[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Crypto Scam? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 9/29/2025 2:51:53 PM EDT
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I know nothing about crypto, but I think my folks neighbor is being scammed and/or has been scammed. short version, my folks neighbor is being asked to pay in advance $250,000 in "fees" to withdrawal funds from his crypto account. longer version. my folks called me this morning, said their neighbor (of over 40 years) asked if he could borrow 100K. Neighbor is a great guy, he is in his mid-80, was an Air America during the Vietnam war, then worked for a very large company doing Helicopter stuff, he also made some good investments. But, he spends a lot of time in the internet and tends to believe most of what he reads, conspiracies included(I think he believed in Q) His story is, he sold 3 properties(I know this is true) and also took all his money out of the stock market and put it in crypto, he says he has 12mill in crypto(and made great gains). He is now feeling uncomfortable with everything in crypto and wants to withdraw some. He did tell me a few month ago he put everything in crypto recently. Supposedly the fee to do so is $250,000 and they want him to pay that upfront(not out of the proceeds) He does not have 250K in cash, has 150K. His wife won't let him take out a Heloc on their free and clear home(worth 2mil-ish) He has never asked my folks for anything and we are shocked that he is doing so now. from my reading(and common sense) paying the fee in advance is a scam, fee's should come out of the proceeds. (I could be wrong) sounds like he has been scammed and/or is going to be scammed. I know he is not trying to scam my folks. I have a feeling he suspects he has been scammed and now is desperate to try to get back his money by paying more $....which he will also loose. |
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Quoted: Yes he is being scammed. His gains are all on a fake exchange. Common scam. Any money he has sent them is gone. He needs help. This. Your parents need to have a CTJ talk with him and his wife. Everything he put on that fake exchange is gone. Also the same scammers will contact him in the future to tell him that they can help get his money back if he pays them a fee. This is called the recovery scam. |
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Quoted: This. Your parents need to have a CTJ talk with him and his wife. Everything he put on that fake exchange is gone. Also the same scammers will contact him in the future to tell him that they can help get his money back if he pays them a fee. This is called the recovery scam. They'll also probably tell him something like they can help, but he can't involve others and he needs to go buy some gold/gift cards/wire money/etc. |
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they are asking the 250K to be paid in advance, not out of his account. Quoted: Sounds scammy, but need more info. If they are asking for $250K to withdraw $12MM, that's a 2.1% fee. Maybe he could try withdrawing a little at a time, like pay a $100 fee to withdraw $4800, then repeat. |
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thanks guys, I had a feeling it was a scam and that he has probably lost all his money already makes me very sad and I don't know how we will tell him, but someone has to. He and both my folks and I use the same CPA(who is a close friend of ours), but she knows nothing about crypto. He is also going to get nailed with a big income tax bill from the capital gains from selling all his stocks/properties and he will not be able to pay that. Damn! I was surprised when he told me he put everything in crypto because it not like him to put everything in one basket supposedly the crypto firms he used were in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, his gains in the last 6 months were 3-4mil......but its all fake it seems |
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He can just pay $125k and get half the funds out. Why is he not planning to do this? As a side note, a friend's father (divorced) lost all his money and his house putting it all in a crypto investment his new girlfriend sent him to. We're talking millions. He asked the friend's mother for a million, to get him out of the rough spot. A million would be nothing to her, but she told him to pound sand. Made us all happy I should add. ETA: Happy because he was an abusive creep. Our friend is battling with anorexia to this day because of her childhood with him. I'll be happy to see him homeless. |
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he has been destroyed. i feel bad -- but he made very poor decisions. 100% scam city. recent article re. scams ===================== ‘Pig butchering,’ fake friends and 8 more of the craziest financial scams that money pros have seen themselves We asked 10 financial pros to share the money scams they’ve seen — and how to prevent them from happening to you By Lara Becker Updated: Sept. 29, 2025 at 11:49?a.m. ET Whether it’s a phishing email, fake phone call or long-term ploy to steal your money, scams aren’t going away. And they’re costly: The FTC reports that consumers say they lost upwards of $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, a 25% increase from 2023. What’s more, “scammers’ tactics are constantly evolving,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a press release. We spoke to 10 financial advisers, certified financial planners, CEOs, chief risk officers and more to find out common and shocking scams they’ve seen in their day to day — and what you can do to prevent them. (Looking for an adviser? You can use this free tool from our partner SmartAsset that can match you to a fiduciary adviser, as well as resources like NAPFA and the CFP Board.) 10 scams to watch out for — that financial pros have seen in their lives and work. “Pig butchering,” says Melissa Sutherland, chief risk officer at EverC. “‘Pig butchering’ has reached epic proportions worldwide, and there are no signs of slowing. It is a romance and investment scam where an attacker builds long-term, trusting relationships with victims, often over weeks or months, before introducing the idea of a lucrative cryptocurrency investment. This is how the scam works: First, the scammer uses a fabricated identity, contacts a victim on a legitimate social platform, such as a dating app or social media site, to build an emotional connection. Once the connection is established, the scammer encourages the victim to invest a small amount of money in a seemingly legitimate, but fake, cryptocurrency trading platform. The victim is then shown a convincing, but fake, profit on their dashboard. After the victim is emotionally and financially invested, they are encouraged to deposit increasingly larger sums of money. When the victim tries to withdraw their funds, they are met with demands for exorbitant ‘taxes” or “fees.’ Ultimately, the scammer and the fraudulent platform vanish, leaving the victim with no way to recover their losses. The most effective defense against scams like ‘pig butchering’ is a heightened awareness of the red flags and a disciplined approach to online interactions. Red flag indicators individuals should be sensitive to: Unsolicited offers: Scams often begin with an unsolicited message from a stranger on a social platform, in text, via WhatsApp or email. Recognize high pressure, urgency, and/or rapid escalation of affection: The scammer will quickly try to move the relationship from a casual acquaintance to a serious romantic interest (love bombing). Offers that are ‘too good to be true:’ Be extremely skeptical of anyone offering guaranteed, high-yield investment opportunities, especially if they claim to have ‘inside knowledge’ or a special strategy.” Threats of arrest for not showing up to a fake legal hearing, says Ken Hargreaves, CFP and president of WealthGen Advisors. “A physician received a call from a ‘county clerk’ saying there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest for not showing up to a legal hearing. The legal hearing was a fictitious lawsuit and that she could either pay the fine or a sheriff deputy was going to arrest her. The fine was $10,000. Unfortunately, it happened so fast, my client wrote a check on the spot and handed it to the courier. I spoke to a law enforcement agent who said that prisoners are running these types of scams from prison cell phones, and their acquaintances are picking up and depositing these checks. Whenever these things happen, we determine if there was or could be any contagion into their bank or investment accounts … If someone or something requires an urgent sum of money, slow down, think it through and call someone before you send money.” Pop-up ads that steal your personal information, says Ryan Zacharczyk, CFP and president at Zynergy Retirement Planning. “One of our clients received a pop-up on her PC, a Windows-based computer, to update her software. When she clicked on the pop-up to do so, it was actually malware that she allowed into her computer and locked her out of everything, stealing her personal information in the process. The hackers then ransomed her information and computer access back to her for a large sum, $5,000 in bitcoin. After speaking with the authorities, the client paid off the hackers to get her information back. Not an ideal outcome. She then wiped her computer, destroyed it, and bought a new one. I suggest that computer users don’t use pop-ups for updating software. Always do software updates directly from the source. Be careful what you allow to be loaded onto your computer as well. If you are updating any software or loading new software, always make sure it is a trusted source. Security should take priority over convenience.” Text message scams that ask you to verify information, says Chris Palumbo, senior vice president and chief risk officer at Citadel Credit Union. “We’ve seen a sharp rise in phishing scams carried out through text messages and social media platforms. In one case, a member received a text message that appeared to come directly from Citadel and was asked to ‘verify’ their account information. After clicking the link and entering credentials, the fraudster immediately attempted to access the member’s online banking and transfer funds. These scams are convincing because they mimic the exact tone and look of legitimate bank alerts. The best defense is awareness and skepticism. Consumers should: Watch out for unsolicited texts, emails, or direct messages requesting personal or financial information. Know that banks and credit unions will never ask you to click a link to provide sensitive information. Turn on multifactor authentication wherever possible. Report immediately if you see something suspicious. If you get a message that creates a sense of panic, stop. Your financial institution will never ask you to click a link and hand over your login information. Pause, verify directly with your bank, and you’ll avoid becoming a victim.” People online pretending to be your friend, and then asking for money, says Jonathan Medows, CPA and managing member at MEDOWS CPA. “In one case, it was via a text message on Facebook and another via a WhatsApp message. In both cases, the clients were lured into trusting the person in question. Messages were exchanged back and forth. On the Facebook message it was more of someone being tricked into thinking they had a personal relationship and asking to wire money for a purported investment into her company. On WhatsApp it was a fraudulent inducement to buy crypto. In both cases, these were deemed thefts, and we reported accordingly. Unfortunately, they did not get money back. I’m hearing more of these issues. Primarily with my male clients. The people texting come off as women and lure them into trusting them. In both cases I encouraged the clients to go to law enforcement and report to the FBI. I would warn people that if anyone is chatting you up and you don’t know them to be leery and the moment they ask for money to disengage if they were not initially blocked.” Facebook ‘friends’ may not be who they say they are, says Patti Black, financial advisor at Savant Wealth Management. “This story is not from a client, but from a friend. His mom announced at Christmas a couple years ago that she was getting re-married to a Ukrainian general she met on Facebook and that he and his siblings were going to have new step siblings. Mom had been sending gift cards to the ‘general’ via P.O. box address. My friend contacted the police department who then brought in the FBI. It was only when the FBI became involved that his mom realized she had been scammed. Sadly, she never got any of her money back. In hindsight, my friend’s mom should have secured her Facebook profile so the scammer would have had less access to her personal information. She also could have asked the ‘general’ for a video call to confirm his identity (not foolproof, but it may have helped).” Viral videos and posts showing how to score money in suspicious ways, says Mary Ann Miller, VP and fraud executive adviser at Prove. “The widely covered ‘bank glitch’ at a couple of large U.S. banks was one of the most crazy I have experienced. Viral social media posts gained traction through social platforms like TikTok, where users shared videos of large account balances and vague instructions on how to withdraw cash. Customers lined up around the block to withdraw ‘money.’ The method exploited check deposit systems by depositing large, fraudulent checks into a bank account and attempting to withdraw the funds before the bank detects the fake check. The bank stated these were brief system errors that allowed customers to withdraw larger amounts of money from such deposits than usual. I think the role social media played in influencing real bank customers to turn the bank into ‘a slot machine’ with good odds was one of the craziest frauds I have witnessed.” Although those who participated in this scam in August 2024 were able to withdraw the value of the fraudulent check before it bounced, JPMorgan Chase (one of the banks affected) began suing and filing lawsuits against the offenders in October. Lawsuits were filed in several states including Georgia, New York, Florida and Texas. “In today’s digital era, misinformation spreads faster than some fraud teams can react, so anticipating where fraudsters/bad actors will strike next is crucial,” Miller said. Venture capital investments scams, says John Gillet, financial advisor, CEO and founder of retirement planning firm Gillet Agency. “The craziest scam I’ve ever seen was from the husband of a client who unwittingly got involved with a ‘venture capital investment’ scam in India … The truly crazy part is how the scam was structured and the series of large payments via money orders that were sent to a complete stranger in India. Money orders are the most liquid and untraceable forms of payment transfer there are. It was unbelievable how he was scammed out of almost $275,000. This money represented almost 85% of his liquid investable assets. One can only guess that a combination of a few dynamics contributed to this tragedy. He was suspicious of financial advisors — never wanted nor asked for my advice. His wife was my client, and he never spoke to his wife about his money. He wanted to be in full control. Because of his secretiveness and controlling nature over his finances, no one knew he was being scammed. I would say at a bare minimum for seniors, run any significant financial proposition by the ‘financial confidante’ in your life. That person could be your spouse, child or your financial advisor.” “Fake IRS calls,” says Kevin Marshall, CPA and personal finance professional at Amortization Calculator. “The one scam I hear about over and over is the fake IRS call. It usually comes out of nowhere. Someone pretending to be from the IRS says you owe back taxes and if you don’t pay immediately, you could be arrested or sued. They try to make it sound urgent and scary. They’ll even make their number look official. Sometimes they ask you to send money through wire transfers. Other times, they tell you to buy gift cards and read them the numbers. It sounds ridiculous once you’ve had time to think about it, but in the moment, it can be terrifying. The truth is, the IRS never contacts people this way. They don’t call it a threatening arrest. They don’t ask for gift cards. If you get a call like this, the best thing to do is hang up and contact the IRS using the number on their website. That way, you’re in control of the situation and you can confirm what’s really going on.” “Trust your instincts and question the motives of anyone offering unsolicited financial help, especially if it’s someone you met recently online,” says Star Kashman, technology attorney and founding partner at Cyber Law Firm. “As a technology attorney, I represent many victims of financial scams and fraud. In one particularly interesting and egregious case, a client was defrauded by an actual employee of a major U.S. bank known for its high-quality cybersecurity and anti-fraud reputation. This individual worked in a non-customer-facing technical role, but acted as a financial advisor, using bank-issued materials, secure business areas, and in-person meetings at the real bank branch. Despite the clear misconduct on the bank’s servers and premises, the bank has yet to admit liability or remedy the victim in any way. This case is a standout, as it reminds us that even some of the most reputable institutions have internal vulnerabilities, and you must try to verify roles and credentials independently even in incredibly legitimate environments … … Trust your instincts and question the motives of anyone offering unsolicited financial help, especially if it’s someone you met recently online. And finally, verify all legal and financial services directly through official bar associations or government records before engaging. Know that fraudulent actors also post and send fake law licenses, provide attorney bar numbers, and seem extremely credible. Look up the actual attorney’s information online, on your own. If you see they work for another law firm, that is a red flag and indicates they are likely being imitated by malicious actors to scam victims.” By : Lara Becker Lara Becker is the assistant editor for MarketWatch Picks, focusing on helping our readers save money. She previously worked in Ad Services at Dow Jones, so she knows which products connect with audiences. =============================== |
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These scams target the elderly a lot because they have saved and invested for a lifetime and are often in cognitive decline. AARP has some resources on it. https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/ |
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Quoted: This. Your parents need to have a CTJ talk with him and his wife. Everything he put on that fake exchange is gone. Also the same scammers will contact him in the future to tell him that they can help get his money back if he pays them a fee. This is called the recovery scam. Quoted: Quoted: Yes he is being scammed. His gains are all on a fake exchange. Common scam. Any money he has sent them is gone. He needs help. This. Your parents need to have a CTJ talk with him and his wife. Everything he put on that fake exchange is gone. Also the same scammers will contact him in the future to tell him that they can help get his money back if he pays them a fee. This is called the recovery scam. Twisting the fucking knife on your way out. |
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my folks are his same age, but even they thought something was fishy which is why they called me. they are pretty good about this stuff, dad got the jury duty scam last year, he had started emailing them back, but my mom called me and I told her it was a scam(she thought it was) Quoted: https://media.tenor.com/k0NohHsgeu4AAAAM/joker-coringa.gif And obviously dont let your parents get involved. |
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Quoted: Yes he is being scammed. His gains are all on a fake exchange. Common scam. Any money he has sent them is gone. He needs help. This. I've been through this same thing with many others who fell for the same scam unfortunately. Usually it's some fake girl messaging someone. "She" then sends them a link to a fake exchange that looks real. They sign up and deposit. Fake winnings. Then the "pay us more to withdraw." You can trace the accounts involved and can see TONS of money in them all from others falling for the same scam. ETA: This should be given a higher priority politically than most things IMO. Our population are being taken advantage of like never before. The economic damage here is surprisingly larger than most people realize. |
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So THIS is what the dating site catfishing is after! ok, I wondered. It's far too structured and consistent to be for $500 gift cards. And explains the expensive cars and destinations in the profile photos. Profile photos of highly attractive exotic females all looking for long term love and all so interested in random middle aged dude. Now I get it. And identify theft can be done so much easier just pulling compromised data off the darkweb. why all the effort to build months of n-line "love"? Aha, this is making more sense. I get hit on line dating from catfish profiles multiple times a day. now I get it. |
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Quoted: So THIS is what the dating site catfishing is after! ok, I wondered. It's far too structured and consistent to be for $500 gift cards. And explains the expensive cars and destinations in the profile photos. Profile photos of highly attractive exotic females all looking for long term love and all so interested in random middle aged dude. Now I get it. And identify theft can be done so much easier just pulling compromised data off the darkweb. why all the effort to build months ofnon-line "love"? Aha, this is making more sense. I get hit on line dating from catfish profiles multiple times a day. now I get it. They get fairly complex too and can fake video calls. This started before AI video was so commonplace as well. |
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I was the target of a similar scam. Only cost me a few minutes time. The lady I was supposedly talking to was extremely attractive. Makes me wonder if that was just co-incidence, or if they knew their target’s taste in women. It’s a big problem, I don’t know a good answer. |
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Quoted: Guaranteed he’s been sending all his money to a fake crypto exchange - it was gone the moment he bought in and now they’re trying to squeeze more out of his desperate attempt to get some of his money back. He’s going to have to accept that he has no money now. Agreed. |
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Quoted: I was the target of a similar scam. Only cost me a few minutes time. The lady I was supposedly talking to was extremely attractive. Makes me wonder if that was just co-incidence, or if they knew their target’s taste in women. It’s a big problem, I don’t know a good answer. You have to ask? That's exactly what they are doing. As to "targets taste in women" , dude everyone's taste in women has so much overlap it's not even funny. Your taste is far more the same as everyone else' than anyone is ever willing to admit. |
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Quoted: You have to ask? That's exactly what they are doing. As to "targets taste in women" , dude everyone's taste in women has so much overlap it's not even funny. Your taste is far more the same as everyone else' than anyone is ever willing to admit. If that were the case, female entertainers of different kinds would look substantially different than they do. |
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Quoted: He can just pay $125k and get half the funds out. Why is he not planning to do this? As a side note, a friend's father (divorced) lost all his money and his house putting it all in a crypto investment his new girlfriend sent him to. We're talking millions. He asked the friend's mother for a million, to get him out of the rough spot. A million would be nothing to her, but she told him to pound sand. Made us all happy I should add. ETA: Happy because he was an abusive creep. Our friend is battling with anorexia to this day because of her childhood with him. I'll be happy to see him homeless. Depending on when if he had bought bitcoin he would be way up. Unfortunately people fall for shitcoin looking for unrealistic gains from things that have no utility. Like buying penny stocks or worse |
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Quoted: Quoted: Yes he is being scammed. His gains are all on a fake exchange. Common scam. Any money he has sent them is gone. He needs help. And they’ll steal from family to try to get over the finish line. |
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Quoted: Yep he’s probably a danger to his family now. Once people are deep in this scam they’re convinced they’re millionaires if they can just do a little bit more And they’ll steal from family to try to get over the finish line. That's exactly what I think. The combination, of desperation, delusion, and finally humiliation is going to be bad. And he is going to lash out like a drowning man - and then kill himself. These people are fucking evil, and they get away with it very easily. |
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I agree. I met with my folks, per my advice they had contacted their 2 financial planers and lawyer, they all agreed he had been scammed. I also showed them this thread. When he asked my folks for money they knew something was wrong, I am happy they let me know these things we are very concerned what he will do when he finds out he has lost it all, he does have plenty of guns if he wanted to off himself. He lost a daughter, his wife had a stoke and now this. the only funds he has is 110K in his retirement account from Warehouser. House and storage condo are free and clear, his wife won't let him take out a loan because "its where we live" I suspect she has a feeling he got scammed. I guess he told my dad that he would also pay off some loans he has with the proceeds....am I right to assume those loans where thru the crypto exchange and are also part of the scam? he owns nothing, no car loans or home loans. Our guess is he put around 8mil of real money into the scam, he had done very well for himself. he is suppose to be in contact with our lawyer and financial planner, so they can explain what happened. We use the same CPA(a lifelong friend of ours), but she knows nothing about crypto. damn this is really sad. Quoted: Yep he’s probably a danger to his family now. Once people are deep in this scam they’re convinced they’re millionaires if they can just do a little bit more And they’ll steal from family to try to get over the finish line. |
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we were just hoping for someone that could explain the situation to him, not that our CPA was involved or should have known. Quoted: Your CPA’s ignorance of crypto doesn’t really matter, as there was likely no crypto involved in the scam. I am aware of some scams that did involve crypto, however. |
| Dude needs to watch American Greed tv show. Most of those are ponzi schemes, but in these cases all the money is gone the second it gets sent. In some of those, the "original investors" get some sort of payout, although it's with other "investor's" money. "Robbing Peter to pay Paul" kind of stuff. But yeah, once they go to cash out, nothing but red flags. They all go down the same. |
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If he truly did give away seven figures then people are going to have to take steps to block his access to outside electronic communications for a while, especially if the scammers think he's got more. This means no internet, his phone needs parental controls so that only calls in his contact list can ring through or leave voicemails, he can only call people in the contacts, he can't add new contacts, etc. The scammers will even track down neighbor contact info and will call the neighbors pretending to be relatives who can't get ahold of him. |
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Quoted: we were just hoping for someone that could explain the situation to him, not that our CPA was involved or should have known. you local LE likely has a white collar crime detective / bureau. they see these things all the time nowadays. if they don't - your state LE agency does. MILLIONS in fraud would be on their radar. not that they could recover it -- but perhaps investigate it if possible. |
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Quoted:ETA: This should be given a higher priority politically than most things IMO. Our population are being taken advantage of like never before. The economic damage here is surprisingly larger than most people realize. Now the shithead Nigerian yahoo boys could be shot as a “we’re bored” training cycle, that’d be productive. |
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Quoted: If he truly did give away seven figures then people are going to have to take steps to block his access to outside electronic communications for a while, While I understand what you are saying, that may not be possible. Laws vary by state, but it can be very difficult to accomplish what you suggest in some states, if not impossible. |
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My dad got hit with a pay first Bitcoin scam. They even had a fake website he could login to see his wallet balance. They told him the Bitcoin was recently moved to this address for him. I showed him the wallet address hadn't sent or received anything in over ten years. It didn't matter what I said, he wasn't being scammed. Even the bank told him not to wire the money to Canada because so many elderly are scammed that way. Didn't matter. There was another scam about selling his time share condo in Mexico. They had him believing he was working with LEO in Mexico to catch the criminals doing the scamming. He was also working with a broker at an international bank. The broker had a gmail address. I even worked with the fraud department at that bank to verify this broker didn't work there. They even had a page on their website claiming their name was being used in time-share fraud. Didn't matter, he was right and I was wrong. He said If I think he's mentally incapable to go to court and have a judge declare him. I stopped talking to him for several months and have no idea how much he lost. |