Internet swindlers advertised cryptocurrency with Barbara Palvin and PM Viktor Orbán

It is very difficult to fight them, but in this article, we try to explore scams and possible solutions.

According to Szeretlek Magyarorszag, increasingly sophisticated systems are being used by scammers to scout their victims, using fake news sites that offer quick enrichment. Ads also often pass through Google and Facebook filters, writes Direkt 36, which is now involved in the processing of hundreds of thousands of fake news in international collaboration and uncovered the operation of advanced and working machinery behind online fraud, among other things.

In the advertisements of online investment swindlers, even PM Viktor Orbán promotes cryptocurrency with the title “Viktor Orbán presents a system that helps prevent the coronavirus from affecting the Hungarian economy”. Since the beginning of the year, similar fake news has multiplied in Hungarian as well. Unintentionally and unknowingly, for example, Mayor Gergely Karácsony, OTP President Sándor Csányi, and world-famous model Barbara Palvin promoted cryptocurrency in these advertisements.

Direkt 36 spoke to a source who was an employee of a call centre in Israel, which was responsible for the exploitation of people, and a young Hungarian man who paid up and lost 12 million forints. The investigative journalist also registered on a registration site promoted by Mayor Gergely Karácsony, then received a series of calls from aggressive, quick-to-get-rich “customer relationship managers”.

These types of scams are called €250 scams by the National Bureau of Investigation (NNI) because swindlers persuade their victims by phone to first pay an initial instalment of €250, and then even their full savings in hopes of getting rich quick. They promise big profits first, demand even more deposits, and eventually disappear with their customers’ money.