In the shiny world of virtual currency, not every glitter is gold. Mr. Li, an elderly man from Kaohsiung, is a victim of the dark side behind this glitter. He thought he had made huge returns from his investment in virtual currency, only to realize at the last moment that he had fallen into a carefully set trap by scammers.
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Staking retirement savings: Thought to have made 20 million
Profit 27 times on the app, but verification fee required for withdrawal
Truth revealed after reporting to the police
Teenager referred to juvenile court
Mr. Li, a 73-year-old man from Kaohsiung, joined a virtual currency investment group in early January this year and was encouraged by people in the group to download an application called “AI Trading Wizard.” This app claims to automatically handle investments, and Mr. Li trusted it completely and subsequently invested his retirement savings of 820,000 NT dollars in batches.
As the Lunar New Year approached, Mr. Li saw that his account balance on the app had reached a staggering 22.45 million NT dollars, nearly 27 times the profit. When he wanted to withdraw the profit, the other party demanded a “verification fee” of 450,000 NT dollars, which made Mr. Li, who had planned to have a prosperous New Year, begin to feel uneasy.
With the advice of his family, Mr. Li decided to seek help from the police. Subsequently, with the assistance of the police, a counterfeit money transaction was conducted at a coffee shop in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung City, successfully exposing this fraud group. Surprisingly, the fraudster turned out to be a 17-year-old teenager who claimed to have only been hired to carry out tasks.
The case was eventually transferred to the Kaohsiung Juvenile and Family Court for prosecution on charges of fraud, once again reminding the public to remain vigilant in the field of virtual currency investment and not to easily believe in so-called high-return promises to avoid falling into the traps set by scammers.
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“Criminal penalties for fraud are too lenient! Lawyers and police officers are changing careers” Public calls for the government to form a national debt collection team: Five major financial fraud cases expose rampant fraud in Taiwan
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AI Trading Wizard
Virtual currency
Verification fee
Further reading:
New Taipei City Police Bureau’s “Operation Cut-Off” yields impressive results, arresting over a hundred members of fraud groups and seizing nearly 200 million virtual currency
Kaohsiung police officers involved in billion-dollar virtual currency fraud group, breakthrough in case by prosecutors