[nntwozz]

On a tangent, my neighbor came to me about a month ago and asked if I was a "hacker"?

He's around 75 and has known me for maybe 20 years, we're not close friends but we run into each other every now and then and he knows I work with IT; I'm about half his age.

Long story short, I find out he needs help to retrieve his bitcoin wallet because he's lost $300k. I spend an hour looking around his devices and find out he's been buying bitcoin from a young hip instagram lady in Florida.

Wait for it…

…they shared access to the wallet.

He had a chat log stretching back one year on whatsapp with her, he was now paying her smaller sums to cover the cost for some "hacker" to retrieve his wallet.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[yankaf]

who the fuck told this poor guy about bitcoin, tell him to invest his money in some stocks, he will be taxed but wont be fucked.

[mtnGoat]

Probably the Instagram lady that is helping him. These scams are fairly common on IG these days.

[yieldcrv]

probably a trafficked person in Cambodia

theyre put in labor camps and do cryptocurrency scams over social media

[mtnGoat]

Interesting I didn’t know that, I’ll have to learn more. I had heard about stuff like that in N. Korea but not Cambodia.

[eswat]

North Korea mostly focuses on large game: smart contracts with a lot of Total Value Locked, or other nation states and large companies that would contribute to those states economies

Much of the social media scams are done in south east asia by trafficked people: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hundreds-thousand...

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

It's time to taste what you most fear

[mtnGoat]

Not sure what this means, can you elaborate?

[spyder]

He would just give access for his brokerage or bank account to the lady, like it happens in many other scam cases.

[TimeBearingDown]

Or just buy it with classic instruments - ETF.

[damontal]

Matt Damon

[whimsicalism]

If he has children you should try to get them involved.

[nntwozz]

The sad thing is his wife was wondering where all the money has gone, I was the first one he told about this.

He was saving it for his grandchildren and he basically had a meltdown when I told him he's probably been scammed.

I felt really bad and also uncomfortable with the whole situation, I gave him a hug and told him to get in touch with his bank and tell them everything he told me.

Not likely that they'll help him but I just didn't know how to deal with the situation.

[whimsicalism]

That is so sad. My partner’s father recently had a few $k’s scammed from them. She actually caught it before he had given the money but could not convince him over the phone to not go through with it.

Feel like there should be more extensive monitoring mechanisms for the elderly.