A bunch of scammers in Australia try to steal crypto funds from Australians in a very creative way. The scammers in question are laying out seemingly legit bitcoin (BTC) wallets on the street and in parks to make people think they have found a huge treasure.
Wallet with $10,000 in BTC
An individual who then scans the paper wallet takes the QR code to a wallet containing up to 10,000 US dollars in bitcoin. To withdraw those funds, the person in question must then pay a small amount and provide their own wallet details.
“Once the withdrawal amount is paid and the person shares their wallet details, the funds are stolen from their wallet,” the police said in a statement. Facebook post. The authorities hope this will convince people not to go into the scam.
Instead, they should take the wallet to the local police as soon as possible so that they can start an investigation. This is not the first time Australia has fallen victim to this scam. Over three months ago, we came across a on Reddit already thread against a similar story.
“It looks so good”
Dozens of people across the country report having found such paper wallets. One user named Pinnymc says he almost fell for the scam because you could see the wallet address and transactions on the blockchain. So bitcoin does exist.
The website also looked good, he said. However, Pinnymc became suspicious after he had to pay the 0.5 percent transaction fee. “If it was a legitimate wallet then I would have to withdraw the funds and pay the transaction fees with the balance in the wallet. It’s a shame, because it looks so good,” said the user.
On the other hand, this would mean that the person who finds a wallet chooses to keep the funds for themselves, instead of starting a search for the rightful owner. What would you do if you found a wallet with $10,000 worth of Bitcoin?