How a ‘Wrong Number’ message turned into a $3.4M crypto scam

[khaled0111]

This scam tactic is not that different from the well known romance scam.
The main difference is how the attackers approache their victims for the first time. In romance scams, they use dating platforms most of the times, while in this case their tactic to start the conversation is by pretending it’s a wrong number. What comes next is almost the same, which is using social engineering to gain the victim’s trust.
As most members suggested, the best way to remain safe is to avoid talking to strangers.

[Die_empty]

This scam tactic is not that different from the well known romance scam.
The main difference is how the attackers approache their victims for the first time. In romance scams, they use dating platforms most of the times, while in this case their tactic to start the conversation is by pretending it’s a wrong number. What comes next is almost the same, which is using social engineering to gain the victim’s trust.
As most members suggested, the best way to remain safe is to avoid talking to strangers.

I fell victim to a scam recently. They hacked a family member's social media and I never knew.  They used the account and asked for financial assistance from me. The mistake I made was not to call her to confirm if she was actually the person. Since I was busy in the office and she needed the funds urgently, I sent money to the scammer.

We should not send money to anybody when we are under stress at work because we might not be thinking clearly. Always confirm or verify a person's identity from more than one source before engaging in any transaction.

[Bryan jessy]

And this has happened several times, it is even getting common now. I discovered that an App exist where people from different countries chat with lonely foreigners and get paid, this foreigners are mostly advanced men and women who just needed someone to talk with them, most people took advantage of this lonely people to gain their trust and scam them thereafter. There are people whom are vulnerable to such scam, I believe is not everyone that can fail victim of such scam, so far a person do not make himself available for them to prey on.

Also I am trying to digest how possible it is, that a person received a call from a stranger and get lured to given sensitive information about their assets,  more like catfishing, it sounds almost impossible but very possibly because it has happened and still happening, let's be watchful.

[lovesmayfamilis]

It baffles me too, and women are the most victims of this vice. Is it gullibility or what? Does it mean that the victims were suffering from boredoms and needed someone to talk to? Make it make sense, in this selfish world, a stranger contacted me by mistake, and I will give in just like that? That's ridiculous. Even those people I know are still finding it difficult to gain my trust, let alone strangers. The victims are not smart!

Like you mentioned, this is not new at all, but I am still not understanding how people are so quick to keep conversations on with strangers to the extent of trusting them in financial dealings. I can hardly agree to maintain further communication with someone who mistook my number for someone else's, not to mention of trusting them with and financial dealings.
Maybe their prime targets are older people who suffer from loneliness and appreciates any form of attention given to them and as we all know, most of them trusts easily since their mental configuration and perception level has degraded with age.

These are exactly the questions I ask myself when I read something like this. Single women or older men, it doesn't matter; it feels like people have a lot of money that they got very easily since they part with it so easily and quickly.

Something is happening in the world with the minds of some people. Why do we believe those who are far away but do not see those who are close? Those who regularly say, Do not trust strangers; be vigilant. There will not always be people on the other side of the screen whom you would like to see and whom you need to trust.

Single women should always have a stop sign; that's why they're lonely: they don't trust many people, they can't get along with men, and therefore, trust for them should be something very personal. Older people should have worldly wisdom, but unfortunately, they don't have it either.

[bitbollo]

Has been proved and its well known here in the EU that there are groups that setup ""COMPANIES"" running such schemes.
It sounds all ok and everything scary but... they have sent addresses to a fake website/fake service or in general to not legitimate.
It would very easy a double check directly with companies involved... and not barely trusting a random message received.
 

[knowngunman]

It baffles me too, and women are the most victims of this vice. Is it gullibility or what? Does it mean that the victims were suffering from boredoms and needed someone to talk to? Make it make sense, in this selfish world, a stranger contacted me by mistake, and I will give in just like that? That's ridiculous. Even those people I know are still finding it difficult to gain my trust, let alone strangers. The victims are not smart!

Lol, let me say it from Africa perspective. Most at times, this things don't just happen ordinarily. The scammers probably made use of some black jazz that makes the victim lose self control and then act as commanded. In other instance, the victim might be on the influence of drinks or some other things that affect their sense stability.

In any of the aforementioned cases, you're likely to fall victim even if you are smart. To some extent, I agree with you that women are mostly the victim when it comes to this strategy probably because they have less exposure than men and can be easily manipulated.

Personally, I have done several financial deals with total strangers but that doesn't mean I trust every stranger that comes my way. It all depends on how everything plays out from the beginning. If you're not smart enough, never entertain conversation from strangers.

[Rgram]

It starts from sending message to a victim, but it is a wrong number. I do not know how the scammers will continue having conversation with the victim until they gain the victims trust. They scammer will later introduce ether investment and gold stability investment. The victim will be lured to send them ether to help the victim to invest and that is it.

This is the kind of scam that works on some very dumb and greedy people. I mean, how ca you receive a message or call from an unknown caller, clearly knowing it’s a wrong number but still, you decide to continue conversing with this individual. It doesn’t just end at conversing but, you go the length of making investment deposits with the unknown person, that’s really not what a wise and conscious individual would do.
People could be so eager to add up to the workload that law enforcement agencies have to do.

[EarnOnVictor]

It baffles me too, and women are the most victims of this vice. Is it gullibility or what? Does it mean that the victims were suffering from boredoms and needed someone to talk to? Make it make sense, in this selfish world, a stranger contacted me by mistake, and I will give in just like that? That's ridiculous. Even those people I know are still finding it difficult to gain my trust, let alone strangers. The victims are not smart!

Lol, let me say it from Africa perspective. Most at times, this things don't just happen ordinarily. The scammers probably made use of some black jazz that makes the victim lose self control and then act as commanded.

I heard that that happened, but still, it doesn't work on everyone. Being potent on everyone or not, this is global, so we shouldn't limit it to what is happening in Africa. Many stories have been told where the victims and the perpetrators are from countries like the US, UK, Europe, Middle East, etc. Are they also using black magic?

In other instance, the victim might be on the influence of drinks or some other things that affect their sense stability.

This can't be true because it is not a scam that was perpetrated in an instance, just like hacking/theft. But it's a gradual process of building trust and relationship. If the victims were under influence at first, were they other the influence forever?

[Charles-Tim]

Lol, let me say it from Africa perspective. Most at times, this things don't just happen ordinarily. The scammers probably made use of some black jazz that makes the victim lose self control and then act as commanded.

I heard that that happened, but still, it doesn't work on everyone. Being potent on everyone or not, this is global, so we shouldn't limit it to what is happening in Africa. Many stories have been told where the victims and the perpetrators are from countries like the US, UK, Europe, Middle East, etc. Are they also using black magic?

In other instance, the victim might be on the influence of drinks or some other things that affect their sense stability.

This can't be true because it is not a scam that was perpetrated in an instance, just like hacking/theft. But it's a gradual process of building trust and relationship. If the victims were under influence at first, were they other the influence forever?

Yes, it can not be true. The victim is first lured to gain their trust just like romance scam, then offer a fake business. But Knowngunman is not saying the scam is happening entirely in Africa. He said in African perspective, which means he is likely from a country in Africa and know how such scam is happening in Africa and using it as an example. He did not mean that the scam is only happening in Africa.

[Zigabel]

These scammers prey on the gullibility of their victims to scam them. The process of building the so called Trust is one which I consider the time they use to test the gullibility of their victims to see how gullible and vulnerable their pray can be, afterwards they proceed to introduce their preplanned scam scheme after knowing their victims is very likely to fall prey to their proposed scheme.

It is always very important to get as much knowledge as you can about almost everthing around you, so when strange people who have found their way into your life start introducing something to you, you can tell when it's been fishy or not. Personally when talking about Bitcoin and crypto investment generally, anything beyond Trading and Holding, I don't build interest in them except where I still have the full control and not have to send money to anyone to do anything for me or downloading some apps via a link sent to me by the individual.  Lastly whenever we hear about an opportunity that is too good to be true, it is always best to pause and probably mention it to someone else, get a rethink and then we can decide if we still want to continue with such, because most times they could be scam, don't be greedy and don't try to make fast money, that way you will not fall too bad for scam schemes. .

[Franklyn-wood]

Like you mentioned, this is not new at all, but I am still not understanding how people are so quick to keep conversations on with strangers to the extent of trusting them in financial dealings. I can hardly agree to maintain further communication with someone who mistook my number for someone else's, not to mention of trusting them with and financial dealings.
Maybe their prime targets are older people who suffer from loneliness and appreciates any form of attention given to them and as we all know, most of them trusts easily since their mental configuration and perception level has degraded with age.

It is becoming a num now as we hear of this kind of occurrence in different places and to different people at different time,
I almost became Ia victim of such few weeks back as this fellow sent me a message that he can't log in into his app, si I asked him how that was my problem, he replied that he was only seek help from me to help him open the app. I told him not to chat me again. That was how I escape those unnecessary conversation with him. He would have engaged me more and gotten the opportunity to start introducing things to m.

[HONDACD125]

It is becoming a num now as we hear of this kind of occurrence in different places and to different people at different time,
I almost became Ia victim of such few weeks back as this fellow sent me a message that he can't log in into his app, si I asked him how that was my problem, he replied that he was only seek help from me to help him open the app. I told him not to chat me again. That was how I escape those unnecessary conversation with him. He would have engaged me more and gotten the opportunity to start introducing things to m.

Some people just take these things very lightly, mostly because they don't think of such things since they have no knowledge about scams and scammers, even if they have heard of them, their brains don't give them a signal at that time that this is suspicious and it could be something when a stranger is giving you so much time and talking to you constantly because nowadays no one would have enough free time to spend on a conversation with a stranger. This also mostly happens to people who are lonely and have no one to talk to, which is why they keep responding and start talking to anyone that gives them time and show some care.

I remember a similar story of a woman from Middle East who got scammed like that, the scammer literally became friends with the lady, they kept talking for weeks or even months because the scammer wanted to become fully trusted before introducing the investment opportunity. When he finally did it, she easily fell for it because at that point, she was thinking that it's a suggestion from a friend who wants to help her make some money, so she gave them away all her life savings, it was around $800k if I remember correctly.

[Rengga Jati]

This scam tactic is not that different from the well known romance scam.
The main difference is how the attackers approache their victims for the first time.

Since Ajman, the scams' methods have been nearly identical. They've only slightly evolved their methods and approaches to suit their potential victims. Moreover, with technology advancing rapidly, there are many opportunities for scammers to lure potential victims quickly and convincingly.
Of course, at first they usually give sweet promises and their approach is quite tactical and subtle, so that sometimes the potential victims don't realize that they have been trapped in a scam environment.

Has been proved and its well known here in the EU that there are groups that setup ""COMPANIES"" running such schemes.

In my opinion, there was also a recent raid on an office that apparently had a significant number of employees. However, after extensive police monitoring and investigation, it turned out they were structured scammers. Imagine, they registered as a small, licensed company, but it turned out they were not operating as per their permits, but rather engaging in fraudulent activities, targeting not only locals but also foreigners. If I'm not mistaken, they focused on love scams.

This is just one form and type. There are countless other types of scams in the world that we can encounter, even without realizing it. Therefore, we must remain vigilant.

[WhoYouCantKill]

The truth is that, no matter how old a scam is, there'll always be people who will be naive and ignorant enough to fall for them, some are simply just pushed by greed into putting their money into these scams. Honestly, I've seen a lot of these play out so many times, and i wouldn't let it happen to me first before i know this is a scam, regardless of how authentic it is, as long as it sounds too good to be true.

[Nathrixxx]

It starts from sending message to a victim, but it is a wrong number. I do not know how the scammers will continue having conversation with the victim until they gain the victims trust. They scammer will later introduce ether investment and gold stability investment. The victim will be lured to send them ether to help the victim to invest and that is it.

What still surprises me about this kind of scam is that people are still falling for it despite the awareness that we should not engage in conversation with any stranger or have a deal with them regarding any form of investment, I won't blame the victims because they caused it by themselves since they have greedy desires to earn more within a short period of time, once the scammers notice this about you, then they build on such weakness and reinforce their strategy the more in order to apprehend the victim in their net finally.

[Grace333]

This is the first time I'm hearing something like this but I can already guess how the scam begins and how it is executed and here is what i think. Firstly the scammer may likely send the victim some messages about profit sharing probably from bitcoin but the victim thinks he is the wrong recipient of the messages then the scammer might proceed with conversation that will make the victim attest that he is a wrong recipient amd the scammer might apologize and give the victim a little hint of how the shit works. That would create curiosity in the mind of the victim and he'll start asking questions that shows his interest until he eventually take the move of transacting to the scammer.
I believe the only way to escape scams is to know more about it and always doubt if anything is genuine or not that way we can all live without getting scammed.

[tabas]

Just never entertain strangers in messaging apps and in real life. They're not going to do well in it unless they start showing some real interest on you. Or better said that all of these strangers have that interest to their potential victims and that's why if they start a conversation and turns it into financial matters. I guess you're getting a red flag for them because out of nowhere why would they talk about that? Are they too good to share the knowledge they have randomly to strangers too? I don't think so, so before trusting someone we have to learn to verify first.

[Outhue]

It baffles me too, and women are the most victims of this vice. Is it gullibility or what? Does it mean that the victims were suffering from boredoms and needed someone to talk to? Make it make sense, in this selfish world, a stranger contacted me by mistake, and I will give in just like that? That's ridiculous. Even those people I know are still finding it difficult to gain my trust, let alone strangers. The victims are not smart!

Just like the way you think, there are too many people in the world that's dying from boredom, especially those in the United States of America, it's why they fall victim of scams like romance scam,  even if the whole operation goes up in smoke and their family member warned them they will not listen, it's not because they can't but because they needed the attention anyways.

Haven't you guys about people who got paid for giving attention to lonely people? And as crazy as it sound these other people are always ready to pay for that attention, people are lonely, people are bored, people want to be happy even if it's coming from a scammer.

[Strongkored]

The truth is that, no matter how old a scam is, there'll always be people who will be naive and ignorant enough to fall for them, some are simply just pushed by greed into putting their money into these scams. Honestly, I've seen a lot of these play out so many times, and i wouldn't let it happen to me first before i know this is a scam, regardless of how authentic it is, as long as it sounds too good to be true.

The logic of those people is poor, so they can be trapped to scame. If they were willing to think more deeply before being tempted by any offer, they could avoid any form of fraud.
People should think that there is no easy way to double money, everything requires process and effort, so if someone offers an easy way to double money, it is clearly a scam.

[MusaPk]

The truth is that, no matter how old a scam is, there'll always be people who will be naive and ignorant enough to fall for them, some are simply just pushed by greed into putting their money into these scams. Honestly, I've seen a lot of these play out so many times, and i wouldn't let it happen to me first before i know this is a scam, regardless of how authentic it is, as long as it sounds too good to be true.

In crypto, we not only see new user getting into trap of scammers but it's surprising that even experienced users who have spent time in the market and are well informed about crypto scams also fell prey to scammers. The reason is only because there is no shortage of greedy people in the market. No matter how much we educate others about scams, as long as greedy people continue to exist in the market scammers will continue to get good business.