At CYBERA we recently interviewed a victim of a cryptocurrency investment scam, to get his thoughts and opinions.  

Dave (Name changed & identity hidden) reached out to CYBERA once he had been a victim from our help in reporting and recovering his funds. 

Dave was a victim of Financial grooming, which has historically been called ‘pig butchering’ but this victim shames so we don’t like to use this term. 

Dave got involved in an Ethereum mining app in spring 2022, but it turned out to be a scam. John invested a small amount and looked like he had some profits to release after a short while. He added more funds as he was making money at first he could withdraw some small amounts. 

Just before the Ethereum merge he was told he need to make a tax payment on the profits, directly to the app, not the IRS. 

Dave made that payment, but the funds were not released. 

The app was still claiming that additional profits were being made and then another tax payment was requested and made. 

When he finally got them to transfer the funds, the funds sat in the wallet for 36 seconds, before a smart contract moved the funds again to a different wallet.  

This was the last he saw of the funds. 

Dave then reported this to CYBERA. 

What were the Red Flags: 

• An unsolicited AirDrop, likely added the smart contract 
• Request for a tax payments to release funds 
• Vague responses from customers services when discussing why withdrawal was not possible 

What are the key things to protect yourself? 

• Look out for red flags such as: 

• Investments promising high &/or guaranteed returns 
• Messages claiming to be wrong numbers striking up conversation 
• Conversations being steered towards crypto 

• Requests to pay tax 
• Aridrops 
• Ensure you understand any smart contracts 

What are the key things to aid recovery of funds? 

• Report to your bank or exchange 

• Report to Law Enforcement  

Reporting to CYBERA will do both of these and report to the beneficiary bank or exchange. 

• CYBERA can also undertake a crypto Asset Tracing Report to improve recovery chances further. 

Check out the video below.

About CYBERA   

At  CYBERA we’re on a mission to stop money laundering and help protect customers from scams and other financial cybercrime. We close gaps that allow cyber criminals to thrive by sharing crime data in real-time with financial institutions, fintech, and crypto exchanges, and coordinating a global response to support customers who have become victims of financial cybercrime.   

CYBERCRIME VSR™ lets victims report fraud and scams to increase chances of recovery.    

CYBERCRIME WATCHLIST™ helps support firms to reduce fraud and money laundering and meet the requirements of the CRM as part of a holistic fraud and financial crime strategy.   

Unlike other data sources, CYBERA is a global solution, so is well placed to support crypto and Web3.