“Individuals Being Fleeced By Online Fraudsters”

January 18, 2022

The police continue to “receive reports of individuals being fleeced by online fraudsters,” saying that one scam involves the “use of social media [mainly Instagram] to promote a fraudulent scheme where residents are invited to deposit $1,000 into a local account for 10 minutes and in return, the resident will receive $10,000.”

A police spokesperson said, “Despite repeated advisories and warnings to members of the public to be wary of online get rich quick schemes, the Bermuda Police Service [BPS] continues to receive reports of individuals being fleeced by online fraudsters.

“One such scam, which we have previously warned residents about, continues to attract individuals with the promise of making a quick buck. It involves the use of social media [mainly Instagram] to promote a fraudulent scheme where residents are invited to deposit $1,000 into a local account for 10 minutes and in return, the resident will receive $10,000.

“The Instagram account used to attract “investors” is @tara_gotbanz. That account has been confirmed as fraudulent.

“The fraudulent scheme is also promoted/validated by local social media account holders as being a legitimate investment, although, those accounts are believed to have been compromised. To date, none of the persons who have deposited funds have received the $10,000 return as advertised.

Image provided by the police:

Thousand Dollar Scam Bermuda Jan 2022

“Until recently, all funds from victims were deposited into a local bank account, although the BPS have since arrested the account holder, a local male, who remains on police bail. Since the arrest, the fraudsters now request residents to deposit funds into a different local bank account.

“The BPS will continue to investigate and potentially arrest that person if they are found to be complicit.

“Members of the public are advised, persons convicted of fraudulent inducement to invest or deposit, face a maximum sentence of seven years’ imprisonment,” the police concluded.

The police have issued dozens of warnings about online scams — the related Bernews section has over 125 articles most of which are police and/or Government advisories — and despite this, they recently confirmed they “continue to get reports on an almost daily basis” and “the amount of money people have collectively lost, locally, to these online scams, is now in the millions.”

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Comments (6)

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  1. puzzled says:

    Only a fool would click or apply.
    Now you wanna loose a quick buck; buy fast food or KFC.

  2. had all my jabs and booster says:

    are Banks not checking out people’s ID’s and references anymore before allowing anyone to open an account?

    all these fraudsters need to locked up for a long time

  3. Toodle-oo says:

    Beware of a far more believable one than this outrageous scam. In recent weeks I’ve had a number of e-mails purporting to be from my ISP saying that there are numerous e-mails held up in delivery due to some techno babble and I need to click on the supplied link to free them up for delivery .
    The latest two even have very believable and legitimate looking sender addresses .
    Delete them !

  4. Stupid People says:

    Only a fool would subscribe to such an offer! No one in the history of the earth has ever made ten times their investment in 10 minutes by transferring money to an account! Just stupid so deserve the outcome.

    • Tom says:

      Ah but Jesus said i can turn water into wine !

    • Toodle-oo says:

      If you’ve used the roads recently you’ll see that there’s absolutely no shortage of fools around here .