The FBI on Friday issued an alert on threat actors spoofing the official Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) government website.
The FBI’s IC3 website is the central hub for reporting cybercrime-related activities, such as online extortion, hacking, identity theft, money laundering, and ransomware attacks. Launched in 2000 as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC), it was renamed in 2003.
Spoofed websites, the FBI explains, can be used for the theft of personal information and to facilitate monetary fraud or other illicit activities.
To deceive users into accessing the spoofed websites, threat actors rely on alternative spelling of words, or use a different top-level domain than the legitimate site.
Individuals could access a spoofed FBI IC3 website when attempting to find the official domain to submit a complaint, the FBI explains.
“Threat actors create spoofed websites often by slightly altering characteristics of legitimate website domains, with the purpose of gathering personally identifiable information entered by a user into the site, including name, home address, phone number, email address, and banking information,” the Bureau notes.
To avoid accessing the spoofed websites, the FBI recommends that users navigate to the legitimate IC3 website by typing www.ic3.gov in the browser’s address bar. Users are also advised to avoid clicking on the sponsored results when using a search engine to find the domain, and ensure that the IC3 site they visit ends in [.]gov.
Additionally, the FBI recommends that users avoid clicking on URLs that differ from the legitimate IC3 site, that they do not click on links with suspicious artifacts or graphics, and that they never share sensitive information unless they are sure that the website is legitimate.
“IC3 will never ask for payment to recover lost funds, nor will IC3 refer someone to a company requesting payment for recovering funds,” the agency notes.
The Bureau also notes that the IC3 does not maintain social media accounts and encourages users to report any incidents.
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