BERLIN (CoinChapter.com) — Even the most educated and talented individuals can fall prey to a crypto scam, per a scandal emerging from Hong Kong.
Notably, unknown scammers duped a 58-year-old fashion company executive off nearly $765,000 million worth of Hong Kong Dollars. And at the center of this unfortunate episode was a cat. Yes, you heard it right!
In detail, the crypto scammers contacted the victim via WhatsApp and posed as an animal lover from Thailand. They promised a three-month-old kitten for free, and only insurance and transportation fees were to be covered.
The victim reportedly sent the amount in crypto via 40 different transactions, getting suspicious only after the crypto scammers demanded more money. Interestingly, the scammers had earlier claimed that the kitten died during transportation.
They also told the victim could claim insurance for US$152,400.
On Jan 13, another victim of the now romance scam called the Honk-Kongnese police after a con artist stole over HK$9,64 million. He posed as a Korean engineer working in Poland with terminal cancer, claiming he would die if an organ transplant didn’t occur.
Officials have warned crypto scammers across the country and worn citizens to be wary of strangers asking for money.
Main Crypto Scams of 2022
Crypto scams have been raging worldwide, with criminals finding new and elaborated ways to dupe people. Overall, only Americans alone lost $329 million in Q1, 2022.
The 2022 report published by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) states that victims of romance crypto scammers lost $139 million in 2021. And that is only one of many various scams that exist out there.
Some popular scam types include investment, phishing, upgrade, SIM swap, and fake crypto wallets and exchanges.
Another FTC report reveals that most money in the US was lost between January 2021 and March 2022 to Investment scams – $575 million, followed by romance and business imposters, scamming people of $185 million and $93 million, respectively.
Some of the main crypto frauds, scams, and hacks of 2022 alone include the implosion of the FTX exchange, where between $1- $2 billion of customer funds were “lost.”
Presumably, the largest hack in DeFi history was Alex infinity’s Ronin Network, which suffered a $625 million loss in USDC and Ethereum in March 2022.
The second largest hack of 2022 happened in February when a hacker stole $320 million in Ethereum.
In July 2022, investors lost nearly $273 million in the JuicyFields.io scam.
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