As we close out 2023, we at Security Boulevard wanted to highlight the most popular articles of the year. Following is the latest in our series of the Best of 2023.

If your online accounts are like mine, almost every day I’m “force joined” to a new Telegram group where a crypto investment scammer tries to tell everyone how great their scam investment site is. This week, I started getting added to WhatsApp Crypto Investment Scams.

I thought I’d share the experience with you, in case you were curious.

When you are Force-joined to a WhatsApp group, the first thing that is displayed is information about who added you to the group.

In my case, +856 20 29 725 893 created the group, and then I was added to the group by +856 20 29 728 289.  The +856 should be a clue to whether these are the advisors they claim to be, as +856 is the international calling code for Laos. A third Laos number then removes the group creator, another Laos administrator, and a South African adminstrator (+27 is South Africa).  They must have added a US-numbered administrator, (we don’t see other people being added), because the +1 (346) number then changed the “Subject” of the group to be “BTC Nuggets 02th Team.”   02th.  As in, the Second team created by a non-English speaker.  1st … 02th … 3rd?

Then we get our first message from “Tricia Storti” our second theoretically American admin +1 (530), American.  See? (530 is the Area Code for extreme NorthEastern California.)

Tricia’s first post introduces our Crypto Investment Scam website name and begins the process of helping us all lose our money to “FileCoin” (or is it FILcoin? they can’t seem to decide.)

But wait … I didn’t want to get a hundred WhatsApp messages a day from a new scammer.  That’s ok … all of Tricia’s bot-controlled fake Americans are here to make you realize how special it is that you got added to the group.  They blather on non-stop about how great it is … just so you might wonder (if you were a complete idiot), “Is it possible that I’ve been accidentally added to a WhatsApp Group that will teach me how to get rich trading Crypto Currency?”

Seriously.  I can’t believe they think anyone is stupid enough to fall for this … but then I look at the BILLIONS OF DOLLARS being stolen in Crypto Investment Scams and realize they wouldn’t spend all of this time and money doing this if somewhere it wasn’t making them a profit.

Just as you might be wondering, “But how will being in this group make me rich?” none other than the FOUNDER HIMSELF, the one and only BERNIE McTERNAN jumps into the conversation to explain how!

(In case you wondering if these were totally made up names, yes, they are. But they are based in reality.  McTernan occurs at a rate of 1 in every 519,000 people in the USA.  Storti is Italian.  1 in every 12,000 or so people there is named Storti.  1 in every 365,000 people in the USA.)

But does it really work?  Well, our straight man “~ FKK” is going to ask the burning questions that are on every potential victim’s mind … and receive honest, trustworthy answers from current investor LOLO!

See?  LOLO has been in the game for 3 months “without finding anything wrong” and he can “withdraw money successfully every time!”  He’s made $70,000 thanks to Bernie Analyst!

You might still have doubts … just like FKK!   “Wow is this true?”  But it isn’t just totally real LOLO who has had great success.  Totally real totally unsolicited testimonial person Josh Perreault ALSO has made withdrawals successfully!

Now we KNOW that it’s real, right? Not you! You are too smart for that!  You’re probably thinking “But I’ve never heard of these people!  What company is this?  Are they reputable?”  Funny that you are thinking this, because Totally Real Person Andrew Woolley is having those same doubts …

There you have it! Filecoin Foundation has been around since 2019, they are headquartered in London and have branches in the US, Vanuatu and Australia.  And look!  They even have an ID Number!  OOOOOOH!  Who could possibly doubt now??!?!?!

Totally Real Person JIJIT assures us that this is an American Company, and then FKK, our favorite Straight Man, asks for a website.  Conveniently, Tricia is there to demonstrate her excellent customer service by replying within two minutes!

FileCoinProtocol[.]com

The Amazing Tricia-the-Scammer is right there with the answer!

But why would they do that?  For a commission … nothing suspicious here … these Totally Real People explain it to each other:

And eventually, after much more banter, the TRADING starts!  Tricia gives our first instruction, and our Totally Real Veteran Trader Josh jumps right in!  (Perhaps not realizing we’ve already killed the website.)

All of the Totally Real People quickly share their successful profits!

But, there is one little problem …

If ONLY ADMINS can send messages, then, NONE OF THE TOTALLY REAL PEOPLE CAN BE REAL PEOPLE!

But that doesn’t stop us having more imaginary conversations to demonstrate how trustworthy things are.  Tricia had some exciting news today … VIP Traders don’t have to pay the 20% commission!  They keep ALL OF THE MONEY!  (But there is a $10,000 minimum investment, of course)

How big is the group?  In addition to the 237 current members, there are also (if you choose Group Info and scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN), over 550 “Past Participants” (with all of their telephone numbers exposed as well.)

Those are the people who were Force-Joined to the group and then LEFT the group.  Hopefully they remember to hit “REPORT AND EXIT” so that WhatsApp’s team knows these guys are scammers!

For our “Actors” in the play above, none of their telephone numbers correspond to a real phone carrier, except Bernie, who uses T-Mobile.

Bernie = 346.971.2587 = T-Mobile
Tricia = 530.435.9207 = Peerless-NSR-ATLC
Josh = 903.636.6515 = Sinch Voice-NSR-10X
Shannon = 438.577-5300 = IXICA Communications
JIJIT = 873.920.8211 = IXICA Communications
LOLO = 403.694.7067 = ISP Telecom
Zachary Brook = 343578.0586 = ISP Telecom
FKK = 985.775.6255 = Sinch Voice NSR
Andrew = 716.502.2145 = Sinch Voice NSR
Kevin = 937.966.2921 = Sinch Voice NSR

Sure would be sad if all of those telephone numbers and WhatsApp numbers were terminated …

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from CyberCrime & Doing Time authored by Gary Warner. Read the original post at: https://garwarner.blogspot.com/2023/02/watching-crypto-investment-scam.html