DELAWARE – The Delaware Department of Justice says that its Investor Protection Unit has issued a cease and desist to respondents linked to a cryptocurrency scam known as the “pig butchering scam.”
The department says the scam is a twist on the typical romance scam: a long term fraud where victims make investments over time. They say victims believe they are making safe investments, but are actually being scammed. According to the department, the scam has cost Americans billions of dollars.
The department says the unit received a complaint from a senior who invested around $275,000 in retirement funds using bybit dot us, a fake website that mimics a real cryptocurrency exchange, bybit.com.
Working with a digital analytics company, officials say the unit was able to track where the receiving crypto wallets were being managed, and requested the site freeze the wallets from holding assets belonging to Delaware owners.
“High-tech con artists have adapted traditional romance scam methods to take advantage of the hype surrounding cryptocurrency,” AG Jennings said. “The use of crypto to commit fraud, while increasingly common, presents new challenges for law enforcement. Today’s order takes a first step toward protecting Delaware investors from the pig butchering scam by freezing funds belonging to the victim.”
Not only that, the department says this is the second time that the Unit has issued an order to freeze crypto lost by this scam. It’s impacting people with increasing frequency, which is why the unit provides the following tips:
- Be wary of someone you don’t know contacting you through any virtual platform looking to engage in frequent conversations.
- Don’t get drawn into online conversations with unknown people who claim to have made a lot of money in cryptocurrency.
- Remember that there is no such thing as a risk-free investment. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
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