Five Victims Lose $10 Million in a Spoofed Crypto Domain Scam

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Five Victims Lose $10 Million in a Spoofed Crypto Domain Scam
  • Five victims fell prey to a crypto scam that involved spoofed domains of the former Singaporean Exchange Simex.
  • The victims residing in the U.S. lost more than $10 million.
  • The scammers created seven pseudonymous domains of the former Simex.

Five victims fell prey to a new crypto scam that involved spoofed domains of the former Singapore International Monetary Exchange (Simex). The victims, residing in the U.S. lost more than $10 million.

Preliminary investigations reveal that the scammers bait the victims by tricking them into taking part in a crypto scam where they invested in phony platforms and had their money drawn into private wallets. According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the incident happened between May and August of this year.

Furthermore, to make the victims believe that it was a legit scheme, the scammers created seven pseudonymous domains of the former Simex, which was merged with two other companies in 1999 to form the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

While making more clarification, an SGX spokesman said that ever since the merger, Simex has not operated under the mentioned name.

The spokesman further added:

SGX Group does not operate any investment platform, including a platform for individuals to trade crypto-products or any other investment product. Investors can access SGX-listed products only via a licensed broker which will have its own investment platform.

According to the DOJ, the victims would first come into contact with the con artists on dating apps or social media websites. After sending a text message that they claimed to have sent to the wrong number, the scammers would occasionally introduce themselves. Later the scammers build rapport and gradually gain their trust before pitching the notion of investing in a business utilizing cryptocurrencies.

After the trap has been set, the victims are convinced to make investments. Once the money has been transferred to the fictitious investment program, the con artist vanishes with all the money.

In other news, two individuals in Estonia were accused of defrauding “hundreds of thousands of victims through a multi-faceted scheme” which cost the victims nearly $575 million.

The culprits claimed that between 2015 and 2019, their Bitcoin mining company, HashFlare, offered contracts that would allegedly allow users to rent a portion of the company’s mining activities in exchange for the Bitcoin earned. However, all of these contracts were revealed to be fake.

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