Crypto scammer swindles a Bay Area woman out of more than $1 million

Crypto crime continues to explode, often targeting Americans through a worldwide network of criminals who don’t care whose lives they destroy. One victim, a working woman, was willing to talk about the financial devastation.

US savings and retirement accounts are prime targets because America is where the money is.

“It’s a personal drive for me that I don’t want this to happen to others,” said Mary, in her 60s and a professional who ensures her employer complies with all applicable laws, regulations and policies.

Over her life, she amassed a $1.2 million retirement fund, some of it to finance her son’s college education.

The money is gone now.

“It’s absolutely humiliating, devastating, I cried for weeks,” she said.

Mary was initially contacted through LinkedIn, Microsoft’s business and employment-focused social media platform with over one billion members worldwide.

Last March, Kenneth Ouyang, who claims in his professional LinkedIn post that he is a Google artificial intelligence and machine learning engineer, contacted Mary and told her he wanted to talk about AI in the context of her industry.

Ouyang said he wanted to discuss AI in the context of their industry.

“He’s very tech savvy,” she said.

Over several months, they built trust by discussing shared interests such as cooking and outdoor activities. They spoke on FaceTime and WhatsApp. Ouyang even sent a copy of his Seattle driver’s license.

Finally, he brought up his side business, cryptocurrency.

“I had concerns, but I thought, ‘Well, there is crypto in the industry. There are many apps. People do this. They channel money,’” Mary said.

He convinced Mary to give it a try by investing $1,000 in a platform called Xexbit.com. Almost immediately, she received $1,340 in cash back in her bank account.

Further transfers eventually depleted the pension fund, with Ouyang claiming he had co-invested with her. She says he even tried to convince her to take part in what appeared to be a multi-stage crypto Ponzi scheme to attract more investors, but refused.

Still, Mary said she was told she had amassed a $9 million profit. But to get it back, she would have to deposit another 10% into her account; Money she didn’t have.

“That didn’t happen. And they also gave a deadline that it would be due by September 7th,” she said.

Ouyang removed his LinkedIn post and disappeared with all her money. She is in contact with local police, the FBI and the IRS.

With her nest egg gone, she is now thinking about the rest of her life.

“I hesitated and went for it anyway,” Mary said.

Users who fall for carefully crafted crypto scams often harbor ill will toward LinkedIn because they believe they are dealing with reputable organizations and professionals.

Aware of this, LinkedIn told CNBC that increasing fraud resulted in the removal of 32 million fake, fake and fraudulent accounts last year.

Nonetheless, the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Cyber ​​Crimes Unit says social media needs to do a much better job of ridding its sites of scammers.

“Last year, $50 billion was stolen from ordinary Americans by transnational organized crime… the problem is sophisticated fraudsters who know who to target, how to target it, and how to target it in order to stealing everything,” said Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney James Gibbons-Shapiro.

KTVU reached out to LinkedIn but did not receive a response for comment.