Episode 4 – Part 2 – Everything We Had is Now Gone
Matthew Piliaci is our guest today for episode 2 of “How I Got Hacked.”
Script: – I talked to Hao for about a little over a month. You like me? Well, I’m really excited to learn crypto. During that time, he’s like, “Look at them profits you’ve made! “Have you considered like having your dad invest?” That’s crazy! – You should really buy more crypto NOW is the time! – [Man #1] My account was hacked. – [Man #2] Somebody stole 21 bitcoin out of it. – [Reporter #1] $2 million in cryptocurrency stolen. – [Reporter #2] 47 million dollars– – [Reporter #3] Million dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency… – [Woman] My heart sank… like, completely sank. – [Man #3] Everything we had was gone. – I think I’d put it at about 120, 000. For the first few weeks, I felt like she had made a good deal. And she said, “Dad, do you want to come in on it?” And I said, “Sure, I see that you’re making money. “There’s no reason why we both can’t make money”. So, we kind of pulled our money together, and we talked about, if we got to $1 million dollars in profits, that that would be a good stopping point. And we finally reached that plateau. And I decided, okay, it’s time to take the money and run while we got it. That’s when the problems started. – So, on December 14th, we invested everything that we had from the house, 390k, and at that point, you know, we both had less than $1,000 in our bank account. We come to the day of like, he asked me, “Are you ready to withdraw?” And I’m like… And so, when that came, he said, “Go to the fake platform and say you’d like to withdraw your money”. And that’s when I was hit with a tax of $360, 000. And I was shocked. I’m literally freaking out What are these taxes I have to pay on YOUR platform? – Yes, didn’t I tell you? You need to pay these taxes before you withdraw OH MY GOD, HAO I don’t have the money to pay these $300K of taxes!!! My Dad is going to KILL ME!! We put everything we had on your platform!! I felt horrible thinking like, I think I messed up. And that was like the first time I realized, “Oh my gosh, I’m in the scam!” And so that’s when we started to do our own research online, and that’s when I stumbled upon an article pretty much explaining exactly what I went through. And it’s called Pig Butchering. – This is a quite common technique originated from China. It involves a fraudster feigning to get in a relationship with the victim. Usually they use social media or dating apps. They gain the trust and confidence of the victim, and get the victim investing in a fake investment opportunity. – I remember going back to Hao that day when I’m like, “This is a legit scam”. And I told him, I said, “I don’t know how you live with yourself”. Your platform was fake, I can’t believe I lost all our life savings in this. – Fake what? Just calm down! – I’ve done research, I know that everything about your platform is false. You stole all of our money!! We never earn 1.1 million!! Is there, at least, a way to get what I put into this investment back? Bye. That was our last conversation. – You know, I’m not a violent person. I’m a firm believer, as a Christian, that he will reap his works on this earth. And if there’s justice in this world, he will reap his. Do I wish that what happened to us happens to him? I think that would be good. That would make me happy. – No more dating apps anytime soon. I’ve just kind of been doing my own thing, individual, self-healing type of ordeal. But I’m still on the market, okay? [laughs]
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