The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the government agency that deals with cybersecurity protections, issued a warning that it is being impersonated by scammers.
In an alert, the organization said phishing scams were increasing and often use the names and titles of government employees.
“The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is aware of recent scammers posing as them and claiming to represent the agency,” the warning says. “As a reminder, CISA staff will never contact you to ask you to transfer money, cash, cryptocurrency, or use gift cards and will never instruct you to keep the conversation secret.”
Report the crime
CISA did not detail what type of scam the attackers were running, but previous reports mentioned that the attackers often claimed that victims' funds were at risk. They would then ask the victim to take the money out of the “risky” bank and deposit it in a “secure” government vault, which is nothing more than a different bank account, belonging to the scammers.
In one particularly brazen incident, the attackers even convinced victims to buy gold and other precious metals, rather than keep cash. Then they sent messengers to their homes to pick up the packages, to “keep them safe.” While not impossible, gold bars and other physical items are somewhat more difficult to track, compared to cash being transferred from one account to another.
Scammers typically target older people more, those who are more gullible and more likely to take action.
CISA says that under no circumstances should users rush to take any action, particularly to pay the caller, in any currency. Instead, victims should write down the phone number from which the call came. They must then hang up and call CISA directly to report the attempted fraud.
