InfoBytes Blog
FinCEN warns of virtual currency social media scam
On July 16, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an alert warning financial institutions about a scam using social media accounts to solicit fraudulent payments denominated in convertible virtual currency (CVC). According to FinCEN, high-profile social media accounts were compromised and used to solicit payments to CVC accounts, with claims that any CVC sent would be “doubled and returned to the sender.” The alert reminds financial institutions to report suspicious transactions involving this type of activity as soon as possible, and that “[a]ny data or information that helps identify the activity as suspicious can be included as an indicator” on their Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) form. The alert notes several indicators to assist financial institutions in identifying activity related to the scam, including (i) communications soliciting payments with misspellings; (ii) social media posts soliciting donations from unverified accounts; and (iii) multiple accounts communicating the same message soliciting funds for an unknown purpose.