800 Catalan victims of cryptocurrency scams every year

Crypto-related crimes are rising in Catalonia with 1,600 complaints made to police in 2021

Head of the Central Area of Economic Crimes of the Mossos d'Esquadra Catalam police, José Ángel Merino (by Pol Solà)
Head of the Central Area of Economic Crimes of the Mossos d'Esquadra Catalam police, José Ángel Merino (by Pol Solà) / ACN

ACN | Barcelona

May 16, 2022 01:58 PM

Cryptocurrency scams are on the rise in Catalonia. 

Catalan police say around 800 people a year fall victim to false investments, with some people losing up to €40,000 before realizing the scam. 

Despite the fact that cryptocurrencies have existed for more than a decade, the Mossos d’Esquadra Catalan police forces say that scams have only appeared within the past five years. 

Last year saw some 1,600 complaints made directly or indirectly relating to cryptocurrencies, with half of them relating to what police call “false investments,” with crypto-scams rising between 15-20% each year.

"It's not a fad for criminals to use virtual currencies, it's something that has come to stay," the head of the Central Area of Economic Crimes of the Mossos d'Esquadra, José Ángel Merino, explained to the Catalan News Agency

Criminals build an online portal designed to look like another trading website, complete with fake data and charts showing price changes and fluctuating values of the various virtual currencies. 

The deception begins when the scammer offers a person advice on how to buy virtual currency. If they agree, the scammer asks him for payments of between €200-300 to register on the platform through which he can buy and invest in cryptocurrencies.

The victim is made to believe that they are investing but in fact, the money is going straight into the scammer's account.

False investments are not the only way criminals use cryptocurrencies as a tool. "We saw that the criminals used [cryptocurrencies] in various ways: to hide their operations, to collect ransoms without leaving a trace, or to create investment scams," Merino says.

Training academies

One of the most infamous known cases related to cryptocurrencies is that of the IM Academy, a company that offers courses on how to invest in crypto currency. 

An investigation by Spain’s National Police revealed two months ago that it could be a pyramid scheme. Organizers offered financial rewards to their members who could sell memberships to other people. In March, police arrested eight people for this case, three of them in Catalonia.

In Catalonia, according to the head of the Central Area of ​​Economic Crimes, no other pyramid schemes have been detected apart from IM Academy, which bases its profits on the permanent recruitment of new members. 

However, other academies are in operation selling courses for between €2,000 and €8,000. "They promise financial independence and use celebrity images as a hook to make you believe that you will have a luxurious life without any effort," Merino explains.

For these cases, online training sessions are offered, explaining crypto investment and trading, but the problem arrives when users invest, lose money, and then realize that they do not get the profits they were promised. 

"In these cases, it is very difficult to prove the scam because they say they have given you the training they promised you. Sometimes the only thing that can be done is to file a civil lawsuit for misleading advertising," Merino says.

Young people are the most common people to fall for such schemes, although the police point out that it is not uncommon for people in a wide age range, from 20 to 40, to purchase these courses.