Crypto

The CFTC believes that Debiex, a cryptocurrency exchange, lost $2.3 million due to alleged romance scams.

The US watchdog referred to Debiex as a “bogus digital asset platform” and brought civil claims against the exchange for allegedly embezzling money. Exchange of cryptocurrencies Regulators in the United States are investigating Debiex, claiming that top employees set up intimate ties with prospective clients in order to steal their money.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) revealed in a statement released on January 19 that Debiex employees were accused of deceiving prospective customers in order to win their trust and then persuade them to create accounts with the cryptocurrency exchange.

Debiex purportedly stole the money for their own benefit, despite having promised clients that their money would be put in cryptocurrency:

“Debiex’s unidentified officers and/or managers allegedly developed amicable or romantic relationships with prospective customers by communicating falsehoods to gain trust, and then encouraged them to open and fund trading accounts with Debiex,” according to the CFTC’s complaint.

Over $2 million was allegedly stolen through the pig slaughtering operation, according to the regulator, even though only five victims were found throughout the two-year period.

According to the statement, “it’s alleged Debiex accepted and misappropriated approximately $2.3 million from approximately five customers as part of this scheme from approximately March 2022 through the present.”

Valentine’s Day is just a few weeks away, therefore people are advised to exercise caution when February 14th draws near. Connecting cryptocurrency wallets or registering for cryptocurrency services through romantic relationships should be avoided.

According to a report from February 2022, the FBI alerted the public to the growing number of romance scammers who try to convince people to send money in order to invest in cryptocurrency around the week of Valentine’s Day.

Romance scammers have been using the rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies in recent years to trick and take advantage of victims for financial gain.

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance faced criticism in May 2023 after a Texas lady claimed the platform should have paid the man who had defrauded her of $8 million. On Tinder, this relationship was first started. She maintained that Binance was complicit as it gave the con artist exchange services

Judge Amos Mazzant of the United States, however, concluded that there was insufficient proof to link Binance to the crime.

However, in recent times, romance scammers have shifted from the conventional approach of cultivating trust via protracted conversations on dating apps to a quicker technique to drain money.

Targeted approval phishing was mentioned as a new strategy used by romance fraudsters in December 2023. This entails coercing the victim into signing a document, opening wallets to scammers, and allowing them to quickly syphon off money.

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