I lost £5,716 in a crypto scam via a ‘trusted’ online friend – here are the red flags you should have spotted

A woman who lost almost £6,000 in a sophisticated cryptocurrency scam is speaking out to help defeat the stigma surrounding being a victim of fraud.

Carly Rowena, a 37-year-old author and businesswoman, was targeted by scammers in March 2023.

Rowena said: “I’d like to think I’m not someone who would fall for scams.” but this one was very clever and I think the more people talk about it, the more it helps.”

The scam began when Rowena saw a friend of hers post a story on Instagram saying that she had paid someone to manage her bitcoins and had made a huge return.

Intrigued, Rowena messaged her friend, who passed her the details of her contact at an investment firm.

What she didn’t know was that Rowena was actually talking to a scammer. His usual guard was down, as the investor appeared to have been highly recommended by a trusted friend.

“I don’t think about scams when I see my friends’ content,” Rowena said. ‘I messaged him and asked if it was legit. She said yes, this woman is amazing. It overcame the trust factor as this person seemed to know my friend.”

The scammer sent Rowena details of an investment website, as well as a contract to sign, and promised her that her portfolio could increase in value by 50 per cent in just 24 hours.

Everything appeared to be legitimate, so Rowena accepted and transferred £1,304.49 in ethereum and £4,412.11 to the scammer in installments, and was able to track the performance of her “investments” through a special online dashboard.

Then, the next day, the scammer got in touch with some good news: Rowena’s cryptocurrency holdings had increased to £75,000.

But the delighted Rowena was told she would have to pay a fee of $7,500 in bitcoins to get her money.

It was at that moment that Rowena became suspicious. Why were they asking him to pay a fee, instead of deducting it from the profits he had apparently made?

She then messaged her friend, the one who had apparently recommended the investor in the first place, and said something chilling.

Rowena’s friend’s phone had been hacked and all her social media accounts had been taken over as part of an elaborate ploy to lure others into paying the scammer some money.

Rowena confronted the scammer and told him she was not going to pay the additional fee. Immediately the tone of the conversation changed and the scammer said he couldn’t get any of his money back without paying the fee.

After reporting the matter to Action Fraud and Instagram, Rowena was resigned to the knowledge that her £5,716.60 was gone forever.

Rowena said: “I feel ashamed, I feel guilty, I feel stupid about a lot of things.” “It was too good to be true, but there were a lot of elements and I got a recommendation through a friend.”

The stigma of fraud

Many scam victims report feeling shame, anxiety and trauma, according to research from cloud computing company Akamai.

Victims also feel that there is a stigma associated with having been defrauded. This helps perpetuate the fraud, as victims feel ashamed and silent and many do not report the crime or tell anyone.

A survey of 1,002 Britons who have been victims of cybercrime over the past year, commissioned by Akamai, reveals that the majority are ashamed of their experience, feel they have done something wrong and believe an unfair stigma has been imposed on them.

On average, cybercrime costs surveyed victims £808. As a result, one in five struggled to pay their bills or had to cut back on spending on essential items such as food as a result of these financial losses.

However, the damage that cybercrime causes to mental health is less understood.

Almost two-thirds of Brits said they felt traumatized by what happened to them and the majority also admitted feelings of shame and embarrassment.

Meanwhile, 55 per cent said they continued to experience anxiety after cybercrime, especially when using online services, and almost one in three had trouble sleeping.

Akamai’s Natalie Billingham said: ‘Cybercrime is not just a technological issue; It’s human.

‘Cybercriminals take advantage of the victim’s vulnerability, as there is still a perception that if you are a victim of cybercrime, you have done something wrong.

‘They trust their victims not to talk about their attack. We need to stop this ‘cyberstigma’ because if we understand cybercrime better and talk more about it, we will have a better chance of fighting cybercriminals.’