Luno impersonation scammers suck R700k from victim

Tito Moagi thought he was being offered the deal of a lifetime by Luno: Invest R10 000, and we will turn it into R40 000 in a matter of weeks.

Like most victims of these scams, he came across the Luno impersonation scam on Facebook in 2020, at the height of Covid, and decided to give it a shot.

The Luno logo was peppered all over their email correspondence, so at first blush, it looked convincing enough … until you start digging into the details.

Moagi started off buying bitcoin worth R10 000 and shipping it off to the scammers.

This went on for four years until he had parted with R700 000 in the hopes of a R4.5 million payout.

A payout this huge will change anyone’s life, and that kept Moagi hooked. Last year, he took voluntary retrenchment from his employer in the hope that he would have sufficient funds to start his own business. Those plans are scorched, and he is currently unemployed.

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There were signs

The first indication this was a scam should have been the Gmail email address used by the scammers. No official communication from Luno comes from a Gmail address.

The second tell this was a scam is the shoddy English, misplaced punctuation, and tortured phrasing. Though AI could help clean this up, these scammers made no such effort.

Here’s a small sample:

“The bill Statement is attached to this mail Kindly cross check again for confirmation of details while we await your revert for decision to be made Thank you” 

This is how it works:

• Step 1: The scammers convince the victim to purchase bitcoin to the value of R10 000 and then ship it to an address supplied by the scammers.
• Step 2: When the R40 000 falls due, they encourage the victim to “reinvest” with the promise of an even bigger payout later. Even better, they get the victim to invest more fresh funds with the lure of a tantalising, life-changing payout.
• Step 3: Repeat Step 2 until the victim screams for a refund.
• Step 4: Start delaying. Demand more funds “to settle SA Revenue Services (Sars) taxes”, “gas fees”, and “hold levies”. Just keep the funds rolling in.
• Step 5: Never break contact with the victim, no matter how upset they are. Their upset can be turned into another opportunity to solicit fresh funds. All they need is another R30 000 to “settle Sars” or clear the “hold levy”, and they will immediately ship you the R4.5 million they promised.

In Moagi’s case, he started with R10 000, but by the time he finished, he was more than R700 000 in the hole.

That’s a whale of a deal for the scammers. Each communication detailed the latest hold-up in releasing his funds but was encouraging enough to keep him hooked.

He ended up paying R45 000 in “FICA” (Financial Intelligence Centre Act) fees, “Luno bot fees”, SWIFT fees, taxes to Sars and even customs fees.

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“In all, I paid over 20 different fees,” says Moagi.

“I didn’t have enough money to cover these expenses, so I asked them to put it on hold. I had to find the money by borrowing it. When I found the money I needed they told me to pay it to a specific address. Then I was told I had to pay a ‘hold’ levy of $250 a month. I paid this for 10 months, and then paid an additional R110 000 last September when I got my bonus.”

All correspondence was by email, and Moagi is hugely embarrassed that he got sucked in this deep.

“It’s the hope of a big payout that kills you when you are caught up with scammers,” he adds.

“I always hoped it would end well. Even today they sent me a message that they wanted to put the money back into crypto, but I realise now that I have probably lost this money. Hopefully, my story can help other people avoid this trap.”

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More bad English

On the matter of bad English, here’s another sample:

Source: Tito Moagi

The scammers did not even bother to spell Moagi’s name correctly. Nor does the language make much sense.

Here’s the notification of a “gas fee bill clearance dispute”.

Source: Tito Moagi

“When I transferred funds to Luno, I would get a valid email from a Luno email address telling me money had been received,” says Moagi.

“Then I would buy bitcoin and send it to the scammers. They would then send me an email saying the funds were received, but this would come from [a] Gmail address.

“Did I get suspicious at any point? Yes, I even asked them about their email not being Luno. I got [an] automated response displaying [an] authentic Luno email addresses, but there [were] no Gmail addresses on this list.

“Whenever they asked for additional funds, I would pay more than they asked because they were deducting 8% for transaction fees.”

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Says Luno SA country manager Christo de Wit: “Our team is investigating this scam and will do the needed reporting. However, we have no way of getting those funds back as they have been sent on-chain and to exchanges in our regions.

“Although an impersonation scam, this scam happened off our platform and Luno was only used as a way for the victim to send the funds,” he adds.

“We highly recommend that [Moagi] contact law enforcement.”

To avoid scams, Luno urges customers to read this guide.

This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.