Went on a scam using bitcoin – the record takes the pension

Couple cheated by fake ad with Leif GW Persson

roles. It was fraudster Dan who ruined their finances.

But retired couple Susan and Rolf blame Banks for tearing up their entire lives.

There is no humanity at all.

In some places, the absence of a thing leaves a greater impression than what is actually there. Susan and Rolf’s two-car garage at Hofors is one such place.

On the wall at the far end hung some hubcaps and an old license plate. To the right are row after row of pliers, chisels and wrenches. In front of them are shelves with spare parts, oil wells, wiper blades, and a variety of other nuts.

But nevertheless, it is the emptiness that dominates the room.

A piece of cardboard is left on the floor. It has a dark spot in the middle because the old American who was standing there spilled some oil.

– It was a Ford Thunderbird. It was unbelievably cool, I’ve worked a lot with him,” says Rolf, 71.

Classic sports owned by the children of the spouses. The same goes for the Other Car, a more modern everyday wagon that Rolf and Susan sometimes borrow. But the cars are now gone. Usher came with a savior and refused to listen to the couple’s protests.

– They brought a lawnmower with them, too. And the snow thrower we got so Rolf doesn’t have to shovel. Susan, 67, says he has had severe pain in his back and shoulders.

The record also measures a portion of the spouses’ pension. Previously, they had just over 20,000 SEK to live on each month. Now they are forced to make do with about half that amount.

We looked forward to a peaceful and pleasant old age. But everything is destroyed. I never imagined it would be like this, says Susan.

Watch a fake ad with GW

The old society formed the retired couple at Hofors. They became their people in a world where a banker was a friend and a handshake could usually be trusted.

It was the New Age that deceived them. Susan and Rolf get lost between high-tech solutions, fake websites, and scammers who lie without a blink.

I can never expose anyone for what they did to us. I still can’t understand that you can be so cold. Susan says he may have helped deceive us.

It all started with Leif GW Persson. The pair were curious about Bitcoin, and took a look at Facebook to find out more. When they saw the ad with the famous crime professor, they quickly became interested in the service he seemed to be talking about so well.

– GW is trusted. We thought he was familiar with things like that, says Rolf.

The ad was a scam, but the couple didn’t realize it until it was too late. They clicked on the link and paid €99 for information on investing in cryptocurrencies. Then the man who called himself “Dan” appeared on the screen for the first time.

– Make a very professional and reliable impression. Susan says he was incredibly skilled at manipulating us.

You must be logged into the computer.

This was followed by a devastating chain of events. This pattern can be identified by the countless cases of investment fraud reported by Aftonbladet and other media outlets in recent years.

Show “Dan” graphs and figures. He claimed that the 99 euros they paid had grown and now amounted to 120,000 kroner. He urged them to get loans to invest more money in investments where all the curves were pointing up.

– We told him that we would consult our boys first, but he advised us not to. “Let it come as a surprise to them,” he said. Susan says if we had talked to them, this would never have happened.

Through tireless savings, Susan and Rolf amassed a capital of about SEK 200,000, which they invested in the funds. Dan convinces them to sell everything and transfer the entire amount to the financial institution he says he represents. Somehow Dan managed to get a loan and open bank accounts in the couple’s name.

– It must have entered our computer. He also hijacked our bank ID. We never entered any codes at his request.

Susan began to suspect there was a problem when the bill was not paid. The couple headed to the bank branch in Sandviken, where the tangles were folded.

We have always made sure to do the right thing for us. We paid everything on time and received no feedback. Rolf says that seems unfair.

The bank was right in court

The couple is now in debt with six different banks. The total amount amounts to nearly two million kroner.

The loan they got the enforcement official after them is SEK 270,000. Last year, the lending bank, Norges Bank, took Susan Woolf to court to recover money they had never seen before.

The court ruled in favor of the bank.

“In general, it cannot be considered that they made it possible for an outsider to unauthorizedly create a new bank ID in his name and with their help he applied for the loan,” states the decision which caused a two-car garage at Hofors to be emptied.

Inside the elegant villa there are many things that remind of what life was like for Susan and Rolf. One of them is a mug with the Liverpool football team crest standing on a sideboard in the kitchen.

Rolf loves football and I love the Beatles. They are from Liverpool, so it was only natural that he would become our favorite team, says Susan.

“It’s a great place, a real working-class city,” Rolf adds.

The pair have seen the red-clad players at the Anfield Classic five or six times. But there will be no more trips.

We live on a subsistence minimum, but the interest rate means that debt is growing all the time. We will never be able to pay for everything before we are dead and buried, says Rolfe.

– We feel very bad about this. Susan says I cry a lot.

The police have not been able to find out who is hiding behind the name “Dan”. The investigation was closed, but after an appeal, work was resumed.

However, Susan doesn’t have much hope that the initial investigation will lead anywhere.

It’s like the police turn to us when they can’t catch scammers. One can really think about whether this is the way the legal community should operate, she says.