Two scammers from Singapore who stole $230 million were given away by their love for social networks (5 photos)

The scammers acted according to the classic scheme of fake "security service employees", and a naive crypto investor fell into their clutches. But the scammers' happiness was short-lived.





The story of the adventures of two Singapore citizens, Maloney Lam (pictured) and Jandiel Serrano, began when they arrived in the United States on a visa-free basis for the permitted 90 days. The friends looked around, liked the country, and decided to stay, breaking the law a little.

Naturally, they didn't get a job, but they successfully tracked down a crypto investor from Washington with thousands of bitcoins in his wallets and started to process him.



They used the classic scheme with calls supposedly from Google's security service. They convinced the guy that they were trying to hack his account. He got scared and, as if confessing, posted the codes to overcome two-factor authentication. And then they started pumping money out of the scared client.





A screenshot showing how Malone Lam and Jandiel Serrano allegedly manipulated the victim.

The Singaporeans first transferred about three million dollars to a “safe account,” and then convinced the investor to install a remote access program and got their hands on the rest of the funds. The guys managed to mine 4,100 bitcoins. As of August 2024, when they pulled it off, the value of the stolen assets was $230 million (about $394 million at today’s exchange rate).



The friends believed in their impunity and started to party, burning through the millions they had received left and right. This is where they actually miscalculated. At first, they at least hid their location using a VPN, and distributed most of the money among several wallets. But a luxurious life is needed to brag about it, and then Lamb's head went off, he began to post on local social networks all the delights of a solid capital and a complete lack of brains.

They bought more than 10 sports cars, including Lamborghini, Porsche and Ferrari, and burned through hundreds of thousands in nightclubs. Lam rented a private jet and a mansion in an elite area of ​​Miami, and also bought a wristwatch for two million dollars.



The house in California that Serrano rented for $47,500 per month.

But there came a time when the scammers miscalculated: Serrano deposited $29 million on the TradeOgre exchange from the IP address of his house in California. He was soon detained at the international port of Los Angeles when he was returning with his girlfriend from the Maldives. Lam was caught after that.

But law enforcement officers still cannot find $100 million of the stolen amount. And this is despite the fact that the guys signed a deal with the investigation. Initially, they were facing 20 years in prison, but now, instead of prison, they are working off their sentence in the cybersecurity department of one of the American companies.