According to a post published on Reddit on Sept. 22, scam artists are impersonating Bank of America (BoA) in an attempt to trick victims. The post, titled “Fraud alert — ‘Bank of America’ just called,” noted the sophistication of the effort calling it “the most convincing scammer I’ve ever dealt with.”
As reported by Redditor MySonAteMyHomeWork, “I received a call from Bank of America requesting that I fill out a form for cryptocurrency purchased on Uphold.”
As the story was told, the caller also claimed that BoA needed to verify “whether or not I was buying crypto as a business or an individual, and that they’d be mailing a form for me to fill out. She knew my email address, my date of birth, and the month I bought crypto from Uphold.”
In this case, the user felt something was off, decided to contact the bank directly, and was “immediately told it was not them.” The phone call likely saved MySonAteMyHomeWork from being lured any further into the scammer’s trap. However, many others have been less successful in avoiding fraudsters.
Crypto Scams Proliferate
According to a blog post published in July by blockchain tracking and analytics provider Whale Alert, the popularity of dozens of different types of crypto scams have been on the rise. The article states that in 2020, criminals made off with $24 million during the first half of the year alone.
Many of the scams referenced by Whale Alert are not as complicated as the Bank of America one, requiring nothing more than a simple webpage, a Bitcoin (BTC) address, and a budget for advertising. Authorities in both Canada and the U.S. have issued warnings about crypto scams.
Many responded to the Reddit story by voicing further caution, recommending to take additional protective measures. As for MySonAteMyHomeWork, they encouraged others to be careful and always verify, “it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
