Australia warns of fake police targeting crypto wallets

The Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD ACSC) has issued a warning that criminals are impersonating the police force in an attempt to scam citizens out of cryptocurrency funds or seed wallets.

Scammers use stolen information, like email addresses and phone numbers, to submit false reports to ReportCyber, Australia’s national cybercrime reporting tool.

They then use official reference numbers from this tool to approach victims, attempting to defraud them by luring them into transferring their cryptocurrency into the criminals’ accounts.

The ACSC mentions a scam attempt in which the victim was contacted by telephone by scammers posing as the Australian Federal Police (AFP). They claimed that the victim had been linked to a data breach related to cryptocurrency.

The scammers shared an official reference number that had been created via ReportCyber. They then asked the victim to check the status of this report themselves by entering their email address, with the intention of making their scam more legitimate.

At the end of the phone call, the scammer told the victim that a second person would contact him. This second caller tried to convince the victim to transfer money from his crypto wallet to a so-called ‘Cold Storage’ account. At this point, the victim became suspicious and ended the phone call.

The ACSC calls on people to be vigilant for these kinds of scams. “If you’re contacted by someone about a ReportCyber report that you didn’t lodge or authorize someone to make on your behalf, terminate the call and notify ReportCyber,” the cybersecurity agency advises.

Furthermore, the agency stresses that neither the Australian police nor other law enforcement officials will ever ask to transfer money or cryptocurrency, attempt to access cryptocurrency accounts, persuade people to purchase gift cards or cryptocurrency, or ask for personal information such as passwords and bank details.