FBI issues government spoofing scam warning

The FBI has warned that threat actors have been mimicking law enforcement agencies or government officials in an effort to exfiltrate personal data from victims, ZDNet reports. Scammers leverage an aggressive tone in speaking with victims through phone calls and encourage them not to inform anyone else regarding the call, according to the FBI. "Payment is demanded in various forms, with the most prevalent being prepaid cards, wire transfers, and cash, sent by mail or inserted into cryptocurrency ATMs. Victims are asked to read prepaid card numbers over the phone or text a picture of the card. Mailed cash will be hidden or packaged to avoid detection by normal mail scanning devices. Wire transfers are often sent overseas, so funds almost immediately vanish," said the FBI. The FBI added that cybercriminals have also been targeting lottery scam victims. Threat actors' usage of social engineering scams make victims miss red flags that would have prevented the scam's success, according to KnowBe4 Security Awareness Advocate Erich Kron. "Whenever receiving a text message, phone call or email that elicits a strong emotional response, the best thing a person can do is to take a deep breath and treat it very suspiciously. Most government agencies will not communicate via email or a phone call, especially when initially informing a person of an issue," said Kron.