UK School Teacher Falls For Bitcoin Scam, Loses Savings Of ₹ 9 Lakh

Bitcoin Scam: A cryptocurrency investor was reportedly duped by online scammers of £9,000, about ₹ 9.28 lakh using the name of Elon Musk.

Julie Bushnell, a U.K. school teacher said that she had saved the money for a new home and lost it after falling for a Bitcoin scam that used a story featuring Elon Musk.

According to the BBC, the fraudsters created a fake website that appeared similar to the BBC News website which made the fake news item look authentic. Talking to the British TV network Bushnell said that she felt ashamed and embarrassed after falling for the fraud and that she thinks about it "every minute of every day".

The Brighton teacher said that she paid the amount after reading news on a website that resembled BBC News. The news article claimed that Musk would pay back double the amount of any Bitcoin deposit. But as no money came, she knew that she had been conned.

After reporting the incident to the authorities Bushnell said that the scam affected her massively and she wished to go back in time and not make "those couple of clicks". She also slammed the scammers saying that they had robbed her of her "dignity, self-respect, self-worth and strength" and added that now she wants to raise awareness about these kinds of scams.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla has often spoken about Dogecoin in recent months but rarely about bitcoin. A day ago, Musk was suspending purchases with Bitcoin which triggered a slide in the digital currency. Musk tweeted on Wednesday, raising concerns about the rapid increase of fossil fuels for the mining and transactions of Bitcoin. He also signalled that Tesla might accept other cryptocurrencies if they are much less energy-intensive than Bitcoin.

As technology is progressing, scammers are also adapting to the changing tech-driven world to fraud people of their hard-earned money. Hence, people must be wary of such scams and give a second thought before investing their life's savings in such high return scams.