Deal or No Deal champ loses £30k to Bitcoin conmen
A FORMER game show champion who won £101,000 on Deal or No Deal lost nearly £30,000 after falling for a Bulgarian Bitcoin scam.
The crooks convinced Graeme Garioch he could buy the online cryptocurrency – currently worth more than £8,000 per ‘coin’ – for only £100.
In 2007, the former bingo caller beat the Banker on Noel Edmonds’ Channel 4 show. But now the 65-year-old, who is backing a
Police Scotland campaign to highlight the threat of fraud, has described how the international con artists duped him.
Mr Garioch, of Cove, near Aberdeen, said his ordeal began two years ago after he had been looking for ways to invest some of his cash as his retirement approached.
He said: ‘One of the guys I know mentioned he was into Bitcoin and said he was living the high life from it, so I thought it might be an opportunity, and then I saw something on Facebook.’
The digital-only currency has become popular in part because its value is not controlled by any national bank. A single Bitcoin is currently worth £8,677.
One ‘company’, OMC Markets, placed an advert that resembled a newspaper article on the opportunities in Bitcoin.
Mr Garioch clicked on the link, completed a form, and within two hours received a phone call from a man claiming to be Daniel Hardy of London – who in reality was an unknown scammer calling from Sofia, Bulgaria.
Mr Garioch signed a contract which meant he couldn’t withdraw his funds for six months and gave the scammers access to his account to ‘act on investment opportunities’.
After investing £5,000, it took only a few weeks for his online ‘wallet’ to show a profit of £11,000. But he said ‘Daniel was calling me all the time to persuade me to put more money in – every two days.’
On one occasion, Daniel drew £5,000 out of Mr Garioch’s bank account, claiming it was to buy a new batch of valuable
‘I was all set to retire’
shares that had become available on the stock market.
Before long, Mr Garioch’s wallet was showing a profit of around £30,000 – his annual salary as a worker on the Caledonian Sleeper trains.
When the six-month nowithdrawals contract ended in March 2019, Mr Garioch tried to take out his money – but was told he must pay £6,000 to avoid other fees.
A day later, all funds disappeared from his wallet and he could not get hold of anyone at OMC Markets, which has ignored his emails since.
Mr Garioch has lost £29,851.25 and reported it to the police, and his bank. He said: ‘I was planning to buy a house. Now I’m renting a flat.’
The Financial Conduct Authority has warned about OMC and its activities.
A Facebook spokesman said: ‘There’s no place for fraudulent or inauthentic behaviour on Facebook, and we will remove ads and content that violate our policies.’