Fraudsters have donned the identities of legitimate US financial advisers in an effort to gain the trust of victims, before recommending fraudulent financial investments.
According to threat intelligence service DomainTools, the con artists, most of whom appear to be located in West Africa, have advertised on popular social media platforms, including TikTok, using the information of actual financial advisers, copying personal biographical information and work details.
Their goal is to gain the confidence of their victims using messaging applications and email, and then convincing the individuals to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes. To date, the fraudsters have successfully stolen millions of dollars, according to a DomainTools research note.
In the end, there are two types of victims in this fraud campaign, says Sean McNee, CTO of DomainTools.
“Obviously the first are the consumers who are tricked into investing their money — often in the millions — then losing it through cryptocurrency and other investment scams,” he says. “The second are the financial advisers, whose professional identities are being brazenly impersonated, putting their reputations and credibility at stake, not only today but for future business relationships as well.”
Fraud strategies that exploit an existing relationship by stealing someone’s identity or that create a new relationship are often the most effective types of crime. Business email compromise (BEC), for example, where the…
