The latest bitcoin scam, reported heavily by Twitter users over the weekend, appears as an email and claims to be from British market regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Recipients of the email, which also tries on the stamp of authenticity by including the Bank of England Prudential Regulation Authority logo, are sold the idea that bitcoin is a “guaranteed chance to earn”.
It claims:
Bitcoin is still a long way off its peak price of $20,000, which it reached in December 2017, but some cryptocurrency experts believe it could hit an even higher value by 2020.
The giveaway, however, that this isn’t from a legitimate source is on the redirect button which encourages those interested to “Click her”.
Email Lands in Inboxes
Indeed, one Twitter user to notice was Dominic Thomas, who reported to the FCA via Twitter that he’d received the email five times since Friday.
Dear @TheFCA here is an email I have now had 5 times since Friday. Your name is now being used for a virus of some sort I assume… pic.twitter.com/w0ULRAT434
— Dominic Thomas (@solomonsifa) July 22, 2019
FCA’s Advice
While the FCA did not comment directly on the new email scam, it has seen many such attempts by scammers to cash in on its legitimacy and has some general advice posted on its website.
Some fraudsters contact people and firms through emails, letters and on the phone, claiming to be from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or using the name of FCA employees to make them seem genuine.
It advises that all genuine communication from the FCA would be from email addresses ending @fca.org.uk and @fcanewsletters.org.uk. All web addresses will end with the domain name fca.org.uk.
It goes on to warn:
We would never ask a consumer for personal information like bank account details or internet banking passwords.
Its final piece of advice is that if something sounds too
Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
And for your security, watch out for that bad grammar.