Cryptocurrency has grown into a huge industry over the past few years. Some people are investing in cryptocurrencies out of a sheer desire to earn more money. And others are simply investing in cryptocurrency out of peer pressure.
Read more: India’s own cryptocurrency is coming. And this one you can trust
Propaganda material and bogus claims of making millions out of cryptocurrency are attracting more and more investors. But lack of regulation and awareness around the subject means that fraudsters and bogus investment seekers have a chance of looting ordinary investors, as people in Singapore have found out.
Read more: The Crypto hype is making losers out of many Indian investors too
Singapore’s cryptocurrency debacle
Singaporean investors have been losing a lot of money to bogus investment schemes. And leading such bogus schemes is a Chinese-origin “pig-butchering” cryptocurrency scam. Victims in Singapore lost US$ 141.90 million to the scam last year, over five times more than the US$ 34.86 million that they lost in 2019.
What is the “pig-butchering” scam?
The unique name of the cryptocurrency scam comes from a Chinese term- “sha zhu pan” which basically implies fattening a pig before butchering it. And guess what? The perpetrators of the scam named it by themselves. Sounds ruthless right? Well, this scam is actually quite ruthless.
Fraudsters spend months cultivating good relations with the victims and when they are able to develop a good personal relationship, the victims are instigated to invest in fake cryptocurrency schemes.
And I don’t need to tell you the rest of the story. The invested money goes into the hands of the fraudsters and never comes back.
It started in China
The pig-butchering scams have their origin in China. They started way back in 2016 when scammers groomed their victims on fake gambling websites. It was followed by a crackdown by the Chinese government on illegal betting in 2018. So, the fraudsters started targeting the Chinese-speaking diaspora in Southeast Asia instead.
The demography expanded to Europe and the US also, and therefore scam tactics evolved to cash in on the growing craze for cryptocurrency investments. Singapore Police Force said that victims ended up transferring money mostly into banks in mainland China and Hong Kong. A police officer was quoted by the broadsheet as saying, “They were asked to pay administrative fees, security fees or taxes in order to reap profits. In many cases, victims earned a profit in the initial stage, leading them to believe that the investment is legitimate and lucrative.”
The officer added, “Once larger amounts of monies were deposited into the designated accounts, the scammers became uncontactable.”
And what makes the scam murky? Well, it is able to target highly educated and tech-savvy Singaporean youngsters. Around 90 per cent of the victims held a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. And 70 per cent of the victims were women in the age group of 25 to 40 years.
GASO, a volunteer organisation, said most of the victims of pig-butchering scams ended up emptying their savings account and many even ended up borrowing money to invest in the fake cryptocurrency schemes. As per a survey of 400 people carried out by GASO across North America, Europe, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, losses ran very high at an average of US$ 134,940 per person.
Now, Singaporean authorities seem rather worried. They are using technology to identify and warn potential victims. They are sending SMS advisories and police are also working with foreign law enforcement agencies. But you know fraudulent schemes are like. Fraudsters end up looting people despite all possible administrative precautions.
So, this is how dangerous relentless and careless investment in cryptocurrency can be. And this is why people at large need to control unbridled enthusiasm about cryptocurrency.
Money loss can be terrible. It has the potential to drive you into a downward spiral, and it almost did in my situation. I had put my money into a platform, and everything appeared to be legitimate until it was too late for me to understand I had been duped. For days, I was depressed until a buddy remarked that he had heard of a platform that could assist. I reluctantly agreed to give them a chance, and it turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made. My money was quickly recovered. Please be sure you understand what you’re investing in and proceed with caution. You can contact me via email (support @ reversalpro.com) if you ever find yourself in a scenario similar to mine.