A man claims that he lost his early retirement fund as a victim of a scam. Blockchain analytics company Whale Alert warns that scams will be bigger in 2021 than in 2020.
In the world of cryptocurrencies, the increase in the number of cases of scams does not seem to stop. For that reason, Bitcoin (BTC) users must be very careful about promises of so-called quick profits.
A man from Germany recently fell into the hands of cybercriminals who used a Twitter account in the name of Elon Musk. They promised that they would give away a large amount of Bitcoin to whoever sent a small sum of that cryptocurrency.
The victim sent a total of 10 BTC to a wallet that supposedly belonged to the businessman. He wanted to enter sweepstakes that the Tesla founder was allegedly promoting, according to the BBC news channel.
This man, who did not reveal his identity, said that he received a message from a fake Twitter account bearing the name of Musk. The criminals wrote “Dojo 4 Doge?” together with a link, which awoke his curiosity leading him to click on it.
Upon entering the website, he read that they were giving away Bitcoin and inviting to send between 0.1 BTC and 20 BTC. According to the text in question, the team that the CEO of Tesla leads would send double the amount delivered.
The website displayed a countdown timer, indicating how long the “lucky ones” had to wait to receive “the gift”. The clock reached zero, but the victim received nothing, which made him realize that he had fallen into a scam.
“I just thought that I had thrown away my early retirement fund and all the future vacations with my children. I went up the stairs, woke up my wife, and told her that I had made a big mistake,” the victim said.
On the Trail of The Victim’s 10 BTC
An investigation by the Dutch blockchain analytics company Whale Alert indicates what happened to the victim’s 10 BTC. The cybercriminals transferred that amount and then exchanged it for fiat money anonymously several days later, the BBC news channel said.
According to the company’s investigators, scammers have stolen more money so far in 2021 than in previous years. “Sweepstakes gangs have made more than USD 18 million this year, compared to USD 16 million for all of 2020.”
Whale Alert co-founder Frank van Weert considers that scams are becoming increasingly successful. He says that there is no data to explain why, but he argues that the growth of the cryptocurrency market may have caused it.
The executive said that “when the price of Bitcoin goes up, people go crazy” about making a profit. He adds that “many of them are new to the market and believe that they will get money fast.”
Elon Musk Is Not Giving Away Bitcoin
The “gift” promises that appear on social media are often a scam similar to phishing. This consists of taking the place of an authority, company or person, to make the victim reveal his or her confidential information.
Real “gifts” generally come from so-called faucets, that is, those webpages that offer a minimum amount of cryptocurrencies in exchange for small tasks. The developers of some new tokens also send a small percentage to the holders of another but without asking them for anything in return.
By Alexander Salazar
