Cryptocurrency scams aren’t entirely new, but novel ways in which fraudsters trick victims pop up every day.
Google is suing two crypto scammers who reportedly added fraudulent crypto trading apps on the Google Play Store to scam unbeknownst victims.
As The Verge shared, the fraudsters tricked victims into a ‘pig butchering’ scam to extract as much money as possible.
The scammers are reportedly based in China, and they enabled their plans by adding 87 fraudulent trading and investing applications to the Google Play Store. The apps lured in more than 100,000 people, with people losing $100 to tens of thousands of dollars to the fake app.
Google says it has taken down the apps. “This litigation is a critical step in holding these bad actors accountable and sending a clear message that we will aggressively pursue those who seek to take advantage of our users,” Google’s general counsel, Halimah DeLaine Prado, said in a statement (via The Verge).
The scam would mass target people, initiating by sending messages like “Hey, how have you been?” “Long time no see. How are you recently?” The scammers would message users and pretend that they stumbled upon the wrong number.
Potential victims who replied and engaged in conversation would find that the scammers started a general conversation and tried to move the conversation to applications like WhatsApp. They would then try to win the trust of the potential victims and fabricate details of their lives to make them seem similar to the victims.
Subsequently, the scammer would make claims about their success in investing and share fake screenshots of their trading accounts. They would then ask the victim to open an account at an online brokerage to try out their hand at investing. The online brokerage or exchange in this scenario would be one of the fake apps that the scammers had added to the Google Play Store.
The fraudsters would also reassure customers by implying that the app is available on the Play Store, hence it has to be safe.
Once a victim adds money to the fake exchange, it will not be withdrawable, and scammers will try to extract as much as they can by telling the victim that they need to pay a fee to withdraw or that they need a minimum balance to be able to take out their money.
Convinced, the victims would add more money in hopes of making a big withdrawal, to no avail.
Google is suing the developers of the fake apps for breaking its terms of service and violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Image credit: Shutterstock
Via: The Verge
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