加密貨運騙局：我如何在與今天早上的主持人本·謝弗（Ben Shephard）爭吵中觀看了電台2 DJ Sara Cox的“幕後”視頻後，如何在一個複雜的騙局中損失了200,000英鎊

Susannah Jowitt是上個月她有史以來最富有的 - 她的投資以及加密貨幣總計93,984英鎊

Last month I was the richest I'd ever been. I had investments totalling £63,372, plus cryptocurrency totalling £93,984. I was giddy with excitement thinking of paying off my mortgage with change left over for a winter sun holiday with my husband.

上個月，我是我有史以來最富有的人。我的投資總計為63,372英鎊，加上加密貨幣總計93,984英鎊。我很興奮地想，想還清我的抵押貸款，而零錢則與我的丈夫一起度過了冬季的假期。

And all this in a few months, from an initial investment of £200 in trading cryptocurrency. How exciting to be immersed in what's described as the new 'gold rush'.

幾個月來，所有這些都是從交易加密貨幣的200英鎊投資。沉浸在被描述為新的“淘金熱”中多麼令人興奮。

Until, of course, I realised it was a scam and it all came tumbling down. Was I an idiot? You decide.

當然，直到我意識到這是一個騙局，一切都在跌倒。我是個白痴嗎？你決定。

Here's where it begins. In July 2024, I watch an Instagram 'behind the scenes' video of Radio 2 DJ Sara Cox in an argument with the This Morning presenter Ben Shephard. 'How dare you close me down on-air like that?' she demands. 'Why shouldn't I tell people about how I made £200,000 in one year if they could too?'

這是它開始的地方。 2024年7月，我在與今天早上的主持人本·謝潑德（Ben Shephard）爭吵中觀看了電台2 DJ Sara Cox的Instagram“幕後”視頻。 “你怎麼敢這樣在空中關閉我？”她要求。 “為什麼我不應該告訴人們我在一年內也賺了200,000英鎊？”

Ben Shephard rolls his eyes, 'Because you just can't do that, Sara, it's irresponsible...cryptocurrency isn't for ordinary people, it's for clever cowboys.'

Ben Shephard翻了個白眼，“因為您只是做不到，Sara，這是不負責任的……加密貨幣不適合普通百姓，而是給聰明的牛仔。”

Sara shakes her head, 'Not with these people at Victory Capital, it's not. They make it easy, they hold your hand. I couldn't believe it myself but it bloody worked!'

薩拉搖了搖頭，“不是和這些人一起在Victory Capital中，事實並非如此。他們使它變得容易，握住您的手。我本人簡直不敢相信，但是血腥起作用了！

Things are biting financially, so I think it can't harm to check it out. I Google Victory Capital, registered in Austin, Texas, with offices in London and Singapore. I read up about artificial intelligence trading and submit a contact form to see if I'm eligible.

事情在財務上咬人，所以我認為檢查它不會造成傷害。我在德克薩斯州奧斯汀註冊的Google Victory Capital在倫敦和新加坡設有辦事處。我閱讀了有關人工智能交易的信息，並提交聯繫表格，以查看我是否有資格。

I undertake never to invest more than 1 pc of my assets and don't give any detail more personal than my phone number. I 'register' for the minimum investment of £200.

我承諾從不投資我的資產超過1 po，並且沒有給任何比我的電話號碼更具個性的詳細信息。我以200英鎊的最低投資為“註冊”。

I am duly messaged the next day on WhatsApp by Anthony Sharpe from the London office of Victory Capital and we fix another call a few days later.

第二天，我在倫敦勝利資本辦公室的安東尼·夏普（Anthony Sharpe）在WhatsApp上進行了適當的消息，幾天后，我們將再次致電。

He sounds American, with a trace of an Asian, possibly Filipino, accent, and is friendly, telling me how much he likes London since relocating from Texas, how he has looked me up and read some of my articles.

他聽起來很美，有一段亞洲，可能是菲律賓，口音，很友好，告訴我自從得克薩斯州搬遷以來，他喜歡倫敦，他如何看待我並閱讀了我的一些文章。

I say I've looked him up too but can't find him on Instagram or LinkedIn; he explains earnestly that since his whole professional life is digital, he prefers to keep his personal identity out of his digital profile. It sounds credible.

我說我也看著他，但在Instagram或LinkedIn上找不到他。他認真地解釋說，由於他的整個職業生涯都是數字化的，因此他更喜歡將自己的個人身份置於數字化的範圍之外。聽起來可信。

He asks me how much return I want to make on my £200. I go large, to test him. 'I want to make £4,000 because I want to buy my daughter a car.' He laughs. 'Try ten times that – within six months, Susannah!'

他問我想在200英鎊上賺多少錢。我走大，測試他。 “我想賺4,000英鎊，因為我想給女兒買一輛汽車。”他笑了。 “嘗試十倍 - 六個月內，蘇珊娜！”

It opens up possibilities that are tempting... for a second. 'Keep your head screwed on,' I warn myself sternly.

它打開了誘人的可能性……一秒鐘。我嚴厲警告自己。

I transferred the £200 to a Victory Capital account and log on, receiving a homepage 'dashboard' full of bar charts, jargon and official-looking regulatory warnings. I don't know what they are but I feel intrepid.

我將200英鎊轉移到了一個勝利資本帳戶中，並登錄了，收到了一個裝有條形圖，行話和外觀官方監管警告的主頁“儀表板”。我不知道它們是什麼，但我感到勇敢。

In July, there is a worldwide IT outage when a botched update by security outfit Crowdstrike takes down nearly 10 million Windows devices. So when I get a server error on the URL for my 'dashboard', Anthony blames it on that and gives me a new link.

7月，當安全裝備CrowdStrike的爆炸更新拆除了近1000萬個Windows設備時，全世界就有IT中斷。因此，當我在“儀表板”的URL上獲得服務器錯誤時，Anthony將其歸咎於它，並為我提供了一個新的鏈接。

There, to my amazement, I see my new balance is the Bitcoin equivalent of £16,773. From an initial £200 stake, it had jumped up to £8,000 and then to £16,773. 'You can buy your daughter that car now,' laughs Anthony over the phone. Golly, I think, maybe this is going to work...

令我驚訝的是，我看到我的新余額是比特幣相當於16,773英鎊。從最初的200英鎊股份開始，它躍升至8,000英鎊，然後達到16,773英鎊。 “你現在可以買女兒那輛車，”安東尼在電話上笑著說。我認為，Golly也許這會起作用...

I decide to take some of the profits out because the crypto trading 'world' is essentially unregulated. Anthony says UK banks are nervous of Bitcoin transfers so to get the £4,000 I'm cashing in I need to set up trading accounts with a couple of halfway house apps: OKX to open a wallet of Bitcoin that can then be converted by Crypto.com into GBP and, from there, I can transfer the sterling balance into my bank.

我決定將一些利潤淘汰，因為加密貨幣交易“世界”本質上是不受監管的。安東尼說，英國銀行對比特幣轉移感到緊張，因此要獲得我兌現的4,000英鎊，我需要使用幾個中途的房屋應用程序來設置交易帳戶：OKX開設一個比特幣錢包，然後可以由加密貨幣轉換。 com進入GBP，從那裡，我可以將英鎊餘額轉移到我的銀行中。

It sounds complicated, with a whiff of tax evasion about it. Anthony reassures me it's just a tax avoidance loophole, nothing illegal.

聽起來很複雜，逃稅的氣味很大。安東尼向我保證，這只是避稅漏洞，沒有什麼非法。

I Google OKX and Crypto.com, both cryptocurrency exchanges which pass the sniff test of Companies House.

我Google oke okx and crypto.com，都是通過公司之家的嗅探測試的加密貨幣交易所。

Anthony offers to help me through the 'very fiddly' downloading of software on to my computer. 'If you download AnyDesk (a screen-sharing app) on to your laptop, then I can do it for you,' he explains casually.

安東尼（Anthony）願意通過將軟件下載到我的計算機上的“非常貼心”的下載來幫助我。他隨便解釋說：“如果您將Anydesk（一個屏幕共享應用程序）下載到筆記本電腦上，那麼我可以為您做。”

Give control over my laptop to a stranger? Alarm bells ring. 'No, that's OK,' I

將我的筆記本電腦控制給一個陌生人？警報鈴響。 “不，沒關係，”我