Police are warning potential investors to be cautious of cryptocurrency schemes, after a Sunshine Coast man was scammed out of $100,000 through an online trading platform.
From October 2021, the 54-year-old man invested $50,000 into a cryptocurrency online investment scheme, which offered people an opportunity to profit through a legitimate trading platform.
However, the account had been set up by scammers.
The scheme was devised to make the victim believe the trades and profits were genuine, when in fact the data was misleading.
As part of the scam, the man was informed he would not be able to draw on the false profits for a 12 month period.
After six months of being led to believe the scheme was genuine through online education and training, the victim was convinced to invest another $50,000 into the scam with an offer to increase his level of investor membership to Platinum.
The original account was set up by the scammers through a legitimate online platform, meaning the scammers also had withdrawal access under the provisions of the account.
Senior Sergeant Craig Mansfield, from Sunshine Coast Criminal Investigation Branch, said this type of fraud occurred around the world.
“Victims need to be aware of jurisdiction issues and the anonymity of crypto account holders,” he said.
“In this instance, the victim did not set the online trading coin wallet up, so it’s believed the withdrawals were undertaken by anonymous entities shortly after…
