CISA warns of fraudulent individuals posing as federal employees to scam crypto investors

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a warning on June 12 regarding a surge in impersonation scams that often involve using “the names and titles of government employees.”
According to the alert from CISA, their staff will never ask for money wiring, “cash, cryptocurrency, or gift cards.”
In response to inquiries from Cointelegraph, Phil Larratt, the director of investigations at Chainalysis, noted that scams “remain a significant threat to the [crypto] ecosystem as a whole.”
Larratt mentioned that scams are once again “a major contributor to cryptocurrency-related crime, generating at least $4.6 billion in revenue in 2023.”
Following the recommendations from CISA, Larratt emphasized the importance of prevention efforts in combating large-scale scams, starting with educating the public.
When it comes to fake Federal employee impersonation scams, Larratt highlighted two common tactics: approval phishing and crypto drainers.
He explained that these tactics have been utilized by romance scammers, also known as pig butchering scammers, resulting in significant losses.
Larratt concluded by stressing the necessity for Web3 projects and users to implement security measures such as “Web3 security extensions” to counter these scam tactics effectively.
In other news, a Deepfake AI ‘gang’ has drained $11 million from an OKX account, while Zipmex has been targeted by the SEC in Asia Express.