A retired schoolteacher fell victim to a Bitcoin-themed scam on Instagram that cost her her life savings.
The story took place in the UK and was reported on TV by The Sun tabloid.
The story is very simple: the woman answered an ad on Instagram that introduced her to an unspecified trading platform. She invested £120,000 in the platform. Her life savings. The story ends with the woman realizing she had been scammed when it was too late: she is now on Universal Credit.
Bitcoin-themed scam on Instagram
Teresa’s story is emblematic of how Bitcoin-themed scams work, and it’s important to stay away from them. Her story shows that she was not naive.
It all started with an ad on Instagram showing TV host Bear Grylls claiming to have made money from these automated trading platforms by investing in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
The woman responded to the ad, leaving her contact details, and was contacted by a financial advisor who convinced her to put her money on the platform. Indeed, she said, the trading platform looked so realistic that she could see her gains and losses. But then she realized that she had actually put her pension and life savings on a dead-end street, directly into the hands of fraudsters.
She admitted that she had verified the information she had received from the financial advisor and had carefully read the platform’s terms and conditions. However, she did not do proper background checks on the company, which was never mentioned.
This caused her to lose all her money and she is now forced to live on a government subsidy.
How to stay away from Bitcoin scams
Stories like these are often used to demonstrate the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies. In reality, investing in cryptocurrencies becomes risky if people don’t adequately investigate the platform or product they are trusting with their savings.
In addition, it is always good to be wary of advertisements featuring famous people, often unwittingly. A number of self-styled cryptocurrency trading platforms use ads with fake interviews with celebrities who claim to have gotten rich with Bitcoin in a few simple steps.
There is one rule that always applies: be wary of those who promise quick and easy gains, because in most cases they are lies.
