Bitcoin Millionaire by Whatsapp?

Anonymous operators entice inexperienced people to bet on currency rates and earn as middlemen.

Banknotes, Rolex, expensive cars. “Join the group”, advertises a video on Youtube. “Payout – last week”, a man raves and holds a fan of euro notes into the camera. “AMG, Brudaaa!” Cries another as he steps on the accelerator of the eponymous Mercedes model. “Rolex, cash – that’s my lifestyle,” says the third protagonist.

They perform as “Markus”, “Niko” and “Sascha” and advertise a Whatsapp group. The promise: wealth. Who follows the call, should be able to earn 200,000 euros in half a year. The clip, which is played via the Youtube advertising program as a prelude to other videos, came last to two million views, but has been removed in the meantime. A newly uploaded version already comes to over 600,000 views.

Trading tips with referral link

“I’ll send you some information on what we do in the group”, says the friendly welcome message after the initial contact. Mark, as the given name of the operator, is therefore “with currency pairs”. He is supported in a “big trading network” by “several professionals” who provide him with “live trends, analysis and signals”.

In fact, an estimated one to two referrals per day come to Whatsapp and Telegram, consisting of a storyline and garnished with a shortened link. This leads to the login page of portals such as 24option and BDSwiss and includes a so-called referrer. This is an add-on in the address that allows the platform to virtually determine who “recruited” a new sign-in user. Just two login links leading to BDSwiss have been clicked over 13,000 times, as the publicly available statistics reveal.

Accordingly, “Markus” is not completely honest when he says on demand, he has “currently none of this”, if he sends his tips. Because these portals offer him as recommender very well a remuneration. If a recruited user has implemented enough money there, he receives either a fixed amount or a share in their profits.

Dangerous advice

The risk warnings can be found in the Telegram Group, which was founded in September 2016 but has only been actively pursued since July 2017, right at the beginning. Anyone who wants to read them has to painstakingly scroll there. In all other news is regularly given the impression that it is extremely easy to hedge against losses and secure profits.

In the process, information is also handed down that is questionable or incorrect. As a result of the recent “Government Shutdown” in the US, it is being spread that the US government is about to lay off a large number of civil servants and should therefore bet on a dollar that is rising against the dollar. At the end of November it was recommended to set the Bitcoin price, which should soon grow to $ 100,000.

However, these platforms have nothing to do with conventional stock or currency trading. You do not put money directly into currencies there, but rather rely on price increases or decreases. If the forecast goes up, you can make some profit. If she does not do it, the mission is gone. In the vast majority of cases, it is certainly the provider of these “binary options” that has the better end for itself.

What the operators of the chat groups call “trading” is thus actually “highly speculative” financial gambling, against which the VKI warns for some time. Price developments are difficult to predict, especially for laymen. In addition, even a small fluctuation with a bit of bad luck can make a bet bad.

No new stitch

The “trading” -masche is not brand new. Such groups of self-proclaimed “trading” experts have been around in the past. They traded under the name of “Daniel Jachter” or “Kay Zaremba”, whose authenticity can not be verified either. In the referral links posted by “Markus”, however, there are indications that the same backers are at the helm.

Again and again the group postings emphasize how successful their own “trades” are. Misleading excerpts from progress diagrams are also used, in which a price increase of around 0.4 percent acts like a giant leap.

Also screenshots of chat messages allegedly successful members are sent via Whatsapp and Telegram. Also to be seen again and again: photos of money, cars and expensive luxury items. And also a guide was published, in which explains what (false) information you have to make a platform in order to be accepted there as a user can.

The group on Telegram is over 2,300 members strong. Questions or doubts can not be registered, because the founder has set the settings so that only he can post messages. How many recipients there is on Whatsapp, is not visible. Because the interested parties are sent via private messages with the instructions.

“Self-responsibility and common sense are also needed here”, it is not difficult to guess that the promise of becoming rich in half a year is not tenable. Because: “If that were so easy, there would only be millionaires.”