BATON ROUGE, LA –
Shining a light on crypto fraudsters, Attorney General Jeff Landry is warning
Louisiana residents to be vigilant of scams aimed at stealing cryptocurrency.
“Swindlers know no bounds; and unfortunately, too many
people have been conned by cryptocurrency scammers recently,” said Attorney
General Landry. “From fraudulent government scams to romance scams and
everything in between, these crypto thieves play on emotions to take advantage
of consumers and investors.”
Attorney General Landry offers the following to help
Louisiana residents avoid crypto scams:
- No
federal, state, or local government entity will contact you via telephone
informing you of an arrest warrant and that – in order to have the warrant
withdrawn – you need to send money via cryptocurrency to a wallet.
- In these type of scams, the callers generally identify
themselves as some form of law enforcement and advise how to convert U.S.
currency, whether via cryptocurrency ATM or online platform, and send it
to a cryptocurrency wallet.
- If you receive a call like this, immediately hang up
and contact your local law enforcement agency.
- No
financial institution will contact you via telephone (or email) informing
you that your account has been compromised and that – in order to preserve
the money – you must remove all funds from associated credit cards, bank
accounts, and savings accounts and deposit those monies into a
cryptocurrency ATM or online platform.
- In these types of scams, the callers provide a wallet
address where the victims will send the cryptocurrency.
- If you receive a call like this, do not provide any
personal identifying information; immediately hang up and contact your
financial institution using their official phone number to inquire about
your accounts.
Attorney General Landry
also dissuades people from sending cryptocurrency or other forms of
electronic money transfer to someone they met online through social media or
dating applications.
“Even if their stories sound convincing, never send cryptocurrency to
those met online without knowing their true identities,” added Attorney General
Landry. “While law enforcement has occasionally been able to recover some
victim funds, it is not the norm.”
“Scammers are becoming better trained and use new
methods to secret the stolen money, which generally ends up in a wallet hosted
by an exchange overseas that does not comply with U.S. law enforcement,”
concluded Attorney General Landry. “So I encourage everyone to take caution and
safeguard their cryptocurrency like they do with traditional finances.”
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If you suspect that you or someone you know has fallen
victim to a crypto scam, contact your local law enforcement as soon as
possible.