Why you SHOULD talk about crypto (but responsibly): The story of an elderly lady who was scammed three times by the same people.

I see a lot of posts about not talking to family members or friends about cryptocurrencies, but in some cases, even that silence could be harmful. It's important to be able to have honest conversations about this industry, or else you could be leading someone to invest irresponsibly or hiding the dangers of the many scams that exist.

I worked with a woman in her late 60s who was on the brink of retirement. During last year's bull market, she came into work one day talking about how she hired a financial advisor who specialized in crypto to help her gain even more interest on her retirement. I initially warned her to be careful with her money because there are a lot of sharks that take advantage of the lack of regulations. The advisor provided elaborate P/L invoices on a weekly basis, and she would share screenshots of them on her phone. She came in every day shooting finger guns and talking about how we were "cryptopals."

It was a fun few weeks until she came in quietly one morning. I asked if everything was okay, and she said that the financial advisor from the firm that she was working with told her that she needed to pay 30% of her initial investment in order to withdraw her funds. I asked for more information and she said she was working with a cloud mining company (red flag) called BiddersCopy (their site has since been deactivated). I asked where she heard about the company and she said from a friend of a friend on Facebook (another red flag). The more I asked about the company, the grimmer the situation seemed. In the end, I had to tell this woman that she was being scammed out of her retirement funds. I advised her that I only DCA into the top 10 cryptocurrencies by marketcap, and she should stick to major exchanges for her investments.

I wish the story stopped there. A few months later she informed me that she was waiting on her funds. At first I was happy for her and ready to eat my words. Then she told me more. She'd come to a deal where she only had to pay an initial 20% of her investment instead of the 30%, and now she only needed to pay for the taxes on her profits. My expression must've said it all, because I could see the blood rush from her face. This time I clearly told her not to give them any more of her money because generally no one asks you to pay taxes to unlock profits from an investment; if anything, they would simply deduct the taxes from the profits as they were returned. She said that if this was a scam, she'd be ruined financially. She was considering taking out a loan to help pay the taxes so she could get her investment back. I told her that her investment was probably gone.

She was really down for a few months. She started avoiding me entirely, which made me feel pretty shitty. But one day I came into work and she was in really good spirits. She said that a blockchain detective reached out to her after "finding her name in a database." She said she was paying for his services to help recuperate her investment. Tbh, I don't even remember how I responded the last time, but I told her she was being scammed by the same people. She asked if I could help her with her investments, to which I replied with a clear, unambiguous "no," but I was happy to share my resources with her.

This lady was scammed 3 times out of her money by the same people. I can't act like her own greed didn't play a hand in her own undoing, but if she'd had family that was honest about the risk of crypto, I don't think that she'd find herself in that situation without some skepticism. I have a feeling that I was the only one telling her to be cautious in this situation, and I was only her coworker. This is why these conversations are important.

If I talk to my family about cryptocurrencies, I try to talk about both the strengths and weaknesses of the industry, instead of shilling my favorite projects and preaching about an idealistic financial revolution. Please make sure that, if you discuss these things to your friends and family, that you let them know any potential risks that you can think of, especially if they're elderly or in a situation where they're susceptible to being scammed. I understand that the scammers are ultimately the only culprits in this situation, but a lot of things went wrong in this situation that could've prevented the outcome.

TLDR: This old lady was scammed out of her retirement funds thrice by the same scammers, and it may not have happened if people around her were having responsible conversations about cryptocurrencies.