Man Sells 26 Bitcoins for €180,000 In Counterfeit Cash

Adding to the litany of cryptocurrency scams being brought to public attention recently, a man has just reported to Dutch authorities that he was given €180,000 in counterfeit cash in exchange for 26 Bitcoins ($154,693).

Details of the Counterfeit Money Scam

According to the Amsterdam Center-Burgwallen police, the victim was first approached by an unknown buyer over the Internet. After negotiating the terms for the exchange, the man agreed to meet the buyer at a hotel. The exchange went smoothly, and the man was given a bag of money after completing the transfer. Upon reexamining the cash, the man realized that the bills were fake.

A similar story was reported earlier this month. This time, the victim was a South Korean businessman, who also owned a successful cryptocurrency company in Singapore. The victim agreed to meet with a Serbian conman and his accomplice who had convinced the victim they were interested in investing in his business. At a meeting held in a luxury hotel along the French riviera, in the coastal town of Nice, the conmen convinced the victim to transfer €2 million ($2.3M) in Bitcoin in exchange for cash, for which the conmen assured they would reimburse him for later.

The victim later discovered that all of the €500 bills used in the deal were counterfeit. Authorities determined that the counterfeit cash had been made using Photoshop. Luckily, the sneaky Serb was caught in the Cannes while driving a luxury sports car and wearing a $110,000 watch. He is currently in custody facing charges of fraud while the location of his accomplice remains unknown.

On August 8th a Thai actor was arrested in connection with a $24 million dollar Bitcoin scam involving a Finnish investor. That story can be found here.