Cryptoharian – A Canadian citizen named Stephen Carr, who lives in Meaford, Ontario, said he lost all his life savings. The reason is that the value of the savings which almost reached US$500,000 (7.5 billion rupees) disappeared after being trapped in a cryptography scheme on YouTube.

After investigation, the scammer also used video sharing sites more than once to tempt his victims. Some of these crimes included posting fake recordings of high profile people including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates and Kanye West, apparently promoting fake cryptocurrency investments.

At first, the Canadian did not find anything suspicious in the promotional video. He then contacted related people and started investing $250. Soon after, he again deposited $2,500.

After some time, Carr made a withdrawal of US$1,000. The entity immediately agreed, to convince Carr that the scheme was not illegal. Then, between October 2022 and January 2023, he invested almost US$500,000 (all his life’s savings).

Doubts first arose when he saw his fund reach US$1.3 million and asked to withdraw some of it. However, the entity insisted that if Carr wanted to make a withdrawal, he would have to pay a liquidation fee of US$150,000.

“I was duped, and when you think about it, I put a lot of money into it and trusted those people,” Carr said ruefully.

He also confessed that the scam forced him to sell his house so he could put his life in order. Carr said he wanted to share his story so others can take care and not repeat his mistakes.

A similar experience happened with Jason Tschetter, an Alberta resident who was also scammed in a similar scheme last year and recently started Fraud Hunters Canada (an organization that supports victims and helps them recover their funds).

He pointed out that criminals have turned cryptocurrency scams into “real businesses”, while police lack the time and skills to track down and catch the perpetrators.

“Unfortunately many people will experience anger, depression and denial. They will even try to negotiate with the scammers but it won’t work. I have spoken to several recovery companies but many of them are in the same situation and are even wrong,” Tschetter said.