FBI Warns That Fraud On LinkedIn Poses A 'Significant Threat' | iHeart

The FBI said it has seen an increasing number of cases in which fraudsters use LinkedIn to find their victims. Sean Ragan, the FBI’s special agent in charge of the San Francisco and Sacramento, California, field offices, sat down for an exclusive interview with CNBC to detail how the scams work. “It’s a significant threat,” Ragan said. “This type of fraudulent activity is significant, and there are many potential victims, and there are many past and current victims.” Ragan explained that many instances of fraud involve cryptocurrency. He said that the scammers will create fake profiles and use them to send private messages to their potential victims. In some cases, they will spend several weeks or months gaining the trust of their victims before attempting to scam them. The scam usually starts with an offer to make money by investing in cryptocurrency. To give the scam the appearance of being legitimate, the fraudsters instruct their victims to invest using well-known platforms. Then, after a few months, the scammers convince their victim to move the money to another site, which they control. Once the money is moved, the scammers then withdraw everything. One woman told CNBC that she lost nearly $230,000 to a fraudster she met on LinkedIn.…
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