04-27-2023, 03:15 AM
Oregonians were tricked out of $13.6 million in cryptocurrency scams in the first 10 months of 2022, according to the FBI.To get more news about crypto currency spam, you can visit wikifx.com official website.
It’s one of the fastest growing schemes that also led to more than a billion dollars in loss for Americans across the country in 2021.
FOX 12 recently spoke with a Portland man who said his entire world came crashing down when an online cryptocurrency scam left him hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and nearly penniless.Dennis Corey sat down for an interview with FOX 12 in December, hoping to spread awareness so others don’t fall for similar scams.
Corey said he gave a scammer more than $200,000, before realizing the cryptocurrency trade exchange he was involved in was all fake.
“I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to get out of it,” Corey said. “How I’m going to get my bills paid off.”
It all started this past fall when a stranger reached out to Corey through Facebook messenger, flirting and striking up a friendship.He was a mutual friend – or I thought he was a mutual friend on Facebook and so then we just started chatting,” Corey said.
What unfolded next is what the FBI describes as a tried-and-true textbook case of a social media scam.
“With the socially-engineered crypto investment fraud schemes, somebody will get in touch with somebody, via social media -- through messaging, through email -- and start soliciting this next great thing, this next great investment opportunity with cryptocurrency,” explained Kieran Ramsey, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Portland office. “They’ll then perhaps move them into a private messaging chat.”We started chatting and talking, idyll conversation to just get to know one another and then he goes, ‘Let’s go to WhatsApp and chat there,’” Corey said.
It was romance chat at first that then transformed into an investment partnership.
Corey said the man he was chatting with enticed him with an opportunity to make some quick money through crypto trading and even loaned him some money to get started.He’s like, ‘If we get to the next level, you know if you put in $50,000, then you can make some higher trades, more money,’” Corey added.
Corey said he was able to see his investments growing in an app he thought was legitimate.
“It would come up and say, ‘Oh, you increased your amount by this much money’ and so the balance just started accumulating and accruing,” Corey said.Desperate to collect what Corey thought was hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit, he said he took out a loan to pay the supposed tax fee, only to be told afterward that he had to pay a “certification fee” and then later, a “transfer fee.”
Before it was all said and done, Corey said he took out loans, advancements on credit cards and wiped out his savings.
“Meanwhile, they are sending me threatening messages, saying, ‘If you don’t pay me back, I’m going to sue you, my lawyer’s will find you, you think I can’t find you?’ And all these documentations,” Corey said.
It’s one of the fastest growing schemes that also led to more than a billion dollars in loss for Americans across the country in 2021.
FOX 12 recently spoke with a Portland man who said his entire world came crashing down when an online cryptocurrency scam left him hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and nearly penniless.Dennis Corey sat down for an interview with FOX 12 in December, hoping to spread awareness so others don’t fall for similar scams.
Corey said he gave a scammer more than $200,000, before realizing the cryptocurrency trade exchange he was involved in was all fake.
“I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to get out of it,” Corey said. “How I’m going to get my bills paid off.”
It all started this past fall when a stranger reached out to Corey through Facebook messenger, flirting and striking up a friendship.He was a mutual friend – or I thought he was a mutual friend on Facebook and so then we just started chatting,” Corey said.
What unfolded next is what the FBI describes as a tried-and-true textbook case of a social media scam.
“With the socially-engineered crypto investment fraud schemes, somebody will get in touch with somebody, via social media -- through messaging, through email -- and start soliciting this next great thing, this next great investment opportunity with cryptocurrency,” explained Kieran Ramsey, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Portland office. “They’ll then perhaps move them into a private messaging chat.”We started chatting and talking, idyll conversation to just get to know one another and then he goes, ‘Let’s go to WhatsApp and chat there,’” Corey said.
It was romance chat at first that then transformed into an investment partnership.
Corey said the man he was chatting with enticed him with an opportunity to make some quick money through crypto trading and even loaned him some money to get started.He’s like, ‘If we get to the next level, you know if you put in $50,000, then you can make some higher trades, more money,’” Corey added.
Corey said he was able to see his investments growing in an app he thought was legitimate.
“It would come up and say, ‘Oh, you increased your amount by this much money’ and so the balance just started accumulating and accruing,” Corey said.Desperate to collect what Corey thought was hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit, he said he took out a loan to pay the supposed tax fee, only to be told afterward that he had to pay a “certification fee” and then later, a “transfer fee.”
Before it was all said and done, Corey said he took out loans, advancements on credit cards and wiped out his savings.
“Meanwhile, they are sending me threatening messages, saying, ‘If you don’t pay me back, I’m going to sue you, my lawyer’s will find you, you think I can’t find you?’ And all these documentations,” Corey said.
