- Cofense exposes IRS-themed crypto scam featuring Elon Musk
- Fake IRS emails steal personal and banking data
- Victims Lured Into Fake “Dogecoin Initiative” Demanding Bitcoin Payments
Security researchers from Cofense have uncovered a new cryptocurrency scam that combines Elon Musk with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
It’s peak tax season in the US, which also means IRS-themed scams are at their peak, and as with most scam campaigns, this one starts with an email.
Designed to look like it was from the IRS, the email tells the recipient that they have been selected to receive a $5,000 financial injection, courtesy of none other than Elon Musk.
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Those who don’t ask stupid questions (like why would Elon Musk want to send random people money through the IRS?) and click the buttons in the email are redirected to a series of malicious landing pages designed to steal all sorts of sensitive personal and banking information.
As part of the registration process necessary to receive Elon Musk’s refund, victims are asked to share their full names, postal and email addresses, phone numbers, driver’s license numbers, names of their employers and even their banking institutions.
They are also asked to upload a photo of their ID card and provide bank routing and account numbers.
“Using this information, the threat actors would be capable of much more sophisticated identity theft and social engineering attacks beyond the information culled from the phishing form,” the researchers said. “The threat actors would also be able to steal money directly from the victim’s bank account due to having access to the account and routing numbers.”
The scammers didn’t stop there. They also invited the victims to be part of a fake “ElonMusk Dogecoin Initiative”. They are told that if they buy $10,000 in Bitcoin (from a fake exchange) and send it to Elon’s address, they will be refunded and will get to keep $500 per transaction.
At the time Cofense wrote the report, Bitcoin wallet addresses belonging to the attackers showed no transactions, meaning no one took the bait. Hopefully Cofense’s report creates enough awareness for it to stay that way.
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