Original subtitles

♪ ♪

MARIANA: I've done stories about scammers before.

ANCHOR: Tax related scams.

REPORTER: Warning the public about a new scam.

MARIANA: Phone scammers.

Binary options scammers.

Romance scammers.

Credit card scammers.

Identity theft scammers.

WOMAN: It's a scam. MAN: It's a scam.

MARIANA: But I've never met anyone like these guys.

They're all 20-somethings.

And they all live like kings.

♪ Just hurry in the water ♪

♪ There's a price to pay ♪

MARIANA: Mansions. Parties.

Insane cars.

Jewelry.

Ak-47s that look like jewelry.

It's a lifestyle that's made possible by their mastery of

cryptocurrency scam called...

REPORTER: The rug pull scam.

ANCHOR: The rug pull.

MARIANA: The rug pull.

If you haven't heard of it, consider yourself lucky,

because victims lost nearly $3 billion in 2021 alone.

This is a journey.

To the dark side.

Of the crypto craze.

(cheering)

MARIANA: Okay. Let's do this.

DIRECTOR: Okay. You ready?

MARIANA: Um-hmm.

Before I started reporting on crypto currency,

I think I just thought that it was something that

everybody else was making money on, but I was too lazy to get

into it because I knew very little about it.

MAN: Crypto currency. MAN: Crypto.

WOMAN: Crypto. MAN: Crypto.

MAN: Crypto is a way of people taking control of their money.

MAN: It's a safe and easy way to get into crypto.

DAVID: And I'm never wrong about this stuff. Never.

DAMON: Fortune favors the brave.

MARIANA: Whenever there's something out there that it

seems like you can make so much money fast, there is a

lot of people out there that are just willing to exploit

those dreams or those hopes.

XAVIER: Like, where do I start with crypto?

Crypto.

MARIANA: Actually, let's start from the beginning.

So it started, so it started with one person.

One day I got a message on Instagram from a fan of the show.

Who was such a fan, he lived in LA, so I actually met this guy.

And he showed up with a cheese board that he had made himself

that said "Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller"

and he gives me the cheeseboard and then he says, "Hey."

XAVIER: Hey.

MARIANA: "Hey, what do you know about crypto scams?"

XAVIER: What do you know about crypto scams?

MARIANA: Crypto scams. One of which is called the "rug pull."

XAVIER: Remember what I told you about crypto?

Crypto, crypto.

Currencies, coins, tokens, centralized financing,

decentralized financing.

But once you go defi, it's the Wild West.

MARIANA: You do realize that half of the things you're

saying I don't understand right?

Uh, um.

MAN: Shall I say what crypto is?

MAN 2: It's a very...

MAN 3: Um...

MAN 2: A ver, a really.

MAN 4: Uh...

MAN: It's so hard, 'cause it's not like a two sentence thing.

It's like a two hour thing.

XAVIER: I don't even know where to start.

I mean.

MAN 2: And it's, uh, ah (bleep).

HOST: Now, if you don't know what crypto currencies are,

we're not entirely sure, either.

It's okay.

Experts say they are a digital currency that's exchanged

online, that's not tied to a government.

ANCHOR: Bitcoin is probably the most common crypto

currency on the market, but there are many out there.

MARIANA: So you have very little money in an actual bank account?

XAVIER: Yeah.

MARIANA: All of it is in crypto?

XAVIER: Exactly.

And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

MARIANA: When was the first time you realized you'd been

a victim of a scam?

XAVIER: I think I've been in maybe seven or eight rug pulls.

MARIANA: That many? XAVIER: Yes.

The first time it was just a $500 investment.

Then the next one, almost $10,000.

MARIANA: And then what happened to the bit?

Just, you lost it?

XAVIER: You just move on. There's nothing you can do.

Decentralized financing.

So, there's no rules, nothing applies.

MARIANA: Right. Okay, so the first time you lost $500.

XAVIER: Right. MARIANA: And it was a rug pull?

XAVIER: Yes. Let me explain how this rug pull works

in the form of a margarita.

MARIANA: Great, love margaritas.

XAVIER: When we launch the token, the scam token,

you have this amount of your actual token.

MARIANA: Okay.

So before scammers start to promote this new offering,

they've already bought a big chunk of it at a very low price.

XAVIER: As people are buying in and it goes up and up and up,

there's no stopping, just keeps going up the charts.

MARIANA: So that's the money I'm putting in.

XAVIER: Exactly. Exactly.

MARIANA: Filling up the coffers.

XAVIER: Now you have more investors coming in.

More shillers pushing the product.

Nonstop, Twitter.

Telegram, pushing it, getting paid to promote a certain token.

So your average newbie investor sees that and is thinking,

"Oh, I better get into it right now, it looks great."

Going, and going, and going, people are buying in.

MAN: Buy, buy, buy.

XAVIER: Going, and going, and going, thousands of people.

MAN: Going and going.

MARIANA: They're all getting super excited.

XAVIER: Correct.

Next thing you know? The scammer walks out.

MARIANA: He walks out? XAVIER: Yes.

MARIANA: With all the money? XAVIER: Exactly.

MARIANA: That's right.

Just when the excitement around the token reaches a

fever pitch, the scammer pulls the rug, selling all of his

holdings and sending the price crashing.

And that's a rug pull?

XAVIER: That's a rug pull.

It's amazing to me that so many people can do this.

MARIANA: Uh-hmm. XAVIER: And get away with it.

MARIANA: Uh-hmm.

XAVIER: Personally, I know some people that have lost

their life savings.

MARIANA: Who are the scammers?

Who are these people that are making millions of dollars.

XAVIER: Anybody.

MARIANA: From other people. XAVIER: Anybody.

MARIANA: I can't quite believe that these scams are as big

and as common as Xavier is telling me.

XAVIER: Scams everywhere, crypto?

Scams everywhere.

MARIANA: But it doesn't take much research to see that

he's absolutely right.

ANCHOR: The FBI is warning about an increase in

crypto currency scams.

ANCHOR: The rug pull scam accounted for 37% of the illicit revenue.

REPORTER: A Denver man thought he'd be able to retire early,

after investing more than $1 million.

ANCHOR: $1.6 million in total.

MAN: They disappeared with about $3 million.

NEWS GUEST: I mean, the bad guys all want crypto currency

because it's not traceable.

MARIANA: It seems like once people are burnt, they either

quietly drop out of crypto entirely.

REPORTER: It's not backed by any banks, so consumers have

no protections and no way of getting their money back.

MARIANA: Or, they pin their hopes on making it back on the

next hyped up token.

NEWS GUEST: It's really exciting.

Maybe there are celebrities involved.

So you want to get in early.

MAN: I missed out on Google, I missed out on Apple, so I

didn't wanna miss out on this.

MAN: Oh, it went to zero.

You've seen it live.

A (bleep) rug pull, baby.

MARIANA: If I'm looking into scammers, what do you suggest?

XAVIER: Conventions.

The conventions.

MARIANA: The crypto conventions?

XAVIER: Oh, correct. MARIANA: Uh-hmm.

XAVIER: Miami, Dubai, you're bound to meet somebody that's

trying to show off.

MARIANA: When's the next convention?

XAVIER: Dubai. MARIANA: Dubai?

XAVIER: Yes, next week.

MARIANA: Really? Next week already?

XAVIER: Yes.

MARIANA: And you think for sure there's gonna be scammers there?

XAVIER: If you ask the right questions, you'll find somebody.

MARIANA: Uh-hmm. XAVIER: You'll find somebody.

This is the Wild West, decentralized financing

is the Wild West.

♪ ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Put your hands up if you in the building ♪

♪ Put your hands up high to the ceiling ♪

MARIANA: Much like Dubai itself, crypto currency

seemingly came out of nowhere creating obscene towers of

wealth, a lot of it built on sand.

♪ Party all day I'mma get right ♪

MARIANA: The good, the bad, and the ugly of crypto come

to these conferences.

Everyone is vying for attention for their latest token.

MAN: Crypto education...

MARIANA: This is the first time that I've showed up

somewhere without a lead.

GIRL: With my heart glasses, our hearts.

MARIANA: And without knowing what a scammer might even look like.

So my plan is to get the word out that I'm looking for them

and hope that our cameras will pique their interest.

♪ Let's go ♪

MARIANA: Hi, why are you dressed in a space suit?

MAN: Crypto doesn't have any more "sky is the limits"

mentality, so it's going to the moon.

♪ Get it ♪

♪ Out of nowhere they start modeling ♪

MARIANA: Are you guys in the crypto business?

MEN: Yes.

MARIANA: What do you do?

MARIANA: You invest in crypto?

MAN: Yeah. MAN: Yeah.

MARIANA: So does your company have a token or how, what do you do?

MAN: No, my company is all about fashion, crypto fashion.

CLIFF: Right now crypto's not accepted for payment

everywhere, as that adopts more, you're gonna see a whole

flood of more people come in and these scammers are gonna

be sitting out there waiting.

MARIANA: There is a lot of scamming in crypto, too.

Is that something that worries you?

MAN: Yeah, but that's where you got to do your own

research kind of thing.

People don't like to read, people don't like to search,

they follow influencers.

MARIANA: I'm assuming there are scammers in here too, right?

CLIFF: I would absolutely bet that, yes.

MARIANA: Do you know anyone who's doing rug pulls?

Any scammers?

(laughing)

Good luck.

I leave the conference with nothing to show for it.

♪ ♪

(phone ringing)

But later, my luck changes.

Hey, can you hear me?

MAN (over phone): Yes.

MARIANA: When I finally hear from an elusive source

I've been waiting on.

Is there any way I can get his phone number and meet him and

talk to him directly?

He confirms that there is a notorious scam crew in town,

headed up by someone he insists on referring to as "Mr. X."

Okay, but he's definitely in Dubai right?

It's rare for them to be in the same place at the same

time, so I can't miss meeting them.

Okay. Any idea on where he's staying?

I mean if we have an address, if you're willing to share

that address with me?

Awesome, okay.

Thank you.

Talk to you in a bit, bye-bye.

Hello?

MARIANA: Mr. X?

MARIANA: Hi, Mariana here, how are you doing?

MARIANA: I am so happy we can finally talk to you directly.

MARIANA: Yes, ma'am. Okay.

So we're on our way, I think we should be there in the next

15, 20 minutes.

MARIANA: Great, okay. I'll see you soon.

MARIANA: So, apparently he's staying in this big villa

right on the water, sort of, one of the most expensive

areas in Dubai and, uh, heard that he's driving around in

all sorts of luxury cars and I guess we're gonna see.

Okay.

This is it guys, this is the house.

We have a G, Mercedes G Wagon

and a Rolls Royce parked out front.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MARIANA: So we came all the way to Dubai, we got here and

we started a hunt for a scammer.

We went to parties, we went to this crypto conference,

telling everybody that I was looking for a scammer

which isn't the best way to go about this,

but eventually we got a call.

The scammer, he's here right now and he's willing to talk to us.

The scammers are fairly paranoid about us identifying

where they're staying, so it's cameras down

until we're inside.

♪ ♪

(mumbling)

MR. X: (bleep).

You're not from here, bro.

MARIANA: How many rug pulls have you done?

MARIANA: But more than 10?

MARIANA: More than 100?

MARIANA: No. Have you been a victim of a rug pull?

MARIANA: Oh, is that one of the reasons you got interested in it?

MARIANA: Do you know a lot of other people rug pulling?

MARIANA: So, setting the stage, where are we and

why are you guys here?

MARIANA: So you come here and they're going to tell you

everything at these conferences about what they're doing,

in terms of security, and you can always be a step ahead?

MARIANA: You wanna be called Mr. X, right?

MARIANA: What is it that you do?

MARIANA: And you're the boss?

MARIANA: All right. Can you tell me what each of you guys do?

MARIANA: You're sort of the PR side of it?

MARIANA: Is it easy?

MARIANA: And what about you, what do you do?

MARIANA: What's the most amount of money you've ever made on a rug pull?

MARIANA: How much?

MARIANA: Six zero?

MARIANA: $60 million?

MARIANA: You know I've interviewed many, many, many,

many people that work in black markets, but I've never heard

of anyone making this amount of money with one operation.

MARIANA: So you guys, you guys are in your 20s, right?

MARIANA: So then what do you do with the cash?

I mean, if you're having, if you have millions of dollars

in cash how do you, what do you do with it?

MARIANA: How much does that chain cost do you think? The one you have.

MARIANA: 75,000.

And on a regular basis how much money worth of jewelry

do you carry on you?

P: Um...

MARIANA: $250,000?

♪ ♪

MARIANA: I'm along for the ride with them today, to see

where those millions end up once the rug has been pulled.

This car alone cost, like, half a million dollars?

MARIANA: How much do you think these houses are worth here?

MARIANA: And you guys have six?

MARIANA: They tell us they've rented six different villas,

on Palm Jumeirah, a luxury development built on man-made islands.

All of these are on the water then right?

MARIANA: How many people did you guys travel with?

MARIANA: Is this your first time in Dubai?

MARIANA: And by utility you mean cash?

MARIANA: Oh, so the people that you know are in

high places here, so they're not.

MARIANA: Get away with a lot?

♪ ♪

♪ Gonna take myself out on a date ♪

♪ Limousine of diamonds on the plate ♪

♪ 'Cause you had ♪

MARIANA: Woo-hoo.

♪ Don't need no damn sugar daddy ♪

MARIANA: Do your friends and family know you're in this business?

MARIANA: They know that you're doing.

MARIANA: That you're stealing?

MR. X: How do you, how do you...

MARIANA: I mean, all these people are buying tokens

thinking it's something and it's not right?

MARIANA: So, you're selling them something that's actually not real.

MARIANA: Yeah, but it's worth nothing. That's the point.

MARIANA: But the people that are investing and buying the tokens

MARIANA: Don't know that their money is going to disappear right?

They're going to lose money.

MARIANA: So, but if it is not illegal, why are you guys

wearing masks, why not just be openly doing it?

MARIANA: Right, it would.

MARIANA: Basically put a stop to your lifestyle.

MARIANA: Do you ever feel bad about the people that are

losing all this money?

You know we hear stories about people who've invested,

you know, all their retirement, or sold their dream house or

whatever, how do you feel about that?

MARIANA: You don't care?

MARIANA: It's pretty chilling how quickly these guys can

flip between being almost likable and almost completely

void of empathy.

MARIANA: We heard that there was somebody who killed

themselves after a rug pull, after being a victim of a

rug pull, have you guys heard of that?

MARIANA: But, I think there's a certain, it's also because

you never meet your victims, right?

I think that if you were to sit down in front of somebody

who's lost a lot of money and is crying in front of you, and

is telling you that they can't send their kid to college, or whatever it is.

MARIANA: They can couch it however they want, but

essentially, they're scamming people out of their hard

earned money and they have absolutely no qualms about it.

♪ Baby, I'mma get you to stay ♪

MARIANA: I'm treading a fine line between challenging them

and maintaining access to this world.

It feels like they trust me now, but I still need the

invite to the main event.

This is really beautiful though, this is really beautiful.

MARIANA: So, when you do your next operation, could we be with you?

MARIANA: Did you ever think you'd be living a life like this?

MARIANA: What is it that you most like about this life?

MARIANA: You can do whatever?

MARIANA: And you don't think this is going to end?

ROBERT: A couple of years ago I had cancer and it kind of

slowed me down a little bit, and so I spent more time with

investments, and things of that nature.

And my son came over and he said,

"Hey dad, have you looked at crypto?"

And I said, "Crypto? You mean that Bitcoin stuff?"

ANCHOR: Cryptocurrencies. ANCHOR: Cryptocurrencies.

ANCHOR: Cryptocurrencies.

NEWS GUEST: This is pretty confusing stuff.

REPORTER: So no Bitcoin investments for you?

LL COOL J: I don't know nothing about that stuff.

ROBERT: So I started looking, right?

And so I got on the SHIB and did very well,

and then you're ruined, right?

You're kind of wrecked.

'Cause I went from saying things, like,

"Hey, I made $29 today trading blue chip stocks."

And it went to, "Hey, I made $6,000 today with crypto."

And I thought, even then, man, this could be dangerous for

people because of that FOMO, that lure.

You know?

HOST: Everyone's trying to get in this game.

REPORTER: Investing in crypto currency is the buzz right now.

ROBERT: The day started normally.

It was a launch day.

Altex was the name of the token and I had been involved

with this project.

It had been delayed a couple times.

The devs were young.

Not fully doxxed.

I knew who they were and about where they live, but they

still kept their last names kind of, you know, secretive.

MARIANA: Despite the risk, Robert pressed his luck

investing thousands in

what he thought was a promising new token.

ROBERT: At launch, the devs sold their entire bag, which

looked like this huge rug pull.

And that left all of the investors, including myself,

you know, holding the bag.

When all the smoke cleared, I had $86 left.

I just, I was wrecked, wrecked.

It's hard to describe.

Emotionally, it's devastating.

Knowing how that felt and that others were going through that,

that's the point that I decided that something had to be done.

Something had to be done.

And it was gonna start with me.

♪ ♪

ROBERT: These are just new tokens that have launched.

MARIANA: Just when? Oh, just today?

ROBERT: Just, well, it shows today, over here at the last.

MARIANA: Just today, yeah. ROBERT: Yeah.

Here's a good indication that this is probably a scam.

You see 3% down in the last hour?

MARIANA: Yeah.

ROBERT: But 85% in the last 24 hours.

MARIANA: Which means that they're dumping?

ROBERT: Something's going on.

MARIANA: But then you see these actually, you know,

up by 6%, up by 16%.

ROBERT: But that's what they do, they hope that, just like you just did,

you say, "Hey, some of these are up really big."

They hope that you'll see that and go buy it.

MARIANA: Robert Browning is a scam victim turned vigilante.

After being taken in a by a rug pull, he now spends his

time hunting down and exposing scammers.

So explain what this is.

What are these AM?

ROBERT: This is an AMA.

Now, AMA means "Ask Me Anything."

MARIANA: And these guys use these AMA platforms, what for?

ROBERT: To bump their token.

MARIANA: To sell it?

ROBERT: All the hype, all the garbage. All the..

CREATOR: We're here, we're here in chat, if people have

any questions or anything.

MARIANA: And so you go into these chat rooms, into these

AMAs, what for?

ROBERT: Because they're very suspicious.

MARIANA: Yeah. Why do you think they're suspicious?

ROBERT: Because Carl sent me a copy of a wallet that was

involved in a scam.

MARIANA: One of your guys? ROBERT: Yeah.

And it holds this token.

MARIANA: So they've been involved in another scam?

ROBERT: Somebody has been a bad actor on the team.

MARIANA: When he finds a suspicious token launch,

he questions the developers in public forums in front of

possible investors and victims.

ROBERT: Hey, what's up guys?

CREATOR (over phone): What's up, man?

ROBERT: Ah, nothing, man.

Just checking it out.

CREATOR (over phone): You're just new to the group?

ROBERT: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Are y'all, is this, I mean, am I reading this right?

I mean, visually, right, it looks an awful lot like aNrug.

You know?

I mean, you can see that.

I mean, the way, you know, the chart crashing out and then the liquidity.

CREATOR (over phone): You know, that's not nice to say, because

everything is in the pinned messages.

Anyone who does, they can just read the pinned messages.

ROBERT: Listen, I'm not.

I'm just saying, I'm telling you.

CREATOR (over phone): Visually. ROBERT: Visually.

CREATOR (over phone): I understand, but please don't mention those

things in the VC, because it's absolutely not true.

ROBERT: Well, I understand that, but I mean if you could

put yourself in an investor's position for a second, I mean,

you would want, you would want somebody to ask that on your

behalf, wouldn't you?

I don't understand why you're getting so defensive.

CREATOR (over phone): Rob, I apologize.

ROBERT: You should lasso, you should pull your boy in there, man.

If you're legitimate, he's making you look very, very bad.

CREATOR (over phone): Who is looking, who is making.

ROBERT: You! You are. You are, sir! You are.

An investor sent me here who's got money in your project and

asked me right because that's what we do.

MARIANA: What happened?

ROBERT: Now I'm banned. MARIANA: Oh, he banned you?

ROBERT: Yeah.

MARIANA: They kicked you out and banned you?

ROBERT: Yup. That's it, I'm out.

MARIANA: So what do you think? What do you think?

ROBERT: Scam, total scam.

MARIANA: 100% scam? ROBERT: 100% scam.

MARIANA: How do you know?

ROBERT: I mean, who, why would, if I came to you, right?

And you had a legitimate thing going, and I said,

"Hey, my guy's got some money in your project, can you explain to

me why it's not working out this way?"

I would do anything and everything, right?

To make sure that you understood that your money's safe.

You know $14 billion last year, that's a lot of money, you know.

MARIANA: Is that the amount that was lost?

ROBERT: 14 billion, yeah. MARIANA: $14 billion?

ROBERT: $14 billion.

MARIANA: To scammers, to rug pulls, and honey pots.

ROBERT: To scam. Yeah. MARIANA: Whoa.

To be clear, the $14 billion in crypto that

scammers stole in 2021 includes a variety of schemes.

REPORTER: The biggest Bitcoin bust in US history, in

connection with a 2016 hack of a virtual currency exchange.

REPORTER: Delhi Police has busted a cyber fraud module

transferring cryptocurrency.

MARIANA: It's estimated that rug pulls account for nearly

3 billion of that total.

ROBERT: And we calculate that we probably saved thousands of

people, millions of dollars.

Just us.

MARIANA: But busting scammers isn't easy.

The flow of crypto can be hard to track.

MAN: It's virtually impossible to detect where they are and

how to track them down.

MARIANA: There's a lack of specific laws around rug pulls

and a decent likelihood that scammers are operating overseas.

REPORTER: One common complaint is that police aren't doing

enough to track down these scammers.

MARIANA: That's a big reason why vigilante groups,

like Robert's, have taken off.

ROBERT: We pay for bounties, and so we can.

MARIANA: And bounties, you're basically paying people to

tell you if they see some suspicious activity?

ROBERT: It could be a dev, it could be an influencer.

MARIANA: Uh-hmm.

How much do you pay for these tips?

ROBERT: Well, in the last 30 days of its existence,

we paid about $17,500.

MARIANA: Wow. That's a lot of money.

ROBERT: It's a lot of money, yeah.

MARIANA: Where does that money come from?

ROBERT: Well, we have a token.

SEEK Token and it's really there to fund our mission.

MARIANA: Yup.

Even the vigilantes who have been burned by crypto have

their own crypto token.

ROBERT: We have had death threats, and all the good things.

MARIANA: You've gotten death threats?

ROBERT: Oh absolutely. Yeah, constant.

MARIANA: And they know who you are and they know where you live?

ROBERT: Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, my coordinates were in a previous article,

my GPS coordinates.

MARIANA: So, how do you feel about that?

ROBERT: I mean, I keep my team safe, you know?

I've taken security precautions at my home.

MARIANA: You have? ROBERT: Yeah, oh yeah.

MARIANA: Such as?

ROBERT: Such as private stuff, yeah.

I'm American, we have firearms.

You know, so.

MARIANA: Does your wife worry about the security aspect of this?

ROBERT: You know, it concerns her, but at the same time, too,

I don't, I don't tell my wife every time that somebody

named the Buttcorn Bandit threatens to kill me.

MARIANA: Is that the name that they use?

ROBERT: That was one of my first death threats ever, was

the Buttcorn Bandit.

Yeah.

If you want me to be afraid I'm okay with that, but you

gotta be something a little stronger than the Buttcorn Bandit.

MARIANA: So, what would you say to the rug pullers and the

scammers out there who claim that what they're doing is not illegal

and, to some extent, they say it's not even morally wrong, because people are investing...

ROBERT: You know you can't take something that doesn't belong to you and call that

a bad investment, that's stealing.

They put people in jail for that.

In some places they cut your hands off, but in crypto, they

think they get a free pass.

AGENT: The FBI have seen a number of crypto currency scams.

We certainly do hear a lot of tales of how crypto currency

has a lot of gray areas and undefined areas that this

isn't money, so money rules shouldn't apply.

When individuals are under the understanding, or assumption

of a particular promise, and then that's not delivered,

that is fraud.

Fraud is fraud.

MARIANA: Aren't you afraid that you might get caught?

MARIANA: There's not a lot of laws out there right now to

sort of regulate what you guys do.

MARIANA: Are you afraid that the law will catch up?

AGENT: What we often find is that new technology is

first adopted by predatory individuals and in the last

year we've seen an exponential growth of

crypto currency related fraud.

♪ I be playing with the money like, whoa ♪

♪ Still got a lot more to go ♪

AGENT: Fraudsters who are engaged in rug pulls have to

have an internal justification for the type of actions that

they're taking.

It can be that the victims should know better and

not be victimized.

It should be that, "Well this technology works this way,

it's their problem.

Their problem, that they weren't aware of that."

The same argument would say that, "Well, because I can get

into your house, I can rob you."

They are a criminal enterprise, trying to remove

folks from their hard earned money.

♪ Man with the money like a toddler ♪

AGENT: We'll make sure that those actors will be held to justice.

♪ Yeah Pull up on the scene ♪

MARIANA: Despite the best efforts of vigilantes and the

FBI, Mr. X and his crew are still free to launch scams

with very little effort or risk.

ROBERT: We get about 1,500 tips in a 30-day period.

MARIANA: Wow. That's a lot.

ROBERT: Yeah, it's a lot.

MARIANA: But there is one thing that can stop these scammers.

The markets themselves.

COLBERT: It's been a bit of a bumpy ride recently for crypto currency.

REPORTER: Major crypto currencies have seen some

steep losses.

MARIANA: It was called the crypto winter.

By mid-2022, cryptocurrencies had lost more than $2 trillion

from their highs the year before.

REPORTER: The crypto selloff has left investors scrambling.

MAN: People lost their shirts in this crash.

MARIANA: Predictably, investors were spooked, which

meant that rug pulls were much harder to pull off.

WOMAN: I lost over 450,000 USD, I cannot pay the bank.

I will lose my home soon.

MARIANA: Seemingly overnight, our access to Mr. X and his

team had vanished.

And I wasn't sure when or if we'd ever get it back.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MARIANA: Mr. X and his crew ghosted us for a while after

we met them in Dubai,

but now they've resurfaced in Houston, Texas.

We're here to meet Mr. X.

He sort of disappeared on us for a while,

but he finally came through.

We started talking to him again.

♪ You took my day, you stole my life ♪

♪ Two million, two million, two million, two million, uh ♪

MARIANA: It's definitely an interesting time to be with him,

because crypto has crashed dramatically since

the last time we were with him in Dubai.

♪ The way they think is minimal ♪

♪ We got hot when the wind is cold ♪

♪ I'm just down for the inner soul ♪

♪ Dream more water, mineral ♪

MARIANA: My first stop with Mr. X though, has nothing to

do with how he's making money, and everything to do with

how he's spending it.

This is him, last seen in a bull mask.

Good morning.

Now leading me into his favorite jewelry store.

Bitcoin on top of a rocket.

That's what you were hoping would be happening right now, right?

It's curious to me that even though the crypto market has

crashed, these guys all still seem to be living large.

What is this one?

ASSISTANT: Um, that's a crypto coin we're kind of cultivating into.

So, that should be out pretty soon, as well.

MARIANA: Even Mr. X's jeweler has a token that he's promoting.

JOHNNY: You don't want to miss this, (bleep) on me,

available October 14 on (bleep) dot com

(bleep)!

What's up? How you doing, man?

MARIANA: Johnny Dang is apparently the go to guy for

those who want to turn crypto, or cash, into

gold and diamonds.

JOHNNY: Got the diamond around that with engraving.

Perfect gold.

MARIANA: Or if you want to bedazzle a fully functional

AK-47.

Oh, wow, it's a little heavier than the common AK, right?

Can I ask you how much that cost?

MARIANA: It cost some money?

JOHNNY: All right.

MARIANA: I don't think Johnny Dang knows how Mr. X makes his money.

Never say no to champagne.

Or that he might be using his store to launder his profits.

♪ Aye, aye ♪

♪ You jumped in the hooptie, I hopped in a Benz ♪

MARIANA: But I've been itching since Dubai to see how these

guys actually set up a rug pull.

♪ What you gonna do to red, what you gonna do red, ♪

♪ what you gonna do to red, look I hopped in the back as you ♪

♪ driving this steer ♪

♪ Here go I dropped to the ops ♪

MARIANA: Another member of X's scam crew has surfaced.

MARIANA: S, The Shiller, is in town.

So when you do your stuff, when you do your shilling.

MARIANA: You use Twitter, what else do you use?

MARIANA: With my phone?

MARIANA: Okay.

MARIANA: New tokens. Okay. Let's try that.

MARIANA: How many of these things are there? Lists.

MARIANA: Crypto moonshots, crypto moonshots, a lot of

hype around this one.

Bullish!

S: There's a (bleep) one.

MARIANA: Kermit Inu is the next generation, Republic Inu

is an upcoming influencer backed, take the world by storm.

MARIANA: Yeah, there's a bunch of rugs every day.

Not even these scammers know which of these tokens are real

and which are fake.

And that's exactly the point. How does it work?

MARIANA: And people, people actually believe, believe these lines?

MARIANA: So make it seem like it's.

MARIANA: Much bigger than it is?

MARIANA: All right.

MARIANA: People that work for you?

MARIANA: So you want them to promote stuff.

STRAHAN: Kim Kardashian, she has agreed to pay nearly

$1.3 million for promoting crypto currency on social media,

without providing necessary disclosures.

REPORTER: In addition to paying the fine, Kardashian

also agreed to cooperate with the SECs ongoing investigation.

MARIANA: The list of celebrities facing criticism

for pushing crypto is growing.

In most cases, no legal lines were crossed.

But these influencers are often getting paid big money

to hock crypto projects they know very little about,

which is why their fans and followers who have gotten

burned are so upset.

MAN: To the moon. MUSK: To the moon.

REPORTER: I think Musk is manipulating the market, and

I think you're doing exactly the same thing.

PORTNOY: The answer is SafeMoon.

It could be a scam, I don't think it is.

Invest with your own money.

MARIANA: So why do people still trust them?

MARIANA: So when is your next rug pull?

MARIANA: So it could happen tomorrow?

MARIANA: Hmm. Oh, so you can do it in a day?

MARIANA: Hmm.

In 15 minutes you can get this all done and you can launch it

right from here, right now.

MARIANA: Right now?

MARIANA: I've been waiting for this moment since we

first met in Dubai.

Finally. Thank you.

Mr. X has agreed to demonstrate how easy these

rug pulls are to set up.

MARIANA: He takes me to a tattoo shop with good Wi-Fi.

MARIANA: Sit right here?

MARIANA: Okay. So how is it done, what do we, what do you?

MARIANA: He just finds a crypto project that's doing well,

snatches the computer code that makes it special and renames it.

MARIANA: It's a simple copy and paste job.

Like stealing the text of someone else's novel and then

telling everyone to come and buy your new book.

So, you can be at a coffee shop, at a tattoo parlor,

wherever it is, in 15 minutes you can get this all done and

you could launch it right from here, right now?

MARIANA: Right now?

MARIANA: So why are you not doing it?

MARIANA: Would it be smart for you to launch a token right now,

with the markets down, like they are?

MARIANA: But, if I wanted, if I was a newbie starting at

this, I could just go on there.

MARIANA: Find this and do it myself?

MARIANA: So, that's not illegal? That's totally.

MARIANA: Right.

MARIANA: But now it's the first time that you're saying that it's not,

it's the first time you're saying it's not right, because.

MARIANA: Did you change your mind? Did something?

MARIANA: Okay, but now you're.

MARIANA: You didn't go that far last time.

MARIANA: I think you changed your mind.

(chatter)

MARIANA: When trying to understand scammers of any kind,

you never quite know which way is up.

On our last day in Houston, I hoped to meet up with Mr. X

one last time, but he bails on me.

I mean, it's been really just difficult to work with these guys.

Particularly X.

He's been promising all this access and telling us he's

gonna show us this and that, and then, last minute,

either doesn't show up, or nothing of what he promises

actually happens.

The night before, off camera, Mr. X admitted to our producer

that despite earlier denials, they've continued scamming.

But, of course, he didn't give us any details.

They've come clean to us, and they said that they have been

rug pulling this whole time.

Yeah.

They've just been, basically, lying to us.

These days, you just can't take professional scammers

at their word.

Do your friends and family know you're in this business?

MARIANA: Do your parents know you do this?

MARIANA: What do they think you do?

MARIANA: Are you?

MARIANA: Does your family know what you do?

MARIANA: Do you think they're proud of you?

MARIANA: (bleep) no.

AGENT: Have to be careful what we say.

I would say, for those interested in crypto currency

scams, there are very few individuals who have run a

fraudulent empire and are living comfortably on the

beach in retirement, with a large bulk of funds.

MARIANA: Hi, P. Where are you right now?

MARIANA: Oh, you're in Ibiza.

MARIANA: You know, the market has been crashing,

it's really, crypto is really low right now.

Has that affected you at all?

MARIANA: Millions of dollars? Really?

But do you still have enough to be partying in Ibiza?

MARIANA: We can't confirm any of this, but clearly this is

how he justifies his decisions.

♪ It was over before it even began ♪

AGENT: It's often been said that the FBI always gets

their man, whether it's today or tomorrow.

AGENT: Those looking to victimize U.S. citizens

should always keep an eye looking over their back.

♪ Eye to eye ♪

MARIANA: I think one thing is very clear, is that they will

keep doing this.

Are there people still buying tokens and still investing in crypto right now?

MARIANA: They will keep stealing your money.

They'll keep scamming.

XAVIER: People are buying and buy, buy, buy, buy.

MARIANA: They'll keep spending your money at Johnny Dang's,

and buying gold and diamonds.

MR. X: Yes, sir.

♪ What should we do? ♪

MARIANA: That is guaranteed.

♪ I'm gonna find all the words to tell you ♪

XAVIER: You need to do your research, heavily, before you

get into anything.

♪ You in my life, I had favored you ♪

♪ To keep you ♪

♪ To keep you ♪

♪ Oh, yes ♪

♪ You're the only one who knows why I'm gone ♪

Captioned by Cotter Media Group.