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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned users about Fake gaming apps that steal cryptocurrency.
The public service announcement included details of the fraudulent activities and the methodologies used.
Criminals would contact users online, build relationships, and eventually introduce them to an online or mobile game where they would earn cryptocurrency in exchange for activity.
In order to play the game, the victim will be required to create a crypto wallet, buy currency, and then join the app.
The more funds a person stores in the digital wallet, the more incentives they would supposedly earn.
Once users stopped depositing funds to the wallet, the criminals would take the funds for themselves, using a program activated when the fake game was launched.
The office also issued advisory actions for users to protect themselves against these activities.
Tips include:
- Create a unique wallet to use.
- Use a third-party blockchain explorer to check address balances in your game wallet.
- Regularly use a third-party token allocation checker to see which apps have inadvertently allowed access to wallet funds and revoke those permissions.
Additionally, the FBI said that people can report fake gaming apps that steal cryptocurrency to its Internet Crime Complaint Center.
