Behind the bright images hides a banal truth: they want to deceive you!
Photo: REUTERS
As soon as you log in to this Telegram, they will immediately offer you good money. Here is a successful trader with 10 years of experience. He lives in Bali and drives a Bentley. Life is good. He teaches us, who freeze and vegetate, to earn a lot of money. Without getting up from the couch. And why all? Because he himself has already earned everything and now he wants to “leave a mark in life, do something good for the maximum number of people” … Well, how can you not believe it?
Strange matter. We may not trust people close to us, but at the same time we give all our savings to strangers with honest eyes. But he is so successful… And she is so beautiful and independent… And she speaks so confidentially, as if she were talking to an old acquaintance. But this is all tinsel. Behind the bright images hides a banal truth: they want to deceive you! Scammers have at least five common scenarios for this.
Scam number 1. The money is yours, the profits are ours
Scammers are promoting a Telegram channel about cryptocurrency investments. They promote it through specialized channels. Like, connect while access is free. Then all the advice will be for money. At first there was nothing criminal on the canal. The usual educational program on stock trading. The “successful merchant” tells what he buys and why. Naturally, he brags about his successful deals. This is all foreplay.
When a critical mass of subscribers is reached, the scam begins. A juicy carrot is dangled in front of potential victims. There is an opportunity to make a lot of money; don’t lose it. The profitability is crazy: 100-200% per day.
– A good man published stock charts and prices. He then sent correspondence with his satisfied clients, for whom he made profits 7 to 8 times in 24 hours. As a result, she offers to work with him. The conclusion: we make a deposit, it works and the next day he transfers the profits and takes a 30% commission,” says one of the victims.
The woman sent the “good merchant” 50 thousand rubles. A day later, she shows that the deposit has increased by 10, up to 500 thousand rubles. But to withdraw money, you need to pay for the services of a team of traders – the same 30%. When asked a reasonable question, why not take a commission from the winnings amount and send the rest?, the scammer makes up ridiculous excuses. Everything happens automatically, the system does not let you through, these are the terms of the contract, etc.
– This is a typical scheme: a channel run by a supposedly successful trader, who brags about his results and sooner or later invites people to invest for big profits. This can be 50% per day or 1000% per day. Since the investment amount is low, gullible people decide to take risks,” explains Oleg Anisimov, founder of the “Vklader” project. – The main divorce will happen next. The scammer will report the “earnings,” but to collect them you must pay a certain amount. The reasons may be different: taxes, commissions, invoice confirmation, payment to the guarantor, etc. They will extort until the victim runs out of money or realizes that she has been deceived.
Scam number 2. Fake currency
In this case the bait is a little different. Designed for more advanced users who already understand a little about how cryptocurrencies work. At least they know they can’t make huge profits from scratch. Here scammers offer to participate in the placement of a new currency. Apparently, they personally know the organizers of the placement, conducted a complete analysis of the project and are confident that it will definitely take off.
– You can create your own cryptocurrency in half a minute. Instructions on how to do this can be easily found on the Internet, explains Oleg Anisimov.
Then comes the warm-up of the public. The organizers of the scam actively encourage subscribers. Every day they post screenshots of how a new cryptocurrency is growing. The profit exceeds hundreds of percent! Those who doubt are urged to finally “come in”; Otherwise, they say, they will lose all their profits. And then the main trick happens. When trying to withdraw their money, customers’ investments are reset to zero, because the currency had a 100% sales commission built in. Thank you all, you are free! From your own money.
Scam No. 3. Buy/sell
Cryptocurrencies are not like the stock market. There are hundreds, thousands of exchanges. And modern technologies supposedly make it possible to track prices on different exchanges. And find the one where a specific currency is cheaper. There it will be possible to buy it quickly and sell it profitably on the stock exchange, where it costs more.
– Previously, anonymous “investment assistants” offered to invest in supposedly promising and fast-growing cryptocurrencies, and before that, to invest in mining rigs. Those who believed and took risks, predictably, were left with nothing. During this wave, it is proposed to make money with the so-called “arbitrage”, that is, buying the same cryptocurrency in those places where it is supposedly cheaper and selling it where a higher price is obtained. Obviously, in a real economy, if such a price imbalance occurs, it is eliminated in seconds and is not permanent. Therefore, often these cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges are created only to attract money from those who have trusted scammers, explains Valery Lyakh, former head of the Central Bank’s department for combating illegal practices in financial markets.
According to him, the probability of winning this game is zero. Even if a new investor has virtual profits in his account, he still will not be able to receive this money. Because “commissions”, “taxes” and other unexpected obstacles will immediately arise.
Cryptocurrencies are not like the stock market. There are hundreds, thousands of exchanges. And modern technologies supposedly make it possible to track prices on different exchanges.
Photo: Shutterstock
Scam number 4. Looking for a lost wallet
Here is another fairy tale for those who believe in miracles. And in kind people who are willing to share a lot of money with others. This scheme works like this.
It is known that there are many forgotten crypto wallets in the virtual world. Many users might buy Bitcoin or Ether (the second most popular cryptocurrency – Ed.) for fun and then forget their wallet username and password. Or lose the computer on which this information was stored. According to Chainalysis calculations, one in five bitcoins in the world is lost. There are about 3 million pieces. Its total value at the current exchange rate is 100 billion dollars.
As the scammers say, they have developed a special program that automatically searches for those lost wallets and selects usernames and passwords. Well, of course, they are willing to transfer this forgotten money to the accounts of the naive “Pinocchio” for a modest fee – a few hundred ordinary American dollars. But for some reason victims don’t ask themselves why someone would give away a “gold mine” to everyone, when they could keep those lost billions without sharing them with anyone.
Divorce No. 5. Familiarity and prejudice
This is the most sophisticated type of crypto fraud. Scammers here don’t pinch small things, but catch big fish. And they are willing to wait until she gets into her cage. The point is simple. A girl or boy meets someone on a dating site or app. And for some time now they have been chatting pleasantly with a new virtual acquaintance. If they want to cheat on a woman, then a handsome and, of course, successful man communicates with her. And if the divorce is aimed at men, usually on the other end of the line is a pretty girl who, according to legend, lives somewhere in Europe and has her own business.
After a week of easy communication, she asks her counterpart… no, not to send her money, but to be happy for her, since she has made a very successful deal. Supposedly, in her free time at work, she trades cryptocurrencies. And with great success. And all because she has a family member who works at a large brokerage company and gives her signals about when and what to buy. The victim of the deception is also offered to try to earn money in this way. If the guy takes the bait, the girl arranges a call with the fake broker… There are many stories on the Internet about how people lost millions (including credit) through this scheme.
– These are real criminal groups. Scammers are very talented. They master the language well, know how to write in an interesting way and use psychological tricks. They fit perfectly into your image. That’s why they make a lot of money by scamming fools,” explains Oleg Anisimov.
– Now scammers specifically process by phone or otherwise everyone who agreed to deposit even the minimum amount. Because they don’t make money so much from the number of victims involved in their plans, but rather from individual work with each interested person. Their goal is to literally keep all of a person’s money. And if it works, then also force them to take a loan and give it to you. They know that if a person trusts them for small things, it is easier to trust him for big things,” explains Valery Lyakh.
NAIVE QUESTIONS
Who are all those people?
As a rule, to create images of successful investors, scammers attract external actors. The organizers of the plan themselves prefer to keep a low profile. Especially if they are promoting a Telegram channel.
– Real scammers don’t show their faces. And if they catch the actor, he will say that he received $500 for this job. Although he is actually an accomplice. Scammers look for people who live abroad. Somewhere beautiful. In Dubai or Bali. Apparently these people are in a bad situation, they need to rent a home there, they don’t have money. That is why they receive this type of income,” says Oleg Anisimov.
But there are real criticisms…
Like almost everything in our lives, reviews are also bought. Both text and video. There are whole resources called video review exchanges. There you can register and complete tasks for any client. Praise a restaurant, an online course, or a crypto scam. On average, a video review costs 1000 rubles. Business: for five minutes. Good income for those who do not want or cannot find another job, or do not know that lying is bad.
But what about screenshots with real earnings of hundreds of percent annually and with transfers of round sums?
It’s even easier here. And cheaper. You don’t even have to resort to the services of a professional Photoshopper. You can do everything yourself. Some real screenshots of the mobile bank are taken and then the magic of adding and rearranging numbers is done. Any quantity can be specified.
CONCLUSION
Don’t believe in fairy tales!
Want top tips on how to avoid giving money to scammers? It’s simple: don’t believe fairy tales or storytellers who tell you that they receive 10%, 20% or even 50% of the profits. And not in a year, but in a month or even a week. Furthermore, they are willing to share their money and knowledge. They are definitely scammers. If they had a working technology on how to quickly increase their capital, they would have long ago pledged cars and apartments to the bank, taken out consumer loans, made billions and made the Forbes list.
“Unfortunately, people who are not wealthy are driven by incredibly high returns. And they often take their last money to scammers. A few years ago, those who invested in cryptocurrencies could make a lot of money. Perhaps this is the basis of the belief that in this market anyone can double and triple her capital. But those days are long gone, says Alexey Markov, PhD in Economics.
– If someone has the technology to make good money, they will not teach it to others. He himself will earn money. It is stupid to create competitors,” says Oleg Anisimov.
“Of course, there are secret technologies on the market, but it is unlikely that anyone will share them with you,” summarizes Anna Obizhaeva, professor of finance at the Russian School of Economics.
