Victim of ‘Pig Slaughter’ Cryptocurrency Scam Just Recovered $140,000: NPR

Alexey Madan never thought that the day would come.

This week, he received a check for $140,000 in the mail from Massachusetts officials. This was the entire amount that Madan lost after falling for a get-rich-quick cryptocurrency scam.

“How would you feel if all your money was stolen and you never expected to get it back, and then it did?” “It feels great,” Madan, 69, said. I’m thrilled. And also in shock.”

The money was among hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency seized by Massachusetts authorities in a scam that targeted Russian-speaking seniors online and, in some cases, stole their life savings.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office began investigating the company, known as SpireBit, and followed suit NPR investigation Last year, the stories of two victims who were lured into an investment scheme, only to realize it was a scam after they transferred large amounts of money into SpireBit’s cryptocurrency wallets, were detailed.

SpireBit lured victims into its scam by using social media ads promising lucrative investment returns. SpireBit ran ads on Facebook and Instagram that falsely portrayed Elon Musk as endorsing the company through a Russian voice-over.

But NPR couldn’t find any trace of a real investment firm: The people listed as company executives turned out to be just stock photos and fake LinkedIn profiles. SpireBit’s supposed address in London turned out to be a kitchenware company. When the victims tried to withdraw their money, the company sent them fake bank documents. After NPR’s report, UK financial regulators He issued a general warning About SpireBit, it is classified as an operation run by “scammers”.

When NPR tried to contact SpireBit for comment last year, it responded through the messaging app Telegram by saying that cryptocurrency trading is volatile, and said “our company’s activities are regulated in accordance with the legislation of the country in which the head office is located.” The company is headquartered.” And now that account has been deleted.

NPR’s investigation caught the attention of Massachusetts authorities, who did so in December File a lawsuit against SpireBit Under its merged entity known as SBT Investments.

Investigators posed as SpireBit customers and were able to identify the cryptocurrency wallets used by SpireBit. in Judgment issued in Maystate officials won a court order to freeze the company’s assets on the Binance trading platform.

While the full scope of SpireBit’s operation remains unknown, the company’s tactics are part of a widespread type of online fraud known as pig slaughter. The name comes from the process of gaining someone’s trust and building a friendship over a period of weeks or months – fattening a pig before killing, which in this case means stealing a large sum of money.

According to the FBI, cryptocurrency scammers He stole more than $5.6 billion of Americans online last year.

According to a court order in May, investigators in Massachusetts were able to seize a total of $269,000 from SpireBit’s cryptocurrency wallet, most of which was distributed among four victims in the state.

Another SpireBit victim reported by NPR, Noam Lantsman, 75, of Los Angeles, lost $340,000 in savings earned over decades as a small business owner. His family reported the theft to the California Attorney General’s Office, but no official investigation was launched.

Officials from the attorney general’s offices in Massachusetts and California did not respond to interview requests.