FatManTerra, a crypto influencer, says he got more than $100,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from crypto investors as part of a fake investment scheme.
The crypto researcher said he made the fake investment scheme as an experiment and to teach people not to blindly follow the advice of influential people about investments.
The Twitter account has about 101,100 followers and is mostly known for being a former Terra supporter who now actively speaks out against the project and its founder, Do Kwon, after it lost $40 billion in May.
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In a tweet on Monday, FatManTerra told his followers that he had “received access to a high-yield BTC farm” from a fund he didn’t name. He also told his followers that they could send him a message if they wanted to be a part of the yield farming opportunity.
“I’ve used up everything I could, but there’s still some left over, so I thought I’d pass it on. UST victims will get priority. ” DM me if you want to know more,” he wrote.
Even though the post got a lot of negative comments from people who said it was a scam, FatMan said he still got more than $100,000 worth of BTC from the first post on Twitter and Discord in just two hours.
In a tweet on Tuesday, FatManTerra said the investment scheme was a fake all along. He called it an “awareness campaign” to show how easy it is to scam people in crypto by using simple buzzwords and promising big investment returns:
“I used a lot of buzzwords and acted very convincingly on all platforms, but I made sure to keep the investment details intentionally vague. I didn’t name the fund or describe the trade, so no one knew where the yield was coming from. but people still put money into it.”
“I want to tell everyone in the crypto world that anyone who says they can give you free money is lying. It doesn’t even exist. “Your favourite influencer who sells you trading coaching or a golden investment opportunity to make quick money is trying to scam you,” he said.
FatManTerra says that he has now returned all of the money and said again that “there are no free lunches.”
Influencers allegedly promoting scams have been in the news lately. Last month, YouTuber Ben Armstrong (BitBoy Crypto) sued content creator Atozy after he accused him of promoting questionable tokens to Armstrong’s audience. He has since dropped the lawsuit, though.
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When Do Kwon breaks his silence, people in the community react.
FatManTerra also said that he got the idea for his fake fund post from the Lady of Crypto Twitter account, which has 257,500 followers and has been accused of promoting risky investment schemes.