This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/HeadOfSpectre on 2023-12-02 00:04:54.

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Transcript of the Official FRB Civilian Debriefing of Jamie Edwards regarding his encounter with an unusual cryptocurrency scam.

Debrief conducted June 6th, 2023 by Justice Young

This record is for internal use for the FRB only. Distributing this record to any party outside of authorized FRB personnel without the written consent of Director Robert Marsh constitutes breach of contract and will be punished accordingly.

[Transcript starts]

Young: Alright Mr. Edwards, the tape is rolling. Why don’t we get started?

Edwards: Yeah, of course.

Young: So this scam, why don’t you start by telling us how you got involved?

Edwards: Well it started with the message I got. It just got sent to me out of the blue over Whatsapp.

Young: I see. You got involved over a Whatsapp message?

Edwards: Yeah, yeah… I know. I’m a fucking patsy. I should’ve just ignored the whole thing, but I was curious.

Young: What exactly did this message say?

Edwards: Well it wasn’t just one message. It was several. They actually added me and a bunch of others to a group chat at random. So, I just sorta checked my phone and it had just sorta blown up when I wasn’t looking. I actually have some screenshots. I could read them if you’d like.

Young: Okay…? Sure…?

Edwards: I promise, I’ll just stick to the relevant portions!

Young: Fair enough.

Edwards: So the first message I got read:

‘Hello everyone! Welcome new friends who have joined our group! I am David, I am The Administrator! Welcome to the bitcoin trading team of Pimrose Financial Consulting Co. Ltd. From now on, I will be here every day to share with you how to increase your wealth through Bitcoin and grow your income rapidly. If you do not wish to triple your income, you may leave this group. My sincere apologies if I have bothered you!’

Young: Very legitimate…

Edwards: Yeah… I know. Gotta say though, when I read that shit I was kinda relieved since it meant that the 80+ missed messages on my phone weren’t because of something terrible had happened! Not a lotta situations where getting added into a phony group for Cryptocurrency enthusiasts is the best possible outcome.

Young: I suppose given the circumstances, yes. But let’s continue. So you saw this and didn’t immediately leave the group?

Edwards: Look, I already admitted that I’m a fucking patsy. I mean, yeah, my first instinct was that this was all some kind of scam, but the messages were right there and I was… I dunno, a little curious. So I figured I’d read a little bit before deleting the group and moving on with my life.

Young: And what exactly did they say to convince you to stay?

Edwards: Well there was a whole spiel…

‘Pimrose Financial is an Alberta based bank that has recently spearheaded the bold leap into the world of cryptocurrency. It is now the largest and wealthiest cryptobrokerage corporation in the world, trading tens of thousands of products (foreign exchange, gold, diamonds, commodities, encrypted digital currencies, NFT and social media) which earn investors millions each day.’

‘Their business accounts for 29% of the global retail contracts foreign exchange economic market, leading to high stocks and large ROI for more than 250000000 digital currency contracts, NFTs, retail customers, investors and billionaires such as Amazon, Facebook, Google and others. Pimrose Financial is growing its capital strength day by day and is doing financial business on a global scale with large companies.’

‘The account opening process of the Pimrose Financial is easy, secure and convenient. Our analysts are highly competent with a 98% of reference accuracy in analyzing fluctiatuins in cryptocurrency contracts and ammortization, giving our investors opportunities to trade with 24 hour global service accessible from anywhere in the world in any language.’

‘We are working with every security agency to guarantee that there is no fraud or scam here. You can trust us as we are a registered and certified company designed to change everyones financial situation. If you want to easily earn at least $500 every day, speak to one of our analysts.’

‘Pimrose Financial assures you that so long as you invest in accordance with the strategy.’

Young: Mr. Edwards I don’t mean to be condescending but if someone needs to tell you that something isn’t a scam…

Edwards: I know, I know… and I mean, look at this shit, it’s all just… word salad. I also noticed that the messages were coming from two different accounts, David and Sean, although they flowed into each other almost flawlessly.

Young: Yeah this wasn’t suspicious at all.

Edwards: Aren’t you like, here to listen?

Young: I am, but I can’t guarantee I won’t judge.

Edwards: [Pause] You know what? Fair enough. I deserve that.

Young: Let’s move on. So why exactly did you decide to follow through with this scam?

Edwards: Well I wanted to see how much of what they were saying was bullshit. They’d posted a link to this landing page that looked like it was part of the Primrose Financial site, and that backed up most of what they were saying. And some people in the chat were talking about having invested with them before. It started making me second guess the credibility of it all.

Young: You started thinking it might be legitimate?

Edwards: Yeah. Basically. They were trying to pump this one specific shitcoin… that’s the term for…

Young: I’m aware, Mr. Edwards.

Edwards: Right, well… the main administrator in the chat… David. He was pushing this one coin called GoldSpark. The buy in wasn’t all that big, like… only about twenty bucks. I started thinking I didn’t have anything to lose.

Young: So you bought in?

Edwards: Yeah… I bought in. And once I did, David started sending me personal messages, telling me how to grow the value of my coin. I figured it was helpful… I didn’t actually know anything about Crypto going in. I probably still don’t know anything about Crypto. I just knew you could make a lot of money off of it.

Young: So what exactly did David tell you to do in order to grow the value of your investment?

Edwards: Well, promote it. The idea was that the more people who bought into GoldSpark, the more valuable it was. We were supposed to promote GoldSpark online. Post about it on Facebook and Twitter, try to get other people we knew to buy into it. I actually started hitting up some friends of mine, trying to sell them on it.

Young: Of course you did.

Edwards: And to help us sell it, there were seminars.

Young: Seminars?

Edwards: David would host these online seminars. Webinars. A webinar is when you-

Young: I’m familiar with what a webinar is, Mr. Edwards.

Edwards: Right, right. Sorry. But yeah, he hosted these webinars to teach you how to sell. I’d never worked in sales before either. I’m a landscaper by trade. But I figured that at least it was a good career experience. The price didn’t seem that bad either. A year’s subscription to the webinars was about $200, and there was a Discord for questions too.

Young: You paid $200 for webinars and a Discord…?

Edwards: It seemed like a good idea at the time, I thought I was legitimately learning a lot! David also got me to invest a little more in GoldSpark too. I bought into the coin a little more, I spent… $500, I think? No. $700.

Young: And did you actually make money back on this?

Edwards: Yeah, a little bit. Not… um… looking back, it wasn’t much… only about $150… but it was money I was earning.

Young: And of the money you earned back, they took a cut, yes?

Edwards: Yes. David kept saying that the earnings start slow but build fast.

Young: I’m sure he did.

Edwards: Look, I know I was getting taken for a ride… I know that now. But David made it all sound real. He was good at that. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for the guided meditation sessions, I probably wouldn’t have figured that anything was wrong.

Young: Meditation sessions? Tell me about those.

Edwards: Well, David always started and ended his webinars with these guided meditation sessions. He said it opened the mind up to learning. So we’d all sit in front of our computers, he’d put on this sorta, tranquil music and we’d all meditate.

Young: I see.

Edwards: I couldn’t tell you if it worked or not. But I always felt… I dunno, drained… after the seminars. I’d usually just go to lie down and sleep. I never really questioned it. They went on for a while, usually around 4 hours.

Young: I see. These guided meditation sessions, how long did they last?

Edwards: Fifteen minutes, give or take. It was quirky, I know. But I thought this guy was legit… legit businessmen do all sorts of weird shit, right? Maybe that’s the secret to success?

Young: Sure.

Edwards: Anyway, I didn’t think anything of it at first. It was just, something we did. And I figured that the exhaustion I felt afterward was unrelated.

Young: What changed?

Edwards: It’s… it’s hard to explain. It sounds stupid, now that I’m trying to say it out loud.

Young: Try me.

Edwards: Well it’s just… my speakers failed.

Young: Your speakers failed?

Edwards: Yeah, during one of the seminars. Right as he was getting into the guided meditation. He was like, talking us into that trance state, you know?

Young: Right.

Edwards: And then my audi…

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