The scammer asked the victim to allow remote computer access, then collected sensitive information to borrow large sums of money in his name. Victims are harassed and threatened hundreds of times to continue investing. Two men used to come to his house to get more money. A representative from Nottingham Police said it was investigating the incident. Bitcoin investment scams are happening more and more as the pandemic breaks out. Photo: Napoli Shkolnik. “Investment scams have increased dramatically since the outbreak of the pandemic. That’s not surprising because many people assume that most of life will take place on a computer or phone… More Internet usage means more scammers have a great opportunity to reach victims We recommend anyone who wants to invest to do their own research first, check every detail before transferring money or sharing personal information… Guys Scammers often put up ads that look professional and trustworthy, with pictures of celebrities that make people think it’s a legitimate investment,” Beach said. A Nottingham police representative advised people to double-check information if invited to invest via call, email or social media. The warning from Nottingham comes after British authorities launched a new campaign, urging people to be on the lookout for investment offers, to report immediately if there are signs of fraud. In May, a woman in the UK was scammed more than $12,000 after reading an article titled “Tesla buys $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, plans to give away $750 million worth of Bitcoin” on the BBC. fake. The article urges readers to send a Bitcoin to an e-wallet, after which “Mr. Musk” will double the amount. After sending over $12,000 worth of Bitcoins with no response, this woman realized she had been scammed. She said this is the money saved to buy a new house. How harmful is Bitcoin to the environment? To mine Bitcoin, one needs a lot of miners that work 24/7. The carbon footprint of Bitcoin mining is equivalent to Argentina’s entire carbon footprint.

Professor, Doctor of Science Tran Duy Quy, Director of the Asia-Pacific Institute of Science and Technology Cooperation and Chairman of the Vietnam Orchid Association, said the above price is not virtual. “With mutant orchids such as: Lan Vinh Khang, Dai Cat, Ngoc Son Cuoc…, if you achieve all the strictest elements of a beautiful orchid, the price will fluctuate from 1-10 billion VND/cm kie. (seedlings develop from the eyes of the mother plant)”, Mr. Quy said. How much does a mutant orchid cost? “There is no set price for mutant orchids. The expensiveness of a mutant orchid depends on the rarity and beauty of each plant,” Quy said and said that there are about 35,000 species of orchids in the world, about 1,010 species in Vietnam alone, while mutant orchids have about 100 varieties. According to the professor, not every mutation will be expensive. There are mutant orchid varieties costing only a few tens of thousands of dong such as: Hac Vy Trang, Phi Diep Trang… These are popular orchids in the playing community and market, easy to find in nature, widely propagated. cobble. Orchid currently has about 35,000 different types in the world. Photo: Hainan. Meanwhile, Dai Ngan Butterfly, Juliet, Ngoc Son Cuoc, Pleiku Eyes… are some mutant orchids with very expensive market prices. The reason explained by Mr. Quy is that these orchids are created by nature over millions of years, and at the same time, the flowers that grow from these orchids reach perfection on very strict criteria. As an example of the white 5-petal mutant orchid Phu Tho, the President of the Vietnam Orchid Association said this orchid was found by a Central Circus in 1972 in Phu Tho. Then, they hand it over to the indigenous people to cultivate. “Currently, there are five white-petaled white berries in Phu Tho that are valued at 400-500 million VND/cm. But to have this price, the flowers from the tree must be perfect,” said Mr. Quy. Specifically, the tree structure must be clean – green (ie, no stains, no other colors); cotton must be pure white or clear as jade; horizontal “shoulder” – “wing” gourd; “eyes” are scratched like a girl’s eyelashes or must be very dark; hairy “lips”; The distinctive and special seductive fragrance “nose” must be so clean and white as snow. The “parts” of an orchid. Photo: HN When meeting the above criteria, according to Mr. Quy, a 5-petal white Phu Tho orchid can be sold for hundreds of billions of dong, depending on the height of the tree. “There are flowering mutant orchids that achieve all the requirements such as horizontal shoulders, gourd wings, fragrance… But if the nose of white flowers will cost a few billion, the nose of other crops will only be a few hundred thousand.” Mr. Quy shared. The professor said that currently, Vietnam has no council or agency or organization that accepts responsibility for pricing orchids. The price will be evaluated and given by the people in the playing community. The more people rate beautiful flowers, the higher the price. Therefore, recently, when the spread of orchids “bloomed”, the demand for orchids increased dramatically, leading to the price of orchids being “blown” higher than the real value. Mr. Quy said that this situation will decrease and end when the sudden supply of orchids balances with demand. Being deceived because of cheap greed, gullible gullibility According to the President of the Vietnam Orchid Association, there are two types of mutant orchids, natural mutations and artificial mutations. Natural mutation is a change in the nature of genes but occurs naturally, accumulated over millions of years and selected by nature, retaining the essence. Humans when finding this natural mutant will often use and propagate it. At the same time, the natural mutant orchid lines will have a very expensive price because of its rarity. Meanwhile, artificially mutated orchids are essentially changes to the plant’s genome but are influenced by humans. This has the disadvantage that the mutation in the gene can disappear and return to the original form (due to rapid artificialification, the gene structure is not stable). In addition, artificial mutations also have a very low probability of success, depending heavily on luck. “Artificial mutant orchid creators often orient mutations according to inherent standards such as horizontal shoulders, gourd wings, clean nose… But the results are rarely perfect, successful mutations but not recognized”, Mr. Quy shared. In the picture is kie lan (seedlings develop from the eyes of the mother plant). Photo: Hainan. Talking about the situation of scams when transactions spread suddenly recently, the professor said that people who are deceived are often greedy, inexperienced and gullible. “Scammers often use social networks to advertise. They take pictures, attach the name of mutant orchids and then sell them. These scammers often never dare to publicly disclose the exact name or address of the garden.” Mr. Quy commented when talking about transaction frauds spreading through the network. As for many cases, the victims went to the garden to see the mutant orchids with their own eyes, but when they bought the kies, they discovered they were cheated, Professor Quy said that the buyers were inexperienced. “It is not possible to detect or distinguish mutant orchids from normal orchids through kies. All kies are the same, only when flowering will they know if it is a mutant orchid or not,” the professor recommended. Experts give advice when dealing with orchids that need a paper contract, must find reputable places, come to the garden to see the tree and have the testimony of many people.

“The desire to get rich quick makes new investors vulnerable to scammers. Authorities may not have the resources to deal with all cases.” Investors’ Chronicle comment. Action Fraud data shows that in 2020, crypto-related scams in the UK increased by 57% year-on-year to 5,581. Not to mention the scams that have not yet been reported. In January 2021, the number of fraud cases doubled from the same period in 2020 to 720 cases, or 23 cases per day. Scammers have more and more sophisticated tricks to scam cryptocurrencies. Photo: Reuters. Losing hundreds of millions of dollars According to sources of Investors’ Chronicle , victims in the UK lost 113 million GBP ($159.62 million) last year. A common tactic used by scammers is soliciting calls and other forms. In January 2021 alone, victims lost about 14.3 million GBP ($20.2 million), which means that each scam stole about 20,000 GBP (28,251 USD). Bitcoin price skyrocketed, many investors began to accept Bitcoin as a safe investment. That pushes crypto investment companies to come up with a bunch of new tricks to entice customers. Many scammers are also quick to seize the opportunity. They use online platforms and advertisements that can bypass the regulator. Back in 2018, Facebook and Google banned all Bitcoin advertising on their platforms. The reason is that many advertisements are used to mislead investors. However, since then, both companies have been repeatedly implicated in accusations of deceptive advertisements on their websites. In January 2021, the number of crypto-related scams doubled from the same period in 2020 to 720 cases, or 23 cases per day. In July 2020, scammers raised $100,000 after hacking several popular Twitter accounts and posting notices that they would pay double if followers sent Bitcoins to an anonymous Bitcoin address. According to reports, some calls even asked elderly people to invest in fake cryptocurrency schemes. Not only attracting young investors, Bitcoin is becoming more and more widely recognized. Research by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) indicates 22% of crypto investors are over the age of 55 in 2020, compared to just 7% in 2019. “There are a lot of opportunities for crypto scams. Some people have made a fortune in crypto and that attracts vulnerable investors,” said Sam Tate at law firm RPC. Desire to get rich The prices of Bitcoin and Ether – the world’s two most popular cryptocurrencies – have surged in recent months. Bitcoin is up 95% year-to-date, while Ether is up 480%. Even Dogecoin – the cryptocurrency that started as a joke – has increased in price by more than 10,000% since January 1, 2021. The skyrocketing price momentum caused investors to flock to cryptocurrencies even without really understanding them. According to a recent survey by Harris Pol, most Americans who have heard of cryptocurrencies do not fully understand them. About 61% of people admit they don’t understand, or understand very little about how they work. On March 30, an investor named Phillipe Christodoulou reported that he had lost 17.1 Bitcoins (equivalent to $600,000 at the time) in his digital wallet. Specifically, after downloading an app rated nearly 5 stars on the App Store, Mr. Christodoulou lost all of his Bitcoins in less than a second. The app pretends to be the manufacturer of crypto storage devices Treznor, although in fact has no affiliation with this company. UK-based Coinfirm, a company that specializes in investigating cryptocurrency scams, revealed that it has received more than 7,000 requests from people who have had their crypto stolen since October 2019. Ether and Bitcoin prices skyrocket in 2021. The fake apps are mainly in the Google Play Store for Android and Apple’s App Store, according to Pawel Aleksander, Coinfirm’s chief information officer. Coinfirm said five people reported having their crypto stolen by the fake Trezor iOS app, with a total loss of $1.6 million. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also warned that cryptocurrencies are a “particular concern” and are often used for illicit financial activities such as money laundering. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand recently proposed a new rule that could force individual investors to have certain knowledge about cryptocurrencies before being allowed to open a trading account. According to Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England (BoE), cryptocurrencies “have no intrinsic value” and investors should prepare for a loss mentality. “Cryptocurrencies may have external value but no intrinsic value. Only invest in it when you are ready to lose all your money,” Bailey said at a press conference. Scammers try to convince their victims that they are knowledgeable and professional, which can yield great returns with little investment and effort. Sanjay Andersen However, according to Investors’ Chronicle , the authorities may not have the resources to deal with Bitcoin-related scams on social media. “The question is whether there are enough resources available for crypto criminals. Where does the additional funding to tackle crypto scams come from?” asked Mr. Tate at RPC. “UK regulators and partners like the Financial Conduct Authority understand that investment fraud has a serious impact on victims’ finances and confidence,” said Director of the Department of State Affairs Sanjay Andersen. British National Fraud newspaper confirmed. “We work closely together to stop the criminal activity, shut down the websites and bank accounts of the people behind the scams and bring them to the dock,” he stressed. “Scammers try to convince their victims that they are knowledgeable and professional, and can yield great returns with little investment and effort,” commented Mr Andersen. “But remember, if a deal seems too good to be true, it could be a scam,” he added.

According to Mr. Phan Vinh (Linh Nam, Hanoi), about a week ago, he was constantly tagged (marked) on posts on the social network Facebook. All of these posts have the same content related to an accident. In addition to information about the victim’s name, the article also includes a link for users to verify for themselves. “I know many people with the same name as the victim, the post is not full, so I can’t be sure who it is. Moreover, I didn’t know who the person tagged me, so I ignored those posts,” Vinh said. Users need to be wary of being tagged in Facebook posts by strangers. Photo: Trong Dat Vinh made a correct decision because if he clicked on the link, he would most likely be turned into a victim of scammers. This is not a new trick when many crooks intentionally create a fake website and trick users into accessing it. Once you click on the link attached to the article, you will be asked to log in (usually with a Facebook or Google account) to continue viewing the content. At this time, the bad guys will have their account passwords in hand to use them for impure purposes. In addition to the risk of losing the account, the victim also has the risk of revealing personal information, sensitive images, … Not only that, the bad guy can also cheat through the victim’s account Island borrow money from their friends. Usually, phishing posts have a familiar motif, with content that piqued the user’s curiosity. These posts are often accompanied by a link to another website. This is the first feature that users need to pay attention to. Bad guys often use links impersonating news agencies to trick users into accessing fake websites. Photo: Trong Dat Users also need to be wary of being tagged by strange accounts. If you see a post tagged with a large number of users (usually 99 people), absolutely do not click on the link because it is definitely a scam content. In addition, if you accidentally visit a strange link, users should not log in to their Facebook, Google, bank accounts, etc. when they receive a request, no matter what website. In fact, bad guys often use a fake website with a realistic interface to steal information, especially passwords for Facebook accounts, banks, … Therefore, users should only log in. sensitive accounts when actively accessing the websites of those services themselves. To be more careful, with websites related to financial and banking services, users should star (bookmark) these websites on the bookmarks bar of the browser. When someone asks you to borrow money on Facebook, don’t trust it, call that person directly (or through another app) to verify this information. Only with such vigilance, can users escape the “claw” of online scammers.

A mother of five, named Danielle Churchill, from southern Sydney was one of them. Struggling with raising five children, along with the hefty expenses for an autistic child, Churchill tried to apply for support through GoFundMe but was not as satisfactory. In that situation, Churchill received a text message from a person calling himself MacKenzie Scott late last year, offering to assist her every problem. According to the announcement, the ex-wife of the Amazon boss was then deciding to give away half of her fortune, and Churchill was lucky enough to be eligible to receive the money. To verify it, Churchill typed in Scott’s name and the phrase “phishing” on Google. But what she found was that billionaire Scott was actually making the move to spend money on hundreds of nonprofit groups. According to the process, to receive the money, Ms. Churchill must fill out a “membership form” from the charity claiming to be the MacKenzie Scott Foundation, then set up an online account at the Investor Bank and Trust Company. . At that time, a notice said $ 250,000 had been deposited into the account, and asked Churchill to register for a tax identification number and pay a fee to receive the money. Just like that, Churchill was subtly pickpocketed. A series of sites and organizations impersonate former billionaire Jeff Bezos’ wife to make a profit. Photo: Chris Koehler Although Churchill was cautious and actively investigated, the opponent quickly gave convincing evidence to all questions. In fact, throughout 2020, billionaire Scott claims to have charitable with nearly $ 6 billion in his fortune. Her unique dedication model is praised by many for its quickness and directness. However, this makes the female billionaire easy to be impersonated by scammers. Unbeknownst to Churchill then, there was no MacKenzie Scott Foundation. And the Investor Bank and Trust Company, once headquartered in Boston, transformed into the State Street Corporation more than a decade ago. She thought she was dealing with billionaire Scott and his team of assistants, but in reality Churchill was dealing with a sophisticated, adept group of scammers hunting for difficult subjects. In Churchill’s case, the banking channel provided, and Facebook or WhatsApp pages were fake. The use of cryptocurrency applications Bitcoin is also exploited to profit up to about 7,900 USD. This makes the victim unable to get the claim back through the bank or card company as usual. An Israeli-based email security company, Ironscales, said messages impersonating Scott’s billionaire representative were released and sent to more than 190,000 customer email accounts. The incident arose right after the ex-wife of billionaire Jeff Bezos announced the charity amount reached nearly $ 4.2 billion on December 15 last year. As for the victim, it was only after opening a bank account that did not exist did Churchill learn of the other victims. Marti DeLiema, a professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, said scam tricks via text messaging announcing charity payments are being exploited by bad actors. “Scott’s huge fundraiser has created a hole for the bad guys to take advantage of.” Even people who have actually received donations are even using their names to scam. Or the websites of the US Small Business Administration being copied, impersonating the Federal Trade Commission … Websites and facebook impersonating the billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott sprung up to seduce and deceive victims. Photo: NYtimes. In fact, billionaire Scott has donated most of his wealth to organizations, universities, food banks and frontline charities, rather than giving money to individuals. Besides, the former writer also does not have an official Facebook and Instagram social network account, apart from the Medium page and an authenticated Twitter account. And all fees to receive funding are unwarranted. Scott’s representative declined to comment on fraudulent activities on behalf of billionaire ex-wife Jeff Bezos.