After reading this story I feel more reluctant to discuss crypto to people who are new to it. These type of stories are what sticks into common everyday life people. What is heard as easy money but really is not makes it a bad image on crypto as a whole. There is not much good things to say about the story other then a hard lesson to learn from.
What frustrating is the scam likely had nothing to do with crypto. The scammer just used the name and applied it to a ponzi scheme. There has got to be some regulation around the world in regards to validating which cryptos are legit. Some sort of scoring/ranking of the cryptos. It is too easy for anyone to create a crypto just by forking or using third parties softwares that automate creation of crypto for them.
This leads to what I believe is a big issue as to why crypto prices as a whole is not rising to all time highs. The issue is crypto can easily be created as a spinoff or scammers can use the lingo to trick investors into buying nothing for their hard earned money.
I myself feel into this scam with bitconnect. The cycle continues and as long as there is no or lack of regulations we will continue hear stories like this and other scams.