The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the government agency responsible for cyber security, has warned that it is being impersonated by scammers.
In a alertAccording to the organization, impersonation scams are on the rise and often use the names and titles of government employees.
“The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is aware of recent scammers claiming to represent the organization,” the alert reads. “As a reminder, CISA employees will never contact you with a request to transfer money, cash, cryptocurrency, or use gift cards and will never instruct you to keep the discussion confidential.”
Reporting the crime
CISA did not detail what type of scams the attackers carried out, but previous reports said the attackers often claimed that victims’ funds were at risk. They then asked the victim to withdraw the money from the ‘risky’ bank and place it in a ‘secure’ government vault, which is nothing but another bank account of the scammers.
In one particularly brutal incident, the attackers even convinced the victims to buy gold and other precious metals rather than keep cash. They then sent couriers to their homes to collect the packages, for ‘safekeeping’. While not impossible, gold bars and other physical objects are a little more difficult to track, compared to cash transferred from one account to another.
Normally, the scammers would target more seniors, those who are more gullible and more likely to take action.
CISA says that under no circumstances should users rush into any action, especially paying the caller in any currency. Instead, victims must write down the phone number from which the call came. They must then hang up and call CISA directly to report the fraud attempt.