The Bitcoin scam on Instagram

This article is about yet another Bitcoin scam that took place on the Instagram social network. 

The Bitcoin scam on Instagram 

As is increasingly the case, the scammers’ strategy was well-engineered. It consisted of stealing existing Instagram profiles in order to make it a little bit more credible, especially to people who knew and followed the account in question. 

After that, the scammers would start sharing fake messages and screenshots on social media, where they would show that, thanks to an amazing Bitcoin mining strategy, they had managed to make lavish earnings in a matter of hours. 

This is the post shared on Facebook by the same person whose Instagram account was hacked. 

As the images show, the earnings were first shown on a cryptocurrency account and later, on an alleged message from the Intesa Sanpaolo bank, to prove that the money had been successfully received in their bank account. 

To the less attentive eye, this series of steps could represent irrefutable evidence that would strengthen the argument that this is not a scam, but that it was a success.

In reality, it would be enough to pause and think about the words written in the caption of the Instagram post.

As it reads, this girl allegedly earned 13,000 euros in just 5 hours thanks to a Bitcoin mining company. After that, she advises everyone to take a look at the mentioned profile. 

And this is where the real scam begins. Indeed, this is not a normal deception where people are invited to deposit their money in fake accounts. In this case, the real goal of the hackers is precisely to entice users to click on the account name that appears at the end of the post description. 

This will give the scammers access to sensitive data, which will then be sold or used as a bargaining chip in an attempt at a ransom demand.

Bitcoin scams in Italy

The story that has just been told is not the first of its kind in Italy and certainly, it will not be the last either. 

Some time ago, in fact, The Cryptonomist had already published an article, in which the fraud of the company New Financial Technology was explained. 

It was a multimillion-dollar scam, concocted by the above-mentioned company, which promised earnings of up to 10% on the invested capital, thanks to arbitrage operations on the crypto market. 

New Financial Technology was born in Silea, Treviso, while its registered office was based in London. 

Thanks to its promises, it managed to swindle about 6,000 savers, who invested between €10,000 and €300,000.

According to estimates, which are yet to be ascertained, as they are not entirely accurate, New Financial Technology managed to cheat the unfortunate out of a total of €40 million to €100 million. 

In short, a well-executed Ponzi scheme.

Two of the three founders have gone underground, while the third, a lawyer from Rome, is trying to compensate the people who were victims of the fraud. 

He himself was probably not aware of this scheme either, which, from what is revealed, was organized from the very beginning.