US Marshals Warn That One Bitcoin ATM Scam Is Popular Again

The US Marshals Service along with the FBI recently updated an earlier warning against scammers in which they were impersonating law enforcement officers. The agencies say that the people behind the scams accuse a potential victim of a crime and demand payments via Bitcoin ATMs or other obscure payment methods.

As the Bitcoin scams news show, it is unclear how effective scams like these actually are. The requested payment method should be enough of a red flag but still the US Marshals feel that they should reissue their warning.

For those of you who don’t know, the US Marshals is a branch of the United States Department of Justice which has reissued a warning that it first made in late 2018. This details a series of scams in which individuals call potential victims and impersonate government law enforcement officers.

In short, scammers call and tell the potential victim that they have an arrest warrant out for them. They also give some insignificant charge such as skipping jury duty and demand a fine. The receiver of the call is then informed that failure to pay this will result in a jail sentence.

UPDATED FRAUD ADVISORY – Spoofers using government phone numbers, government employees’ names,
demanding payment via bitcoin ATMs: https://t.co/ZMBG3hNJmj

— U.S. Marshals (@USMarshalsHQ) December 6, 2019

“Spoofers” is the word that they used for the victims for the people which gave some instantly suspicious payment options. They can top up the pre-pay debit cards or buy gift cards and read the unique numbers to the caller. Also, they can buy Bitcoin using an ATM and send it to a wallet address provided over the phone.

Despite the red flag which would make anyone suspicious about receiving such call, the scammers appear to be persisting. This has prompted the US Marshals to update their warning today that it first issued late last year.

People who know this and are aware of it know that such scams seem outright ridiculous. Still, they must either be prevalent enough or effective enough for US Federal agencies to feel the need and warn the public against them. After all, scammers are always looking to dupe the most vulnerable people – and it seems that people like this are very commonly falling to their methods. This is again why the US Marshals office reissued the warning.