Police warn about cryptocurrency scam

Police are asking members of the public to keep an eye out for cryptocurrency scams.

The Huntley Police Department posted a warning Tuesday asking the public to be aware of cryptocurrency scams going around.

The police department said government agencies won’t ask for payment in bitcoin or similar cryptocurrencies, but scammers will. People should also be cautious around messages or calls asking for payments or offering prizes. People also should not give out personal bank account information by email, phone or giving remote access, police said.

It’s not the first scam officials have warned about in recent weeks. The Crystal Lake Police Department warned of a Geek Squad scam last month, and the Illinois Tollway warned people about a phishing scam earlier in August.

The Geek Squad scam consisted of scammers sending random emails to people and telling them to renew subscriptions for a certain dollar amount, and police said not to call a number or click on links in the email. The tollway scam involves people receiving texts from a 438 area code, which covers the Montreal area in Canada; the messages claim the recipients owe money on their tollway account and threaten more fees. It also includes a link where people can supposedly “pay” the fees. The tollway said if people get the text, they should delete it and file a complaint to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov/.