Better Business Bureau Of Western Pennsylvania Warns Of Growing Cryptocurrency Scams
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A Greensburg woman feels duped after falling for a social media offer that she's now calling "too good to be true."
It all started when a friend reached out to her on Instagram and asked her to invest in cryptocurrency.
"You don't have to put a lot into it, and you get this obscene return, which is what I knew wasn't real, but I wanted it to be real. I wanted it to be real so bad," Natasha Reyna said.
Reyna believes it could happen to anyone and said she saw dollar signs when a message popped up on Instagram.
"I was like $200, and that is a lot of money," said Reyna. "But at the same time, like a little part of my brain was like, oh, my God, what if this is legit?"
Reyna said the friend asked her to buy $200 worth of cryptocurrency using Cash App, saying she'd see a huge return on her money.
"Like $4,700," said Reyna. "I could pay my bills, my car off."
The Better Business Bureau said it's a scam that's tripled in popularity. Cybercriminals are so advanced that they now hack into an unsuspecting person's account and target their friends.
"It was someone that she had met a handful of times but didn't have a lot of direct contact with," said Caitlin Driscoll with the Better Business Bureau. "But she was an attorney, so she trusted her, and it seemed a little bit more plausible as to being legitimate."
Reyna said the person even gave her a link to watch her $200 grow into more. But then came a red flag.
"I was like, 'Ok, I want my money,'" she said. "I was like, 'Now, gimme it. I want to withdraw this.' And they were like, 'No, you have to reinvest $1,500.'"
Reyna stopped there and called the BBB. But Driscoll said many people keep giving the scammers money. She's tracking 2,400 complaints totaling losses of $8 million.
"Cryptocurrency scams were identified as the second-riskiest scam last year, a significant increase from the seventh spot the year prior," said Driscoll.
Reyna feels lucky to only be out $200, but she won't invest again without doing her research.
"That's what makes people drawn to it because it's the unknown," said Reyna. "It could either like be really good or really bad, and I think if you're gonna do that you should really educate yourself on what exactly you're investing in."
The Better Business Bureau told KDKA that most victims lose about $1,200 in these cryptocurrency scams.
Driscoll recommends people looking to invest in crypto only download apps from the Google Play or Apple App stores and not click the links that pop up during a routine Google search.
