The Bitcoin Scam on Instagram – The Cryptonomist

This article is about yet another Bitcoin scam that took place on the Instagram social network.

Bitcoin scam on Instagram

As is increasingly the case, the scammers’ strategy was well thought out. It consisted of stealing existing Instagram profiles in order to make it a little more credible, especially with people who knew and followed the account in question.

After that, the scammers would start sharing fake messages and screenshots on social media, where they would show that through an incredible bitcoin mining strategy, they had managed to make lavish gains in hours.

This is the post shared on Facebook by the same person whose Instagram account was hacked.

As seen in the images, the winnings were first posted to a cryptocurrency account and later to an alleged message from Intesa Sanpaolo bank, to prove that the money had been successfully received in their bank account.

To the less attentive eye, this series of steps could represent irrefutable proof that would strengthen the argument that this is not a scambut it was a success.

In reality, it would be enough to stop and reflect on the words written in the caption of the instagram Publish.

As it reads, this girl would have won 13,000 euros in just 5 hours thanks to a Bitcoin mining company. After that, she advises everyone to take a look at the mentioned profile.

And this is where the real scam begins. Indeed, this is not a normal deception where people are asked to deposit their money in fake accounts. In this case, the real purpose of the the Pirates is precisely to trick users into clicking on the account name that appears at the end of the message description.

This will give crooks access to sensitive data, which will then be sold or used as bargaining chips in an attempt to demand a ransom.

Bitcoin Scams in Italy

The story just told is not the first of its kind in Italy and it certainly won’t be the last either.

Some time ago, in fact, The Cryptonomist had already published an articlein which the fraud of the New Financial Technology company was explained.

It was a multi-million dollar scam, concocted by the aforementioned company, which promised gains of up to 10% on invested capitalthanks to arbitrage operations in the crypto market.

New Financial Technology was born in Silea, Treviso, while its headquarters were based in London.

Thanks to his promises, he managed to defraud around 6,000 savers, who have invested between €10,000 and €300,000.

According to estimates that are still uncertain because they are not entirely accurate, the New Financial Technology has succeeded in defrauding the unfortunate out of a total of 40 to 100 million euros.

In short, a well-executed Ponzi scheme.

Two of the three founders have gone into hiding, while the third, a lawyer from Rome, is trying to compensate those who were victims of the fraud.

He himself was probably also unaware of this scheme which, according to what is revealed, was organized from the start.