Bitcoin Forum

Nottinghamshire is the city where the famous Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor. Now, metropolitan police say a scammer has stolen $ 282,000 from a local man in the same wooded area.
The victim, who did not want to be identified, said the scammers deceived him after an online conversation in 2020. Apparently, they promised him to invest his money in a fake brokerage firm, promising to receive a significant amount of bitcoin as a profit.
The thieves tricked the man into allowing him to access his computer remotely. In this way, they used his personal information to get a loan.
Detective Sergeant David Breach said in the police report: “Reports of investment fraud have increased significantly since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which is unsurprising when you think the vast majority of us have had to conduct nearly every aspect of our lives on a computer or mobile phone.”
In the six-month period between October 2020 and March 2021, US users reported more than $ 82 million in online cryptocurrency fraud, according to the US Federal Trade Commission.
Perhaps it is time to repeat the obvious: People who want to enter the crypto space need to know that they face a myriad of dangers and inconveniences. Because of your love to cryptocurrency, do not respond to unexpected messages from unknown senders and unreasonable promises of astronomical profits or rewards.


Source: https://decrypt.co/73446/british-man-duped-out-of-282000-in-brutal-crypto-scam

There are so many cryptocurrency exchanges and P2P methods of purchasing bitcoin that it baffles me that people still believe in online/email offers where the crypto equivalent of Nigerian princes give you the chance to get rich. Not only that, but he gave the scammers access to his computer where they stole his personal information and showed up at his home demanding more money.   

Only if every person who enter in this space knows the basics and understand the essence of crypto/security, surely victims like this will be lessen. But no, they only care, greed, and imagine the gains they will get, that's why they end up like this.

It's sad to see when news like this comes out. Newbies really will fall for such scams because they think those sweet words of guaranteed profits will make them well off during this pandemic crisis. And as usual, these scammers will use cryptocurrencies so that they won't be tracked by the authorities not unless they fall for the trap of probably making their own mixers and will save their addresses. As a result, people will again look again at cryptocurrencies as if it is the culprit and not those scammers that tricked them.

You know that meme, ain't nobody got time for that? That's the sad reality. Things like common sense and personal safety are easily forgotten when all you can think about is how much money you stand to make.

It's also going to take years before people understand both the benefits and shortages of irreversible transactions. We still use a financial system where you only need to pick up your phone and make a call and ask someone else to correct a mistake you did. Crypto works in a different way, and not everyone is ready for it. 

Bottomline, don't trust your money with strangers. I believe a lot are being duped by strangers because when they hear the potential huge profits that they are promising, they are being attracted by the thought of having such profits. Don't know when will people stop trusting people over the internet. Very rare that you can find trustworthy persons. More than likely, during the good run of bitcoin these past months, a lot had been rekt by some scammers.

Well, he blindly trust someone he didn't know personally, so what do you expect.

He should at least uses his common sense here, the only reason I can think of is that maybe he was promised of big returns, so greed sets in. Another expensive lesson for the British man, hopefully others can also learn from his experience. We have been exposing this kind of scams in this community that only a small percentage should fall for this kind of scams.

People really have to learn how to be careful these days. It's not good to trust anyone you see, you just have to be careful with whoever you're doing business or whatsoever with, so that they don't end up scamming you.

I have done business once with someone I don't know, that I met online, and that was my days as a noob and I ended up being scammed. I decided to wise up and stopped trusting just anyone and since then it has never repeated itself again. So it's very important for us all to be wise and not give these scammers a chance. There are so many of them online everyday and looking for who they are going to scam. So be careful people.

It keeps happening repeatedly elsewhere as long as we are not learning from the past, this manipulation from the "crypto scammers" will also continue, Thats why every person who wants to enter into the crypto space should be aware of the possible threats that might be encountered along the way not just limited on the crypto price volatility but also from the crypto scammers that always lurking around and searching for a new target to devour usually they are targeting the noobs for obvious reasons. 

If he knew the golden rule of Internet safety to prevent people from accessing your files that you should never relinquish the control to other people via remote access then he wouldn't be scammed by these people.

Two things are to blame here for the happening: the man trusting a stranger with his personal computer and the fact that you can get a $282k loan so easily. But the main blame is imo the man for letting the dude enter his PC remotely...

Things like this happen all the time, and no offense but most of the time it's the victim who is to blame. Sending money because a complete stranger (be it even a billionaire!) promised to send you double back? Allowing remote access to your personal computer?..

Its unfortunate event that he miss to verify those people and now this scamming incident happen again. Maybe people should do more extra careful and watch some videos about scam since educating theirselves about scamming scenarios can really help them avoid any big trouble brought by scanmers and this kind of attempt made by them will never ends for sure.

The scamming will not just happen in this pandemic but from a long time ago. One example is that we can learn not too easy to give access to other people that we do not know. We must be careful from that and always make sure that we do the right thing and if we want to invest our money, we need to search for many news or information and make sure that we can do it by ourselves. We do not have to get tempted by other people saying because we do not know if they are saying it right.

Nobody is blaming Bitcoin for this.It seems that such investment scams are using Bitcoin as a buzzword,in order to get the attention of the victim.Many ignorant people still believe that Bitcoin can bring them huge profits overnight,without any efforts.
The main part of the scam is the promise of gigantic profits.It doesn't matter the currency,in which those imaginative profits are being promised.
Sometimes the scammers are even creating fake trading platforms,where the victim can login and see a bunch of numbers on a dashboard,stating that he had made enormous profits from his investment.

How naive do you have to be to allow something like this? This is at the level of intelligence of a 5-year-old child who will do anything if we promise him sweets, no matter how dangerous and stupid it may seem. The title is completely wrong, there is no brutality here - this is a theft committed because the owner is a person who does not have common sense or the most basic things when it comes to a personal computer.

Next time, before going to the store, let him hand over his house and car keys to an unknown stranger for safekeeping - he will clean his house and make all the necessary repairs - all of course completely free ::) Apparently there are still adults who believe in fairy tales.

Innocence has to be paid too dearly by the great fortune he has. It is because of the remote desktop function that I have not installed software with the same function as Teamviewer in the past three years. Personal computers or mobile devices store a lot of information so they need to be protected and personalized. Anyone who violates access rights can have unpredictable consequences.

The scammer is really structured and very patient with his/her victims...

In my country, fraud investments are also booming that lure Bitcoin in return. our education on social media is very important to save others from scams that use Bitcoin like this.

let's share incidents like this on our social media and save your insulated people from fraudulent investments using Bitcoin like this.

The scams are increasing and now a days the scammers are calling your number and providing services and ask to access your laptop or computer and then their dubious plans starts according to the victim and how they are able to control them and carry on their scam. The coupon fraud was the biggest in the past few years and now they are somehow manipulating people to use cryptocurrency and the only way to avoid them is to never trust a call from strangers even though how convincing they talk.

I don't know how in England, but for example in Russia, personal data is protected by a special law. Their use by third parties is prohibited, however, this does not prevent everyone around to spit on it and do whatever they want. You can buy any database (albeit unofficially), but what difference does it make if you only need information - all this can be easily and cheaply obtained. Anonymously and without consequences. What can we say when you yourself give access to your computer and phone - it could be worse.

It seems the scammers find a new way to trick people by giving promises to them that they can earn fast money from crypto. That makes many new people in crypto not realize that trick and follow the offers and lose their money. If the new people can find more information and do not search for many good resources, they will not get scam by the scammers. If we read some offers that look too good to be true, we need to be careful and need to search for more info.

They mainly use it so they can't be traced back to them, I think that it's a pretty good strategy for a scammer, you steal the money of a person through cryptocurrencies which hides the identity of both parties in the guise of privacy.

Scamming using cryptocurrencies are already happen a long time ago, so does with FIAT. The important thing is we hope the greater goods that cryptocurrencies could benefit us outweigh the potential evil things.

I also believe that people need to shift the blame for their own ignorance and lack of knowledge, and they all blame it on crypto. But mentioning current UX of cryptocurrencies spaces, we can't blame it all to the one who gets scammed. The cryptocurrencies community needs to work toward making a self-custodian wallet as easy as it gets, and educate many newcomers about the truest potential about how they can maximize cryptocurrencies especially Bitcoin.

I would like the police one day to report how much money people have lost and are still losing with Hyip sites, I'm sure the number of people who are losing money with Hyip sites and the amount of money the HYIP site creators must have already stolen over the years it must have been a number so high that it would shock anyone listening. It's true that since 2016 scammers seem to be more dedicated to using cryptocurrencies for their scams, there were many ICOs created by scammers, there were many cryptocurrency projects and exchanges created by scammers... but scammers can only rob people because people They let themselves be fooled by effortless quick profits and think they won't have much risk of losing money. but they make mistakes and lose money

It is sad to hear but hey, a fool is born every second !
I fail to see the "Crypto Scam" in all of this. He was promised some BTC, the victim invited him into his laptop and the thief used his personal info to take a bank loan.

If he was promised diamonds or something else would this have been a "Diamond Scam" or "The old gold scam" ?

And one more thing... he got duped because of his love on money, not crypto !

Great clarity mate and that is different on what seems to be the main topic , he was duped seemingly with consent and not totally being scammed and that will define the situation as His own diligence .
sometimes we are allowing people to enter our safety places and blame others if the person do us harm thats unfair .

The scams using crypto are hard to catch and that is the main reason why thugs have learnt to use the crypto but I have also read in the article that the scamsters had come to the victim's house. I feel that they can be tracked and arrested for this naive mistake. Usually, in countries like the UK, they have cameras everywhere so I don't think it will be hard for the police to catch these thugs. Still, the bad publicity these events give to the crypto is unbearable.

Sad to see this guy got scammed for that kind of money. We're not talking about pennies here! Still, he should've done some due diligence and research before investing that kind of money with someone who you met or only talked to via the internet. Scammers are everywhere in the cryptosphere and to be honest, everyone should know that by now. Be careful with your funds and never go investing six figures with someone unless you've really done your homework (or six figures means nothing to you). Really hate reading stories like this. Scammers put such a bad name on crypto...

I would assume that the victim must be belonging to the older generation and is not a big fan of reading news on the internet or even watching YouTube videos on many types of scams and frauds. The strategy used here is already very common and this has been reported many times online including many videos on YouTube which many very entertaining as the supposed victim turn around the situation. Letting anyone take the control of your computer remotely is a big no no and trusting someone whom you just talk online with a big amount of money is like burning your own house. Old folks should resist the call of the greed and use always a big amount of common sense. This is one big lesson to all - young and old.

Sometimes it is the attitude that brings us to scamming, because even if we Knew about those scam strategy but if you have a greedy personality then if this knocks on your door basically you'll bite the trap and become the victim eventually .

Getting scamming does not relate to the young or old, but it is because they don't search for more to know if that is fake or real news. If they can found more information from many sources, they will know what they should do, and they do not have to greed to chase the money if that looks very good to be true. The scammers will always tempt people to follow their instructions, and the scammers will offer a big reward or fast money to them. It is our job always to be careful and not send the money to unknown things.

That's why you don't trust people online no matter how sincere they are when you are talking to them, sometimes that's part of social engineering scams, to make you let your guard down, and you also have to be paranoid about your online security, I study IT so I know some ways to get in someone's computer and they are pretty brutal than this one.

That's quite a big amount to loose for an single individual to those scammers.

Everyday we hear that scammers have tricked another victim to have their funds.Which exchange provides you with such schemes that you'll get "Significant Returns" and you must know at first instance that something is phisshy because nobody gives guarantee in this crypto market you of your return and funds.The main point is many people are new to the market and hastely wants to join this market in hope of getting profits and getting free coins or double the amount scheme easily make them fall in trap of them.

This is one level up from the victim as giving remote access of your dekstop to some other person you didn't even recognise is highly risky as well as foolish move on his part.So if you are opening any account over the exchange do they need to have access of your computer's even if there is any technical issues.How in the hell people believe all this?People really need to know technical aspects first of all even if they don't want to understand just search for the popular exchange like Binance or the local exchange of your country which is much easier and safer.But still these scams continue to happen because people are greedy to earn just some free coins which they will never get.

its brutal indeed because not only they steal money but they use the guys info without him knowing it but it was also the guys fault on why this happen because he allow the criminals to use his pc .
we need a follow up update to this case once the criminal gets caught .
 who knows maybe he is a real life robinhood too and he gave the money that he stole to the much poorer persons .

First, even as a newbie way back when I dint even fell for anything like this. Why would you allow people you don't know to have access to your computer remoitely? I know most of us here started this cryptocurrency journey somewhere and we understand that it is better to do that from an exchange.

What kind of investment did he want to invest in that will pay him a lot of Bitcoin? I this age and time, it saddens me to still hear this kind of news that people still allow themselves to be scammed online by people you have never met.
Sorry for what happened to him but it was his fault.

Believe me, the real scammer would not be so humane to spend the stolen funds on the poor people. I'm sad on his behalf he had to go through this. I believe most of these victims don't make inquires from people around them hence they are always victims of such scams.

Sad to say that despite of some negative news about crypto currency in the internet such scamming and the bad side of it, Seems there's a lot of people that still lack of awareness when it comes investing,
Probably they don't care about it since they let those thieves manage there personal information. Lol  because imagine is that possible to happen if you already know what sometimes happened when it comes investing through crypto currency especially with unknown people?  Looks like they're really want to earn massive profits and become blinded.

yes real scammers are evil and have no soul but some will get to the point that they want to change and to do something good for the last time using their skill .
inquiring is a must if we are not sure of what we are entering and we can do it on our own with the help of internet if we have no friends with good knowledge regarding on our concern .

Scams that occur in the crypto world are still lacking in investors awareness, most victims are only obsessed with big profits. Without being careful
about entrusting personal data to other people they know online, this is a very stupid act in my opinion. Therefore we really have to be able to
control greed, don't let it lead us to bad things. Always do your research if there is an interesting offer related to crypto, because all very attractive
offers are very likely indications of scam.