Authorities nabbed a 23-year-old man dubbed as a "cryptocurrency scam king" who defrauded victims of up to PHP600 million from his victims through an investment scam.
In a press conference held at Camp Crame Quezon City Tuesday, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) National Capital Region (NCR) director Col. Marlon Quimno said the suspect, alias "Joshua", was arrested in Barangay San Juan, Noveleta, Cavite at about 8 p.m. Monday.
The suspect has two arrest warrants issued by local courts in the cities of Makati and Parañaque for estafa under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code.
"It was not just a simple cryptocurrency scam. He is also using the money in casinos. He would entice victims and then he would not return the money. This is why this is a big case and this was reported previously by the media and the victims of this personality include some media personalities, police officers and government employees who were victims and true enough, the person concerned is detained here in our facility," Quimno added.
He said the suspect has a database of potential victims.
"He was able to post bail in a previous complaint, and after that, again, another case was filed against him in the two cities. The cases against him are bailable, around PHP54,000 so we are calling for his victims to come out so we can file more cases against him."
Quimno said they plan to file a case of large scale estafa against the suspect, which is a non-bailable offense.
"A promise of big return for a big sum of investment, say two-fold or three-fold is too good to be true. There is no such legitimate business. It's more likely to be a scam so we should be careful," he added.
The cryptocurrency investment scam is a modus of scammers who lure investors to invest money for a bogus investment.
The modus is for potential investors to download a specific cryptocurrency app which when installed will require them to cash in their investments in digital wallets listed in the application.
In the dashboard of the apps, account holders will be able to see the amount of money they have invested and the high interest their money has earned over time.
As investors begin to see the growing interest their money has generated in a short period of time, they are enticed to invest more.
When investors start to withdraw their money, the apps will not allow them to withdraw. This is when investors would realize they have been victims of a cryptocurrency investment scam. (PNA)
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