According to CoinDesk news, on April 29, Ms. Zhou, accompanied by her husband, went to the Hangu Police Station of the High-tech Zone Public Security Bureau to report that she had been deceived out of 36,000 yuan while investing in virtual currency online.
It turns out that more than a month ago, Ms. Zhou met an online friend with the surname Qin. Ms. Zhou felt that she got along well with this friend and regarded him as a confidant. After chatting for a while, one day, the friend introduced Ms. Zhou to online trading of virtual currency, telling her she could 'make a little money,' and then provided her with three download links. Ms. Zhou opened the links and downloaded three virtual currency apps and registered.
Ms. Zhou had never dealt with virtual currency before, but with a try-it-out attitude, she first recharged 600 yuan for investment. Under the 'careful guidance' of the friend with the surname Qin, the next day she received back more than 630 yuan, including her principal and profits. With this 'successful experience,' Ms. Zhou's confidence greatly increased.
Ms. Zhou invested 36,000 yuan in one of the apps to purchase 11 virtual currencies in three installments. Following the previous operating process, Ms. Zhou transferred these 11 virtual currencies to another app. After some 'buy more' operations, within three hours, the 11 virtual currencies 'rose' to over 16,000 currencies, making it seem as though her assets instantly multiplied by over a thousand times.
Excited, Ms. Zhou thought about quickly converting these virtual currencies into cash, so she followed the previous process to withdraw funds. However, the platform kept showing 'withdrawal failed.' Ms. Zhou consulted the platform's customer service, who stated that the platform's rule required a score of 100 points to withdraw currency for trading, while Ms. Zhou currently only had 98 points. To gain the additional 2 points, she would have to recharge about 10,000 yuan into the app to purchase 14 coins.
Feeling puzzled, Ms. Zhou consulted the friend with the surname Qin, who claimed that it was indeed the platform's rule. He said he had over 1 million yuan of principal in it and encouraged Ms. Zhou not to doubt or hesitate, urging her to recharge another 10,000 yuan to withdraw and cash out the more than 16,000 coins she had already earned.
While Ms. Zhou was hesitating, her husband noticed something was wrong. Upon her husband's inquiry, Ms. Zhou revealed the truth about her investment in virtual currency. Her husband immediately realized that his wife had fallen victim to telecom fraud. Doubting, Ms. Zhou sent a message to the friend with the surname Qin, demanding her investment back, but the friend simply deleted Ms. Zhou.
Ms. Zhou suddenly realized that she had fallen into the trap of an online 'confidant' and had been deceived out of real money by so-called virtual currency.
