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THE victim of an elaborate online scam, who lost more than BD4,000, has shared details of the intricate marketing and crypto con in the hope that others do not fall into the same trap.
She was lured and groomed and after initially earning money by participating in the process was soon sucked into a costly confidence trick.
Speaking to the GDN, the expat stated that she received what appeared to be an innocent message a few weeks ago on WhatsApp claiming to be a tourism survey … and was then roped into investing into a non-existent cryptocurrency.
“I had initial suspicions but gave answers to their questions, thinking that as long as I did not give away any personal details, it would be alright,” she said.
“I was then told to subscribe to a YouTube channel, which I did, and then was given BD6 as promised.”
Screenshots sent by the expat to the GDN revealed that the number was a +84 number based in Vietnam.
The message came from ‘Olivia’ who offered the expat a part-time job, promising earnings of BD90 to BD300 a day, entailing answering two simple survey questions needing about five minutes to complete.
The two questions asked were, firstly, what channels she used to look up tourism projects she was interested in, and, secondly, which projects she liked the most when travelling.
After getting the amount promised to her, she was referred to join a Telegram group revolving around completing ‘business tasks’, and that is where it began to go downhill.
“It involved trading cryptocurrency,” she said. “My tasks were to buy a certain amount after being instructed how to do it by ‘online tutors’, after which they paid me BD20 for completing the task successfully.
“There were people on the group that were responding, talking about how much they made, some saying up to BD500 a day.
“I clicked on the links they sent, did the work, more tasks would follow, promising more money each time, and at this point, I trusted them because I was getting the money.
“I started putting in larger amounts, getting larger dividends, until one day I was told that I bought the wrong merchandise that could be rectified with a ‘patch update’ for BD2,700, which I borrowed from my husband.
“Before I knew it, I was down BD4,800. I begged them to return the money and they told me they would after 24 hours.
“I found out way too late that I had been scammed. The websites that I had used were deleted, the cryptocurrency did not exist, and that the ‘people’ on the group were all scammers.”
Speaking to the GDN on the sidelines of the recent Arab Consumer Protection Forum, Interior Ministry’s anti-economic crimes directorate’s financial crimes division director Major Mohammed Al Abdulla warned that similar cons do not necessarily end there.
“The scammers might call back masquerading as a lawyer or a hacker promising the victim their money back,” he said. “Of course, the catch is that you will have to actually pay them in order to do so.
“You might think that the scam ends there, but it does not. They might then call the victim masquerading as a police officer, again promising them their money back, but they need ‘a few details’ which they will use to get even more money off them.”
Maj Al Abdulla urged people to be very careful of getting themselves involved in any ‘investment opportunity’ coming from an unknown source.
He warned people not to click on any links or give out any details to anybody, not even if they have your bank account number or CPR as they cannot do anything with just that information.
Victims are encouraged to report cases via the ministry’s 24-hour hotline, 992, visit the nearest police station or email aecd@interior.gov.bh and Maj Al Abdulla also asked people to join the Financial and Cybercrimes Whatsapp groups, available in Arabic and English, by using the link in the Instagram bio @acees_bh.
nader@gdnmedia.bh
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