Binary Options have been around a long time. However, the current variation is quite sophisticated and targets sophisticated, intelligent people by convincing them to invest significant amounts of money based on a high frequency trading system that has a “human” element and “technical analysis” that makes you think it is a sure thing. It starts by the scammer meeting the victim on a social media channel (ie. Instagram or Facebook) who tells the victim about the strategy and when the scammer has gained the victims trust, they then invite the victim to a fake crypto exchange and proceed to drain their account. Here are key points we have identified about this particular scam to help you recognize the scam::
- Appearance. The scammer is almost always a Chinese man or woman who is attractive, single, widowed and either lives in the individuals country, is in China or somewhere abroad.
- Lifestyle. The scammer is almost always a chinese individual who dabbles in cryptocurrency as a hobby. Alot of times they are single and looking for a relationship, other times they are looking to make friends and help their new friends achieve financial indpendence. They will claim to donate a portion of their monthly profits to charity to show they like to give back and make one feel that they don’t take advantage of people.
- Trading. The scammer tells the victim about a sophisticated trading strategy that requires a lot of capital to ensure that profit is preserved and losses are minimized. Further assurances are provided through a so-called human intervention and deep technical analysis that is added to the strategy. They will talk about candles, provide the individual with many charts and graphs, etc. to convince the individual being scammed that the scammer has a deep understanding of the crypto markets and their advice and recommendations can be trusted. This is a key part of the scam because it makes the individual think that everything is real.
- The Fake Exchange. The scammer introduces victims to a fake crypto exchange does Binary Options trading. Binary Options are banned in many countries around the world because the system controls when the option is sold. This is no different than how a roulette wheel in a casino works. People place their bets and once the bets are placed, no one can cancel their bets until the outcome has been decided.
- The scammer has had affiliation with the fake crypto exchange for several years and may even purport themselves to be a financial group that holds investment in the fake exchange. They will usually back this up with charts, graphs or pictures that seem to demonstrate legitimacy. They may even present fake documents to the individual to establish trust. They may even claim to know someone of importance in the platform to further establish trust with the individual.
- Customer Service. The fake exchange almost always have people who are available 24/7 to answer the questions and “help” users with the platform. Most often these people use WhatsApp to communicate with people because it is encrypted and can’t be traced and it is very easy to get a phone number anywhere in the world these days
- The Giveaway. In order to entice people to the fake exchange, they will commonly have some sort of incentive to nudge people into bringing larger amounts of money to the platform. The larger the amount, the larger the bonus. And as an additional incentive they will even say that the individual will get an additional bonus (10% of total amount being remitted) just by telling them in advance.
- Friends and Family. After some time has passed, the scammer will ask the individual to get funds from family and friends as either investment or loan to make the investment on the fake exchange grow even faster. The scammer will convince the individual that this is a good thing to do and that any loans will be paid back in a very short period of time
- Withdrawals. Someone is able to always withdraw small amounts from the account but never more than a % of what was invested. If someone wants to withdraw more, the “Customer Service” will almost always have a reason why the system won’t do it and it is always something to do with the user (ie. it is the user’s fault for doing something wrong).
- Account Locking. This is when the scam is over and the scammers have decided that they are done with the individual. In just about all cases, they demand at least 15% of what is in the account (not what was invested) in order to unlock the account. It is explained as being taxes, an audit mechanism or something else that is meant to make the individual think it is legitimate but it is not.
- Bullying. Throughout the scam, the scammer and the “Customer Service” conspire to pressure the individual to remit funds with threats of legal action, damages to credit reports and even threats of posting anything on the Internet that the individual wants to remain private. One example is the giveaway whereby the user makes in this case an appointment. If the user can’t complete the appointment they not only threaten to immediately lock the account but also threaten legal action for breaking the appointment contract.
- High Pressure. When the account has been locked, the scammers will try to extort more money out of the individual as a last ditch attempt by giving the individual one final opportunity by telling them that if they don’t remit what is being asked, the individual voluntarily forfeits the account and everything within it. They will string you along for a very long time in hopes that the individual will remit additional funds, clinging onto some false hope that everything will be right and the account will be restored.