FBI El Paso warns of ‘Phantom Hacker’ scam

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- As part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the FBI's El Paso branch wants people to be aware of a new scam affecting increasingly more individuals.

According to FBI El Paso, the Phantom Hacker scam is a three-pronged attack that starts with an email or pop-up ad indicating a computer issue and providing a phone number to call.

On the phone call, a scammer asks the victim to download a program to allow them remote access to the computer, such as TeamViewer.

Once the scammer can access the computer, they will try to get into the victim's bank account online and claim that the account was already hacked.

Next, the victim will receive a second phone call from someone claiming to be with their bank's security department saying the account is not safe and advising that the person move money into a "crypto wallet".

Third, the victim will receive a call from an imposter claiming to be from the United States government saying that the crypto wallet is unsafe and offering a "safe wallet," which in reality is moving the money into the hacker's wallet.

"The reason we call it the Phantom Hacker is because people think that their information was hacked, but really, the whole time you have allowed this individual to actually take your money because you were the one that answered the pop-up," said Jeffrey Reisinger, FBI El Paso Special Agent. "There's really no hack that's gone on. It's all you that has moved that money out of your accounts."

Reisinger said the scam most often affects individuals 60 and older.

So far, the F.B.I. estimates over $1.6 billion has been lost to tech support scams this year.