Bitcoin: He Pays €100,000 in Deposit to Claim 25 BTC That Never Existed

Twenty-five bitcoins fallen from the sky. A resident of Gifhorn in Lower Saxony received an email informing him that he was the lucky owner of 25 BTC. Over the course of the day, that amounts to just over two million dollars. To cash out, there’s a formality. First, transfer over €100,000 as a deposit. He transferred. The fortune, however, never arrived.

The flatterer of the fable found his digital relay. The Gifhorn police made the story public on Monday, October 26, and it can be summed up in four lines. It joins the long catalog of fake crypto investments targeting European individuals and adds a cheeky variant. The company sells no investments; it informs the recipient that he is already rich.

Key Points of This Article:

• An email informs a resident of Lower Saxony that he owns a wallet with 25 BTC.
• The "company" demands a six-figure advance before releasing the promised amount.
• Transfer made, interlocutors vanished, complaint filed with the Polizeiinspektion.
• Investigators refer to "Cybertrading fraud" and remind that a real withdrawal is never paid in advance.
• The same mechanism fuels the 26 addresses flagged by the AMF in the third quarter.

Gifhorn Becomes the Capital of Ghost Bitcoins

Let’s revisit the scene. You open your email one October morning. Between the electricity bill and the supermarket newsletter, a message from a company you’ve never heard of. Good news, you own 25 bitcoins. Don’t remember buying them? No matter, the balance is there, displayed, gleaming.

The police do not give his name or age. Our man isn’t asking for the moon. He simply wants to cash out a part of the loot. The company is understanding and offers him "more than two million euros." He just needs to pay a deposit of "more than €100,000" to unlock the transfer. The crook’s unyielding logic, which doesn’t release two million without a little gesture.

The transfer goes out. Then, radio silence. No one on the phone, no one on the messaging. The victim eventually pushed open the door of the police station, and the Polizeiinspektion Gifhorn published its notice on October 26 with a phrase that should be engraved on the front of banks. "Never transfer money to unlock a payment." The dpa agency, which picked up the case the same day, adds that "all alarm bells" should have rung. The exact amount of the transfer has not been disclosed, nor has the name of the company that pocketed the €100,000.

Because the trap works for a simple reason: the figure almost matches reality. At around $81,500 per bitcoin this Wednesday morning according to CoinGecko, 25 BTC weighs just over two million dollars. Count around €1.8 million. The crook rounded the total up, but the order of magnitude comes straight from the market.

Cybertrading or the Art of Charging for Nothing

Behind the German term "Cybertrading fraud" lies the most profitable mechanism of the crypto scam, namely the fake paid withdrawal. First, a fictitious balance that climbs on a well-polished dashboard. Then, at the moment of withdrawal, an avalanche of fees: taxes to be paid in advance, "compliance fees," insurance, deposit. Thus, each payment unlocks the promise of the next. The Gifhorn version skips the fake trading step to go straight to the cash register, to the tune of "you are already rich, pay to prove it."

The resemblance is striking with this service for recovering lost tokens, which was itself a scam. The same family, one that monetizes hope rather than greed. Indeed, the victim did not seek to get rich quickly; he believed in a digital inheritance.

European regulators are overwhelmed with similar cases. The AMF added 26 addresses to its blacklist in the third quarter of 2026, 64 since January, including several "AI trading robots" and a fake news site, according to its press release from October 19. And the promises, like the exit fees, are the same as in Gifhorn.

Checking a Balance of 25 BTC Takes Two Minutes

One single reflex would have sufficed. A bitcoin wallet can be publicly verified on any blockchain explorer. If someone swears that you own 25 BTC, ask for the address and check the balance. A real bitcoin moves with a private key, never with a deposit.

The Gifhorn police did not specify whether the transfer could still be blocked, and the investigation is entrusted to the city’s police station. However, German authorities know very well what real bitcoins are worth. In 2024, Saxon justice seized nearly 50,000 BTC in the Movie2k case before selling them for just under three billion dollars. Twenty-five of those bitcoins were already worth $1.4 million at the time.