A 2023 cryptocurrency trading bot scam was recently unearthed by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and led to the arrest of its proprietor, Robert Robb, earlier this March.
The criminal allegedly had a way with investors and was able to convince them to invest as much as $1.5 million in his trading bot, but it was later found that he transferred the money to his accounts.
Investors were allegedly sent a message promising to become “millionaires” when they invested in the trading bot and a new cryptocurrency called NoRugz.
Crypto Trading Bot Scam: $1.5M Collected and Stolen from Investors
As per an FBI affidavit (via The Verge), a crypto trading bot scam was able to garner as much as $1.5 million from crypto investors, unaware that this was a fake investment that promised massive returns in the future. It centers on a “Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) crypto trading bot, which he marketed to investors via Telegram and other social media platforms.
Here, the scam artist Robert Robb asked interested individuals to invest in creating this bot, but despite being able to collect a large sum, the technology never arrived.
Robb claimed to the FBI that the bot was supposed to scan the market and look for profitable opportunities, and when finding one, would execute them automatically. In Robb’s messages, he promised that users could become millionaires using his technology and by investing in $RAT holdings, a new token.
Despite this, he made excuses about the bot’s existence and when it would be available.
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Robert Robb’s Arrest and Alleged Crimes
In only a few weeks, Robb was able to collect $1.5 million from investors but transferred it to his accounts, with his financial transactions reflecting a luxury Jeep, a Bahamas vacation, and a two-year executive suite lease at the Denver Broncos Mile High Stadium.
Moreover, an X account, @pokerbrat2019, was tied to him, and Robb preached against crypto scams and promoted his product.
Beware of Promising Crypto Scams
There was once a Utah woman who was scammed twice at the same time. A person whom she met on a dating app led her to believe that their connection was genuine and also misled her into investing as much as $200,000 in crypto trading.
Of course, there is also the classic crypto scam, where hackers pretend to be a legitimate organization and offer a fraudulent wallet website to which people would entrust their holdings, unknowing of the deceptive actions.
Earlier this year, there was the so-called Phantom Crypto Wallet scam, which resulted from a breach on Mandiant’s X account that promoted the giveaway to users.
Hackers and bad actors will go to great lengths to victimize users into giving up their holdings, even promising them significant earnings or a richer future when using their service.
However, it was not long before Robb was caught for his alleged actions and ties to the missing investors’ money, with the too-good-to-be-true crypto trading bot exposed as a scam for his personal gains.
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