According to a report by the BBC, a scam called iEarn Bot has impacted thousands of victims across multiple countries. In the scam, victims are convinced to sign up for an "AI intelligent quantitative trading robot" called iEarn Bot, which appears to successfully trade cryptocurrencies on their behalf. However, after a time, victims realize they are not able to withdraw their supposed earnings, nor the funds they've put in.

According to the BBC, dozens of high-profile individuals in Romania, including members of the government and academics, lost money to the scam after it was promoted by technology expert Gabriel Garais — who also says he lost money in the scheme.

iEarn Bot claims to be a US-based company, although its website is full of false information. The person named as the company's founder told the BBC he has nothing to do with the scheme, and companies and institutions listed as "strategic partners" say there is no such partnership.

The BBC identified one cryptocurrency wallet that received payments from around 13,000 others totaling nearly $1.3 million.

• "Thousands may have lost out to crypto trading app" , BBC