Cyber scams are everywhere: How to avoid falling victim

The vast global industry designed to perfect cyber scams takes in $500 billion a year.

Alona Katz, chief of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Virtual Currency Unit, said everyone is vulnerable to scammers.

Victims of other crimes like robbery are met with empathy and compassion, but scam victims are often blamed, she said.

“ You can see that a lot in the headlines in the news where it says, ‘Person duped into giving up their life savings,’ ” Katz said, “instead of, ‘Well-organized psychological machine run by this criminal, international enterprise, targeted someone and stole their money.’ That's how we need to look at it.”

 How does the initial establishment of trust tend to happen? 

“ It really comes in a variety of ways. So it's hard to tell people, ‘just look out for this one thing,’ because scammers are just constantly evolving and changing their tactics.

“I can give you some common examples. One a lot of relationships are initiated through dating apps where people may be more open to communication and connection from the get-go. We see a lot of people who fall victim to these scams, not because there's a romantic friendship at all, but they are first lured in by advertisements on Facebook for what looked like really legitimate investment opportunities. They use deepfake [artificial intelligence] to show images of celebrities or politicians. And the scammers are also, I think, using Facebook targeted advertising.

“So people are seeing these advertisements in their native language. The Russian-speaking community in Brooklyn has been hit particularly hard by this type of scam. And then you fill out the information and then — in this particular scam I have going on in Brooklyn — you get a call from a Russian-speaking investment advisor. There's automatic trust built in. It's someone from your community. They say, ‘I can help you in America. I can give you the financial literacy you need to succeed.’

“I once spoke to a man who came to America. He lost everything. He had been saving for years. And he told me, ‘I didn't do this because I was greedy or trying to get rich fast. I was doing it to build a better life for my children so they wouldn't have to struggle and go through what I went through to succeed.’

“ So there's the Facebook advertisements, there's the dating stuff. There are just all those random text messages and pop-up messages that are kind of designed to elicit a response like, ‘Hey, my appointment is scheduled,’ or, ‘Hey, picking you up tomorrow.’ A lot of us will just be like, ‘Wait, you have the wrong number,’ or ‘Sorry, do I know you?’ and that's all they're looking for. Just that little hook, just that little initiation and they will start a conversation. Sometimes you get sent to these websites that look exactly like cryptocurrency investment websites It's very hard to distinguish what's legit or not.”

 Is there a reason that these scammers want to steer victims into crypto?

“ Crypto just makes it easier for international scammers to obtain and move money quickly. You can send crypto through private addresses, so maybe a banking institution's red flag algorithm isn't gonna go off. And also I think for people who haven't been exposed to crypto, there may be red flags that they're willing to overlook or they might not notice when it comes to crypto investments that than they would with other types of investments, because they're willing to chalk it up to, 'well, I don't know, crypto. I'm not so computer savvy. I should just rely on, you know, this advisor who's speaking my own language.'”

 For people who have been scammed or think they have been, who should they tell?

“ A lot of the response you get, unfortunately, still sometimes depends on what area of the country you're in. I'm fortunate to be from New York City in an office [where] we have crypto tracers. We have the software. A lot of the stuff that you need to do these investigations is just out of the financial reach of smaller agencies.

“So you should still definitely tell your local law enforcement agency. Unfortunately, I know from firsthand experience that you might not get the best response. There are various websites like Chainabuse and ic3.gov run by the FBI. But a lot of it is luck and timing and getting in front of a law enforcement officer who understands that, because we're still behind the curve in a lot of ways.

“And I think victims are rightfully frustrated and often disappointed in the response that they get from law enforcement.  That absolutely kills me. I can't think of a worse response to get from a victim. You've realized that the relationship you were in was a fraud. You've just lost your life savings and you go to your local law enforcement or federal field office and someone just says, ‘Oh, sorry, it's crypto. There's nothing we can do.’

“The promise I have made, at least, for myself and for my unit is no one will ever be told there's nothing we can do. Even if we can't solve it, we will say, ‘We've tried everything. This is what we've tried. And this is why we've hit a wall.’ Because sometimes that information enclosure, it's the only thing that we can do. And then I try to do other things with a focus on preventing future harm. So if that website or fake investment app is still up, law enforcement can still work to disrupt the online operation and take the website down.”

 Julia Corcoran produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Todd Mundt. Allison Hagan adapted it for the web.