There is a growing trend in Armenia and worldwide of deceiving people into cryptocurrency scams through fake investment platforms on the Internet. Scammers are constantly creating new fake platforms that offer enticing investment opportunities in established or unknown companies, promising huge profits. Other scams involve offers to engage in cryptocurrency trading through supposed specialists or engage in vague work opportunities. These platforms offer a constant and varied array of schemes, investment packages, and promises of super profits that are too good to be true. 

Fake offers are spread using almost all possible platforms and messengers. Currently, the Armenian audience is primarily targeted through fake offers spread through advertising on Meta platforms and scammers operating on Telegram. These scammers use various means to contact people, from simple accounts to Telegram groups, channels, and bots.

However, the adventures only begin with that. Losing money by “investing” is not enough. After that, the second season begins. They constantly try to extort money from the victims. This time, victims are targeted through aggressive advertising on Meta platforms by organizations offering help to retrieve lost or stolen money.

They pose as law firms specializing in cryptocurrency losses or anti-brokerage scams and collect money from victims to allegedly restore lost finances.

The second “season” often causes more significant financial losses than the first. 

As strange as it may seem, this has its explanation. When individuals fall victim to fraudulent investment schemes, they are often presented with a personal dashboard displaying substantial amounts of money earned from their “investment.” Despite their alleged earnings, they are unable to transfer these funds to their bank accounts or withdraw them in cash. In the second phase of the scam, a lawyer offers to help recover the embezzled funds, which motivates victims to transfer money to the fraudulent legal entities. 

Ads are placed either through newly created pages that imitate real law firms, or through hacked pages.

Some of the advertisements are in Armenian:

However, the majority of these advertisements are in Russian and target not only the Armenia audience.

It is indeed difficult to determine where the cybercriminals operate from; however, Ukraine is often identified as the domain of the page admin.

In any case, it is essential to remember that the free cheese is in the mouse trap. Recognizing that there are no guaranteed super profits from internet platform investments is vital. In the unlikely event of a refund, it will only be possible through the intervention of law enforcement agencies rather than any organization offering similar services.

The views expressed in the column are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Media.am.