Australian financial expert “Barefoot Investor” Scott Pape has revealed how he battled crypto scammers who hacked his identity to defraud his followers.
On December 23, The Australian reported that Pape and his team had reported hundreds of fake Facebook groups claiming to be run by his likeness to trick people into cheating.
Pape decided to engage with scammers and explain their methods, rather than wait for Facebook to shut down these groups, which could lead to further scams spreading.
He took on a fake Facebook name and asked the scammers for investment advice.
Within hours of contacting the fake Facebook page, he was asked to share his phone number and then asked to join an “exclusive” WhatsApp group called “DB Welfare Institute.”
Pape found DB Wealth Institute on Google and quickly scanned a number of automated press releases about the “investment firm” and even on Yahoo Finance, Forbes and LinkedIn.
One press release notes that “DB Wealth Institute, founded in 2011 by Professor Killian Miller, offers hands-on financial education and has developed the “AI Financial Navigator 4.0,” which integrates artificial intelligence with big data to improve trading strategies. By 2024, more than 30,000 students from more than ten countries have studied here.”
US regulators and financial authorities have warned of similar scams by “welfare institutions”
Pape added that further research also revealed that many US regulators and financial authorities had warned about fake “wealth institutions” trading cryptocurrency through WhatsApp.
These scams include a “professor” who gives false trading signals to group members in which to invest their money, and an assistant who communicates with investors. Once the group realizes that enough money has been raised, it disappears with the funds, rebrands itself, and then pursues new victims.
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