Scammers impersonate court officials to extort payments via Bitcoin and gift cards in a new crypto-related fraud - IcoHolder.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia has issued a warning regarding a new cryptocurrency scam targeting unsuspecting residents. Scammers are impersonating officials from the U.S. District Court, using counterfeit arrest warrants to extort payments from individuals accused of missing jury duty.

According to the court's alert, the fraudulent documents appear to come from the Eastern District of Virginia, falsely claiming that the recipients have skipped jury duty and must pay immediate fines. The scammers usually make contact through phone calls, pressuring victims into paying with Bitcoin or other hard-to-trace methods such as gift cards. If the victims refuse, they are threatened with arrest.

Court officials have emphasized that U.S. district courts do not issue arrest warrants for failing to attend jury duty unless the person has been formally summoned. They advised anyone receiving suspicious documents, especially those demanding payments over the phone, to contact the court directly to confirm their authenticity.

The scam is part of a broader trend of cryptocurrency-related fraud, where criminals impersonate government authorities and other trusted figures to deceive victims. In 2024 alone, over $3 billion was lost to fraud and hacks in the crypto sector, according to a January report by PeckShield.

This type of scam is not isolated. In late 2023, the FBI disrupted a similar operation targeting residents of El Paso, Texas, where scammers used phishing emails to impersonate the bureau. Around the same time, the FBI issued alerts about fraudsters on Telegram posing as venture capitalists, tricking users into downloading malicious software. More recently, law enforcement agencies have raised concerns about scammers posing as representatives of the popular crypto exchange Binance to steal from users.