{"id":748,"date":"2020-07-30T13:57:39","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T13:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/?p=748"},"modified":"2020-07-30T14:00:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T14:00:29","slug":"virtual-currency-scams-exploiting-covid-19-wide-scale-asserts-fincen-chief-blanco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/virtual-currency-scams-exploiting-covid-19-wide-scale-asserts-fincen-chief-blanco\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Currency Scams Exploiting COVID-19 Wide Scale Asserts FinCEN Chief Blanco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many virtual currency payment scams are exploiting COVID-19, from extortion, ransomware, and the sale of fraudulent medical products, to initial coin offering investment scams, which will likely continue to grow during the pandemic, asserted Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Director Ken Blanco today.<\/p><div class=\"hannr64ec67a264e43\" ><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\"\n     data-ad-layout=\"in-article\"\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8209967072221559\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"2673331731\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 1201px) {\r\n.hannr64ec67a264e43 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) {\r\n.hannr64ec67a264e43 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) {\r\n.hannr64ec67a264e43 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) {\r\n.hannr64ec67a264e43 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (max-width: 767px) {\r\n.hannr64ec67a264e43 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n<\/style>\r\n\n<p>\u201cThis type of cybercrime in the COVID-19 environment is especially despicable, because these criminals leverage altered business operations, decreased mobility, and increased anxiety to prey on those seeking critical healthcare information and supplies, including the elderly and infirm,\u201d the FinCEN chief told the virtual Consensus Blockchain Conference.<\/p>\n<p>Stressing the cooperation of FinCEN with other law enforcement agencies, Blanco said the coordination is essential to get badly needed funds to the intended recipients who need it\u2014some for their financial survival\u2014not to exploitive COVID-19 criminals and fraudsters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe need for our collaboration is clear and undeniable,\u201d he attested.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recirc-unit recirc-unit-open\" data-gtm-vis-recent-on-screen-655684_1281=\"92718\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-655684_1281=\"92718\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-655684_1281=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-655684_1281=\"1\">\n<div class=\"recirc-title\">Recommended For You<\/div>\n<ul class=\"recirc-story-list\">\n<li class=\"recirc-story\">\n<h3 class=\"recirc-headline\" data-ga-track=\"SEO Recirc Unit: 4\">New Stimulus Package Announced: $1,200 Second Stimulus Checks, Unemployment Benefits, Student Loan Relief, PPP Loans, School Opening, Coronavirus Testing<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"recirc-story\">\n<h3 class=\"recirc-headline\" data-ga-track=\"SEO Recirc Unit: 5\">Finally: $1,200 Second Stimulus Check And Reduced Unemployment Benefits Proposed In HEALS Act Package<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"recirc-story\">\n<h3 class=\"recirc-headline\" data-ga-track=\"SEO Recirc Unit: 6\">Trump: Second Stimulus Checks May Be Higher Than $1,200<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Going deeper into the COVID-19 crime that is taking place, Blanco said because many business and government employees are doing their jobs from home, cybercriminals are targeting vulnerabilities in remote applications\u2014including virtual private networks and remote desktop protocol exploits\u2014to steal sensitive information and compromise transactions.<\/p>\n<p>He said virtual currency businesses need to be vigilant against attacks targeting their onboarding and authentication processes, for example \u201cdeepfakes\u201d manipulating digital images and account takeovers facilitated by credential stuffing attacks.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to COVID-19 concerns, the FinCEN chief said FinCEN has worked alongside law enforcement initiatives like the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF) and the Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement (J-CODE) to investigate criminal networks exploiting virtual currency for the purchase of fentanyl.<\/p>\n<p>To emphasize the extent of virtual currency exploitation problems for most of this decade, Blanco said since 2013 , FinCEN has received nearly 70,000 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) involving cryptocurrency fraud.<\/p><div class=\"uuuys64ec67a264e85\" ><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\"\n     data-ad-layout=\"in-article\"\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8209967072221559\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"2673331731\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 1201px) {\r\n.uuuys64ec67a264e85 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) {\r\n.uuuys64ec67a264e85 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) {\r\n.uuuys64ec67a264e85 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) {\r\n.uuuys64ec67a264e85 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (max-width: 767px) {\r\n.uuuys64ec67a264e85 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n<\/style>\r\n\n<p>Source:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/tedknutson\/2020\/05\/13\/virtual-currency-scams-exploiting-covid-19-wide-scale-asserts-fincen-chief-blanco\/#531baed412f8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">forbes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many virtual currency payment scams are exploiting COVID-19, from extortion, ransomware, and the sale of fraudulent medical products, to initial&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[3134,3135,3137,3133,3132,3138,3131,3136],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":750,"href":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions\/750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stremon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}