The FBI recently released a public service announcement, which warned of an uptick in the use of courier services to collect money and valuables from targets of scam activities. In such social engineering attempts, scammers may use a multi-layer approach to impersonate a US Government official, a tech support worker, and an employee of a financial institution to convince potential victims that trusted sources are speaking to them. In one scheme, threat actors inform victims that their financial accounts have been hacked or are at risk of being hacked and advise them to protect their funds by liquidating their assets, often into gold or other precious metals. Victims are then convinced to meet with a courier at their home or public locations to hand off the requested assets. In some instances, passcodes may be given to the victim to add authenticity to the scam.

Recommendation

The NJCCIC recommends users and organizations educate themselves and others on these continuing threats and tactics to reduce victimization. Users are advised to refrain from clicking on online pop-up notifications, calling numbers displayed on unverified websites, or sharing personal information such as home addresses and account numbers with an unknown caller. The US Government and other legitimate businesses will not advise liquidating assets to purchase precious metals. If victimized, users are encouraged to report the activity to the FBI IC3 and the NJCCIC.

Reporting

The NJCCIC encourages recipients who discover signs of malicious cyber activity to contact the NJCCIC via the cyber incident report form at www.cyber.nj.gov/report.

Please do not hesitate to contact us here at Cyber Command with any questions.