Officers from the Bolesławiec County Police Headquarters received a report concerning fraud, in which a county resident was the victim. Unit:

The woman met someone through a dating app whose account was described using a male name. The contact then moved to a messenger app, where the person she was speaking with boasted about their success investing in cryptocurrencies and began encouraging the victim to take similar action.

After some time, the woman was tempted by the promise of profit and, following the instructions precisely, installed an investment app on her phone.

The first investment produced a quick result. Police: – After investing PLN 1,000, an additional PLN 200 was deposited into the victim’s account.

The result? The resident of Bolesławiec County was persuaded to make further investments involving larger amounts. And when an amount of PLN 500,000 appeared in her account in the app, she decided to withdraw it. But there was a catch! Investigators:

The condition was (...) to pay tax amounting to more than PLN 100,000. The victim believed she could obtain a large sum of money, so she took out a loan to make the payment.

After paying more than PLN 100,000, she received a message saying that another PLN 3,000 was still missing. The scammer then came to her aid, offering to pay the missing amount.

The next message aroused the defrauded woman’s suspicions. Information from customer service indicated that irregularities had been detected and that the account was to be frozen. Of course, to regain access to it, she had to... make another payment.

How can you avoid being scammed?

  • Do not believe in easy and quick profits. Before investing, check whether the entity is on the KNF warning list.
  • Read the KNF and NBP information concerning investing in cryptocurrencies.
  • Before investing, read online reviews of the entity/platform and talk to someone you trust.
  • Do not share your electronic or mobile banking login details with anyone.
  • Do not send anyone scans of your documents.
  • Do not install additional software recommended by people you are speaking with or market analysts on devices used to log in to online banking.