The Criminal Police Bureau announced a fake investment case on September 16. The leader of the fraud was a 34-year-old man surnamed Xie. He runs a channel called “Trading Coin Course” on YouTube and X, where he uploads videos in the capacity of a “mentor” and analyzes cryptocurrency and investment knowledge.
Moreover, his bio on his X account also says “8 years of experience, one-on-one private coach,” and “Hundreds of students’ testimonials—no orders without charts, no selling in the open.”
After gaining the victims’ trust, he used persuasive tactics to get them to use an investment app called “Hengfeng” to buy Tether coins (commonly known as U). He made them believe they were buying coins through normal channels, only to find out that both the money and the coins went into accounts and wallets controlled by the fraud ring’s people-head companies.
So far, 46 people have been scammed, with total losses exceeding NT$58.69 million. Each person lost an average of around NT$1.28 million. One victim was even a company owner who was swindled out of NT$15.5 million in just two months.
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“No trade signals, no hot stock tips”—these are the seven characters most commonly used in Taiwan’s investment education market. In this scam, the instructors in the cryptocurrency trading course did indeed not manage anyone’s investments for them. But what they did do was tell people which platform to use.
Police said that a 28-year-old computer engineer surnamed Hong was responsible for coordinating with a Chinese systems provider to build the backend and set up a fake investment platform. He also connected it to a website displaying Taiwan stock market data, and the screen even showed fake profit figures.
At the same time, they recruited a 57-year-old man surnamed Wang, known as a “master accountant,” to set up shell companies and coordinate money mules. They routed the money through company accounts, underground remittance channels, and cryptocurrency wallets to create breaks in the money trail.
From lessons on attracting clients at the front end to breaks in the money trail at the back end, the entire scam industry chain was now in place.
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In my view, the key takeaway from this case is that YouTube has become the main channel through which many people learn about cryptocurrency and investing. But the only information you can see about an investment education channel is its self-written description and the comments below its videos—and both can be faked.
When learning about investing online, I recommend making a habit of checking someone’s past content and public replies, and taking time to observe them. If they direct you to a specific platform, be sure to verify that the platform is legitimate. This can reduce your chances of being scammed.
Has the person you’re learning about investing from told you which platform to use?
Feel free to share with me~
⚠️ The content above is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice.