HOUSTON — The FBI is warning against a scam they said is an evolution of general tech support scams that targets senior citizens, often taking their entire life savings.
Authorities said bad actors using the "phantom hacker" scam use multiple personas, including those of tech support, financial institutions, and government entities to get their victims to trust them.
Victims lost an estimated total of more than $542 million between January and June this year, according to the FBI. Nearly half of the victims were older than 60 and made up two-thirds of the total losses.
How the scam works
There are three phases the FBI has identified in the scam. First, the scammer portrays themselves as tech support. Then they act as though they're a financial institution. Lastly, they pretend to be part of the U.S. government.
Phase 1 - Tech Support Imposter
According to the FBI, the scheme starts out with a scammer posing as a tech support representative from a legitimate company. They reach out to potential victims via phone call, text, email, or a pop-up window telling them to call back for help.
After calling the number, victims are told to download software allowing the scammer to have remote access to their device, which is when the bad actor pretends to run a virus scan that falsely claims the device has been hacked.
The victim is then directed to open their bank accounts to find out if there have been any unauthorized charges. This shows the scammer what financial institution to impersonate. The victims are then told the institution's fraud department will reach out to them with further instructions.
Phase 2 - Financial Institution Imposter
The FBI says the scammer will then reach out posing as the financial institution and tell the victim their accounts have been accessed by a foreign need to be transferred to a third-party account.
The victims will be given instructions on how to do so - whether it be through wire, cash, or cryptocurrency - to an overseas recipient. This can happen over the span of days or months, according to the FBI, and often the scammers will tell their victims not to tell anyone the true reason they're moving their money.
Phase 3 - U.S. Government Imposter
Lastly, the scammer may pose as a government employee to emphasize that their money is not safe in the original account. This is done to build trust with the victim and convince them to transfer the money as described in phase 2.
The FBI said the scammers may even send an email that appears to use an official U.S. government letterhead if the victim gets suspicious.
How to protect yourself
The FBI provided the following tips verbatim to help protect yourself from this and similar scams:
- Do not click on unsolicited pop-ups, links sent via text messages, or email links or attachments.
- Do not contact the telephone number provided in a pop-up, text, or email.
- Do not download software at the request of an unknown individual who contacted you.
- Do not allow an unknown individual who contacted you to have control of your computer.
- The US government will never request you send money via wire transfer to foreign accounts, cryptocurrency, or gift/prepaid cards.
If you suspect suspicious or fraudulent activity, you're asked to report it to your local FBI field office and the FBI IC3. You're asked to provide the name of the person or the company who contacted you, the method of communications they used and, if any money was transferred, the bank numbers and recipients they were sent to.
Click here to submit tips to the FBI Houston office.