ビットコインから知る世界（10）

Kateのビットコインよもやま話～Caught in a pig butchering scam

今回はオンラインスキャムに派手に引っかかった自分の体験談です。まずは英語で書いていますが、英語が苦手な方はこちらは無視して、近日公開予定の日本語版をお待ちください。よろしくお願いします。

⚠️I am about to lose $150k worth of bitcoin in online scam on Christmas Day🤦‍♀️🎄

It’s surely embarrassing and shameful to tell this story as a long time “Bitcoiner.” I made a huge mistake because of my own weakness. I failed big in an EGO test! I am sad for my loss, but at the same time, my whole experience has been funny and laughable. So, I am sharing my story here.

It’s 99.99% I’ve just pig butchered by online scammers. Yes, I knew bitcoin pretty well, but I did not know well about “Pig butchering scam” and other common online scamming techniques until now.

Starting with my current situation, I got approx. “600k USDT” in a sketchy trading/exchange site based in Asia. Now I believe this number is fake, it’s just displayed on the screen, and there’s no real money. However, if you convert this number to bitcoin, it’s worth more than 5.5 BTC.

Previously, I was able to withdraw $3,500 worth of bitcoin from this exchange. But when I tried to withdraw more than 1BTC, it failed. And this time, it failed again.

So, I contacted the “Customer Service.”

Then, an agent wrote that I had a low credit score, so I must make it up to withdraw my funds. In short, what the agent asked me was to top up the deposit amount to 75,000 USDT by December 26, 0:00AM in Singapore time, in order to withdraw my funds.

I don’t have such a large amount of money, and it’s likely a scam. But, could a miracle happen if I top it up? Who knows. My online friend who introduced me to this trading site and interacted with me by text chat told me it had worked for him, but how can I trust? This person never mentioned about the “Credit Scores” to me, although cautioned me “Do not withdraw funds frequently as you may end up paying a lot of fees to take out a large amount.”

The exchange site even has a convincing Credit Score page, which I was not aware of until yesterday..

And the agent gave me a USDT address for me to send 75K USDT to unlock my 600K funds.

The payment deadline is:
DEC 25. 2024 8:00 AM in PST, DEC 26, 2024, 0:00AM in SPT. The agent told me I only have 7 business days to meet the credit score requirement to withdraw my funds.

At this point, I believe there is zero chance to get back my funds even if I paid out that USDT to them.

I want to spread this information far and wide, so other people don’t have to go through troubles like I did. I don’t have time to write details of the Romance scam part, but the con artist has done the job so well to make me believe what I wanted to believe in a very short time. It was so typical that just after a month it became an apparent lie.

It is a real pain to lose such a big amount of money right before the holiday season, and the deposit deadline is right on Christmas Day! But I take this as a life lesson and will move on. Most important things in life are love, hope, and peace. Also healthy body and mind. Money can be made again. I do not have to be a rich to enjoy my life.

I want to emphasize that Bitcoin does not betray us. Bitcoin does not disappoint us. It’s our ego, human errors, or betrayal of ourselves, that causes bad consequences!

Later, I may add more details on this case as it involves both ROMANCE & CRYPTO SCAMS that caught me off guard. Life is never ending fun!

Thank you for reading this story in your precious time. When Bitcoin and Crypto values go up, more scammers become active and use their professional & organization skills to get money out of our pockets. Please be careful and don’t be a fool like me.

I wish I had a chance to view this video before all this happened to me! If you never heard of '‘Pig Butchering Scams”, please take a look.

- Background story -

Things started after being a single mom, not dating for 10 years, and a colleague recommend me to try out online dating. Yes, I am a middle-aged woman and better to find a life-partner to enjoy life together and support each other. However, because I have been involved in Bitcoin for some time, I was thinking of how to find someone who understands that aspect of my life!

Anyway, I joined an online matching site for those who look for serious long-term relationship and found a man with some photos and descriptions I liked. So, I contacted him. He was the first person I connected with through the online service.

Funny thing was that this man soon told me in an upset tone that he was almost caught in a crypto scam in which a lady had asked him to buy some shitcoins. So, I revealed that I had a good knowledge of “cryptocurrencies” and told him such kind of scamming, selling shitcoins to strangers, upset me.

Now, he has started talking about his years of experience in BTC trading and his successful results making 10 times more money than his annual income. He also stated that he supports Bitcoin and admires Satoshi Nakamoto. He sounded well-educated, had a good understanding of the current “money” problems, and was having a pretty good life.

Previously, I never traded any of my Bitcoin. If it’s not in my cold storage or in my own (non-custodial) wallet, the coins are no longer mine. I knew the risk of having my funds in an exchange site. But when I heard “you’ve been in Bitcoin for some years, and still not wealthy? That’s a problem. Trading can help you get out of your current situation and improve your life quality much faster,” my mind shifted.

My online friend introduced me to BTC option trading. He was very patient and gave me step by step instructions using screenshots. First, he asked me to try out with a small amount, like $300. The reward was 10%. I saw a 10% increase in my account. My money was now $330. Repeated the same process a few times. He also presented me his trading results in screenshots, in which he invested 100-200x more money than I did and made large profits. After this, he showed me how to withdraw my funds from the trading/exchange site, and I was able to get my money out.

Soon, I was asked to increase the funds to 2k or 3k, so that I could profit more. Then, I was asked to raise it to 50k and so on. I didn’t have cash, but I had some bitcoin for funding. At the end, the total “investment” amount was like 150k. I was impressed at myself that my bitcoin value in terms of USD increased so much over time. And now, I am about to lose it all. Or, technically, I have lost them all because I don’t have access to it anyway…

Thanks again for taking the time to read my story! Please stay cautious and safe, especially if you are a member of a bitcoin group either in-person or online!

Wishing you happy holidays & a wonderful New Year!

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