The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) has warned of scammers posing as finance professors who are tricking victims into investing in cryptocurrency scams.

According to DFI, self-proclaimed “professors” claim to represent an academy, business school or institute, luring potential victims with training courses. The scammers typically advertise their services on Facebook, and after clicking on the ad, users receive an email from the so-called professor or dean promising exorbitant returns on their investment.

Interested people are then added to a chat in WhatsApp or Telegram messengers, where cryptocurrency trading signals are published daily. Fake academies also offer investors large loans as part of an exclusive offer.

Investors are asked to provide personal information and sign a loan agreement to make the deal appear legitimate. Even when the victim declines the offer, the professor’s “assistant” borrows funds — often in cryptocurrency — on the investor’s behalf and deposits the assets into their account. The scammers attach a fake screenshot of the profits, but when visiting blockchain explorer websites, it is clear that no transaction was ever made, the DFI notes.

Investors are assured that the loan can be repaid with profits. However, in reality, the scammers freeze their accounts and then threaten them with collection letters and lawsuits until they pay the loan out of their own pockets.

The DFI said it had received numerous complaints about the Excellence and Innovation Fortune Business School, which claims to specialize in finance and investment. Instead, the organization was luring investors into the ICHCOIN cryptocurrency scam, where many have already lost millions of dollars. To convince one victim that the platform was legitimate, the scammers “credited” her with 500 USDT stablecoins to her ICHCOIN account, thereby convincing the person to invest $300,000 in the scheme.

The UK Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) recently warned the public about emails from fake lawyers threatening to publish damaging material and demanding ransom in Bitcoin.