KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 12): The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued an alert on a new version of fraud involving cryptocurrencies.

Citing the FTC, cryptocurrency news portal Cointelegraph on Tuesday (Jan 11) said the scam has three components, namely an impersonator, a QR code and a crypto ATM where the victims will be directed to send money.

The FTC said fraudsters pretend to be public officials, law enforcement agents or employees of local utility companies.

It said the perpetrators also utilise dating apps and pretend to be potential romantic partners or call victims to announce that they had won a prize.

The FTC said no matter how it starts, it always ends up with the scammer asking for money.

If the users fall for the trick, the scammers tell them to withdraw cash and go to a crypto ATM.

After that, the scammers ask the users to purchase crypto through the ATM and here the QR code comes into play.

The perpetrators then share the QR codes of their wallet addresses with the victims. Because of this, once the victims scan the codes, the purchased crypto assets would transfer to the fraudsters’ accounts.

The FTC’s Christina Miranda from the Division of Consumer Business Education said that nobody from the government, law enforcement, and utility company will ever tell anybody to pay with cryptocurrency.

"If someone does, it's a scam, every time," she said.