How cyber crooks trick people into making fake investments

BY KERRY TOMLINSON, AMPYX NEWS

People who have never invested in cryptocurrency are launching their first big trades online. But in this case, the trades are fake, the traders are cyber criminals, and the money disappears.

Ampyx News goes undercover to show you how these attackers are tricking people out of more than $5 billion a year and ends up face-to-face with a deepfake video caller.

Watch here:

Unbreakable Friendship

The connection request came in on social media from Min Liu, a cosmetics company executive who lives in New York and lives a luxury lifestyle.

We gladly accept the invite. And the chance to go undercover to learn the latest criminal tactics.

After a bit of conversation on the social media platform, Min wants to move to the messaging platform WhatsApp.

There, she shares more about herself, including her philosophy on life: "The most important thing for women is to have their own independent career and a stable source of income."

It's worked out well for her.

Expensive dinners at high-end restaurants, trips to Paris, spa days with strawberries. And shopping, endless talk of shopping, with pictures and video of her at malls in New York, showing off her luxury merchandise.

You might think she's trying to make us jealous. And you'd be right. That's one of her top tactics in this game.

Here to Help

Min asks us for style advice, offers to buy us clothes, and take us on a trip to Hawaii.

"In my heart, you are my family, dear sister," Min writes. "I want our friendship to be unbreakable."

She wants to share her good fortune with us. After all, that’s what sisters do.

"I'm sure you will be able to accomplish your goals quickly, please let me know if I can help you and I will try to help you," she says.

Face Fakes

But Min has a secret.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo in New York investigated and found the true owner of the pictures in Min's profile.

"Min" is really YangYang Sweet, a social media influencer in Asia who is very popular on Chinese social media apps, according to Professor Siwei Lyu (no relation to Min Liu) and student Jialing Cai.

The fancy dinner and spa day shots that Min shows off in messages? Stolen from other profiles.

The video at the mall in New York? Actually, a mall in Malaysia.

The pictures that Min claims are her in Paris? Really YangYang Sweet in Macau, near Hong Kong, with a half-size replica of the Eiffel Tower.

Most importantly, Min's plans to make us wealthy, laid out during weeks of conversation, are highly suspect.

Profit Motive

Min claims her riches come from cryptocurrency trading.

"Today is a busy and productive day, because I made good profits again with the help of my uncle," she writes. "Please don't feel nervous dear sister, learning cryptocurrency short term trading is very easy and I will take your hand along with me as we move forward."

"They are really playing on the fact that this is a new area," said cyber investigator Dominique Calder.

Cryptocurrency trading itself is not new, but people who are unfamiliar can fall victim to criminal tactics, Calder said.

"As a result, they are just leaning on the fact that we know nothing about it and that they can bring in this trust, this, return on investment. Everything sounds really good," Calder added.

Big money

At some point, Min sends a profit chart showing she made more than $53,000 in 20 minutes of trading.

She pushes us to join in, coaxing, teasing, urging, until we finally agree to try.

"I think you are a very good learner and you are smart," she tells us. "I am sure you are able to make a good profit in this field."

The Scheme

Our first day of trading has arrived. Min will help us step by step.

First, she instructs us to go a cryptocurrency site called SuperCI to create our trading account.

Then it's time to add funds for investing. She asks for a screenshot of our Venmo account, a digital payment app.

Any hesitation on our part, and she immediately plays the trust card.

"Lol, sis, if you don't trust me then you can stop studying and there's no point in me continuing to ask my uncle to help you," she scoffs.

Pressure Applied

We decide to send her a Venmo account screenshot. Just not ours.

It's a sample image from the Venmo site with the name and picture for a Grace Hamilton, not for us.

That does not deter Min. She is eager to scam.

She marks up the Venmo screenshot with arrows and boxes and tells us how to buy $2000 in cryptocurrency through the payment app.

We quickly edit new numbers onto the Grace Hamilton screenshot to make it look like we made the purchase.

Disappearing money

Then Min tells us to transfer the $2000 in crypto in our Venmo to our account on the SuperCi site. We do, sending her the proof in the screenshots she requested.

But our account on SuperCi is really the scammers' account. Any money you send --- including the $2000 from our Venmo --- is gone.

"Once it's in their pocket, digitally, it's theirs. They're not going to give it back," said Calder.

Scamming the scammer

Luckily, the screenshots we sent to Min showing the $2000 transfer are fake, more edits on our part to continue the investigation.

But Min doesn't know that yet.

Now she's doing a live video call to encourage us to keep investing.

"Do you have any plan for tomorrow?" she asks.

Video Min, however, is a deepfake, computer-generated for our benefit.

Unfortunately, for some people, it works, Calder says.

"Oh, wow. Like, I'm actually talking to a real person on a video call. Like, this must be legitimate. Like, let me invest my money in this," Calder explains.

Face-to-Face

After a few minutes of chat in the deepfake call, Min has to go.

"Oh, sorry, I get some message…" she says, acting rushed.

But wait. We have one more question.

Ampyx News: "Why are you scamming people?"

Min: "What do you mean?"

Ampyx News: "Why are you pretending to be someone that you're not?"

Min: "I'm lying to someone?"

Ampyx News: "Yes. Why do you lie about who you are?"

Min: "I didn't lie to anything. What I lie to you?"

Ampyx News: "Your pictures are fake."

Min: "Really?"

Ampyx News: "Yes."

Min: " So my face also fake?"

Ampyx News: "Yes. Why do you do it?”

Min: "I didn't do anything. I was just talking with you."

Ampyx News: "Why are you scamming people?"

Min: (click)

Follow-up Attack

No more video call. But now chat Min is back.

Sister is out. Mean girl is in.

"You are nothing but a poor woman," she sneers. "I'm at least richer than you. Are you rich?"

"I spend over $2,000 on a facial," she scoffs. "People like you are not worth getting to know."

That unbreakable friendship? It broke.

Behind the Scam

Research shows that Min is likely a group of scammers, some possibly forced into fraud work, held at compounds like KK Park in Myanmar.

It's sad, both for the people pressured into doing this work and the many people who will fall victim.

Once a target hands over the initial investment —- in this case, $2000 —- the crooks convince them that they’re making big profits and should invest everything they own in these crypto accounts.

The thieves often use romance as a tactic in this scheme called the unpleasant name of “pig butchering.”

The FBI says people in the US lost $5.8 billion to crypto investment scams last year. Another study estimates $75 billion in losses worldwide.

Min's tactics work.

"It's very shame-centered. People don't want to talk about it. Even if they lost $30,000, they'd rather be quiet and not tell anybody," Calder says. "Now we have people living in silence with this thing that's happened, and it's continuing to happen to other people while they sit in silence as well."

Protection Checklist

There are three areas where crypto criminals have the advantage over trusting victims. Here is our checklist to fight back against their manipulation:

1. Remind yourself, constantly, that scammers hide behind pictures of friendly-looking people.

"Don't just let the barrier of trust be a photo and some text that's sent in a message," Calder advises.

"It should be more than that, like people should dive a little bit deeper into the people that they're talking to online, more than you would to talk to a person in-person," she adds.

2. Remember that deepfake technology is always improving.

Not long ago, experts recommend you ask a suspicious person on a video call to put their hand in front of their face because some deepfake technology can't process the hands authentically. Now, there is AI technology that can.

Although some cyber criminals still use older technology, deepfake video Min has no trouble using her deepfake hand to push back her deepfake hair.

"The hands look real," Calder says. "They're normal nowadays. They don't look as fake as they did when it first started."

Just glancing over a slick looking site is not enough to verify. Just doing a search to see if the name "SuperCI" is real will not protect you from current-day scams.

"Check out what's going on out there," Calder recommends. "I would do that before turning over a dime to anyone. And even if it was only me sending a dime, I'm paranoid that they may have my financial information to do more with that."

Epilogue

Sometime after our video call, Min's social media account was made unavailable, and she stopped answering WhatsApp messages.

Law enforcement is making headway in closing down some of these scam call centers like KK Park, so there's a chance that Min is no longer in the scam life.

But others are now using YangYang Sweet's pictures and videos, using names like Andora on TikTok, Belle and Yvonne on Instagram, and Amantha Mary on Facebook.

They're waiting for you to accept that connection. And form an unbreakable friendship.