12th July 2025 > > Feral scammers.

tl;dr

A lovely Wix scam that I am teasing along.

Market Snap 

Market Wrap

Two consecutive days of over $1bn of inflows to the spot BTC ETFs, and you wonder why we reached a new ATH yesterday? Those ETF flows show no sign of slowing down, quite the opposite.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Feral scammers

It isn’t just the crypto world which is plagued by the feral scammers. I think it’s highly unlikely any of us have not had some experience of it. The CC training course includes a whole section of various scams that have seen some success (https://www.curiouscryptos.com/course-modules). I actually quite enjoy the whole process, taking juvenile pleasure in going along with it for a while just to wind them up. Once a scammer thinks he is onto something, you can get away with some ridiculous statements or behaviour. When he finally realises you are just playing him, the response can be tremendously entertaining.

There was one time when I was at lunch with my Mum at a posh pub in Harpenden, and I had a bank scammer call me. I put the call on loudspeaker, because I do worry that older people are more susceptible to these attacks, so that my Mum could hear his nonsense. After about 15 minutes (I had got to the stage of telling the feral scammer that I really needed his help to move approximately $5mm out of a specific bank account into one that he could suggest) he finally got the message.

Remarkably, he then started to abuse me, accusing me of being a f****** time waster, which was an angle I hadn’t come across before. He then proceeded to call me lots of names, mostly starting with the letter F or the letter C.

At this point, other people in the pub, who had clearly started listening in to the conversation, burst out in spontaneous applause.

I did enjoy that one.

…

So, I have another scam, which is live and ongoing, via email. It has only just begun, and I haven’t got to the stage of being ridiculous yet (perhaps just a little) but I am hopeful this example has some legs. So much so, I am going to share it with you in real time. This could be a laugh.

…

Our website is hosted on Wix, which is a great tool for simple websites that mostly involve text and nice pics.

I received an email from within Wix telling me that our website had been infected with malware, it was impacting Google’s search engine (really?), and that unless the problem was dealt with within seventy-two hours, then the website would be permanently deleted. That last comment requiring action in a short amount of time before something bad happens, is always and forever more a huge red flag.

Upon requesting more information, I was offered the opportunity of a free scan of my website to identify the problems, which I graciously accepted. In response, I received this response:

You got to love that fake jargon:

“Our scans indicate that the problem is rooted in your site’s internal configuration, specifically involving malware-related directives that restrict essential resources and trigger security flags.”

It almost sounds as if it could almost be true. But trust me, it ain’t.

The request to contact an external Wix specialist is the final proof that this is a scam. Wix regularly advertises the fact that it would never ask you to contact external specialists, and warns you against doing so.

Naturally, that was the very next thing I did to see how far I could take this.

…

The incorrect punctuation, perhaps unreasonably, really annoyed me. I am not going to let him get away with that crime against the English language.

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing (I won’t bombard you with all the details) we finally get to the scam itself:

Which is all really rather disappointing. By now the collective time spent by the scammer and myself does not really justify a top-end payment of just $350. The feral scumbag has no real ambition at all. I think it needs to be ramped up, which is exactly what I did:

That $50k got him interested, and after a few more emails including the claim that “I can deliver a strategic, results-driven breakdown aligned with your expectations and timeline”, I ramped it up again:

And this is where we stand now:

“Dear Merchant,

Thank you for your detailed response, and for placing your trust in my expertise.

I appreciate your transparency, and based on what you've shared, I’ll begin drafting a tailored strategic plan along with a PowerPoint presentation that outlines how the $50,000 website budget can be used to create a high-performing platform capable of supporting your business goals. I'll also include an initial roadmap for how we can effectively utilize your broader $200,000 marketing budget to drive traffic, conversions, and revenue.

Please allow me a short window to complete this, I'll be sending the full breakdown shortly.

In the meantime, I’ll also research competitor websites and industry benchmarks to help shape both the web and social media strategies.

Looking forward to presenting a comprehensive and results-driven plan.

Best regards,WixSol”

…

You never know, he might come up with some good ideas for us to use, for which he will not get paid. Nice.

Meanwhile, he is spending time not scamming others, which is a result all round.decisions based on what I think.