Scammers Target Voyager Customers During the 30-Day Cooling-Off Period: Report
Fake websites offered customers an additional bonus for claiming through them. They emptied customers’ pockets.
Scammers targeted Voyager Digital customers during the one-month window in which they could withdraw a portion of their funds, citing Bloomberg as reported on Darren Azman, an attorney for the firm. He added that law enforcement agencies are aware of the situation.
Voyager customers withdrew a total of $490 million from June 23 to July 22. Azman told a telephone hearing in the bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York that the $490 million accounted for nearly 80% of available funds.
Bloomberg reported that scammers used different tactics. A common method was to promise Voyager customers a higher return on investment through bogus websites, which, once linked, drained customers’ wallets.
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The issue didn’t go entirely unnoticed at the time. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation warned that Voyager customers were receiving letters, emails and calls under the name of Voyager CEO Stephen Ehrlich, falsely promising higher returns to users of a bogus site. The warning was dated July 19.
“The communications may include consumer information that is correct, including the total initial return amount customers were expecting to receive in the Voyager bankruptcy.”
Azman stated that very few customers fell for the scams.
Voyager had $6 billion dollars worth of crypto assets and 3.5 million clients. declared bankruptcy in July 2022, following the collapse of Three Arrows Capital. The company is the first to refund any of its customers’ money.
FTX US bought Voyager assets in September, but the FTX crash prevented this transaction from completing. Binance.US had planned to buy $1 billion worth of assets from Voyager in April, but pulled out at the last moment. In May, Judge Michael Wiles approved a bankruptcy plan that gave customers about 36 cents on the dollar for their claims.
