Crypto scams rising nationwide
Elizabeth Fry reports
TAMPA, Fla. – Victims young and old are falling for a get-rich-quick cryptocurrency scam that investigators are calling “pig slaughtering.” According to authorities, scammers fatten up their victims, getting as much as they can from them, before disappearing and often taking the victim’s life savings with them.
Investigators have said the scam usually starts with a call, text, or message through a social media platform. The stranger builds trust with the victim before bringing up cryptocurrency and introducing them to an investment platform that someone the victim knows has been using with high-yielding results.
The victims then invest money into these websites, sometimes dropping their life savings, all with the hopes of the same promising return.
It’s exactly what happened to Lorena Brunson, a South Tampa bakery owner who found herself in a pinch and needed money. Her son had been investing in cryptocurrency through a website he was introduced to on Instagram. He’d seen his investments triple, so Brunson decided to invest too.
Bakery forced to close after cryptocurrency scam
A Tampa bakery owner is warning crypto investors after she says she was scammed out of more than $80,000 of her life-savings. She now says she’ll have to shut down her business.
READ: South Tampa bakery to close after online ‘investor’ disappears
She put in $4,000 to start, turned a profit, and was able to withdraw it. After two months,…
