It is a tale as old as time.
It is 2022 and someone comes into some money, which in this case is the sale of their house after a two year long bitter divorce battle, and find themselves on the internet. One thing leads to another, and they see an advert on Facebook to make money in crypto promising ludicrous returns, knowing it is likely a scam, and click anyway. Soon after, they have transferred two hundred euros from their bank account with the promise of juicy gains.
However, they have already written the money off as gone.
A few days later, "Frank" calls with an accent and they get talking about the opportunity, how much it has grown in a short time already (about +50€) and how he manages a €75 million portfolio. Still quite clearly feeling this is a scam but wanting to explore further, the conversations moved from phone to Whatsapp. From there, Frank showed some pretty charts and numbers, and how things were progressing, and asking how much more they were willing to invest.
Ten Thousand next.
However, the account had 1650€ worth in it and before investing any more, they wanted to ensure that it was actually withdrawable and would take 1600 out. A couple days later, there it was 1600 in the bank account. After this, they put the 200 back in and continued the conversation for three months, taking bits and pieces out, but not putting anything in, until Frank got annoyed and disappeared. They made over 2000€ in this time.
Bet you weren't expecting that ending.
But, they were lucky, because it was almost guaranteed to be a scam, and had they kept putting money in, they would have lost a lot a very large amount. There are numerous stories of this happening and while this person is about as un-tech savvy as they come, a lot of different people fall for the scam.
I didn't know about any of this until tonight, when they visited me for a coffee and we were talking about trips to Australia and the costs involved. They don't even know I am "in" crypto, and I stayed silently listening through the story thinking how some people are just lucky. Yeah, this person is smarter than the average bear, but once those gains are within reach and feel guaranteed, how many people find it difficult to pull away?
Many.
But, people also think that they are smart at calculating the risks they face, because they see the potential for scam, but justify that they will be able to recognise when things get out of hand. But people want to believe, like the French woman who sent "Brad Pitt" €800,000 to pay for cancer treatment, because Angelina Jolie had left him penniless. All it took was some messages and a few poorly photoshopped pictures.
Anne, I love you.
It is both funny and sad at how gullible people have become in this world. My friend was lucky, because they went in as open-eyed as they could, but it is still pretty crazy that someone would click on a Facebook add and then send hundreds of euros to something that they knew was likely a scam anyway.
Maybe it was legit?
Possibly. But what are the chances..... This is crypto.
Ever been scammed?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
