Crypto Scammers Posing as Professors, Academicians to Target Investors, US Regulator Warns

Scammers targeting the crypto sector are getting more creative, as adoption continues to increase. Regulators from the US have issued a warning against an emerging category of crypto scams targeted at crypto investors, where scammers pose as professors or academicians. Social networking platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram are being exploited by cyber miscreants to find and communicate with potential victims, aiming to drain their crypto holdings through elaborate schemes.

The Securities division of the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) has observed a rise in complaints, which point towards a new type of scam. As per the DFI, scammers claiming to be professors or deans of business schools or wealth institutes have been reaching out to people offering courses related to the crypto sector.

“The alleged fraud typically starts with an investor being placed into a WhatsApp or Telegram group. The ‘Professor' and founder of the company provides investment courses such as ‘daily trading signals' that result in exorbitant rates of return,” the DFI explains.

Some scammers give their victims a few crypto tokens to test 'depositing' them on the platforms that these malicious actors are promoting to them, promising high returns. Some have been offering informal credit and loan facilities through messaging apps to ‘help' victims invest in projected high end crypto initial coin offerings, NFTs, or altcoins.

In several instances, the DFI said, scammers have their group members pose as other "genuine investors" on these WhatsApp and Telegram groups that are being used to communicate with their victims.

“When the investor tries to repay their loan, the company informs them that their account will remain frozen until they are able to repay the loan using outside funds. When they are unable to do so, investors have received threatening messages,” the DFI added.

As of now, it remains unclear how many victims have been impacted by this scam. The DFI has not also released the number of complaints it has received around this issue in the last few months.

Scammers, meanwhile, are getting more sophisticated in-terms of fishing for their crypto victims. Many are designing genuine-looking mobile apps and websites to convince unwary victims to engage with their schemes.

“These companies may post various documents on their website from regulatory or government agencies as a way to appear legitimate. As investors begin reporting the alleged fraudulent companies and platforms, the company may announce that they are going through a ‘merger' without providing additional details,” the regulator said, asking investors to verify the legitimacy of each crypto-related website or app that they are choosing to engage with.

Back in June, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had alerted the crypto circle about a rise in romance scams – where scammers lured people into investing in shady crypto tokens pretending to be looking for romantic connections.