Pig butchering scams: how strangers online steal life savings
Crypto investment scams: the online friend who never asks for your money
In many crypto investment scams, the scammer never asks you to send them money. You move it with your own hands, into an app you chose to trust. Some people even take a little money out, and it arrives. So how can this be a scam?
-
1
Rono asks how she did it. Nalia explains that her aunt studies the crypto market and tells her the right moment to buy and sell. It is a family secret, she says.
-
2
She does not ask him to send her money. She offers to show him, only if he wants. Start small, she says, only what you can afford to lose. Who would say that, if not a friend?
-
3
So Rono does it himself. The trading app Nalia uses takes only crypto, so first he buys some. He moves $1,000 from his bank to a crypto exchange, a real company that sells crypto. Then he sends the crypto on to the app.
-
4
Miva works in the fraud team of Rono's bank. A first payment to a crypto exchange catches her eye, so she calls him. Did someone he met online ask him to buy crypto? No, says Rono. And in a way, he is right: nobody asked him for anything.
-
5
Each evening, Nalia tells him when her aunt says to buy or sell. He taps the buttons himself. After one week, the app says his $1,000 is now worth $1,180.
-
6
Rono is careful. Before he puts in more, he tests the app: he asks to take $200 out. Two days later, the $200 is in his bank account. Real money.
-
7
The app works. The money came back. So where is the trick?
-
Go further
A few names behind the story.