PTT Breaking News! "Family members bought a Mining Rig for Crypto Assets" invested 100,000 TWD, caught in a high return trap and lost all funds.

Amid the crypto asset craze, many people are eager to board this wealth train. However, the accompanying scam traps are also emerging endlessly. Recently, a heated article appeared on the PTT Gossip Board, where a netizen posted a query about their family investing over 100,000 New Taiwan Dollars in a so-called "virtual mining rig" that seems suspicious. They reportedly earn about 500 New Taiwan Dollars daily from mining income, but it is not a physical mining rig; instead, it is a "cartoon icon" running a cloud mining operation. The original poster is concerned whether their family has fallen victim to a scam. To address the big question in the title: are virtual money's "cloud mining" and "virtual mining rigs" scams? If there are no detailed contents provided for judgment, the general assessment is indeed that they are scams.

The Temptation of High Returns: The Traps of Virtual Mining Rigs

According to the original PO, the project will also invite investors to offline gatherings, treat them to hotel buffets, and even invite them to travel to China. At this point, most of the old hands in the crypto space have already raised red flags in their minds. We all know a few friends who have been mining Ethereum for several years, and we have never heard of such a wealthy Ethereum foundation treating old miners to any buffets.

Seriously respond to this case in the PTT article: investing in a virtual Mining Rig worth over 100,000, with a daily return of 500, which equals an annualized return of over 100%. If the investment return exceeds 10%, you should be on alert; if it exceeds 100%, it is no longer an investment and there is a very high probability that it is a scam!

To explain fraud, let's not talk about those advanced blockchain technologies for now. Instead, let's discuss those lurking in the corners of the internet, claiming to offer "cloud mining," "passive income," "high returns with low risk," and "offline team support," which could potentially lead to devastating investment fraud traps.

"Cloud Mining": Is your computing power real?

People may often see advertisements for "cloud mining" or "cloud computing power" online, which sounds great? No need to buy expensive mining rigs, no need to worry about electricity bills and noise, just "buy a mining rig" online to lease computing power, and you can earn money effortlessly.

The problem arises: how do you know that the computing power you rented actually exists and is not just a string of fictitious numbers? This is the core of many scams, where fraudsters establish beautifully designed websites (or even not so beautifully designed) that showcase seemingly professional data (which you can't understand), claiming that they have large physical mining farms overseas and that the mining rig you purchased is a one-to-one subscription of their physical mining rig's computing power. Fraudsters even go as far as to forge investment apps, allowing you to see the numbers in your account steadily increasing every day, making you completely convinced.

Every day, small amounts of tokens (possibly USDT) are deposited into your wallet, but it's not to tempt you into making larger investments; it's just that when you want to withdraw a large amount, it suddenly shows a failure! You have to invest more due to reasons like "taxes," "unlock fees," and so on, and in the end, the victims still can't withdraw.

Real Case 1: The Disappearing Mining Site A multinational fraud case was uncovered in Singapore, where the main suspect claimed to cooperate with a large mining site in Yunnan, China, owning 300,000 Mining Rigs. They attracted over 700 investors with promises of "0.5% stable profit every day," raising as much as 160 million NTD. What happened in the end? There was no so-called mining site; everything was a typical "Ponzi scheme" where the money from new investors was used to pay the "profits" of old investors.

Real Case 2: High Return Bait Another common tactic is to promise unrealistic super high returns. Some platforms even claim to have 100% profit every month, which is absurd in any legitimate investment market. In 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shut down a cloud mining scam called Bit-Club Network, which had defrauded investors of over $720 million. These scams often use various excuses to delay when you want to withdraw your money (outgoing funds), and eventually just shut down the website, disappearing without a trace.

The Trap of "Virtual Mining Rig"

In addition to cloud mining, there is another option that allows you to "invest" in or "purchase" virtual mining rigs.

Real Case 3: Ghosts in LINE Groups In Taiwan, a scam group established a "Cloud Coin (YNC) Mining Group" on LINE, luring a citizen to invest 2.44 million TWD to purchase "Mining Coins." Their method usually involves a so-called "teacher" or "analyst" leading the trades on social media, while other members in the group are actually accomplices, creating a false illusion of profits every day to brainwash the victims. This kind of "raise and kill" script typically allows you to taste a bit of sweetness in the early stages, with the aim of enticing the victims to invest more funds.

How to Distinguish Between True and False? The Key to Investment Protection

Having seen so many scams, I will teach you to get used to sniffing out risks from subtle changes. When facing these Mining investments, you can pay attention to the following points:

1. Is the promised return rate "too good to be true"? Any guarantee of profit, consistent gains without losses, and an absurdly high return rate generally has issues.

2. Is the investment ownership clear? Can you verify the ownership of the Mining Rig or computing power you purchased? Whether you can connect the computing power to a credible mainstream mining pool like F2Pool for verification is a key indicator. If the other party can only provide screenshots or blurry videos, then you should be highly suspicious. If there are no photos at all, just forget it.

3. What coin is being mined? Confirm whether it is mainstream currencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum that have market circulation, or some unheard of, non-redeemable "air coins." Is the community of this token operated by real people?

4. Is the cash flow transparent? A legitimate platform will have clear contract terms and cash flow mechanisms. If the other party asks you to transfer money to a suspicious personal account or to communicate and deposit/withdraw funds through informal channels like LINE, that is definitely very dangerous.

Conclusion:

Investing in crypto assets indeed brings opportunities, but it also hides many scam traps. Reiterating a point, if you cannot understand why there will be profits, then you are the source of profit for others. Thousands of fraud cases related to virtual money occur globally every day. Before investing in crypto assets, it is essential to be vigilant, verify information from multiple sources, and not be easily swayed by the temptation of high returns to protect your hard-earned money.