scams that frequently use the identities of government officials. The alert from CISA emphasized that its employees will never ask for money through wire transfers, cash, cryptocurrency, or gift cards.
In response to inquiries from Cointelegraph, Phil Larratt, the director of investigations at Chainalysis, highlighted that scams remain a significant threat to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. He stated that scams continue to be a major contributor to cryptocurrency-related crime, generating a minimum of $4.6 billion in revenue in 2023.
Larratt stressed the importance of prevention in combating large-scale scams, emphasizing the need for public education as the first line of defense. He also discussed the prevalence of two common scam tactics – approval phishing and crypto drainers – used in fake Federal employee impersonation scams, resulting in significant financial losses.
To address these challenges, Larratt recommended that Web3 projects and users implement protective security measures such as Web3 security extensions to effectively combat these scam tactics. In related news, a deepfake AI ‘gang’ recently drained $11 million from an OKX account, and Zipmex faced regulatory action from the SEC in Asia.