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The Squid Scam: Hunting the NFT Con Artists cover art

The Squid Scam: Hunting the NFT Con Artists

By: Janhoi McGregor
Narrated by: Janhoi McGregor
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  • Summary

  • In 2021, scammers stole $16 million from thousands of investors across the globe, by capitalising on the hype around NFTs and the success of the hit Netflix series Squid Game

    The scam was so believable, the BBC, Yahoo and CNBC covered its initial trading success, before later publishing headlines revealing the full scale of the fraud. Investigative technology journalist Janhoi McGregor takes a deep dive into the murky underworld of Crypto and NFTs, to attempt to uncover the true identity of the squid scammer. Much of their web trail was wiped out, but digital detective Janhoi follows the crumbs left behind in an attempt to find justice for the victims.

    ©2023 Audible, Ltd (P)2023 Audible, Ltd
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Episodes
  • Ep 1
    Jan 12 2023

    Janhoi speaks to victims of the Squid Game scam who have had their lives turned upside down by losing thousands of dollars. He throws himself into the challenge of finding the perpetrators with the help of open source investigator Ciaran O’Connor.

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    41 mins
  • Ep 2
    Jan 12 2023

    Janhoi examines how the scammers played on the rising popularity of NFTs to pull off this audacious heist. Meanwhile, a discussion in a chatroom points to the first suspects in the case.

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    34 mins
  • Ep 3
    Jan 12 2023

    Janhoi learns that the people behind the Squid Scam had carried out a smaller scam a few weeks earlier to ‘test the water’. This means more leads to follow. He also looks at how ordinary people are being pulled into - and sucked out of - the NFT and crypto world.

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    36 mins

What listeners say about The Squid Scam: Hunting the NFT Con Artists

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Should have got someone else to narrate it

I couldn’t listen. After about the first 15 minutes, I realised that this piece was going to be one of those long drawn-out over-explained over-hyped pieces of hack journalism better targeted at an American audience.
I also cannot take seriously a narrator who cannot be bothered to pronounce the “th” sound, instead employing the “v” sound.
According to rules, I MUST give a star rating in order to post a review. This irks me.

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6 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Far too much padding!

The story was quite interesting to start with although as it turned out it was a huge anti climax at the end. Claiming a victory and vindication for an unfinished story putting us through 8 episodes of so much speculation about what might or could or should happen or go wrong or right in the investigation as well as the inevitable recap of previous episodes and lengthy explanation about what was coming up in the next episode I felt the whole saga should of been edited down to just a couple of episodes. We learnt about 10 minutes worth of new stuff in each waffling episode. It was a bit of an endurance listening through to the end and it just didn’t justify it, yet if it had been more succinct I know I would have enjoyed it instead of continuously shouting at him to “get on with the story!”

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Really liked it

I found it very interesting and although some comments have said they didn't like the narrator but I thought he was good.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

fluffy

i found this very interesting.
but the meat of the topic is buried under layers of hype, mispronunciation and production. the narrator loves to talk about himself.
spoiler alert -
predictably, they don't catch the villain.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting story and details.....

... Marred by the ego of the apparently experienced investigative journalist. A great investigation, but its effectiveness as a podcast diminished by the need for the narrator to big himself up and fail to give full credit and time to those doing so much of the hard work.

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1 person found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

What a waste of time!

The investigator is unbearable, he's constantly anxious and tells us what he's feeling. He tells us how difficult the investigation is multiple times an episode. The whole thing could have been told it 90 minutes but it's dragged out. We get constant background conversations with producers it's incredibly boring.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

the way it was narrated, it immersed yourself into the story and you can imagine yourself in Hong-Kong

loved every bit of this series. really well done and presented, from start to finish a brillaint brillaint brilliant listen

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very well put-together and intriguing

I had never heard of this scam before and don’t know how much of all this is true, but I couldn’t wait to get to the end!
Quick insider question though: what’s happened to Rusty?

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent podcast

This a brilliant podcast. Very investigative and the man presenting it is very good. I would definitely recommend it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Bingeable!

Loved this podcast and binged it in 3 blocks of listening. Really interesting story, with all the potentially difficult/confusing bits explained and clarified in am entertaining way. Superb narration - looking forward to listening to more of Janhoi’s stuff.

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