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Bitcoin Scam Overview:
- Who: Businessman Naveed Saghir.
- What: Saghir says he lost more than £500,000 in a Bitcoin scam after he watched a YouTube investment advertisement.
- Where: Saghir lives in the United Kingdom.
A man who lost more than £518,000 in Bitcoin and cash due to an investment scam he fell into through a YouTube ad is now sounding the alarm so others don’t make the same mistakes.
Naveed Saghir, 44, says he lost £18,000 and £500,000 in Bitcoin after a YouTube ad promoting trading lured him to give money for investments. In fact, scammers were taking the money for themselves, the Express reports.
“I’ve destroyed my life, changed my life so much for the worse and need to warn people – if it can happen to me it can happen to anyone,” Saghir told BBC Money Box.
Bitcoin Scam Made Investment Look Legitimate
Saghir said he was convinced that the investment plan would give him big returns. He told Paul Lewis on a BBC Money Box show that he started with an initial £18,000 investment, and started to transfer money in Bitcoin when that ran out.
“It was for trading on the stock market with stocks and shares. It all looked legitimate, it was on YouTube, so I filled the form in, and it all started from there,” he said.
“At the start, we kept the trades small. I wanted to build it up over time and make a legitimate business.”
Saghir said he sent £500,000 worth of Bitcoin to the scammers between May and August, thinking they were helping him invest it.
When they told him he was losing money, he was encouraged to put more to make up what he had lost.
Police are reportedly looking into the case.
Meanwhile, cyber security expert Lisa Forte told BBC Money Box that Bitcoin was not regulated by any of the various agencies around the world, so there was very little consumer protection.
“It’s very difficult, in this situation, for the police to find anybody.”
“If anyone says they can make you loads of money quickly, that should always set off alarm bells,” she said on the show. “That’s not how that stock market works, and that’s not how investments work.”
The news comes as new findings from consumer group Which? show a “devastating surge” in scams has bilked consumers out of more than £2.3 billion since last April, an increase of 33 percent during pandemic months.
Have you been duped by a Bitcoin scam or other investment fraud? Let us know in the comments.
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