A 62-year-old woman in Malaysia fell victim to a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment scheme that had been advertised on the social media platform Meta (previously known as Facebook). She lost over RM299,000 in the scam.
According to ACP Ismail Dollah, the police chief of Batu Pahat district, the scam began in April when the senior citizen began dealing with an individual operating a company called Syarikat Bitcoin Yoamax.
This investment program was heavily promoted on both Meta and WhatsApp, promising significant returns. To participate, the victim shared her personal information, including her name, ID number, and banking details, and then downloaded the Yoamax application.
Initially, she made deposits totaling RM35,320 in seven transactions. However, when she attempted to withdraw her supposed profits, she was told that she needed to deposit additional funds before any withdrawals could be processed.
Deceived into thinking that these additional funds would be returned, the woman deposited another RM164,417.
The scammers continued to deceive her, claiming that an additional RM99,636 was required for foreign currency exchange purposes. After making these deposits, the victim received no payments, profits, or her initial capital back.
In total, the elderly victim lost over RM299,000 before realizing she had been scammed and reporting it to the police. In a related incident, there was a recent cryptocurrency scam involving the hacking of crypto oracle Tellor’s X (formerly Twitter) account to promote a fake token airdrop scam. Hackers advertised a non-existent airdrop for Tellor’s native TRB token, but the provided link led to a phishing website.
