A sad story of a 72 Y.O Grandma who lost here life savings and inheritance

[freedomgo]

This story is truly heartbreaking, knowing that a 72-year-old woman lost her entire life savings and inheritance, totaling $224,000, to crypto scammers. They used a deepfake video of Christopher Luxon, the New Zealand Prime Minister, to lure her in. She got interested and responded, which is where things took a dark turn. A scammer, pretending to be Adam Manolas, who claimed to be an expert investment adviser, convinced her to open accounts with Easy Crypto and Binance. She thought her Bitcoin was safe in her Binance wallet, but instead, it was sent to an account controlled by the scammers. Once they emptied her savings, they even took funds that were meant for her grandchildren. In one of their last calls, she overheard him say, "This woman has no money."

It's painful to see how these scammers target older people, especially those who aren't tech-savvy and are more vulnerable to these tricks. I can't even begin to imagine how our granny feels after losing everything she worked for and inherited. Some might find it too much to handle and could even consider taking their own lives because of it. These scammers are truly cruel, and they deserve to rot in hell.



Her message really shows the deep pain she's endured with her experience.

‘Evil will come to you’
In an email this week, Creasy castigated the scammers who stole her life savings, warning that “evil will come to you”.

“You told me you are known as ‘Money Manolas’,” she wrote. “Are you a thief?”

“If you entrusted me with your money I would pay you back when you asked for it.

“I hope your 74-year-old mother is safe from predators like you.”

Creasy told the Herald Luxon’s apparent endorsement was “the fishhook” for her investing. She’d believed her money was “safe and secure”.

It was devastating to learn she’d been tricked by criminals and that her retirement nest egg was gone.

“First of all I felt angry and then I felt foolish, then I felt really ashamed.”

source : https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/pensioner-loses-224k-after-being-tricked-by-ai-deepfake-christopher-luxon-cryptocurrency-investment-scam/

[MusaMohamed]

This story is truly heartbreaking, knowing that a 72-year-old woman lost her entire life savings and inheritance, totaling $224,000, to crypto scammers. They used a deepfake video of Christopher Luxon, the New Zealand Prime Minister, to lure her in.

It's a very sad story and I wish that the woman will get support from police, government to catch scammers and recover her money back. It will be very long story and at this moment, I only can wish the woman best of luck.

About this scam, she was too naive to believe that the man who called her is the NZ Prime Minister. She would have known that man is very busy with his powerful position, and she ignored one more red flag. How did a NZ Prime Minister call her just to invite her invest money into something, in this case invest in cryptocurrency.

It's very basic scam method.

The cryptocurrency scam book.

[ultrloa]

This story is truly heartbreaking, knowing that a 72-year-old woman lost her entire life savings and inheritance, totaling $224,000, to crypto scammers. They used a deepfake video of Christopher Luxon, the New Zealand Prime Minister, to lure her in.

It's a very sad story and I wish that the woman will get support from police, government to catch scammers and recover her money back. It will be very long story and at this moment, I only can wish the woman best of luck.

About this scam, she was too naive to believe that the man who called her is the NZ Prime Minister. She would have known that man is very busy with his powerful position, and she ignored one more red flag. How did a NZ Prime Minister call her just to invite her invest money into something, in this case invest in cryptocurrency.

It's very basic scam method.

The cryptocurrency scam book.

She needs to cooperate with the authorities regarding on the unfortunate situation happened to her so that they know where to start their investigation then find possible leads to catch those criminal.

To bad for her to rush his decision to do huge transaction without getting enough knowledge. This indicate how dangerous the technology now for adults and maybe there relatives will educate them on those crazy activities happening in internet so that they would be aware on online scams.

For us who know this scheme this is pretty basic, but for those who join late they are the one who's prone to experience such scams like this.

[Solosanz]

She was promised an 8.5% return, and told her investment had already ballooned to nearly $320,000. But when the first dividend payment did not materialise in late August, she smelled a rat and tried unsuccessfully to recover her money.

Too bad that she only know how to use facebook, if she know how to google, she can get more than 8.5% return and less likely to be scammed https://bitcompare.net/staking-rewards/stablecoins

It just surprising New Zealand, as an one of developed country which the citizen are open minded, but this grandma didn't share this with her children. Discussing about wealth isn't taboo and I believe her children would prevent her to doing that because her child know which one is legit and scam.

Thieves and hackers don't believe in karma or after life because all they want is making money with the most easy way.

[stompix]

She was promised an 8.5% return, and told her investment had already ballooned to nearly $320,000. But when the first dividend payment did not materialise in late August, she smelled a rat and tried unsuccessfully to recover her money.

Too bad that she only know how to use facebook, if she know how to google, she can get more than 8.5% return and less likely to be scammed https://bitcompare.net/staking-rewards/stablecoins

I have one word for you: Celsius!
I could add a hundred more with a few just a month old but staking stable cois on a 3rd party is just as bad and why should anyone expose themselves to the risk of both USDT crashing or Tether getting seized or sanctioned, then to the risk of the same happening to Binance for 4% APY when they could simply park their money in an FDIC insured bank account and get 4.20% APY for banks like Barclay?

[Lucius]

Everyone has the right to do what they want with their money, right - at least that's some kind of general attitude here on the forum?

Let's imagine for a moment that this woman's bank had been a little less friendly towards investing in cryptocurrencies or had asked the client for additional verification before the money left the account, maybe this woman would have saved her money. These are not sad stories for me, but rather stories about ignorance and greed that are very skillfully used by scammers all over the world.

People who gamble with everything they have don't have much of a chance in life anyway...

[mindrust]

She should have used legacy banking. Crypto is not for everyone. Maybe she was going to get scammed anyway whether it was crypto or legacy banking she was using. Still though, crypto is indeed making the scammers’ job easier nobody can deny that because the transactions are irreversible. Old people should steer clear of crypto unless they are very well informed and know exactly what they are doing. One missclick and all gone. It is that easy to lose money in crypto. It is all fun and jokes and lambos until someone loses his/her life savings.

[Felicity_Tide]

This story is truly heartbreaking, knowing that a 72-year-old woman lost her entire life savings and inheritance, totaling $224,000, to crypto scammers. They used a deepfake video of Christopher Luxon, the New Zealand Prime Minister, to lure her in. She got interested and responded, which is where things took a dark turn. A scammer, pretending to be Adam Manolas, who claimed to be an expert investment adviser, convinced her to open accounts with Easy Crypto and Binance. She thought her Bitcoin was safe in her Binance wallet, but instead, it was sent to an account controlled by the scammers. Once they emptied her savings, they even took funds that were meant for her grandchildren. In one of their last calls, she overheard him say, "This woman has no money."

It's painful to see how these scammers target older people, especially those who aren't tech-savvy and are more vulnerable to these tricks. I can't even begin to imagine how our granny feels after losing everything she worked for and inherited. Some might find it too much to handle and could even consider taking their own lives because of it. These scammers are truly cruel, and they deserve to rot in hell.
~snip

Quite some bad news to start the day with. It's unfortunate that some people still have a better taste for people's hard earn money, rather than working for theirs. The 72 year old grandma never saw this coming, and I believe most 72 year old will likely fall for such scams, because it's a very common scam that I think mainly targets those that are far older. Though, I'm still surprise that scammers still uses deepfake video technic to scam people these days.

The damage has already been done, but if it's possible to track those funds back to any cex, then I really hope those criminals are arrested and brought to justice. I believe this news might probably get to the ears of someone in authority that can help the granny take up the matter, if only it's still very much traceable back to a cex.

[Frankolala]

I feel pity for this elderly woman because she was scammed at old age when she is unable to work and earn a good amount of money. Imagine how you will feel when you lose everything when you are within 40 years and above, talk less of when you are 70 years old. This is why as an investor, you need not to trust anyone that you meet online on who they claim to be and don't involve in monetary business with strangers. Naive people are scammers target.

[SatoPrincess]

I feel so sorry for the woman, scammers target the elderly because they are more trusting and ignorant of new technology like cryptocurrency so whatever they make easy victims of scams. She lost a her life savings to these criminals in a blink of an eye, it’s not just about the money but also the impact it will have on her relationship with her family because obviously her children must be very angry at her for being so naive. I hope the authorities can take up the case and try to find the scammers behind the crime.

[Salahmu]

Is very sad to see how people can be so cruel even after knowing how old she is and still went ahead to wipe every Bitcoin she has without even feeling a remorse on how she will cope after everything, however the only aspect I blame the woman is that she was supposed to know that since it involves money she was supposed to bring it under the notice of her children for proper analysis than making that hasty  decision, however it seems those crypto scammers has something that normally dig out those that has a lot of funds on their account because I don't think is by coincidence they meet the woman.

Actually a lot of victims of similar circumstances has lost their lives because of that, so preferably creating awareness to the public will be very nice because since older people has become the target of such crypto scammers so if the media is able to pass such information across it will be helpful, Though what made the woman to be very confident was the Christopher Luxon she saw on the picture because she believes that she was directly dealing with their Prime Minister.

[EluguHcman]

This story is truly heartbreaking, knowing that a 72-year-old woman lost her entire life savings and inheritance, totaling $224,000, to crypto scammers. They used a deepfake video of Christopher Luxon, the New Zealand Prime Minister, to lure her in. She got interested and responded, which is where things took a dark turn. A scammer, pretending to be Adam Manolas, who claimed to be an expert investment adviser, convinced her to open accounts with Easy Crypto and Binance.

It is so disheartening as I must say. Having inherited funds and saving them again for a generational inheritance and then get them all lost to scammer? That is sorry.

The tricks used by these scammers are highily neutralizing to their weak targets and making them vulnerables. I will always say that the tactics of scammers can not be whole revealed because these people are too smart than we may think and they are always developing new strategies in thrive of luring their victims on targets.

There is this video tool I know you to be Webcam, it is a front camera in the PC which when you plays anyone's video in the system and then switches over to video call, the people on the video call with you is automatically assumed who he/she is seeing on the video call is reall but it is a scam.

They would mute the video background voices and while the video plays, the scammers takes over the vocal and as the scammers speaks, you would quite believe the people you sees in the video is real so when you realistically believe on the person whom the scammer claims to be such as the Christopher Luxon of the New Zealand Prime Minister, they then uses the medium to instruct you convinceably to lure you and steal your funds.
I believe such was a medium used to fraud this old woman.

Please let us always watch out and resist to trust online instructors but if need be, always consult for verification and staying updated on what legitimate or illegitimate possibilities it could be.

[freedomgo]

Let's imagine for a moment that this woman's bank had been a little less friendly towards investing in cryptocurrencies or had asked the client for additional verification before the money left the account, maybe this woman would have saved her money. These are not sad stories for me, but rather stories about ignorance and greed that are very skillfully used by scammers all over the world.

The transaction would still go through since the woman was already convinced she was investing in a good investment. In fact, she allowed the scammer remote access through AnyDesk, where they created a Binance account for her and set her up on Easy Crypto, which turned out to be the scam platform. Even if the bank requested further verification, she would have complied, as she only realized it was a scam when no crypto appeared in her Binance wallet, and the hacker had sent it to their own scam wallet.

The exact details weren't fully disclosed, but it's clear that the woman willingly went along with the transaction because she believed in the investment opportunity. And the picture I attached sums it all up.

[Easteregg69]

Puff puff pass. Social realism.

[FortuneFollower]

Let's imagine for a moment that this woman's bank had been a little less friendly towards investing in cryptocurrencies or had asked the client for additional verification before the money left the account, maybe this woman would have saved her money. These are not sad stories for me, but rather stories about ignorance and greed that are very skillfully used by scammers all over the world.

The transaction would still go through since the woman was already convinced she was investing in a good investment. In fact, she allowed the scammer remote access through AnyDesk, where they created a Binance account for her and set her up on Easy Crypto, which turned out to be the scam platform. Even if the bank requested further verification, she would have complied, as she only realized it was a scam when no crypto appeared in her Binance wallet, and the hacker had sent it to their own scam wallet.

The exact details weren't fully disclosed, but it's clear that the woman willingly went along with the transaction because she believed in the investment opportunity. And the picture I attached sums it all up.

It's really unfortunate that scammers do be targeting people like that, however, nothing would be done because of the willingness she provided them with.
Truly, we should all stay vigilant and help those close to us to do the same. Especially those who can be vulnerable to scam and offers like that.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Another interesting point is that Grandma is already very old but still wants to invest. Her lost amount is quite large, so one could think that she did not need money earlier. In the same way, there is a conversation here about grandchildren, and maybe about children; why weren't they there at the time when grandma wanted to become an investor? I just think about my parents getting older; the only thing they want is to be there for the family, completely trusting their children. If grandma was taking care of the inheritance, being inexperienced in transactions, but being at that age, she should have had the experience and wisdom not to risk doing everything on her own.

[Kevystia]

The use of deepfakes to deceive this 72-year-old woman, who lost all her savings and funds intended for her grandchildren, is particularly shocking. It is crucial to raise awareness and educate the elderly about the dangers of scams. These scammers, who are utterly cruel, must be brought to justice to protect the most vulnerable.

[mirakal]

This story is truly heartbreaking, knowing that a 72-year-old woman lost her entire life savings and inheritance, totaling $224,000, to crypto scammers. They used a deepfake video of Christopher Luxon, the New Zealand Prime Minister, to lure her in.

It's a very sad story and I wish that the woman will get support from police, government to catch scammers and recover her money back. It will be very long story and at this moment, I only can wish the woman best of luck.

About this scam, she was too naive to believe that the man who called her is the NZ Prime Minister. She would have known that man is very busy with his powerful position, and she ignored one more red flag. How did a NZ Prime Minister call her just to invite her invest money into something, in this case invest in cryptocurrency.

It's very basic scam method.

The cryptocurrency scam book.

Right, the method is so basic but for people who aren’t tech-savvy and are already at their retirement age, they won’t realize that easily that they are already falling into a big scam. I felt pity for the old woman because in just one glimpse of an eye, all of her hard-earned savings and inherited money are completely gone. This brings lesson to everyone that scamming targets all ages, without exception. So we need to be more cautious with the people around most particularly when big amount of money is already involved.

[Solosanz]

I have one word for you: Celsius!
I could add a hundred more with a few just a month old but staking stable cois on a 3rd party is just as bad and why should anyone expose themselves to the risk of both USDT crashing or Tether getting seized or sanctioned, then to the risk of the same happening to Binance for 4% APY when they could simply park their money in an FDIC insured bank account and get 4.20% APY for banks like Barclay?

I'm aware with that, at least she didn't get scammed even though centralized site is risky and you can lose all of your money. There's no one want to lose their money, same to the team behind the project.

My speculation she's looking for higher return, old people really aware with bank. The best option she should buy stock that share high dividend.

[GxSTxV]

This is very sad and truly a heartbreaking story, some people have to work their entire life to save money then lose it all in one minute. This shows how ruthless scammers can be especially, when targeting vulnerable people like this 72 year old woman who cannot be that experienced in securing her money against very smart scammers. Losing her entire life savings and inheritance of $224,000 is not just hard for her but can really give her health issues, and the fact that they used a deepfake video of a well known figure like Christopher Luxon to trick her in makes it even worse and scary for everyone to trust anything online anymore.
Scammers pretending to be trustworthy like Adam Manolas, and take advantage of people who are lacking necessary tech knowledge, manipulating them into opening accounts on crypto platforms like Binance. It's sad that she believed her Bitcoin was safe, I wish if someone from her family saved her befor it was late, also if she talked about her plans so someone warns her.