Bitcoin: he pays 100,000 euros as a deposit to receive 25 BTC that never existed

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The flatterer of the fable has found his digital relay. The Gifhorn police made the story public on Monday October 26 and it is contained in four lines. It joins the long catalog of fake crypto investments that target European individuals and adds a cheeky variant. The company does not sell any investments, it tells the recipient that he is already rich.

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Police are not giving his name or age. Our man is not asking for the moon. So he wants to cash in part of the money. The company was understanding and offered him “more than two million euros”. You simply need to pay a deposit of “more than 100,000 euros” to unlock the transfer. Relentless logic of the crook, who does not release two million without a small gesture.

The transfer goes out. Then, radio silence. No one on the phone, no one on the voicemail. The victim ended up pushing the door of the police station, and the Polizeiinspektion Gifhorn published its opinion on October 26 with a sentence that should be engraved on the fronts of banks. “Never transfer money to release a payment. » The dpa agency, which took over the case the same day, adds that “all alarm bells” should have sounded. The exact amount of the transfer was not communicated, nor the name of the company which pocketed the 100,000 euros.

Because the trap works for a simple reason: the figure almost matches reality. At around $81,500 per bitcoin this Wednesday morning according to CoinGecko, 25 BTC weighs a little over two million dollars. Count around 1.8 million euros. The scammer rounded the bill upwards, but the order of magnitude is off the market.

Behind the German word “Cybertrading-Betrug” hides the most profitable mechanism of the crypto scam, I call the false paid withdrawal. First a fictitious balance which climbs on a well-polished dashboard. Then, at the time of withdrawal, an avalanche of costs: taxes to be paid in advance, “compliance costs”, insurance, deposit. Thus, each payment unlocks the promise of the next one. Gifhorn’s version skips the fake trading stage and goes straight to the cash register, with the tune of “you’re already rich, pay to prove it”.

The relationship is obvious with this lost token recovery service which was itself a scam. Same family, the one that monetizes hope rather than greed. In fact, the victim did not seek to get rich quickly, she believed in a digital inheritance.

European regulators are overwhelmed by related cases. The AMF added 26 addresses to its blacklist in the third quarter of 2026, 64 since January, including several “AI trading robots” and a fake information site, according to its October 19 press release. And the promises like the exit fees are the same as in Gifhorn.

Machine-translated from French