- The crypto researcher said that it is still easy to sway investors in the crypto space by promising big investment returns.
- He managed to raise more than $100,000 in BTC within a matter of hours after posting on Twitter and Discord.
Crypto researcher FatManTerra recently conducted an experiment through a fake investment scheme to find that it’s way too easy to sway crypto investors. The crypto researcher said that he created this investment scheme as a lesson for people who blindly follow the investment advice of influencers.
FatManTerra has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter and is popular as a former Terra proponent. However, following the $40 billion collapse of the Terra ecosystem, crypto researcher has openly criticized the project. On Monday, September 5, FatManTerra told his followers of having “received access to a high-yield BTC farm” from an unnamed fund.
He also asked his followers to message him in case they would like to hop on the yield farming opportunity. The crypto researcher wrote:
I’ve maxed out what I could, so there’s some leftover allocation and I thought I’d pass it along — priority will be given to UST victims. DM for more details if interested.
Interestingly, from his initial post on Discord and Twitter, FatManTerra managed to raise $100,000 in Bitcoins within a span of just two hours. However, he also acknowledged that there were a ton of negative responses with many calling it a scam.
Inspired by Lady of Crypto, a while ago I pitched my own investment scheme to Twitter…
In two hours, I received over one hundred DMs. I raised 3.45 BTC from Twitter and 2 BTC from Discord – over $100k, with more requests flooding in by the minute.
But there’s a little twist.
— FatMan (@FatManTerra) September 5, 2022
Disclosing the Ponzi Scheme experiment
On Tuesday, September 6, FatManTerra revealed that the investment scheme was fake while calling it an “awareness campaign”. The crypto researcher thus noted that it is very easy to dupe people in the crypto space by promising big investment returns. The crypto researcher said:
While I used plenty of buzzwords and put on a very convincing act on all platforms, I made sure to keep the investment details intentionally obscure — I didn’t name the fund & I didn’t describe the trade — no one knew where the yield was coming from. But people still invested.
He further added: “I want to send a clear, strong message to everyone in the crypto world — anyone offering to hand you free money is lying. It simply doesn’t exist. Your favorite influencer selling you quick money trading coaching or offering a golden investment opportunity is scamming you”.
FatManTerra later refunded all the money while adding that “free lunches don’t exist”. The crypto researcher further added that his fake fund post has been inspired by the Lady of Crypto Twitter account. The account has been accused of shilling questionable investments to its over 250,000 followers.
Crypto scams have been on a rise this year and there’s a strong notion of influencers shilling out improper investment schemes.