Action Fraud, The UK’s national fraud helpline, recently released figures showing more than 1200 would be investors in the UK lost an unbelievable £15 million in Bitcoin related scams between March 2018 and March 2019, a total that averages out at over £41,000 per day.
Even more incredibly Action Fraud’s report claims that many of the victims were hit twice, firstly by the initial scam and then by a second scam whereby they were contacted by different fraudsters who told them they could get their money back for a fee.
One of the most famous of the recent cases reported involved a Facebook ad apparently backed by Dragon’s Den star Deborah Meaden. One victim acted on the ad, provided her bank details and invested £300 … or so she thought.
The following day she found the criminals behind the promotion had taken £8,000 from her account.
If the investor had been a little more savvy and done some due diligence before providing her banking details she would have almost certainly come across at least one of the warnings issued about that particular ‘company’ by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They had repeatedly publicised that company was not only regulated but almost certainly a scam.
However for us it doesn’t come as any sort of shock that investors in the UK have been caught out so many times and for so much money by Bitcoin scams.
The scammers are getting cuter in terms of the diversity of and creativity employed by their scams. More and more are using celebrity and regulatory endorsements to use make them look more credible. However they also know they have a very soft target market.
At the turn of the year the FCA released research showing most of the people investing in cryptocurrency don’t understand what they are investing in. Coupled to that the press coverage of huge wins and snowballing values will always appeal to the greed of a raft of would be crypto investors.
If you are interested in investing in bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency we’d suggest you follow our 5 very simple tips before even considering providing any payment or payment details:
- If a company’s promises/research/marketing sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- If what you’re reading is packed with confusing jargon and acronyms, don't trust it. You should only ever invest in something you understand.
- If the offer is piggy-backing on public figure, a well-known company or a past successes, do some research to make sure that link is genuine.
- If the marketing you’ve received/seen just repeats a limited cycle of recent PR, be wary.
- Check out the online chatter surrounding an offer and if it isn’t 100% positive don’t get involved.
If you still find yourself the victim of a bitcoin scam, talk to us. We are one of the very few law firms who specialise in helping clients recover the funds they’ve lost in bitcoin, cryptocurrency and every other type of digital investment frauds. As such we have a long, successful and demonstrable track record of resolving cryptocurrency disputes based on both our legal reading and the considerable knowledge of the increasingly sophisticated way cyber criminals are structuring and presenting their scams.
And that’s probably tip number 6. If the lawyers you talk to can’t demonstrate that level of understanding and point to a significant number of previous successes, you should be talking to us!
If you are a victim of a bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital scam and would like to find out how to recover your losses, please call us today on 020 7792 5649 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
We will help.
