US FBI Warns of Growing Fraudulent Operations Using Courier Services
The US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has issued an official warning about the increasing number of fraudulent operations that exploit courier services to collect money and valuable resources from victims. The primary targets of these scams are elderly people. Scammers, pretending to be technical support employees or representatives of government agencies, convince individuals to sell their assets, including gold, silver, and other valuables, and transfer them to couriers as a means of protection against imaginary threats.
The FBI states, “Our warning pertains to scammers who coerce victims, including the elderly, into converting their assets to cash or purchasing precious metals.”
Fraudsters typically pose as technical support representatives, financial institutions, or government authorities. They claim that the victim’s financial accounts have been hacked or are at risk.
They then propose converting assets into cash or precious metals or transferring money to dealers who supposedly deliver purchases to the victim’s home address. To establish the transaction’s legitimacy, criminals provide special codes to verify the operation with the courier.
Once they receive the resources, the scammers vanish.
Between May and December 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Complaint Center (IC3) recorded a significant rise in such incidents, with total losses exceeding $55 million.
To protect oneself from these scams, the FBI recommends the following:
- Never send gold or other precious metals in response to a phone request, even if the caller claims to represent a legitimate organization or government institution.
- Avoid sharing personal addresses and refrain from meeting strangers to transfer cash or jewelry.
- Ignore pop-up windows, refrain from clicking on links from unverified sources, and avoid installing unfamiliar software or granting computer access to strangers.
Previously, the government had already addressed the prevalence of “phantom hacker scams.” These scams entail criminals convincing their victims that their computers or accounts have been hacked.
In the first half of 2023, this scheme resulted in damages exceeding $542 million. Complaints were also filed by employees in financial institutions, who redirected callers to fake web pages that mimic payment return portals. The main targets in these cases were also elderly citizens.