coinnounce.com
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has recently warned of Cryptocurrency Scammers on LinkedIn.
The FBI has acknowledged that there has been a “recent uptick of fraud’ on LinkedIn. The scams involve persuading users to invest in crypto.
Victims interviewed by CNBC say since LinkedIn is a trusted platform for business networking, they tend to believe the investments are legitimate. (1)
FBI says fraud on LinkedIn a ‘significant threat’ to platform and consumers https://t.co/mBVxrf44Wy
— CNBC (@CNBC) June 17, 2022
According to Sean Ragan, the FBI’s special agent in charge of the San Francisco and Sacramento, California, “This type of fraudulent activity is significant, and there are many past and current victims.”
In an interview with CNBC, FBI agent Sean Ragan said he believes LinkedIn has a problem regarding investment scams. “They are always thinking about different ways of victimizing people, victimizing companies,” Ragan told the network. ‘And they take time to do their homework, define their goals and strategies and the tools and tactics they use.”
LinkedIn emphasis on business news and relations can create a false sense of security in the context of popular online scams. The CNBC report notes that the fake profiles often claim to be related to legitimate and successful companies or represent people with “entrepreneurship.”
Oscar Rodriguez, LinkedIn Director of Trust, Privacy, and equity, acknowledges the growing number of scammers on its platform. “Over the past , we have seen an increase in fraudulent activity taking place on the internet, including here on LinkedIn,” Rodriguez wrote in a blog post Thursday.
Rodriguez told CNBC that “more proactive education“ about the risks of using LinkedIn is something he had like to see in the future.
LinkedIn does not currently offer profile verification for notable users, unlike Twitter and Instagram. Still, even verification is not easy: Twitter has also seen verified accounts abused by Crypto scammers and NFTs.