Fitness trainer Carly Rowena, 37, was tricked into sending digital assets worth £5,716.60 to a scammer who promised her cryptocurrencies would bring significant returns.
Carly Rowena
British fitness and wellness influencer Carly Rowena recalls being embarrassed when she was tricked into handing over £5,700 ($7,450) worth of cryptocurrency in a scam.
“I was like, this is too good to be true, but I still fell in love with it,” she told CNBC Make It.
Rowena transferred the cryptocurrency to an Instagram account she believed belonged to a financial professional who managed investments for a friend. But after discovering her friend’s account had been hacked, Rowena said she felt “so stupid”.
Here, Rowena shares her story with CNBC Make It, including the red flags she now knows to look out for when navigating the online world.
Tip #1 to avoid scams
Rowena says if something online seems “too good to be true,” that’s because it probably is.
To avoid making the same mistake, her top tip is to stop and think carefully about an offer online that seems too good to be true.
“It’s stopping and thinking, it’s talking to someone,” she told CNBC Make It last week.
“It gives yourself an opportunity, and there’s no chance that’s going to disappear in a second. If it’s the right thing for you and it’s legal, it’s not going to disappear at your fingertips like that.”
Rowena also recommends taking screenshots of relevant messages as your own evidence (and to the authorities if required), and contacting your bank and other trusted institutions for advice.
Rowena, 37, is an entrepreneur and Instagram content creator who shares fitness and health tips and stories about her experiences as a mother on Instagram to her more than 187,000 followers. The influencer, who has 410,000 subscribers on YouTube and a large following on TikTok, has been living in Costa Rica with her husband and son since January.
How did the scam unfold?
In March, Rowena discovered a fake Instagram story, purportedly posted by her friend, saying she had hired someone to manage her Bitcoin and was making a lot of money.
After seeing the story, Rowena sent her friend a message on Instagram to get the contact information of the person she claimed to have hired – who, it turned out, was a scammer who had hacked into her friend’s account.
“I’ve invested some money in the cryptocurrency space, but I’ll put my hands up and say I don’t fully understand it,” Rowena told CNBC Make It.
“It was a really smart thing to do because it was like: I’ve been involved in this, but I didn’t know what to do…so that’s why I clicked on it.”
The scammer led Rowena to a fake investment platform and sent her a contract for her to review, promising to give her a 50% return on her investment within 24 hours.
Rowena can even view an online dashboard designed to showcase her investments to influencers. But in reality, the dashboard was fake and Rowena’s cryptocurrency went straight into the scammer’s pocket.
Rowena was told that she had made a lot of money, but in order to release the funds, she had to pay a “commission” to the fake investment company.
Carly Rowena
Rowena was then told that she had made a lot of money, but in order to release the funds, she had to pay a “commission” to the fake investment company.
This made Rowena suspicious. She sent a message to her friend, who said her phone and social media accounts had been hacked – in what appeared to be an attempt to deceive her followers and friends.
Aftermath – “I feel stupid”
The shame Rowena describes when she realizes she’s been cheated on is not uncommon.
More than 60% of UK victims said they had been traumatized by what had happened to them, according to research on the impact of cybercrime on mental health released on Tuesday by cybersecurity firm Akamai.
Akamai’s Censuswide surveyed 1,000 UK cybercrime victims, with 59% admitting to feeling ashamed, while 67% reported feeling embarrassed after the attack.
More than half (55%) said they still feel anxious after committing a cybercrime, especially when using online services.
Chartered solicitor Tara Quinn-Cirillo said that when someone is scammed, “no matter what type of cybercrime victim we are, we often feel guilty, or we may feel that we Too stupid and incompetent to get involved in this situation”. Psychologist and Research Associate of the British Psychological Society,
Quinn-Cirillo said given the rapid pace of modern life, it’s easy for people to let their guard down.
“We fall into a scam, a cybercrime, that may cause us to question our abilities, our abilities and our intelligence,” Quinn-Cirillo said. “We develop a sense of shame, so we feel embarrassed about it.”
This stigma can have a negative impact on people, causing them to put off doing things they enjoy or being active online. For example, Rowena has not invested in cryptocurrencies since being scammed because she is too afraid of being scammed again.
“Personal circuit breaker”
Victims of online scams and scams are advised to contact an agency such as their bank or police to see if their money can be recovered.
“It’s about making sure that wherever you get your information, it’s from a reputable source,” Quinn-Cirillo told CNBC Make It. “All of these big agencies provide advice on cybercrime, This is very important.”
If you find yourself in a situation like Rowena’s, Akamai managing director Natalie Billingham recommends using a “personal circuit breaker.”
“Whether it’s an email, whether it’s a conversation: just stop and think about it, and then you can make an agreement. How do I check this link?” Billingham told CNBC.
“If you click too fast or do something quickly, often you regret it afterwards and go down a path you don’t want to go down.”
Liars are stubborn
“When it’s online, it’s like an invisible thing, and you realize that nothing is really real. No one cares. And then it makes you feel really stupid,” Rowena said.
The account Rowena interacts with on Instagram remains active on the platform, albeit private. There are similar accounts on Facebook.
Rowena said she continues to receive direct messages from scammers demanding payment to unlock funds.
As long as the profile remained active, Rowena was concerned that others might fall victim to the same attack. “I can only imagine how much money she would have if she had all these people,” she said.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, told CNBC Make It that fraudulent activity is not allowed on its platform and that it is investigating the accounts involved.
“We continue to invest in fraud protection on our platform and work closely with law enforcement and regulators to address this issue,” a Meta spokesperson said via email.
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