FBI has issued a warning to cryptocurrency scammers on LinkedIn

• According to the special agent, “fraudulent activity is significant” on the business-focused social network.
• Rodriguez told that he would like to see more “proactive education” on the risks of using LinkedIn in the future.
• US cryptocurrency traders lost $575 million due to investment fraud, as per FTC

According to FBI special agent Sean Ragan, cryptocurrency investment scammers on LinkedIn pose a “significant threat” to user safety.

Ragan told CNBC in an interview that he feels LinkedIn has an issue with investment frauds.

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“This type of fraudulent activity is significant,” Ragan said. “There are many potential victims, and there are many past and current victims.”

The Microsoft-owned social network boasts 830 million users from over 200 countries.

Because these con artists are not lazy, they may appear highly convincing.

“They are always thinking about different ways to victimize people, victimize companies,” Ragan told the network. “And they spend their time doing their homework, defining their goals and their strategies, and their tools and tactics that they use.”

According to Regan, the FBI has witnessed an increase in investment-related fraud. From January 2021 to March 2022, US cryptocurrency traders lost $575 million due to investment fraud, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

LinkedIn places an emphasis on business news and connections, which may provide users a false sense of security in the face of typical romance and internet frauds. According to the CNBC study, false accounts frequently pretend to be affiliated with actual and successful businesses or to represent people with “entrepreneurial spirit.”

Oscar Rodriguez, LinkedIn’s head of the trust, privacy, and equity, stated that the number of scammers on the platform is growing.

“Over the last few months, we’ve seen a rise in fraudulent activity happening across the Internet, including here on LinkedIn,” Rodriguez wrote in a blog post-Thursday.

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According to the company, it has a track record of proactively eliminating suspicious content and accounts that it believes may lead to fraud. According to a recent company transparency report, LinkedIn will have deleted over 136 million instances of spam and fraudulent content from its site by 2021. Last year, it also eliminated almost 31.6 million bogus accounts.

Rodriguez told CNBC that he would like to see more “proactive education” on the risks of using LinkedIn in the future.