Is this a scam? What to do next.

[Lapatai]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

[1714094039]

1714094039

[elda34b]

That is a scam. I think the app itself is a fraud (balance changed by the developer or those who request Sam to deposit). The method similar to 'exchange withdraws' help where you need to deposit first before you can withdraw (if that's even possible).

Stop sending them more money. There is no way in hell legit business can double your investment overnight and not allow you to withdraw anything.

I don't know about the police, but you should report it anyway. The police might be able to help you as long as you have enough information about those who called Sam to invest more.

[bitsurfer2014]

This is a typical scheme on what many people should avoid - a clear example of "double your money scheme" which has

already crawled its way to crypto industry! Remember, "if its too good to be true" it is very probable that it is indeed a

scam! Let us all be vigilant about this and spread awareness within the community.

[xhomerx10]

This is a typical scheme on what many people should avoid - a clear example of "double your money scheme" which has

already crawled its way to crypto industry! Remember, "if its too good to be true" it is very probable that it is indeed a

scam! Let us all be vigilant about this and spread awareness within the community.

 We don't have all the information but my bet is that Bob and Sam have been taken.  That being said, from December 2018 until April 2019, it was possible to purchase Bitcoin for a price between $3,000 and $4,000 USD.  Presently the price of Bitcoin is over $10,000 USD so the doubling of your money was entirely possible.   If Sam had invested 4 500 EUR in Bitcoin during that same period, it would be worth ~ 9 000 EUR today so they numbers aren't out of line with reality.  Too bad they had no fucking idea what they were doing.

[Lapatai]

This is a typical scheme on what many people should avoid - a clear example of "double your money scheme" which has

already crawled its way to crypto industry! Remember, "if its too good to be true" it is very probable that it is indeed a

scam! Let us all be vigilant about this and spread awareness within the community.

 We don't have all the information but my bet is that Bob and Sam have been taken.  That being said, from December 2018 until April 2019, it was possible to purchase Bitcoin for a price between $3,000 and $4,000 USD.  Presently the price of Bitcoin is over $10,000 USD so the doubling of your money was entirely possible.   If Sam had invested 4 500 EUR in Bitcoin during that same period, it would be worth ~ 9 000 EUR today so they numbers aren't out of line with reality.  Too bad they had no fucking idea what they were doing.

Well it happened in about a week to month ago.

[mocacinno]

Well it happened in about a week to month ago.

In my country there was some media coverage about these scams a couple weeks ago... Apparently the amount of scams have reached the threshold needed to attract the attention of the press and the police now.

If i read your story, it's the exact modus operandi described in the media, so i can pretty much guarantee your friend was scammed.
Like it's been suggested before: stop sending them money, go to the police, consider your funds to be lost.

BTW: these scams have NOTHING to do with the actual crypto community... Scammers just pick whatever technology is "hot" in the media right now and use buzzwords from this technology to scam unknowing victims. If bitcoin wouldn't exist they'd find an other angle to scam people using more or less the same methods they're using right now. It's a shame these dirtbags are dragging our community trough the mud, ruining our reputation because we get linked to them... They're just thieves that use our community fame to steal from (mostly) older, non-tech-savvy people.

[stompix]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit.

The moment you hear guaranteed profit it's 99.9% scam with an error margin of 0.1%  

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Well, Sam shouldn't send any more money first.
Of course, a visit to the police would be necessary since, to be sincere there is probably nothing you can do anymore on your own, but the chances of getting your (their) money back are slim to zero.

We also miss a lot of information on how this (I'm going to call it scam) unfolded.
How were they contacted in the first place, via an email, a website a telephone number, how did they pay that amount, a bank transfer cash in person to some rented office, etc etc etc.
The app thing is also confusing, is really a playstore app or some website..

It might just happen that they've left enough traces to be tracked by the police but again even if they get sentenced it doesn't mean your friends are getting their money back.

Still, I urge your friends to go to the police, If nobody reports them the scammers will try to trick more people and they will go unpunished.


LE:
I just saw the under a month time mentioned, if it was an international bank transfer call your bank, international bank settlements take up to 30 days in some cases (not the actual transfer in that person's account) so even if the thief has cashed out your bank can still stop and flag the transfer from being processed and maybe you have a chance, who knows.

[dessyhodin97]

this is a trend now,but can be avoided with awareness and tactfulness.if people come to you on telegram,whatsapp or any other media to ask for invetsment,always observe what it entails.for instance some slid into my dm on telegram asking me to invest in bitcoin and i'll get double of what i invest.if maybe i wasnt aware of crypto already and also a little bit of greed added,i may have fallen prey,so guys try and be careful. Most of these people aren't from the countries they claim to be from and there literally apps for everything nowadays,even an app to send fake transactions.so bro be more careful next time.

[jhonjhon]

By the looks of it and with the explanation it is surely a scam, he shouldn't send them anymore money regardless if they should him something that it doubled or whatever. It is just an application for God sake and anyone can create an app just to convince because they are legit when in fact it's a scam. Scammers now are getting smarter as the days pass and they will do everything just to rip people off.
With scam at large now, he should have researched more about the person or ask them everything before investing, how can he invest on something that he isn't sure about and he didn't even know the name of the app, i'm sorry but it's just absurd. Well, his a newbie we can't blame him but it's your money make sure to invest it on something worthy and not just to someone who promised big profits but later turned to be a scam.

[putukin]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Give a friend a slap, let him restart his brain. Most likely, a friend contacted a brokerage company that first helps to increase the investment but then he will lose the entire deposit. Better let him engage in trading and receive a profit trusting only himself.

[xhomerx10]

This is a typical scheme on what many people should avoid - a clear example of "double your money scheme" which has

already crawled its way to crypto industry! Remember, "if its too good to be true" it is very probable that it is indeed a

scam! Let us all be vigilant about this and spread awareness within the community.

 We don't have all the information but my bet is that Bob and Sam have been taken.  That being said, from December 2018 until April 2019, it was possible to purchase Bitcoin for a price between $3,000 and $4,000 USD.  Presently the price of Bitcoin is over $10,000 USD so the doubling of your money was entirely possible.   If Sam had invested 4 500 EUR in Bitcoin during that same period, it would be worth ~ 9 000 EUR today so they numbers aren't out of line with reality.  Too bad they had no fucking idea what they were doing.

Well it happened in about a week to month ago.

 In that case, it's a certainty they've been defrauded.

[CoinClarity]

Sounds like a MLM Ponzi like Trade Coin Club or something similar to it.

My neighbor got roped into it through a fellow church member of all people, who was eager to get a slice of his commission. You "buy some bitcoin" (you're not really buying anything), watch it "grow in value" on your state-of-the-art Ponzi App, marveling at the wonders of "automated cryptocurrency trading" (which again is nothing other than a Ponzi).

They put in a lot of conditions to dissuade you from withdrawing at any point -- early withdrawal penalties and so forth. And should the day come when you do wish to cash you, you'll find its impossible to get either

a. the total of what you put in, despite your balance having doubled or whatever
b. anything at all.

Basically OP, as you have probably gathered by now, your friend is screwed, and sorry to say it but there's no good ending to this story.

[metallica101]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Yup, definitely sounds like a scam. Whenever you are promised large profits instead of being presented with a clear business plan that would lead to said large profits, it is best not to give away your money. Definitely not if you don't know what you are investing in, and if 'Bob' and 'Sam' know nothing about BTC and crypto — anyone could tell them anything. I don't think that there is much that they can do right now in terms of getting the money back. But, they should definitely report this to the police or some scam-related authorities. They can tell them more about their current options and how to proceed.

[libert19]

Those were fiat money transactions, right? If so, police could help, also those phone calls might help to get to those scammers (unless they be using burner phones).

[serjent05]

That is definitely a scam,  Sam can file a complaint to the authority regarding the said scheme.  The thing that he cannot withdraw his profit is shouting that the company he invest in is a scam, and the huge profit promised in return of Sam's investment is another huge red flag.  There are also lots of those lurking here in the Philippines and many people fall victim to it.  One of them is my friend that invest more than $40k in total after their initial investment of $1k.  I tried to tell them that they should be careful and research more before investing on that company but, greed took over them and put in more money.  Same scheme, when I asked my friend they told me that they already have huge profit but they are not allowed to withdraw it for about a year.

[Herbert2020]

remove the term "bitcoins and crypto" from your comment and replace them with "blank". now read it again. you see it has nothing to do with bitcoin and crypto, this scheme is one of the oldest methods of scamming people that existed even before the internet let alone bitcoin.
the characteristics of these types of scam are also the same. they always rely on gullibility of those whom they contact and they focus on their greed. they ask for money while promising huge returns. sometimes they even pay a little to look legit.
there is nothing you can do about it except to stay away.

[carter34]

Back in memory lane while trying to hold my hand somewhere on crypto business and stuffs. I have found myself in such site but now I realize they are scam  but I didn't send any money there but I was investing my time to build some coins I couldn't withdraw while being asked to double it by transferring to withdraw later.

[Sebas.tian]

Its unfortunate that people still fall for these type of scams, even with the awareness being created almost on daily basis on the internet. I have been scammed several times before I joined the cryptocurrency forums, since I joined this forum, I have always educate myself from what other forum users have to say, things have been different from my end, also, I have helped many from be getten scammed. The first place I got scammed was on Facebook page were I found a website called " biohourly.com", I deposited my bought ethereum coins which was 3ETH, they went away with my ethereum without any trace till now. Greediness was the cause of my lost because the investment was to give me *80 of my initial deposit.

[michellee]

Yup, that is a scam for short

In the name of investment, if you are making a profit in a short time, that will be too suspicious because we know the investment itself needs time before we can make a profit. The short time we can get the profit will be at 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month but if the return is too big to imagine, then that will end with the scam.

[Alert31]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

That is clearly a Scam Modus operandi,which they offer to double or triple your capital investment then after they received your money ,they will ask you again to send and you can't withdraw your money back. Much better to avoid investment which they promise to give back your money twice or more which is good to be true because it's difficult to earn money and to have a bigger profit instantly or in a short period of time,So where they will get money to give you back double or even more? Many people now doing this things just to get money easily from other person. They don't even think that those people are working hard just to have those amount to invest.

[krb91]

fools get beaten even in churches  

After reading the write up of the topic,  I think this is the best reply that can be given.

If it's too good to be true,  it's  too good to be true. I didn't read beyond three lines before surmising it was a scam.  Yes it is a scam and I say it again - it's a Scam!  Do not on any account send any one money to invest for you or any thing of that nature. Please be guided and stay safe. A fool and his money are soon parted.  

[rahmatullah9305]

this is caused by a lack of knowledge of the basics of cryptocurrency, too soon to believe in people who are trying to attract you or others to want to invest with the claim that they know big profits in the future. SAM Lack of understanding of the technology offered and not understanding the basis of the technology itself, so the investments he joins can be fraught with risks and can also be a scam.

[audaciousbeing]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Its obvious Sam has been scammed and the scammers have been preying on him being too gullible to milk him dry. One of the method scammers uses is isolation which they either put their victim in or they made their victims feel its the best option. He must have thought to himself to keep the investment under wrap so that alot of people wont share from the expected returns unfortunately, he is only building castle in the air which will never materialize. What to do is simple, you can involve the police but be sure the police are enlightened to understand what is going on or else he might be accused of something else that he got the money via illegal means. Away from there, if he has downloaded the app from PlayStore of Apple Store then its time to report the app to ensure other people don't fall in the same trap.

Other than the two options above, its best Sam should move on and be smarter in the future.

[davis196]

I was scammed by a Telegram faucet using the same principle.Fortunately I was scammed with a really small sum.
You get a fake dashboard,which shows that you have "earned" X amount of bitcoins(usually a big amount),but you have to deposit coins to upgrade your account(or meet their terms and conditions) in order to withdraw your coins(which is ridiculous).
You are explaining exactly the same scam tactic.

[suvo05]

I got similar type of phone call last year. One people called me and asked me to invest 10000 INR in BTC and claiming to make it double in a few months. I think your frnd is very young. It's the simplest most scam to fool people.  your frnd should contact police as soon as possible.

[btc78]

This is a problem if “Greed” interferes the scenario ,becaue everything turns interesting even that the people involved knows nothing about the area he was investing

This is a clear scam when people randomly asked you to invest promising good amount or irresistible,why would people that you don’t know will encourage you to invest?and the problem also for Bob and Sam is they come to invest continuously without clarifying how would be the profit claimable?

Tell Bob and Sam to move on,forget this person  because they were being fooled and make this as experienced to be learnt and not to happen again

[pixie85]

Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.

This is so typical for people. They invest very little at first thinking that it will make them safe against scams and then when the money doesn't disappear but is there on the account making more money they lose their heads and spend more and more.

2000 EUR is not the end of the world. It will be a valuable lesson for him.

[Upgate]

A friend of a friend what a funny way to start this imaginary story,  what an easy way to get scammed, your friends really are very gullible this is no case of being a cryptocurrency novice it's a just too bad

[adzino]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

I have heard about this scam somewhere before. Someone on the forum was talking about the same scam he has faced where a "person" contacted him saying that he can invest his coins on a certain platform and then he will double the investment. The person than started to ask for more investment before he could completely withdraw his coins. I don't remember the whole story but it was some what similar to this. Unfortunately, this is a very obvious scam and is very sad to fall for this. There is nothing much you can do other than ignore the person when he asks for more investment. I doubt the police can help in this case.

[shield132]

This is a typical scheme on what many people should avoid - a clear example of "double your money scheme" which has

already crawled its way to crypto industry! Remember, "if its too good to be true" it is very probable that it is indeed a

scam! Let us all be vigilant about this and spread awareness within the community.

It doesn't matter whether some proposal sounds too good to be true or not, catchy thing here is that people want to hear what they wish and once they hear it, then they want to believe it and are often looking for positive arguments and sometimes are left under spell so much that they don't even think about opposite arguments.
Also only high profit offers aren't scams, can say the same about those projects who promise low profit, it's a trick, low means steady and guaranteed profit for some people while it's getting easier for scammers to catch such people.

[waitforme]

Ask the whitelist from the development team as it gives you details about what the team is doing. Ask for anything from his project development team to verify it. Do not be foolish to make further investments if you have not verified this is a real project and it can be profitable.

[Bountyhonter]

Why will anyone send money to someone they don't know that is promising double investment in just few hours thats just pure greed.

[rodel caling]

According to the story you shared is obviously and clearly pure scam, the of bob and sam is learn to all do not trust trust people investing funds without any study and investigation to avoid vitcim of scam. A lot of the people use this new digital crypto currency to make easy money even in the bad ways.

[tanjiran]

Yup, that is a scam for short

In the name of investment, if you are making a profit in a short time, that will be too suspicious because we know the investment itself needs time before we can make a profit. The short time we can get the profit will be at 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month but if the return is too big to imagine, then that will end with the scam.

It is true. The easier it is to get a profit on an investment, let alone the way it's so easy, the more suspicious it is. Well, nothing is easy and instant, everything needs a process. If it's that easy, surely all the teams are already rich and don't need to look for additional funds by influencing more people to join. Come on think logically.

[Gi01]

The answer for Sam's situation is simple, Sam has been scammed and there is no way he will be getting the 900 Euro back. Just tell him that, he has been scammed. And please help him understand what crypto is and not to invest into anything he has little or no knowledge about. People will also take advantage of the lack of knowledge people have in the crypto space.

[joelsamuya]

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Sam is definitely a common victim of just another scam. Now, the next question is what should Bob do? First, he should stop listening to these scammers as it can mean more financial bleeding. Second, he can try to at least have the crime reported. Third, he should start processing what happened and just learn the many big lessons out of it. Fourth, he should accept now that his money is gone with the wind.

[Naughty Princess]

Your friend already lose money by investing without any research about that product. The team is asking for more money because they know that they can get more if they rush your friend to invest more. The police can record this incident but they can't help you to get back the money because they of being anonymous in a world of crypto. Its a clear scam because its easy money, feel sorry if you will invest more.

I agree. Just stop to give more because they cannot give it back to you. They are just fooling you because they know you do not even suspect them and just take a bait they give to you. It such a big lose which give a lesson to everyone to search first and ask people who knows about it more than you who will advice you.

[jaocoincrypto18]

The information you shared is few so i considered it a scam too. We should not trust anyone that we did not meet before that we should not give them our money without verifying it first like if the person is legit, if the project really exist and if they have business permit to operate. If these tips are not verified then your friend will might become victim of scam.
 

[kidoseagle0312]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

That is absolutely purely scammer, they are obviously greed in money. You better stay away from this type
of people. They are very aggressive to contact and converse with you as long as they're not getting what they want from the
victim and from you but once you give your investment 100% for sure they will stop communicating with you at once.

[voltesbit777]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Oh my gosh! you're friend obviously transacted by the scammer. Never believe easily with lots of promises in return dude.
And those victims sometimes, became greed because of lots of promises they've heard for the scammer is the reason why they spent
money to those unknown people. I guess, this will give a lesson learn to you dude.

[Lucius]

Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

I think I know about what scam you are asking, just because you write that your friend pay €500 for start. It is probably Cloud Token scam which is reported many times on this forum. Your "friends" are very naive to belive in such things as free money for doing nothing, and it is absolutely incredible to give such amount of money to total strangers.

If people from Russia is involved in this, forget on police, best advice is to change phone number and forget everything.

One more time i`m totaly new in this , i register under this friend of mine but now i`m just having this should i risk deposit that minimum 500$ and see how it goes ?

I feel a bit mad because last year when everyone said to me join you`ll get money i was like yeah sure another scam, now when i see them i feel a bit fool

$500 minumum deposit is how your friend is making $40.000 per month, he is on top of MLM pyramid and he get commission for every person who sign under him, classic ponzi / multi-level marketing which will collapse sooner or later. You should not feel as fool, this is not project that have any other purpose then to make few people rich.

There is review about Cloud Token, and I will quote some important things :

Cloud Token’s website provides no information about who owns or runs the company.
The Cloud Token website domain (“cloudtokenwallet.com”) was privately registered on January 27th, 2019.

Cloud Token has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market Cloud Token affiliate membership itself.

Cloud Token affiliates invest $500 or more in CTO tokens, on the promise of an “average 10-15% per month” ROI.
Commissions are paid when Cloud Token affiliates recruit others who do the same.
Cloud Token pays referral commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1)

https://behindmlm.com/mlm-reviews/cloud-token-review-another-mobile-app-crypto-ponzi-scheme/

[Artemis3]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

I don't know about police, but these scams have been going on for ages. Of course they are going to be from a conveniently, lets call it, "complicated" country where chances are your laws won't ever touch them.

You can replace "crypto" with "gold" or whatever, and you'll recognize the scam. This has nothing to do with actual crypto, any bait that sounds good will do, and of course they will encourage him to "invest" (give away) more money. It say 2500€ is a pretty good catch per idiot person...

So its like me telling you to give me your money and i will give you back twice, and perhaps even do it once or twice (which these people didn't even bother to do). How big can the stupidity of people be?

A "smartphone app" can be programmed to do display anything, it doesn't make it any less lie.

Oh and by the way, the "come asking" part is supposed to occur before you foolishly give your money to strangers, else why bother, its lost... What, will the UK declare war to Russia over some mafia boys scamming a few British subjects overseas? Doubt it...

[lixer]

What else does it look like other than it being a same, has he not heard of hyip Ponzi scheme before, this is exactly what it is and this is not the first time that things like this has been happening, I have seen several of such thing in the past even before cryptocurrency came into existence.

It would get to a point now where they either disappear and shut the site down, or they tell you they have sold the company to a new management, and the new management too will keep collecting fund from him telling him this same story that before he can withdraw his fund, he would need to pay more money and they might even get to the stage where they will tell him to bring in new people before he can unlock the withdrawal of his own money. All these things are just greed from us I think, because everyone knows now that only bitcoin is still the safest and direct investment.

[Cicihorlhorla]

This is a cheap and clean scam, this is visible to the blind and audible to the deaf

[TalkStar]

After hearing everything from your side its pretty much clear to me that your friend got scammed and its really sad. Usually those kinda scammers specially target crypto beginners because they haven't got enough knowledge about trusted source of investment. As same as your friend put his step on their trap after hearing their 1x profit plan in a short time.

You can collect all the details from your friend to open a thread on forum's Scam Accusation section. I hope thats gonna help many others to be careful about similar kinda scam incidents.

[Lalafell]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

After reading your story, I believe that your friend is being scammed by other people, that kind of situation was also happened to my close friend, first they said some flowery words about the investment, as the time goes by they will continuously taking your money because they said to cash out your money you need to invest again a specific amount of money. So I think be smart on handling your money and think twice on investing.

[imstillthebest]

After reading your story, I believe that your friend is being scammed by other people, that kind of situation was also happened to my close friend, first they said some flowery words about the investment, as the time goes by they will continuously taking your money because they said to cash out your money you need to invest again a specific amount of money. So I think be smart on handling your money and think twice on investing.

flowery words are one of the sign that the person talking to you is shady or have some bad intention but i think if we are on that situation ( people talks to us on a nice and attractive manner ) we cant ignore them right away but instead will only getting fall on thier trap later on  .  

those kind of fraudsters are popular on our country . when they talk , they have that hypnotizing effect and you will do what they say   . to avoid them , just beware  talking or starting a convo to a stranger .

[Youghoor]

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

With bitcoin investment, the police can not do anything in order to recover your funds. This kinda investment is a total scam, how can you invest more if you haven't gotten any profit from the previous investment? Legit investments do not ask investors to invest more if they haven't gained anything yet. Its high time people make an effort to research or read about how the crypto space is before thinking of making investments in any cryptocurrency.

[Bes19]

Probably the APP is fraud and they are trying to scam him more. I doubt that they can get caught coz most scammers are using fake identity and even can fake their location and can change their IP. Learn from this situation, before putting your money in some kind of investment do some research first.

[WatchMaker]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

This is a fucking SCAM better call the police for help if not he'll lose all his money. Scammers are everywhere these days! Never trust any business that guarantees profit for your investment that is the number sign of a SCAM be very careful next time.

[doomistake]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

*I'm going to hell for laughing too much*

Anyone could offer you anything, most of the time it is too good to be true, and that's what it seems happened to your friend. It is so obvious that it was a scam, but I bet your friend was blinded when the scammer said "crypto", this is the magic word these days of all wicked scammers. My conclusion about this is your friend is so freakin' stupid, who is acting tough but the truth is he doesn't even know a single thing about cryptocurrency.

My guess is that friend of yours was trying to prove something to you guys, like he could earn money without your help at all, he just got unlucky because of his naiveness and pride.

[maxreish]

Definitely, Sam was scammed. I can't blame Sam for doing that, since scammers showed that his money was doubled to 9000eur and it is tempting. But the moment they are forcing and pushing him to deposit more is something fishy. Since he has a contact with those team, Sam can cooperate to the authorities for entrapment operation. The police will do their way to catch those scammers. And money is involved here,  Sam can show some evidence that he can't withdraw his money.

[Ailmand]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Well it is a scam. No investment plan would your double your money ina snap, not in real world and not in crypto. I think the police cannot do anything about it, but if it is covered in your country's law and would.like to pursue to sue the person involved in the scam then your friend can. That is if he has the money to go to court cases, hire a lawyer, investigate, and also if he can identify the people onvolved in the scam, which I think will take a lot of time, money and effort.

[Genemind]

That's definitely a scam. Sam have trusted them so fast and easy that he invested a lot of money without the assurance of a good profit or even returning at least his capital. We must not trust people online but rather do a series of investigation before releasing money. If the offer is too good to be true then we have to think twice. There are lots of scammers who are using crypto in fraud.

[carlisle1]

.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

what can police do on this matter?did the scammers lay their real identity?things that i am surely know that its not?

sorry for their losses but let the scammer celebrate as they gain another 2,500 euro in just chatting.

lesson learn"never Talk to Strangers specially with money involved"

never be greedy for your own safety

[robelneo]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Call the police right away they are trying and already scammed you, people are still not educated that there's no such thing as double your money investment not even a company like Mcdonald can give you that, and if it is legit then they should not invite people and they just make profit out of their so-called investment program, and never invest in any investment, that you do not understand it's outright giving them all your money

[Zeke_23]

.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

what can police do on this matter?did the scammers lay their real identity?things that i am surely know that its not?

sorry for their losses but let the scammer celebrate as they gain another 2,500 euro in just chatting.

lesson learn"never Talk to Strangers specially with money involved"

never be greedy for your own safety

Police may be able to find the location of the scammer, but it would be so hard and it will waste your time. Ut would be better to be careful next time and stop trusting investment sites so easily. Money is not something to give for free, investment should give you profit and not take your profit.

[bitrayder]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Your friend bob was absolutely scammed by stranger people, 9000 was a very huge amount for me. Aside from that your friend was already in controlled of the scammer, I don't know if there some kind of hypnotism happen, because bob doesn't react neither asking why he need to invest more. But unfortunately He didn't, So definitely bob can't do anything to recover his money at all only. 

[cryptoblazter]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Yes, Sam was became a victim of scammer. Didn't Sam ask why the stranger need him to invest again? That was a bib amount of money dude, your friend became neglectful about the moment He talked to the scammer. But I guess after the incident happened He learn from his lesson now.

[nankers]

this is absolutely scam. if you continue to follow and pay attention to the scenarios of these people, surely that person will always ask your friends to deposit a sum of money and also the scam application will always display the amount of profit obtained in order to attract the victim to deposit the money. I suggest that you immediately stop communicating with that person and forget about the money you have deposited because the money will definitely not be returned. if cryptocurrency is legal in your country, maybe the police can help follow up on the fraud case. but if cryptocurrency is prohibited in your country, I suggest to your friends to whole-sincere to money that has been deposited

[Distraction]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

It seems to me that it is definitely a scam. My guess is that the people your friend contacts are trying to attract your friend into their lie. They will most probably stole all of your friend's money, when he sends them more.

[Betwrong]

This is a typical scam scheme:

1. They ask you to invest $1,000 promising that the money will be doubled in a week.

2. A week later you check your "balance", using the app downloaded from the scammers, and see that, indeed, your money has doubled.

3. You celebrate thinking that you've found a way of making easy money. Tell your friends to follow your example, and invest more in order to make more than $1,000 per week.

4. After some time you try to withdraw some of your earnings, but nothing happens. You contact the scammers, and they persuade you to wait a month more for whatever reasons ... then a week more, another week and so on.

In the best case scenario they allow you to withdraw 10%-20% of the money invested, telling you that it's a part of your profit, and that your investment and other part of the profit still remains intact, and that you will be able to withdraw it later. They are doing this because they want you to tell your friends that not only you can see your profits on your computer screen, but you can actually withdraw it. This way they hope to attract more victims to their scam scheme(and sometimes it works btw).

Tell your friends to try to withdraw at least something, and maybe it will work. But what I'm 100% sure that they will never see all the invested amount again.

[coin-investor]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

You don't even have to think twice to think that's it's a scam, it is a scam you should call the police and your lawyer, and if these people cannot present documents to prove their claim and they do not have a certificate that they can do this kind of business, then they should be prosecuted,
but based on your story those people come from Russia, this is unfortunate, no way to get them liable unless your friend can go to Russia, this is a costly lesson for him.

[FlamingFingers]

What Sam should do is simple,  invite the police to trace the suspects and don't send any money to the scammers again,  it's purely a scam,  because it looks so fishy had to keep on telling him to send money again despite not seeing any return from previous investment.

[AicecreaME]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Yes, Sam was became a victim of scammer. Didn't Sam ask why the stranger need him to invest again? That was a bib amount of money dude, your friend became neglectful about the moment He talked to the scammer. But I guess after the incident happened He learn from his lesson now.

When we are searching a way to earn big amount of cash, always remember that there are also people who wants the same but want to earn it in a very filthy way.

Didn't Sam ask why the stranger need him to invest again?

Sam shouldn't deposited his money in the beginning nor asking this question, my presumption about this was Sam didn't even think for a second, the moment the scammer ask him if he wanted to invest in cryptocurrency to earn big profits, he acted as fast as he can being afraid  to lose this kind of opportunity which he thought was a legit one. Almost all of the beginners in cryptocurrency are like Sam, there are only few who are smart enough to be not a victim of this corrupted scheme.

[bhabygrim]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

It is so easy to see that it is a scam .
There are so many ways for them to know about crypto if they really want to learn all they have to do is search the internet have so many information that they could use.
And of course the app that your friend is using is just a tool for scamming people.
I have seen something like that before someone from Telegram tried to scam me by asking for help and giving me the details of some unknown trading site and in the site it shows that I have a huge balance but I need to deposit first before I could make a withdrawal.

[iMark]

That is a scam. I think the app itself is a fraud (balance changed by the developer or those who request Sam to deposit). The method similar to 'exchange withdraws' help where you need to deposit first before you can withdraw (if that's even possible).

Stop sending them more money. There is no way in hell legit business can double your investment overnight and not allow you to withdraw anything.

I don't know about the police, but you should report it anyway. The police might be able to help you as long as you have enough information about those who called Sam to invest more.

Honestly the police won't take the case that you are taking too seriously. they rarely solve scam investment problems in online, because they are difficult to track and their owners are anonymous. That's obviously a scam, because no legit investment site has personally contacted you to increase your capital to invest more. In an era like this, it should be easy to realize which investments are scam and legit. You have to be more selective dude

[teosanru]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Assuming that you belong to somewhere in Europe because you are saying your friends paid EUR. I think you may go to the police this definitely is a scam no legit scheme would invite you to bring more money like this. If they could have been selling some service or bot or API to earn profits even then I would have tried to have second look on that app but this definitely is scam. Police might just help in tracking down those people(What if they are from your city only using proxy of Russia isn't difficult). But if they are really from Russia then I don't really think anything can help you just try customer support if this site does offer any and ask them for money back.

[Eugenar]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

What Sam and Bob should have is a wide knowledge on the platform that they are entering, as well as the product knowledge. Right now, it was clear that the investment wasn't true every time that the business is calling him to invest event more. No investment do that in reality. But if they will be aware of the systems, they might avoid that and saved the money they have to be invested on legit investment platforms.

[ReiMomo]

Absolutely, That's a scam, Well I think you can do nothing about it and all you need to do is to accept the fact that you've lost the money that you invested. I would highly suggest not to trust anybody especially when it comes to money. Also, you need to check first if it's a trusted site before you invest. Digging research is a must and spent time on it to study, sometimes our greediness will push on us into one of their victims.

[ReiMomo]

you can compare it after trying both methods, there must be calculations when mining, whether it can cover the costs incurred
certainly for trading can't be considered something simple, we must pay attention to many factors and the possibility of things happening

Both of them are good. Cloud mining and bitcoin buying as well. They have a different way to earn also they have different ways to lose your money. If you think cloud mining is better. Then, that's good for you but I would prefer bitcoin buying because it is profitable for long term investment and less hassle as well. On my own, I better to chose simply buying of bitcoin.

[jonval21]

is amazin how scam people use the same trick and people get scamed. people should first read and understand the white paper befoare use crypto. where the Byzantine Generals Problem is solved.

[serjent05]

This is a typical scam scheme:

1. They ask you to invest $1,000 promising that the money will be doubled in a week.

2. A week later you check your "balance", using the app downloaded from the scammers, and see that, indeed, your money has doubled.

3. You celebrate thinking that you've found a way of making easy money. Tell your friends to follow your example, and invest more in order to make more than $1,000 per week.

4. After some time you try to withdraw some of your earnings, but nothing happens. You contact the scammers, and they persuade you to wait a month more for whatever reasons ... then a week more, another week and so on.

Same scenario on the person I know.  They were convinced to join an investment scheme where their money will increase exponentially, they tried to convince me to join them but I deny them saying it is a possible scam scheme.  After sometime, they were so happy because they saw their money growing on their account (website account).  After some months I ask them how is their investment going, they said they already profiting 3 folds, when I asked them if they were able to withdraw, they then say they have to wait for 1 year to be able to withdraw.  Now when I asked them about it, they told me that the company is gone and they lost $40k on that investment.  The quoted message fit in this scenario, so whenever we saw this kind of scheme, we should be warry about it and immediately stay away from it.

is amazin how scam people use the same trick and people get scamed. people should first read and understand the white paper befoare use crypto. where the Byzantine Generals Problem is solved.

Greed cornered them for sure, no matter how knowledgeable we are and how we understand the whitepaper, if greed engulf us, there is no escaping on any scam attempt.

[Betwrong]

This is a typical scam scheme:

1. They ask you to invest $1,000 promising that the money will be doubled in a week.

2. A week later you check your "balance", using the app downloaded from the scammers, and see that, indeed, your money has doubled.

3. You celebrate thinking that you've found a way of making easy money. Tell your friends to follow your example, and invest more in order to make more than $1,000 per week.

4. After some time you try to withdraw some of your earnings, but nothing happens. You contact the scammers, and they persuade you to wait a month more for whatever reasons ... then a week more, another week and so on.

Same scenario on the person I know.  They were convinced to join an investment scheme where their money will increase exponentially, they tried to convince me to join them but I deny them saying it is a possible scam scheme.  After sometime, they were so happy because they saw their money growing on their account (website account).  After some months I ask them how is their investment going, they said they already profiting 3 folds, when I asked them if they were able to withdraw, they then say they have to wait for 1 year to be able to withdraw.  Now when I asked them about it, they told me that the company is gone and they lost $40k on that investment.  The quoted message fit in this scenario, so whenever we saw this kind of scheme, we should be warry about it and immediately stay away from it.

But the most interesting part here is were they able to withdraw at least something? OP is asking "What to do next?", and I think we can give some advices, based on our own experience or on the experiences of our friends.

Can you ask your friends, what part of their investment they were allowed to withdraw? Some scammers use more sophisticated schemes than those when you are asked to deposit more and more. They allow you to withdraw a part of your "profits" so that you could think they are legit and invest much more and convince your friends to invest as well. So, maybe, the friends of OP's have a chance of recovering some part of their investment.

[Astvile]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Yes, Sam was became a victim of scammer. Didn't Sam ask why the stranger need him to invest again? That was a bib amount of money dude, your friend became neglectful about the moment He talked to the scammer. But I guess after the incident happened He learn from his lesson now.

Well that's what newbie who doesn't know to ask before they go into something gets, Sam simply got swayed by the scammer thinking that it would be good if he invest there and he ask no opinion about it and keep sending and sending money without even being able to withdraw some of his "profit",

[DabsPoorVersion]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Yes, Sam was became a victim of scammer. Didn't Sam ask why the stranger need him to invest again? That was a bib amount of money dude, your friend became neglectful about the moment He talked to the scammer. But I guess after the incident happened He learn from his lesson now.

Well that's what newbie who doesn't know to ask before they go into something gets, Sam simply got swayed by the scammer thinking that it would be good if he invest there and he ask no opinion about it and keep sending and sending money without even being able to withdraw some of his "profit",

Most of the time, newbies become the victim of scam, they were targeted by the scammers since the limit of their knowledge about cryptocurrency is limited. They can be an easy target as long as they were promise a big return, they will blinding an individual with having a huge profit in a short period of time which is actually impossible, there is no such investment as that.

[abel1337]

~snip

~snip

Well that's what newbie who doesn't know to ask before they go into something gets, Sam simply got swayed by the scammer thinking that it would be good if he invest there and he ask no opinion about it and keep sending and sending money without even being able to withdraw some of his "profit",

Most of the time, newbies become the victim of scam, they were targeted by the scammers since the limit of their knowledge about cryptocurrency is limited. They can be an easy target as long as they were promise a big return, they will blinding an individual with having a huge profit in a short period of time which is actually impossible, there is no such investment as that.

Thats right! These cases happen a lot. We are here in this forum to help others specially newbies to avoid these kind of cases. Newbie easily fall from sweet talks, We can help them about the investment that they are doing and the things they do that involves money and crypto.

[LogitechMouse]

A common investment scam and that happens all the time and those newbie investors are the ones who are falling into this kind of trap.

First of all, there is no guarantee in investment (my first rule). Even in other investments, there are no guarantees so if you saw the word guaranteed profit the best thing to do is to stay away from the investment because it will end up as a scam.

Some scammers' strategy is that they will put in your dashboard an amount which is twice the money you invested but in reality, you can't withdraw it because in order to withdraw it you must invest a certain amount. Best thing to do to prevent being scammed is either you learn how scammers scam people or just don't invest at all.

[Naughty Princess]

A common investment scam and that happens all the time and those newbie investors are the ones who are falling into this kind of trap.

First of all, there is no guarantee in investment (my first rule). Even in other investments, there are no guarantees so if you saw the word guaranteed profit the best thing to do is to stay away from the investment because it will end up as a scam.

Some scammers' strategy is that they will put in your dashboard an amount which is twice the money you invested but in reality, you can't withdraw it because in order to withdraw it you must invest a certain amount. Best thing to do to prevent being scammed is either you learn how scammers scam people or just don't invest at all.

I agree. That is just a bait. There is no investment that will double over night so go away from that and do not believe because if you do you gonna end up of losing than gaining from it. Very few can be trusted but other just copying the project with bad intentions. Beware where you are going to take your investments.

[jarhed]

A common investment scam and that happens all the time and those newbie investors are the ones who are falling into this kind of trap.

First of all, there is no guarantee in investment (my first rule). Even in other investments, there are no guarantees so if you saw the word guaranteed profit the best thing to do is to stay away from the investment because it will end up as a scam.

Some scammers' strategy is that they will put in your dashboard an amount which is twice the money you invested but in reality, you can't withdraw it because in order to withdraw it you must invest a certain amount. Best thing to do to prevent being scammed is either you learn how scammers scam people or just don't invest at all.

I agree. That is just a bait. There is no investment that will double over night so go away from that and do not believe because if you do you gonna end up of losing than gaining from it. Very few can be trusted but other just copying the project with bad intentions. Beware where you are going to take your investments.

I can’t believe that there are so many people in the cryptocurrency space who believe in easy and quick money making in this market. We must understand that the rate of return on the cryptocurrency market also exists. I think that this rate of return is not more than 30% per year.

[blckhawk]

A general rule of thumb in investments, if the person or company promises you huge returns in a matter of short time, it's probably a scam. Not only applicable to bitcoins, but also to other investments offered to you by other people. Those scammers feed out of people's greed to earn money quick, and will do several supporting acts (like the application your friend has) to further fool the victim and get as much as possible before bailing out. It's bad to hear but we all learn from mistakes to make us more cautious.

[atjiat]

As always, first of all, newcomers are deceived who do not have enough knowledge and experience.  One cannot blindly believe in an eloquent promise and large numbers, which are usually created by scammers to attract attention.  It is hard to imagine how much money the scammers stole from investors in recent years, because these funds could really improve the situation in the cryptocurrency market.

[Mike Mayor]

A common investment scam and that happens all the time and those newbie investors are the ones who are falling into this kind of trap.

First of all, there is no guarantee in investment (my first rule). Even in other investments, there are no guarantees so if you saw the word guaranteed profit the best thing to do is to stay away from the investment because it will end up as a scam.

Some scammers' strategy is that they will put in your dashboard an amount which is twice the money you invested but in reality, you can't withdraw it because in order to withdraw it you must invest a certain amount. Best thing to do to prevent being scammed is either you learn how scammers scam people or just don't invest at all.

I agree. That is just a bait. There is no investment that will double over night so go away from that and do not believe because if you do you gonna end up of losing than gaining from it. Very few can be trusted but other just copying the project with bad intentions. Beware where you are going to take your investments.

I can’t believe that there are so many people in the cryptocurrency space who believe in easy and quick money making in this market. We must understand that the rate of return on the cryptocurrency market also exists. I think that this rate of return is not more than 30% per year.

I was looking at some advertising sites the other night and unfortunately, sometimes HYIP and scams and the like go through the gaps. I came across a "bitcoin generator" 100x yout bitcoin in 24hours. I just laughed and laughed. HOnestly whoever sends anything to these websites deserves to lose everything they send. The fact that these websites exist means that there are people so stupid out there which is shocking and I wonder how these sort of people live their day to day lives if they believe everything they hear or read. Noone things ok so 0.001 is 0.1 then put 0.1 and get 10btc in 2 days for only 0.001 lol

It annoys me because this crypto should be going toward worthwhile projects to help fund them.

[karanggatak]

i think the app is made by cheater to fool your friend. you must tell them if he want to invest, he must have friend that know about investation, so the experienced guy can tell more about investation and guarantee that its not scam.
i have family and he have same experience like your friend. he invited by stranger and he do it because the profit is doesnt make sense. at the end he lost the money

[Betwrong]

A common investment scam and that happens all the time and those newbie investors are the ones who are falling into this kind of trap.

First of all, there is no guarantee in investment (my first rule). Even in other investments, there are no guarantees so if you saw the word guaranteed profit the best thing to do is to stay away from the investment because it will end up as a scam.

Some scammers' strategy is that they will put in your dashboard an amount which is twice the money you invested but in reality, you can't withdraw it because in order to withdraw it you must invest a certain amount. Best thing to do to prevent being scammed is either you learn how scammers scam people or just don't invest at all.

Scammers invent new schemes all the time. It's impossible to learn all of them. I think a good practice for the not experienced investors would be something like KYC, only in reverse. Being a customer, know the people you are dealing with. And when you know who are they exactly, read as much as possible about them on the Internet. Trusting your money to someone you don't know is a stupid act, so don't be surprised by the consequences.

[Palider]

The police can be help if you provide more detailed information, so you should notify the authority involved in these cases in order to promptly take action and recover the stolen money.

Such investments that provide 100% interest are unreliable. So we should be carefull because the chances are high that this is 100% :scam.

[peter0425]

A common investment scam and that happens all the time and those newbie investors are the ones who are falling into this kind of trap.

First of all, there is no guarantee in investment (my first rule). Even in other investments, there are no guarantees so if you saw the word guaranteed profit the best thing to do is to stay away from the investment because it will end up as a scam.

Some scammers' strategy is that they will put in your dashboard an amount which is twice the money you invested but in reality, you can't withdraw it because in order to withdraw it you must invest a certain amount. Best thing to do to prevent being scammed is either you learn how scammers scam people or just don't invest at all.

I agree. That is just a bait. There is no investment that will double over night so go away from that and do not believe because if you do you gonna end up of losing than gaining from it. Very few can be trusted but other just copying the project with bad intentions. Beware where you are going to take your investments.

I can’t believe that there are so many people in the cryptocurrency space who believe in easy and quick money making in this market. We must understand that the rate of return on the cryptocurrency market also exists. I think that this rate of return is not more than 30% per year.

Why I believe that OPs Friend is a newbie in crypto and just being a victim because of his own greediness
.trusting random people that you only met online once?and suddenly entrusting money?this really hurt but no one to blame but Bob
This will be a lesson that he will never forget ,and the bad effect in crypto is another potential investors turns to be a victim and may not consider putting money inside our marker

[Kelvinid]

The police can be help if you provide more detailed information, so you should notify the authority involved in these cases in order to promptly take action and recover the stolen money.

Call for the police? I don't think if they will listen to us. We know they don't have huge understanding of crypto, and I'd never think that they could solve this problem since they can't find solid proof for a scamming activity.

Such investments that provide 100% interest are unreliable. So we should be carefull because the chances are high that this is 100% :scam.

This is what we should have to do. Never get tempted into huge offerings cause it mostly scams.
Even though there is awareness about scam but we can't deny that many have still fallen into it. It sounds like they don't understand it or they just want to experience to be scammed...

[ardentvolcanoes]

This is what we should have to do. Never get tempted into huge offerings cause it mostly scams.
Even though there is awareness about scam but we can't deny that many have still fallen into it. It sounds like they don't understand it or they just want to experience to be scammed...

Most of them knew or feel that it can be a scammed attempt but because of greediness and hoping to earned big in a short period of time, they got tempted and still proceed. The whole idea of such big profits still followed by people who don't mind about losing money. They will just react right after that they've already got fooled by scammers. Avoiding things like this to happen needs a good balance of knowledge and assessment to the situations, always think twice before making any decisions.

[pundit]

If Sam keeps on depositing money with them, he will only be responsible for his loss. Stop sending money to these scammers. These apps are self developed, self operated and self managed by those scammers, they can show you a big profit at any moment. Never trust such websites or apps which shows you a big profit or offers you high fixed return. Police can help SAM with lost funds if you identify the scammers and lodge a complaint against them.

[Palider]

The police can be help if you provide more detailed information, so you should notify the authority involved in these cases in order to promptly take action and recover the stolen money.

Call for the police? I don't think if they will listen to us. We know they don't have huge understanding of crypto, and I'd never think that they could solve this problem since they can't find solid proof for a scamming activity.

In my understanding the word "Crypto" was used only by thieves to attract the victim. So the money is not used to buy Bitcoin or any crypto currency.

So definitely one of the things our victim will use to give the money is the bank.
 
And if he did, the police working and covering such cases would play a big role.

However, the OP has even provided detailed information so that we can have an idea of what we should recommend to his friend.

[Xxmodded]

Look scam because bitcoin is not application and do not show your profit with several percent of your money, lest find the ideas maybe for first and second payment will be success but will the third payment success and next payment will be paid or not. Bitcoin will give you profit based on how much price grow up and when price down you can get profit with bitcoin, just an opinion you have move your money and ask Sam the correct investment he chooses because is not bitcoin.

[Dewao]

its scam investment scheme sa stay from away that . those investmetn that give guaranteed high return are mostly scam before investing check if they can really sustain the return they are giving.

[minersday]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

This is totally a scam. Your friend Sam has just lost his money and there is nothing he can do about that. You just need to advice him not to invest more. So far as it is an online investment something, there is little he can do to retrieve his lost money. People are always fooled by a get rich soon ponzi scheme so easily to the extent that I don't really understand.

[Bitcoin Seller]

A common investment scam and that happens all the time and those newbie investors are the ones who are falling into this kind of trap.

First of all, there is no guarantee in investment (my first rule). Even in other investments, there are no guarantees so if you saw the word guaranteed profit the best thing to do is to stay away from the investment because it will end up as a scam.

Some scammers' strategy is that they will put in your dashboard an amount which is twice the money you invested but in reality, you can't withdraw it because in order to withdraw it you must invest a certain amount. Best thing to do to prevent being scammed is either you learn how scammers scam people or just don't invest at all.

I agree. That is just a bait. There is no investment that will double over night so go away from that and do not believe because if you do you gonna end up of losing than gaining from it. Very few can be trusted but other just copying the project with bad intentions. Beware where you are going to take your investments.

I can’t believe that there are so many people in the cryptocurrency space who believe in easy and quick money making in this market. We must understand that the rate of return on the cryptocurrency market also exists. I think that this rate of return is not more than 30% per year.

In 2017 it was possible to make 1000% profit, but it was just the rule exception. I suppose a similar situation will be not repeated, so, when you see that someone promises you the greatest income in the shortest time, it is a scam. As for me, it is much better to work with Bitcoin and trusted altcoins that have proved their reliability. You might not make fast money, but you will not lose everything.

[jets567]

The police can be help if you provide more detailed information, so you should notify the authority involved in these cases in order to promptly take action and recover the stolen money.

Such investments that provide 100% interest are unreliable. So we should be carefull because the chances are high that this is 100% :scam.

Yes this is possible because recently I've read a news about some scammers getting arrested by the police with the help of some organization for anti-cybercriminal (I forgot the name). They manage to track down those scammers using the address they used for depositing, they follow the movemement of Bitcoin until it goes to a known exchange wherein the scammers are trying to convert their Bitcoin into fiat currency then the police coordinated with the exchange and found out the identity of those scammers.

[milani]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Oh, it is a typical situation in the world of profit and money. Some are too inventive and make great really working schemes and pyramids.  Really simple and ingenious. And some people are sometimes too greedy, sometimes too naive, sometimes just too inattentive to details. And such of people, they find each other in different parts of the world. And as result such kind of situations happen. Sorry for sarcasm, but why this person named Bob or whoever he is had not stoped after first investment?.. did he try to find some more information about this scam team in the internet, chats, forums or telegram groups where lots of people are engaged in crypto, where there are lots of people with their own experience in crypto world?... It is a pity, but no police in the world will help him now, no other actions will bring the positive result in order to get his invested money....only move further on and be more attentive before investing such amounts of money in whatever it may be....((((( Just think twice...

[jarhed]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Oh, it is a typical situation in the world of profit and money. Some are too inventive and make great really working schemes and pyramids.  Really simple and ingenious. And some people are sometimes too greedy, sometimes too naive, sometimes just too inattentive to details. And such of people, they find each other in different parts of the world. And as result such kind of situations happen. Sorry for sarcasm, but why this person named Bob or whoever he is had not stoped after first investment?.. did he try to find some more information about this scam team in the internet, chats, forums or telegram groups where lots of people are engaged in crypto, where there are lots of people with their own experience in crypto world?... It is a pity, but no police in the world will help him now, no other actions will bring the positive result in order to get his invested money....only move further on and be more attentive before investing such amounts of money in whatever it may be....((((( Just think twice...

You can meet a lot of inattentive people in the cryptocurrency market. I think that the situation will change in the future and we will see a very strong cryptocurrency market. Market participants will conduct equal competition.

[Fredomago]

-Snip-

Oh, it is a typical situation in the world of profit and money. Some are too inventive and make great really working schemes and pyramids.  Really simple and ingenious. And some people are sometimes too greedy, sometimes too naive, sometimes just too inattentive to details. And such of people, they find each other in different parts of the world. And as result such kind of situations happen. Sorry for sarcasm, but why this person named Bob or whoever he is had not stoped after first investment?.. did he try to find some more information about this scam team in the internet, chats, forums or telegram groups where lots of people are engaged in crypto, where there are lots of people with their own experience in crypto world?... It is a pity, but no police in the world will help him now, no other actions will bring the positive result in order to get his invested money....only move further on and be more attentive before investing such amounts of money in whatever it may be....((((( Just think twice...

It's an obligation to anyone to research once you throw your money out of your pocket. You should always concerned and not too lazy to allow
your investment with the hands of someone, curiosity wise, a friend of yours release money without any assurance then after that he didn't manage
to seek for some information about the business that he's investing with, there's no one can help him as crypto is not been cover yet by any regulations.

[Shasha80]

I call this planning fraud, right now there are a lot of scams like this. We must always be vigilant. I suggest that Sam never send money again,
there is no need to ask the police for help later the problem will become big. Just let it go Sam's money have been cheated, and don't deal anymore
with this Russian guy. And make this a valuable lesson to be more careful when getting an investment offer in large or small quantities. If you want
crypto investment for newbies just do it yourself and don't use third party services like brokers. Who will be there later got scam like Sam's case. Indeed, the crypto world is currently under examination, with many of its scammers hanging around. We ourselves can protect it more carefully in accepting investment offers or ICO projects.

[cryptoknightt]

If you get a call from a Russian country and offer an investment offer, then you should leave it alone and you don't need to give a response to them because they just want to try to influence you and make you fooled, you must be careful when and don't let you be affected.

[joinfree]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).
But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

This is surely a scam and it would be best to stay away from it! Most of these applications only make you millions on their platform without being unable to withdraw the funds earned. This sort of schemes is actually archaic and only crypto noobs would fall for this. Stay away from quick gains guys, that's one of the quickest ways of falling vulnerable to scammers.

[maman567]

-Snip-

Oh, it is a typical situation in the world of profit and money. Some are too inventive and make great really working schemes and pyramids.  Really simple and ingenious. And some people are sometimes too greedy, sometimes too naive, sometimes just too inattentive to details. And such of people, they find each other in different parts of the world. And as result such kind of situations happen. Sorry for sarcasm, but why this person named Bob or whoever he is had not stoped after first investment?.. did he try to find some more information about this scam team in the internet, chats, forums or telegram groups where lots of people are engaged in crypto, where there are lots of people with their own experience in crypto world?... It is a pity, but no police in the world will help him now, no other actions will bring the positive result in order to get his invested money....only move further on and be more attentive before investing such amounts of money in whatever it may be....((((( Just think twice...

It's an obligation to anyone to research once you throw your money out of your pocket. You should always concerned and not too lazy to allow
your investment with the hands of someone, curiosity wise, a friend of yours release money without any assurance then after that he didn't manage
to seek for some information about the business that he's investing with, there's no one can help him as crypto is not been cover yet by any regulations.

Do you have check your obligation with investment, many people can use fake obligation where you do not know how to identify scam or or not obligation, maybe you can invest with your self and looking which one can you manage for investing in property or gold investment.

[jarhed]

-Snip-

Oh, it is a typical situation in the world of profit and money. Some are too inventive and make great really working schemes and pyramids.  Really simple and ingenious. And some people are sometimes too greedy, sometimes too naive, sometimes just too inattentive to details. And such of people, they find each other in different parts of the world. And as result such kind of situations happen. Sorry for sarcasm, but why this person named Bob or whoever he is had not stoped after first investment?.. did he try to find some more information about this scam team in the internet, chats, forums or telegram groups where lots of people are engaged in crypto, where there are lots of people with their own experience in crypto world?... It is a pity, but no police in the world will help him now, no other actions will bring the positive result in order to get his invested money....only move further on and be more attentive before investing such amounts of money in whatever it may be....((((( Just think twice...

It's an obligation to anyone to research once you throw your money out of your pocket. You should always concerned and not too lazy to allow
your investment with the hands of someone, curiosity wise, a friend of yours release money without any assurance then after that he didn't manage
to seek for some information about the business that he's investing with, there's no one can help him as crypto is not been cover yet by any regulations.

Do you have check your obligation with investment, many people can use fake obligation where you do not know how to identify scam or or not obligation, maybe you can invest with your self and looking which one can you manage for investing in property or gold investment.

I believe that real estate should be bought only with a very large drop in prices. An analogue is the price of Bitcoin at 4000 dollars. But this is if you already have your own real estate where you live. I'd rather invest in cryptocurrency assets.

[Meowth05]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

This is definitely a scam and even if you call police they cannot do something about it since the transaction held in crypto and we knew that crypto has anonymous characteristic. I'd say that the money invested was gone, the lesson here is that don't ever go for a transaction without having knowledge regards this matter, conduct some research on crypto even if it is fundamentals so you can have background.

[Eugenar]

If you get a call from a Russian country and offer an investment offer, then you should leave it alone and you don't need to give a response to them because they just want to try to influence you and make you fooled, you must be careful when and don't let you be affected.

So far, it is very impossible that they will call you from outside of your country basically the fee is so huge that they will not let themselves pay just to call you. But if you know yourself in crypto doing good, and having a huge profit and sending your KYC all over the cryptospace, then  you should be careful about it.

[The Cryptovator]

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Sam immediately should stop investing there. And if Bitcoin uses legal on Sam jurisdiction then you may proceed report to police although I don't believe they would able to do anything since bitcoin is irreversible currency. However he might try his luck. Its seems Sam has been invested on Ponzi Scheme somehow and all ponzi scheme has been turned into scam eventually. To be honest, Sam is too greedy on your story. Why he should involved with it if he doesn't have enough knowledge? The result is scam, that's how greedy people are getting scam. This would be a lesson for other. Just stay away from them who are offering you hight return on investment.

[angrybirdy]

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

Sam immediately should stop investing there. And if Bitcoin uses legal on Sam jurisdiction then you may proceed report to police although I don't believe they would able to do anything since bitcoin is irreversible currency. However he might try his luck. Its seems Sam has been invested on Ponzi Scheme somehow and all ponzi scheme has been turned into scam eventually. To be honest, Sam is too greedy on your story. Why he should involved with it if he doesn't have enough knowledge? The result is scam, that's how greedy people are getting scam. This would be a lesson for other. Just stay away from them who are offering you hight return on investment.

The police can at least help his friend if they somehow get a hint on the location of the scammer. However, it will not be too easy to do.
Transactions that have been done is anonymous and irreversible, it will be a huge challenge for them to find and arrest the one who manages the Ponzi scheme activity

His friend should have realized that it is clearly a scam at the very beginning, there is no such investment like that. He should have avoided it in the first place.

[peter0425]

If you get a call from a Russian country and offer an investment offer, then you should leave it alone and you don't need to give a response to them because they just want to try to influence you and make you fooled, you must be careful when and don't let you be affected.

So far, it is very impossible that they will call you from outside of your country basically the fee is so huge that they will not let themselves pay just to call you. But if you know yourself in crypto doing good, and having a huge profit and sending your KYC all over the cryptospace, then  you should be careful about it.

Maybe he as once a victim but don’t just blame the whole country for that,remember that there are different people in each countries Andy it’s just happen that you have been a victim of Russian people lol

But you’re right mate it’s very expensive to call from international country and this will cost them a lot for a not so sure victim.so better take care next time and don’t let be fooled by others

[dioanna]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

These kinds of schemes which are too good to be true are most definitely scam.

[sapnu]

I call this planning fraud, right now there are a lot of scams like this. We must always be vigilant. I suggest that Sam never send money again,
there is no need to ask the police for help later the problem will become big. Just let it go Sam's money have been cheated, and don't deal anymore
with this Russian guy. And make this a valuable lesson to be more careful when getting an investment offer in large or small quantities. If you want
crypto investment for newbies just do it yourself and don't use third party services like brokers. Who will be there later got scam like Sam's case. Indeed, the crypto world is currently under examination, with many of its scammers hanging around. We ourselves can protect it more carefully in accepting investment offers or ICO projects.

There are actually lots of ICO that have been scamming people, that is why you should be aware of your moves and decide beyond your intelligence. You should have not trust anyone that you dont know if someone really try to offer you good stuff out of nowhere, maybe you should check it if it is legit, kindly make your own study w=of what he is saying and look for the other people's comment if that is legit so that you should know. If not, do not talk to them, but if yes, you should try that by studying again on what are the other benefits you can get if you invest or buy some tokens to them so you should know in the future if you will earn or not.

[sandra2010]

give us name,website,phone,etc so that we may help or at least we take care of that.

[yohananaomi]

So okay, this story didn't happen to me. It happened to a friend (let's call him Bob) of a friend (I will call him Sam).

Bob came to me asking is this a scam and is it legal. Bob doesn't know much about bitcoins and crypto, Sam even less.
Sam somehow got in contact with people who offers to open an account and invest into crypto. These people guaranteed a lot of profit. Sam paid 500 EUR at first and other two times a 2000 EUR.
What is interesting, that these people calling him to invest more. But he has an app (I don't know what app, because I heard it from Bob and he doesn't know either) which shows that Sam has doubled his investment (9000 EUR), but he cannot withdraw it now and these people (from Russia) are calling and rushing him to invest even more.

Bob asked me about that, I said that this is some nonsense. There shouldn't be people calling you and asking to transfer money. All is too fishy.

What should Sam do? Will the police help?

It's amazing to hear your story that your friend doesn't know about crypto, but wants to be told to join in investing.
obviously a very bad lesson if we do not know something but want to be invited to do cooperation that we actually do not know what will be done next.
it's better not to continue adding money for investment, but the question is can the police help? it only depends on your country whether crypto has been legally recognized, if you can report it with the available evidence but if it is not legal yet it will be difficult to report.

[Asmonist]

That was a so sad experience. The best thing to do now is to stop the investment and all the sending of money. We cannot go back anymore of the mistakes done. Maybe it can be reported but definitely these people are very intelligent too to be easily recognized. However, there are maybe ways to locate them but I think there is really no assurance to fully get it back. Only lessons learned that we should not entrust big investments to unknown sources. Specially now that everything can be offered online. Its really too risky to invest and trust your money with online people.

[southafricadude]

These scams get you to put in, and continue to put in by showing you how much amazing profit you are making. They lie.
The problems and excuses will come when you want to withdraw. Forget that ever happening.
Depositing is easy, withdrawing is not an option.

[ebykamsiokoro]

Well, this smells and sounds fishy, all right! Why didn't Sam seek for counsel before "investing"? Now he's gone and got himself in a pickle lol. Well, if he's in the same country as the people calling him, then he can report to the police. But this should be only when he's tried to withdraw his supposed earnings and it failed. But if he's not in the same country, he should just count his losses and move on. Some days are like that...

[Linkkoin]

Many scams switched to cryptocurrencies, unfortunately.

This is because:
1. Blockchain transactions are not reversible (beside situation of ethereum hard fork couple of years ago, but this is an exemption)
2. So far there is, in general, no identification of the receiving party - you just type in wallet address (and with some other cryptos as well transaction ID).  This is supposed to change thanks to FATF recommendations
3. If a scammer is changing wallet frequently (or using privacy mode of privacy coins), it is very problematic to track scammer.

And if someone is offering you easy money fast and without effort - it is too good to be true, and therefore you should avoid such company at all the cost.

[crossabdd]

yes, it is a scam. it is better to report the police, in the crypto investment there is no compulsion. if aa force like that. report the police immediately. a suggestion for your friend is to report. if it can't be traced, then summarize all of it. and learn about crypto. but if your friend doesn't want to. then keep away from the world of crypto investment. because it is very dangerous if there is no experience in the crypto world, for an investment

[ttcsalam]

This kind of cheating is done by many people. They are actually professional scammers. I think they are scamming. They make their living by scamming. Who should catch them and punish them. They create fear among ordinary people through these apps. And discourage investing in the currency world.

[Rodeo02]

Many scams switched to cryptocurrencies, unfortunately.

This is because:
1. Blockchain transactions are not reversible (beside situation of ethereum hard fork couple of years ago, but this is an exemption)
2. So far there is, in general, no identification of the receiving party - you just type in wallet address (and with some other cryptos as well transaction ID).  This is supposed to change thanks to FATF recommendations
3. If a scammer is changing wallet frequently (or using privacy mode of privacy coins), it is very problematic to track scammer.

And if someone is offering you easy money fast and without effort - it is too good to be true, and therefore you should avoid such company at all the cost.

Making it online is easy for them to scam people, other than that its more secure for them to do this online than do it in real world.
About the transaction they can use mixer so they cant be traced by sending funds.

[cutesgirl]

Many scams switched to cryptocurrencies, unfortunately.

This is because:
1. Blockchain transactions are not reversible (beside situation of ethereum hard fork couple of years ago, but this is an exemption)
2. So far there is, in general, no identification of the receiving party - you just type in wallet address (and with some other cryptos as well transaction ID).  This is supposed to change thanks to FATF recommendations
3. If a scammer is changing wallet frequently (or using privacy mode of privacy coins), it is very problematic to track scammer.

And if someone is offering you easy money fast and without effort - it is too good to be true, and therefore you should avoid such company at all the cost.

Making it online is easy for them to scam people, other than that its more secure for them to do this online than do it in real world.
About the transaction they can use mixer so they cant be traced by sending funds.

Online is not best way how can your trust with some one without know her, I trust many people in online but never have deal so far like you because I think when something bad later we will disappointed after scam, better only use little transaction with your online friend and best time for use your way to invest in bitcoin or altcoin,

[fuckbitmain]

sorry to just jump into this forum but i feel the need to inform ppl and feel this is a good place to do so. ive been into crypto since the beginning and long story short do NOT trust bitmain they are a total scam not only locking out my account from outgoing transactions but i go to check months later and they withdrew my entire balance to some where on the block chain resulting in an entire loss of principle investment of 0.5 btc not to mention my earnings compounded over years, i know its the nature of the game to take losses but never have i seen a company lock out my accounts and then transfer the full balance to themselves, i say this not out of anger but rather out of shock and surprise that extends to a comical level ive put allot into bitmain, hardware, pool mining, rented hash etc and they simply stole it all. i have more respect for thugs who have robed me at gun point in the hood than i do for bitmain, ive made this account just to try to inform ppl not to invest in bitmain, not only do they try to manipulate the market fair enough but they will straight rob you. once again im not some hyped up investor who bought into the crypto boom, i believe in crypto since the start and i know bitmain will rob you one day when the time is right, i even thought this at the begging and they still got me just never thought it would be so plain and simple as withdrawing my entire wallet lol

[fuguebtc]

Its total fraud and BoB/Sam must not invest any more cent in this project. Such profit is of no use that can only be seen on app and cant be withdraw to an account. 2500 EUR are already gone, don't lose anymore.
Police can help if the project is registered with some regulatory body.

[Kambal2000]

Many scams switched to cryptocurrencies, unfortunately.

This is because:
1. Blockchain transactions are not reversible (beside situation of ethereum hard fork couple of years ago, but this is an exemption)
2. So far there is, in general, no identification of the receiving party - you just type in wallet address (and with some other cryptos as well transaction ID).  This is supposed to change thanks to FATF recommendations
3. If a scammer is changing wallet frequently (or using privacy mode of privacy coins), it is very problematic to track scammer.

And if someone is offering you easy money fast and without effort - it is too good to be true, and therefore you should avoid such company at all the cost.

Making it online is easy for them to scam people, other than that its more secure for them to do this online than do it in real world.
About the transaction they can use mixer so they cant be traced by sending funds.

Well, for scammers , faking online has made them instant rich, so they will find ways for them to have a quick bucks, so it will be up to us how are we going to get rid with their modus. Especially in hacking our accounts, let's be careful with it, scammers are everywhere they even make fake social media accounts so don't ever rely your exchange concerns to twitter or to the facebook account.

[bettercrypto]

This is a typical scheme on what many people should avoid - a clear example of "double your money scheme" which has

already crawled its way to crypto industry! Remember, "if its too good to be true" it is very probable that it is indeed a

scam! Let us all be vigilant about this and spread awareness within the community.

Rich week scheme, most of people are interested to join in schemes like this because they are putting their money with an assurance to get more.
If you are vigilant in investment, I am sure that you will be scammed anytime and anywhere. We should be observant with the investment program we will join. Because we don't know what they are talking about if it is real or just a lie.