New Phantom Hacker Scam Is Fooling US Citizens Into Liquidating Their Assets

A new scam is targeting US citizens, especially the elderly into liquidating their assets. Scammers are using live couriers to pick up precious metals bought by victims after selling their assets. The FBI said in an official release that the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) of the agency has seen an uptick in complaints of the phantom hacker scams. In the scam, criminals imposters trick people into giving up their entire savings or investment accounts.

Here’s how the phantom hacker scam unfolds

The release described the scam happening in two steps. In the first step, the scammers pose as tech support, US government officials, technology support or a representative from a financial institution and call up victims. They then claim that the victims’ accounts were hacked or were at risk of being hacked. They subsequently instruct the victims to liquidate their assets into cash or purchase gold, silver or any other precious metals. They sometimes ask victims to wire the money to a metal dealer who will ship them their precious metals.

In the second step of the scam, the criminals send live couriers to pick up the cash or precious metals bought by the victims. They claim that their assets will be safeguarded by the authorities in a protected account. The may also direct victims to authenticate the transaction with the courier using a passcode.

Later, the victims never hear back from the scammers and end up losing all their money and assets. As per another release from the United States Postal Inspection Service, this type of scams are also called smishing, a form of phishing in which scammers pose as officials to steal money or sensitive financial information. 

Scale of the scam and the prime targets

Between January to June 2023, the IC3 received 19,000 complaints of such scams with estimated victim losses of $542 million. Further, as per the official release, about $55 million was lost to such scams between May and December 2023. In this, about half of the victims were over 60 years old and they accounted for 66% of the total losses.

How to be safe from phantom/smishing scams?

The FBI has clarified that the US government and other legitimate businesses will never request citizens to liquidate their assets or purchase precious metals. The agency has also urged people to protect their personal information like home address and bank account information. It is recommended to not entertain unexpected warnings about hacked accounts without verifying with the official companies, institutions, or government authorities. Citizens should avoid clicking on random links provided in messages from strangers who claim to be representatives of a company or institution. Such information should always be cross checked before taking action.

What to do if you have been scammed by phantom hackers?

The FBI has asked the victims report such fraud or suspicious activities immediately to the IC3. The agency has urged the victims to include crucial information like the name of the person who contacted them, all methods of communication, phone numbers and email addresses used, bank account number if received for wiring fund, name of the recipient, name and location of the recommended precious metals dealers.