UK Woman Loses £125,000 to Bitcoin-related Investment Scam

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A UK woman named Theresa appeared in the famous Good Morning Britain show this week to narrate how she lost approximately £125,000 ($172,000) to a Bitcoin-related scam that she stumbled on while surfing the web. 

According to her story, she landed on a webpage that featured the face of TV celebrity Bear Grylls speaking positively about how investors can make massive returns by investing in Bitcoin. She was prompted to invest £250 to begin her journey, a step she took without knowing that she was going down the wrong path. 

She was assigned a fake advisor who misled her by claiming that her earlier bitcoin investment was doing well and that she could make even more by increasing her initial capital. Against advice from her daughters, she persisted and eventually took a loan from her friend to pay a supposed additional fee that would allow her to withdraw her earnings. 

At that point, though, the damage had already been done as Theresa realised she had been deceived and was not going to receive any payout. Her relationship with her daughters and friends, as well as her mental strength, had already been strained.

Thankfully, her bank has helped recover up to half of the money from the scammers while efforts to recover the remaining balance are still underway. 

Theresa isn't the only one who has lost money to such Bitcoin-related schemes, making it vital that everyone, especially new investors, learns how to identify these scams. 

A common red flag for identifying scammers is videos of celebrities talking about massive returns that could come from crypto investments. Some celebrities have gotten involved with the crypto space, but they usually would not directly ask new investors to buy or advertise insane returns. 

At the same time, it is worth noting that cryptocurrencies are not get-rich-quick schemes. Although there are penny cryptocurrencies that yield more profit, investors must guard against platforms offering high returns within short time frames such as a day or a week. Such guaranteed earnings most times do not exist and are designed to fuel people's greed and make them invest. 

Lastly, it is usually best to spend some time studying Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies before investing in them. The process of investing is usually simple and individual investors can manage their portfolio without assistance from a third party.