14 Chinese Men Arrested Near Singapore For Operating A Cryptocurrency Scam
Another cryptocurrency-related scam led to the arrest of 14 Chinese men near Singapore. By impersonating successful investors, the perpetrators tricked victims using chat groups in popular Chinese messaging apps into sending them digital assets.
14 Chinese Men Arrested For A Crypto Scam
According to a recent local report, the Chinese men conducted the fraudulent operation for at least two months. Authorities were surveilling the group for the past several weeks. They made the arrests On Saturday, April 18th, in Iskandar Puteri, near Singapore.
Assistant Commander Dzulkhairi Mukhtar explained to reporters at Iskandar Puteri police headquarters the nature of the crimes the perpetrators committed:
“The suspects are aged from 20 to 30, with three of them having no valid travel documents. One of them would pose as a successful investor or a mentor while the rest will pose as investors before creating a group chat through WeChat and QQ Messaging applications for each of their victims. All of the suspects would then give a fake testimony to persuade the victim into investing.”
Despite the lengthy investigation, Dzulkhairi said that the number of victims and the total value of money scammed by the group is still unknown.
Should they be convicted, the perpetrators risk facing jail time up to 10 years plus the possibility of a fine, the report noted.
Previous Crypto Scams
Unfortunately for legit cryptocurrency users and investors, digital assets have their fair share of involvement in fraudulent activities. A similar example came recently when another group of people impersonated famous individuals. In this particular case, the names were Harry and Meghan.
By posing as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the scammers lured potential victims into investing in a suspicious auto-trading program called Bitcoin Evolution. After examining the website and its features, though, several red flags appeared suggesting it worked as a full-on scam.
Even more alarmingly, the number of scams increased after the COVID-19 pandemic harmed the world population. Even the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued an official warning regarding such swindles involving cryptocurrencies.
The agency advised people to be exceptionally prudent when receiving phishing or blackmail emails, work from home fake ads, or “too good to be true” investment propositions where they have to send some sort of digital assets.
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