Over 900 Million pesos worth of bitcoins been scammed.
Filipino couple amasses at least P900M in alleged Bitcoin scam.
MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) Police have nabbed a couple promising easy wealth through popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa announced on Tuesday, April 10.
Arnel and Leonady Ordonio were nabbed by PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) operatives the police division in charge of high-stakes and high-profile crimes in Vigan City last April 4 through an entrapment operation.
The scam, Obusan said, is structured like a pyramid scheme but with electronic money.
The Ordonios apparently had middlemen who lured people to invest. They promised to pay victims with their earnings every 15 days.
Fueled by the worldwide Bitcoin hype, more and more people were baited by the Ordonio couple's promises.
The complaints started piling in when investors lost contact with the Ordonios.
Whats happened next?
Around 50 angry victims stormed to Camp Crame on Tuesday, asking the couple if they could still get back the money they had hoped would grow.
Will bitcoin be banned because of that?
Well, no one knows until the time comes. But on my own perspective, they wouldn't ban bitcoin. Technically, those who had been scammed were just joined in a group then gave their money and was promised that will earn a lot. Those are people are not aware how bitcoin works and just took advantage by the scammers. Government for sure, will not ban bitcoin by just that.