I Got Added To Those Cypto Scam/Part Time Job Whatsapp Groups And Played Along To Decode The Scam

Everyone from your preteen niece to your 80yr old grandmother is on Whatsapp and from using it from everything to discuss family politics to place requests to get dhaniya to sending good morning forwards, Whatsapp has been a communication boon (or a curse) to billions of people worldwide. Naturally, along have come scammers with a multitude of unscrupulous ways looking to prey on the gullible minds and using it to hunt for their next victim. The latest in the universe of internet based scams seems to be the many Telegram or more often, Whatsapp scam groups offering everything from trading advice to free part-time jobs to "insider trading tips". You suddenly find yourself added to one such group, along with many others who're wondering the same. Most will exit, some would ignore, some would call out the scammers and instantly get removed, but unfortunately some have been gullible enough to fall for such scams. And that's all that the scammers need. Just one of those gullible idiots.

I've been added to several such groups in the past, and having covered a similar scam in depth in a 'sting operation' of sorts, I knew what it was all about. So usually I exit the groups as soon as I'm added. But for the last such group I was added to, I decided to play along to be able to write about it and warn my fellow potential scam victims.

Here's what I found out.

The group will have a title like "Elite investors", "trading masterminds" or some such.

The group I joined was purportedly about "master "investors and their advice on Crypto trading.

The group will have other members pretending to be users.

These are the users that plant serious questions while the "group mod" replies earnestly. This back and forth between the fake users and admins continues to create a fake sense of authenticity and engagement. Notice it's the same set of people carrying forth the discussions.

Most of the numbers are usually owned by one single person, using stolen photos as Display photos. (Oops, "Neha" Jaiswal turns out to be a dude!)

I decided to play along and ask the admin how to get started on the trading?

Without skipping a beat, an 'assistant' called Lisa with a DP of a Southeast Asian duly messaged me with this introduction.

"Multicoin Capital's investment is a short-term BTC contract transaction that makes profits by choosing the right direction based on the international BTC market conditions. The transaction takes only 180 seconds to complete. Whether you are a novice or a skilled market player, you only need to follow the strategic instructions issued by the analysts."

I was told to create a trading account at a link and I did.

Going back to the group, I noticed one of the admins 'Analyst' was offering advice which was basically "invest $100 on a "buy up". He also shared well-meaning advice on the soundness of Cryptocurrency investments. (good job chat GPT)

The other "users" including our girl Neha shared photos of her investments and some users (a dude called Aishwarya) also shared her plans with the profits from this trade.

Just to see how this scam would play out, I thought about adding $1 to this trading account and see what happens. But lo and behold, the system wouldn't even let me add $1 and the 'minimum threshold' was $100.

So now you know, anyone who's got scammed by this or similar modus operandi is down at least a few thousand rupees. I asked Lisa how to proceed on adding these $100 USDT to my account and she told me to install a "secure app' where I could safely buy my USDT with my Indian currency.

Now this is as far as I was willing to go down the rabbit hole of this Whatsapp scam. I'm not sure what would happen once I downloaded the app and deposited the money. But I think it goes like this. There is no such trading platform and any amount added on the app just goes to the scammer's account and you'll never see your money again. A friend from a crypto company I know confirmed my suspicions. "There are a lot of these Whatsapp scams. Different people use different strategies based on geography, education and financial abilities of users. For example: email ones are more towards getting your private key. (for people like me who know everything.) WhatsApp scam in India are primarily tied around investment returns, trading on fake platform, etc." says Prashant Sharma, CEO of Mercle, a Web3 startup based out of Bangalore.

Pig Butchering Scam

The vegan in me hates the visuals it conjures up, but apparently this kind of whatsapp crypto scam even has a name in the digital universe. "Pig Bitchering Scam", a type of confidence trick and investment fraud in which the victim is gradually lured into making increasing contributions, in the form of cryptocurrency, to a seemingly sound investment before the scammer disappears. The name alludes to the practice of fattening a hog before slaughter."

Redditors on this thread too confirm the modus operandi of the scam similar to what I observed.

Work from home part time job scam

Now this particular scam may have been about Crypto currency trade. But there are other Whastapp scams too It could take the form of a "work from home part time job" scam where you're required to write a review in exchange for Rs. 10-50 instantly sent to you on Paytm.

The kicker here is they'll entice you with the promise of instant cash - no matter how small - for virtually nothing in return. At best, you'll write a fake Google review and upon completion, they do send you the money. But after 2-3 of such micro-payments, they'll ask you to pay them to continue sending you more such jobs. Having tasted success, the greed will get the better of you and you'll willingly offer to pay more. (After all, a payment of Rs. 500 gets you 100x of such 50 rupee jobs = ka ching! Right? Nope, you'll never see or hear from them again.

Sadly, there're hundreds of gullible and poor people in India who are unaware of such scams and given how smooth the scammers have got, it's getting even harder to spot one out.

Big security lapse for Meta?

But the marketer and ex-Trust and Safety team member at Google in me wonders: how're the scammers still at it? Surely people must be reporting these groups? Are there no checks on Whatsapp's end to have some requirements to create a group? The users neither joined using a link nor were they invited. They're simply added from their phone numbers which are not hard to get from data miners (thanks to all those places you enter your phone number at) Huge miss on a company as big as Meta to allow this to happen right under nose. Right up with the other kind of deep-fake ads that currently abound Facebook and Instagram.

What to do to avoid getting scammed on these Whatsapp groups?

1. Be cautious on what groups you get added on. Any group that eventually needs you to pay at any point is a scam.

2. Never share any bank details, UPI details or UPI pin with anyone no matter what the premise.

3. Change the privacy settings of your Whatsapp to only allow 'contacts' to add you to groups.

4. Share this article with that gullible uncle or aunt who'll happily part with their money with hopes and dreams of turning into a millionaire!