How the SEC Found Out About the $14M Crypto Racket: A Tale of AI, WhatsApp, and What Not

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Well, old sport, it seems our friends over at the US Securities and Exchange Commission have finally cracked the code – or at least cracked a pretty slick scam involving enough dough to make even the most hardened crooks tip their hats. Three chaps and a quartet of questionable “investment clubs” were caught red-handed, or rather, red-walleted, for running a regular grand opera of fraud, all under the guise of crypto and chatty WhatsApp circles. 🌐💸

Turns out, the whole rigmarole was staged from January 2024 to January 2025 – the usual timeframe where scammer chaps think they’re terribly clever, but the law has other plans. These merchants of mirages spun a web of false promises, dangling easy profits and AI-generated “expert” advice like a cat with a mouse. And all the while, they were secretly raking in over $14 million from mostly unfortunate Americans, who probably thought they were investing in the next big thing instead of being the star turn in a digital con sketch. 🕵️‍♂️

Fake Platforms & Phony Profits, Old Boy

The scheme was as elaborate as a Wodehouse plot-advertising on social media for quick riches, then inviting the gullible to a WhatsApp chat where the scammers, posing as financial wizards, spun tales of triumphant AI-driven trades. Once the victims were sufficiently enchanted, they were nudged to deposit their hard-earned coppers into supposed crypto platforms run by Morocoin, Berge, and Cirkor. Fancy licenses and official seals? Mere window dressing, old sport-they hadn’t a scrap of official approval.

The scammers even cooked up those “Security Token Offerings,” claiming they were linked to real companies. Alas, no such companies, no trading, just smoke, mirrors, and a lot of broken hopes. When the victims, naturally eager to cash out, knocked on the door, they were met with demands for more fees-classic bit of hustle, really-and the loot vanished quicker than a whiskered butler with a tray of afternoon tea. All the money, it seems, was spirited away-to some offshore bank and crypto black hole. 🚀🕳️

“Our complaint alleges a multi-step fraud that attracted victims with ads on social media, built victims’ trust in group chats where fraudsters posed as financial professionals and promised profits from AI-generated investment tips, then convinced victims to put their money into fake crypto asset trading platforms where it was misappropriated,” – Laura D’Allaird, SEC Cyber Chief

The Rise of AI-Fake and Fake-AI

As if the scam couldn’t be saucier, the fraudsters took to AI like ducks to water. Deepfake videos featuring Elon Musk touting the latest crypto gubbins? Check. AI forging customer support chats that sound disturbingly genuine? Double check. They even used Zoom invites as Trojan horses, slipping malicious links into what were supposed to be business meetings, making the whole charade as convincing as a Sir Galahad knight in shining armor-except, of course, when you get lured into a malware trap instead. 🤖🎭

One wonders if there’s an AI-powered butler nipping around scamming us all in pajamas. But for now, at least the law is awake-and perhaps, just perhaps, ready to send these digital Dickens to the sawdust bin of history.

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2025-12-28 01:47