Fraudsters Impersonate United Kingdom’s FCA in Bitcoin Email Scam
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the top financial watchdog of the United Kingdom, has warned crypto enthusiasts of a scam email that has been impersonating it in a bid to lure unsuspecting investors into investing in a fake bitcoin (BTC) investment scheme, reports FT Adviser on July 22, 2019.
Scam Bitcoin Email Not from the FCA
As the prolonged crypto winter of 2018 has finally given way to crypto ‘”spring,” with the bulls getting ready to take over the cryptoverse once again, bad actors have advanced their game in anticipation of a possible crypto “summer.”
According to a report by the FT Adviser, crypto thieves are now impersonating the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in a scam email message urging recipients to invest in a fake investment scheme involving the world’s flagship cryptocurrency.
Reportedly, the scam email features the FCA’s logo and branding, as well as that of Prudential Regulation Authority, the agency through which the Bank of England (BoE) regulates and supervises financial institutions.
Chance to earn Bitcoin
The email which reportedly had a subject line that reads “Guaranteed chance to earn” urges recipients to act fast and invest in bitcoin before the price of the distributed ledger technology (DLT) based digital asset skyrockets again like it did in 2017.
The bad actors also embedded a button colored in the FCA’s unique branding which the email recipient is expected to click on to get to the fraudsters’ fake bitcoin investment site.
“Bitcoin is still a long way off its peak price of $20,000, which it attained in 2017, but some cryptocurrency analysts believe it could hit an even higher value by 2020,” declared the email.
FCA Warns Bitcoin Enthusiasts
Commenting on the ugly scenario, Dominic Thomas, founder of Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers, Thomas revealed that the rogue actors sent him the email five times last weekend so he decided to notify the FCA of the incident via his Twitter handle.
The FCA has now flagged the scam email, warning consumers to be wary of such emails as it will never send emails asking for money or their bank account details.
The FCA stated:
“Look for signs that the email, letter or phone call may not be from us, such as it listing a mobile or overseas phone number, an email address from a Hotmail or Gmail account, or a foreign PO Box number,”
In related news, BTCManager informed on July 11, 2019, that two United States citizens had been slapped with a $360,000 fine for impersonating the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
