Crypto scam
Crypto scam
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| Cryptocurrency |
(An interview)
the first Contact came through a message on Twitter about questions related that's how we started soon the woman's
chats with the man we're calling John a
highly educated cancer researcher turned
to investing in cryptocurrencies he
asked us to disguise his identity
naturally curious and you se
especially when you talk about how much
money you can make that sort of cooked
urged on by his new friend John began
wiring money to a website that looked
identical to a real life online
investing platform and it seemed like he
was making a fortune but when he was
unable to withdraw a large sum he
realized that something was wrong at
that point how much had you invested
more than half half a million about 560
thousand dollars wow and what portion of
your wealth did that represent
such everything I have
John was one of the latest victims in a
sophisticated online scam known as Pig
butchering which comes from a Chinese
term for fattening a hog for Slaughter
the gangs that carry out this scheme are
largely based overseas mainly in
Southeast Asia the FBI says Americans
have lost billions of dollars to these
cons and usually the money is
unrecoverable but tonight the justice
department is announcing the seizure of
more than a hundred million dollars
stolen in pig butchering scams possibly
including some of John's money it's the
first seizure of its kind the result of
a new focus by federal Authorities on
tracking cryptocurrency we figured out
where these accounts were and that there
was funds from victims that went through
various stops to get to these accounts
and then we seized the accounts from the
institutions where they were being held
anyong Choi directs the Justice
Department's crypto enforcement unit she
says the doj has learned how to use
sophisticated software to track
ill-gotten crypto and then grab it
that's a bad day for the crooks it is a
bad day for the crooks we think we're
raising the cost that they're doing
business in this manner and preying on
the United States public another victim
we're calling set Eugene also a scientist
was lured into the Khan by a real person
someone he knew from graduate school the
scammers strung him along slowly showing
statements with huge gains even letting
him withdraw thousands of dollars he and
his wife quit their jobs liquidated
their retirement funds and borrowed from
Friends eventually forking over more
than 5.2 million dollars that's all my
savior of all my life with my my first
day of start until now my weight drop
like a more than 20 pounds
but then Eugene got amazing news
the money and they checked on the money
and they find the money the justice
department is now working to return
Eugene and John some of their money
we're really looking forward to working
with victims to try to get them their
funds back
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authorities say the chances of that happening improve if victims
report it right away what's your mess
message to a victim who feels so
embarrassed by this they don't want to
tell anyone you're not alone
there are hundreds and thousands of you
out there
um you might think how could I have
fallen victim to this but we've seen it
happen again and again it's a reminder
of the age-old truism if an investment
sounds too good to be true it probably is
all right kendallanian joins us tonight
from Washington can I have a couple
questions for you I want to start with
this pig butchering process that that
process where the scammers quote unquote
fatten up the victim by taking more of
their money is this done over a long
period of time yes this is a long con
Tom typically it begins with someone
reaching out over social media often an
attractive potential romance partner the
new friend will slowly introduce the
victim to what seems like an amazing
investment opportunity in cryptocurrency
and usually the target starts small and
they're allowed to withdraw some of
their earnings at first and that
convinces them that this investment is
real and they should send more money and
often these victims are picked because
they're at a vulnerable time in their
lives having gone through like a death
or a divorce and the scammers use fake
websites made to look like real
cryptocurrency platforms the victims
usually believe for months that they've
made a fortune until the day they
realize they can't get access to their
money and Ken you know in the report you
mentioned these scams start overseas
sometimes when that happens right
there's a language bear carrier or a
tell something is written in a strange
manner usually it tells the person who's
being scammed wait a minute this is
strange is this more sophisticated are
they getting the language part right and
then from there they're Off to the Races
it's a little of both Tom we're told
that sometimes the pitches are crude
because the scammers are using language
translation programs because some of the
people making these pitches are
themselves being forced to do it by an
organized criminal gang and that can be
a tell but sometimes the victims are
immigrants whose first language is not
English as was the case with the two
people we interviewed so they may not
detect those grammar mistakes and other
times the scammers are very
sophisticated and speak English
perfectly when you think about the
enormous sums of money they're stealing
here they have a lot of resources to
bring to bear the bottom line here is
that if you want to invest in crypto you
should not do it through someone you met
online Tom
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