Scammers in the social media.

Facebook Removes Bitcoin Scam Ads With Abu Dhabi Crown Prince

Facebook has removed ads for a bitcoin scam that claimed to have the approval of the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. Facebook has removed ads for a bitcoin (BTC) scam that masqueraded as posts by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, UAE news site The National reports  on June 30.

According to the report, a recent scam on social media — dubbed “Bitcoin Loophole” — claimed that Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, personally endorsed a scheme that guaranteed riches within a week through bitcoin trading.

The social media giant reportedly deleted the fraudulent posts after thousands of investors handed over personal information and money to criminals based in Ukraine and Argentina. The scheme asked investors to make an up-front donation of 1,000 UAE dirhams ($272), claiming that the bitcoin investment strategy was the prince’s way of “giving back to the people.” Bitcoin Loophole said it would net investors $13,000 per day. 

The 'sponsored' Facebook post sharing the scam, including an image of Sheikh Mohammed, was shared about 5,000 times and attracted more than 8,000 comments, many sharing personal information and expressing interest in 'investing'. It is not known how many people handed over cash. The fake news story also included made-up quotes from Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder, supposedly endorsing the scheme. A tweet from Sheikh Mohammed’s account had also also been fabricated.

People are urged to spend Dh918, or $250, to sign up to an external website, Bitcoin Loophole, which claims to be a Bitcoin trading platform in which members “generally make a minimum of $13,000 every single day” but has been exposed as a scam. Fictitious ‘reviews’ from people across the UAE are included in the fake news story.

A spokesman for Facebook said it had taken action to remove the posts and page promoting the scam once it was brought to its attention. “We want people to be able to trust the connections they make on Facebook,” the spokesman said.

“Claiming to be another person on Facebook violates our community standards, and we have a dedicated team that’s tasked with helping to detect and block these kinds of scams.” The incident follows other cases of well-known public figures having their images misused by fraudsters operating on Facebook. linkedin and other media.

Earlier this year, Martin Lewis, a British consumer finance journalist, sued Facebook and claimed it had not done enough to prevent his image being used in scams. He dropped the case after the company agreed to donate ￡3m (Dh14m) to set up an anti-scam project and launch a UK-specific one-click reporting tool.

In a statement, the Abu Dhabi Media Office urged the public to be vigilant, particularly when it came to requests to hand over money online. “It is strongly advised that people check the authenticity of campaigns asking for pledges or donations in case of fraud, particularly online and on social media," the statement said. you can do that too you can sue the social media where the scam took place ,take them to court.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US has indicted 80 people - 77 of them Nigerians - in what it describes as the largest case of online fraud in U.S history. UK, many countries in Europe, Pakistan, India, Germany, China, Canada, Russa, all did that and capturing scammers every day. The majority of them are Africans, or black Americans, then Indians, pakistani, Filipino, Russians, Iranians, and many other people from different walk of life.

But most shocking for Nigerians was the separate arrest of their internationally celebrated business tycoon, Obinwanne Okeke.

The head of Nigeria's Invictus Group, which has interests in sectors ranging from agriculture to real estate, he was named by the forbes magazine hero in 2016 ,one of 30 top africans entrepreneurs . Mr. Okeke or Invictus Obi as he is popularly known - is accused by the US authorities of stealing $11m (￡8m) in one online scam alone. He still in Custody.

When Nigerians first attained notoriety in the 1990s for defrauding Westerners of millions of dollars, the scams became known as 419 after the section of the Nigerian penal code which tackles such crimes.

Nigerians, who are generally religious, also linked the aptness of this number to the Book of Psalms, chapter 41 and verse 9 (41:9), which seems to describe the typical advance fee fraud: "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted his heel against me."

These days, the scams, which are conducted mostly online, via email and messaging apps, are often referred to as Yahoo. They are usually romance scams, or phishing, which FBI special agent Michael Nail once referred to as "modern-day bank robbery". "You can sit at home in your PJs and slippers with a laptop, and you can actually rob a bank," he said.

There are many different scams ,hundreds of them and the scammers uses technology in thier advantage , to steal your picture, your name and address, your birthday and they watch you on facebook and other social media sometimes they ask you questions pretending they are osm eone else until they know everything about you. Thats why you must never ever put your real data ,birthdates, full names etc on the web. Some of these scams are;

1. Advance fee fraud

A scammer requests fees upfront or personal information in return for goods, services, money or rewards that they never supply. Scammers invent convincing and seemingly genuine reasons for requesting payment, such as to cover fees or taxes. They often ask for payment by international wire transfer. These scams are commonly mass-marketed with scammers sending them out to thousands of people all over the world at the same time, usually by mail or email.

2. Lottery, sweepstakes and competition scams

An email, letter or text message from an overseas lottery or sweepstakes company arrives from out of nowhere. It says you have won a lot of money or fantastic prizes in a lottery or sweepstakes competition you did not enter. These scams try to trick you into giving money upfront or your personal details in order to receive the prize. Scammers typically claim that you need to pay fees or taxes before your winnings or prize can be released. You may also have to call or text a premium rate phone number to claim your prize. Remember you cannot win a prize if you haven’t entered

3. Dating and romance scams

Scammers create fake profiles on legitimate dating websites. They use these profiles to try to enter into a relationship with you so they can get a hold of your money and personal details. The scammer will develop a strong rapport with you then ask for money to help cover costs associated with illness, injury, travel or a family crisis. Scammers seek to exploit your emotions by pulling on your heart strings. Sometimes the scammers will take months and months to build up the rapport.

4. Computer hacking

Phishing emails are commonly used by scammers to trick you into giving them access to your computer. They ‘fish’ for your personal details by encouraging you to click on a link or attachment.If you click, malicious software will be installed and the hacker will have access to files and information stored on your computer.  

A phishing email often appears to come from an organisation that you know and trust, like a bank or financial institution, asking you to enter your account password on a fake copy of the site’s login page. If you provide your account details, the scammer can hack into your account and take control of your profile.

5. Online shopping, classified and auction scams

Scammers like shopping online for victims. Not getting what you paid for is a common scam targeting online shoppers.  A scammer will sell a product and send a faulty or inferior quality item, or nothing at all. They may also pretend to sell a product just to gather your credit card or bank account details. These scams can also be found on reputable online classified pages. An online auction scam involves a scammer claiming that you have a second chance to buy an item that you placed a bid on because the winner has pulled out. The scammer will ask you to pay outside of the auction site is secure payment facility. If you do, your money will be lost and the auction site will not be able to help you.

6. Banking, credit card and online account scams

Scammers send emails or text messages that appear to be from your bank, a financial institution or an online payment service. They usually claim that there is a problem with your account and request that you verify your details on a fake but convincing copy of the bank’s website. Card skimming is the copying of information from the magnetic strip of a credit card or automatic teller machine (ATM) card. 

Scammers skim your card by putting a discreet attachment on an ATM or EFTPOS machine. They may even install a camera to capture your pin. Once your card is skimmed, scammers can create copies and make charges to your account.

7. Small business scams

If you own a small business you can be targeted by scams such as the issuing of fake bills for unwanted or unauthorised listings, advertisements, products or services. A well-known example is where you receive a bill for a listing in a supposedly well-known business directory. Scammers trick you to sign up by disguising the offer as an outstanding invoice or a free entry, but with a hidden subscription agreement in the fine print. Scammers can also call your business pretending that a service or product has already been ordered and ask for payment over the phone.

8. Job and employment scams

These scams involve offers to work from home or set up and invest in a business opportunity. Scammers promise a job, high salary or large investment return following initial upfront payments. These payments may be for a business plan, training course, software, uniforms, security clearance, taxes or fees.These scams are often promoted through spam email or advertisements in well-known classifieds, including websites.  

9. Golden opportunity and gambling scams

Scams often begin with an unexpected phone call or email from a scammer offering a not-to-be-missed high return or guaranteed investment in shares, real estate, options or foreign currency trading. While it may seem convincing, in reality the scammer will take your money and you will never receive the promised returns. 

Another scam promises to accurately predict the results of horse races, sports events, stock market movements or lotteries. Scammers promise you huge returns based on past results and trends. In order to participate, you may be asked to pay for membership fees, special calculators, newsletter subscriptions or computer software programs.

10. Charity and medical scams

Scammers are unscrupulous and take advantage of people who want to donate to a good cause or find an answer to a health problem. Charity scams involve scammers collecting money by pretending to work for a legitimate cause or charity, or a fictitious one they have created.

Often scammers will exploit a recent natural disaster or crisis that has been in the news. Recently done by filipinos asking you in the street to donate to flooding and natural disaster causes using pictures and they are so polite and professional. They may also play on your emotions by claiming to collect for a cause that will secure your sympathy, for example to help sick children.

Medical scams offer a range of products and services that can appear to be legitimate alternative medicines, usually promising quick and effective remedies for serious medical conditions. The treatments are often promoted using false testimonies from people who have been cured.

 Even the supposed author of the article, named as ‘Michael Alvarado’, who tells readers he had made Dh26,000 in a fortnight, was fake. The writer pictured is in fact Timothy Seppala, a US-based freelance journalist, who has no connection with the scam and confirmed his picture is being used without his permission.The fake news story scattered legitimate information, including factual details of a huge stimulus plan devised by Sheikh Mohamed, alongside fabricated information in an effort to convince readers the scheme was legitimate.

Be careful dont trust anyone, change your passwords, make second defence and use your phone for 2nd confirmation, dont include any personal details, Dont give any true info in your CV when send it by email 90% of online jobs are done by scammers from the middleast, india, bangladesh, africa and usa to steal your ID, and sale your information to advertisers.

USA AND CANADA SHOULD make a law for bounty hunters where the registered and qualified bounty hunter can hunt down the criminals life or dead and, they should have licence to kill those criminals by law as they are worse than evil, destroying families and lives. I know people already took the law in thier hands in Middleast and they managed to captured and killed many scammers ,no questions asked. If you know any scammer please share the info, send the info to the FBI ,RCMP and other agents.

Steve Ramsey