Nigerian cryptocurrency scams have become rampant, as the country is in the middle of what you might call digital currency scams crisis, in which fraudsters are continuously targeting local investors. The report of this comes from the Israeli blockchain analytics company, Whitestream. The firm has estimated that tens of thousands of dollars are being stolen each month by these scam artists. These numbers might not seem too high, but in a country where the average monthly household income is $500 for middle-class homes, these numbers take on a different form.
The majority of these scams originate from the popular social media outlet Instagram. Through the power of Instagram, criminals create fake profiles in which a luxurious lifestyle is heavily promoted to the investing community. These accounts claim that the luxurious lifestyle has been achieved by crypto trading and investing.
The perps lure users into investing in crypto coins through private chats all the while promising them high and very unrealistic returns. When a user sends funds, the most common scammer practice is to liquidate them through Binance and other exchanges.
The recent government-imposed ban on banks and institutions issuing crypto transfer services does not seem to slow down these scammers. As a matter of fact, this ban has somewhat backfired because Nigerian locals are more vulnerable than ever to fraudulent crypto investment opportunities.