By cryptoadmin Cyprus authorities have urged traders to be cautious after an area misplaced $58,000 in a cryptocurrency rip-off that promised profitable returns.
In response to a Knews report, the Limassol Prison Investigation Division is at the moment investigating a pretend crypto buying and selling platform that scammed a 50-year-old man.
Notably, the sufferer got here throughout the phony web site in December. At first look, the platform appeared legit and supplied funding alternatives resembling an everyday cryptocurrency buying and selling website, full with detailed charts, interactive dashboards, and profit-tracking instruments.
Satisfied by the skilled look of the platform and the promise of excessive returns, the person invested a complete of $58,000 throughout a number of transactions, believing he was accumulating positive factors.
A manipulated dashboard, which is a typical instrument that scammers use to trick victims into believing their investments are rising, stored exhibiting his earnings going up, which made all of it appear actual.
Nonetheless, when the sufferer tried to money in these earnings, the scammers refused to launch the funds, claiming extra charges or deposits have been required to “unlock” his earnings.
This tactic, often known as advance payment fraud, is usually utilized in crypto scams the place victims are pressured to pay extra cash underneath false pretenses, solely to seek out their funds stay inaccessible.
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The Monetary Crime Investigation Bureau, a specialised company tasked with combating monetary fraud and cybercrime, suggested in opposition to sharing delicate monetary and private particulars and urged traders to “solely make investments with acknowledged, licensed monetary establishments.”
Additional, the bureau added that traders ought to all the time examine the credibility of any advisor or platform they’re coping with.
Comparable warnings have been issued by the Washington State Division of Monetary Establishments on a number of events all through 2024.
The company highlighted an incident in June the place one other sufferer of advance payment fraud misplaced $310,000 value of crypto to a pretend digital asset buying and selling platform dubbed Ethfinance whereas additionally issuing warnings in opposition to two different platforms that ran related schemes.
The next month, a extra subtle rip-off was uncovered the place scammers supplied victims bogus loans to take part in crypto funding schemes with guarantees that earnings from their buying and selling accounts would cowl the repayments.
Nonetheless, victims have been pressured to repay the loans out of their very own pockets as a result of their earnings have been locked and remained utterly inaccessible on the platform.
Learn extra: Bitcoin’s treble permits US gov to pay again crypto fraud victims