Without a happy ending, this is the story of Steve Belcher, a 52-year-old native of Denver, USA, who was the victim of a cryptocurrency scam.
The Denver crypto scam
It all started just over a month ago when Steve decided to download a dating app after moving to be closer to his children.
He came across a woman, Shikuka Suzuki, who seemed to have a lot of interests in common with Belcher right away.
The two start chatting but never meet in person.
In one of their conversations, they begin to talk about cryptocurrency investments, in particular about a project that at that moment seemed like a great opportunity not to be missed.
Steve was convinced to invest in the platform. First, by depositing small amounts and only later, sure of the operation of the same, moving on the protocol large amounts of money coming directly from his pension fund.
In this way, the man manages to deposit about 1.6 million dollars.
After about a month, Steve’s balance was 8 million dollars.
So for a short period, as Belcher himself says in an interview, the man believed he had made one of the best decisions of his life.
The problem came, however, when Steve tried to cash out.
In fact, the platform immediately rejected this request, which alarmed the 50-year-old.
It only took Belcher a few hours and some thorough research to realize that he had been the victim of a scam.
A big cryptocurrency scam that cost the man $1.6 million, his entire life savings.
Reporting scams
The FBI claims to have received more than 1,800 complaints related to crypto-romantic scams, with losses exceeding $133 million between January and July.
In Denver, local authorities confirm that they have seen a steady increase in cryptocurrency-related scams in recent years.
In 2018, there were 21 victims. In 2019, the number grew to 33 and in 2020 to 51. So far, on the other hand, with only a few days left in 2021, the victims of scams turn out to have been as many as 63.
Faced with such an affair, we can only renew the usual advice: the world of cryptocurrencies is one of the greatest opportunities we have today to achieve financial freedom and escape from the terrible rat race of society, but it is essential to get informed, study and research and only then decide to invest.
The post Denver: loses 1.6 million in a cryptocurrency scam appeared first on The Cryptonomist.
