US YouTuber unmasks Nigerian cryptocurrency scammer

Pleasant Green, a YouTuber based in the US, has unmasked one Dana (alias) based in Nigeria who scams individuals through a cryptocurrency exchange.

In an 11 minute-long YouTube video, Green shared with his followers how this Nigerian uses social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to scam foreigners.

Green said he came across one Facebook comment section where a user referred people to one @maria_dana1100 on Instagram and says she (the Instagram user) is helping people make money into their Cash App, a crypto wallet where bitcoin is traded.

The YouTuber said he messaged the Instagram user and she said: “We will help you make money into your cash app account. We are going to help you with $2000, one-time payment, and also put you in a line of payment where you get $300 a month”.

“And so then a couple of minutes go by and I get a cash-out payment and the amount of $2000. She just sent me a stupid graphic on Instagram. Yeah, a nice Photoshop work, Dana.

“But she said I need to pay a $200 fee to process the $2000 payment.”

He then said after two weeks Dana reached out to him and asked him to verify or enable Bitcoin on his Cash App, adding that she will sign into his Cash App and load in bitcoin from her company’s wallet to his Cash App Bitcoin and then make the money ($2000—$3000) available to him.

Pleasant Green, however, tricked Dana to click on a link which will redirect her to another website in order to capture her IP information and through this, he found out that the Dana, whose Instagram flaunts pictures of a white woman is from Nigeria.

The YouTuber said he confronted Dana about his location and urged him to provide information on how he learned how to scam people.

“A percentage of Nigerians use this scam, you see people buy cars, homes, raise a family with scam money. Some people are just lucky. There is no good work here. There are many ways to make it big with scams. If you are lucky,” he quoted Dana as saying.

“I go around on Facebook pages and tell people to contact someone if they want money… and that’s the real work, if they can message you on Instagram, then you are a step closer.”

When asked if someone provides his cash app login what would happen next, Dana said: “I will make you log out, that’s all. You won’t be able to get back to your old account as cash app will redirect you to a new one. Once you are out, I remove your Gmail and change your cash pin”.

Pleasant Green explained that bitcoin is a choice currency for scammers because it is fast, does not require approval like conventional transfers and bitcoin transactions are not reversible.

Dana, who had admitted to being a Nigerian male, explained that bitcoin is exchanged for naira on the Luno app and then transferred to bank accounts.