A Sydney resident described losing all her savings to a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. She told it on the air at the local radio station 2GB.
A woman who had worked as a nurse all her life saw an online advertisement offering an investment in Bitcoin. The project was allegedly endorsed by many Australian celebrities.
Fraudsters frequently co-opt the identities of well-known figures to promote scams; for example, they announce fake cryptocurrency giveaways in the name of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or Steve Wozniak.
Initially the woman invested a small amount and received profits. She said she ‘enjoyed the interactions’ with representatives of the project and continued to invest until she discovered that hundreds of thousands of dollars had disappeared from her account.
Authorities have yet to locate the perpetrators or recover the victim’s funds.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, in the first quarter of 2021 Australians lost about $20 million to various cryptocurrency scam projects, 2GB reports.
As reported by the US Federal Trade Commission, from October 2020 through March 2021, residents of the country lost more than $80 million to bitcoin scammers.
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