The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) released a press release on April 13 regarding cryptocurrency scams. According to the FBI, more cryptocurrency scams associated with the COVID-19 pandemic could surface.

The FBI said that as more people enter the cryptocurrency space, there would be more fraud schemes related to cryptocurrency. The elderly are specifically at risk but the FBI said everyone is vulnerable to such scams.

The agency noted the availability of many virtual asset service providers online as well as thousands of crypto kiosks worldwide which scammers use to carry out their nefarious schemes. Cryptocurrencies are now used to orchestrate numerous traditional financial crimes and money laundering schemes.

The FBI cautioned the people of America to keep an eye on blackmail attempts, work from home scams, fake coronavirus treatments or preventative measures, and a bit of more traditional investment scams.

The FBI mentioned some of the awful scams and one of them is an email or letter which involves threatening to infect the victim or their family with the coronavirus if they do not pay to a provided Bitcoin wallet address.

Another method used by the criminals to steal cryptocurrency is by misleading individals into thinking they are sending Bitcoin donations to the World Health Organization (WHO) towards the fight against the current pandemic.

The FBI advised people to verify the legitimacy of charities they are donating to if they suspect to be a scammer’s target; they should likewise confirm whether such charities accept cryptocurrency for donations. If anyone is putting pressure on people to utilize a virtual currency, they should be considered a remarkable red flag.

Chainalysis published a data on April 10 and it is similar to that of the FBI. According to Chainalysis, the average value of transactions that went to wallets of known scammers reduced by 30 percent last month.