Jan-Willem van Rijnberk (69) was scammed via a video advert on Facebook and an app from the Apple App Store. In *From Six Months to Zero*, he explains how digital fraud works – as he experienced it first-hand – and who profits from it.
On Friday 30 October, *In Six Months to Zero* by Eindhoven-based author Jan-Willem van Rijnberk will be published by TRILOGIE. It is the first instalment of the trilogy *The Digital Slaughterhouse*. Van Rijnberk describes how, in the space of six months, he lost his savings to fraudsters who approached him via a video advert on Facebook. They lured him into using a fake investment app, which could be downloaded straight from the official Apple App Store. The foreword is by Ellie Lust, presenter of the television programme *Scam Alert: Don’t Fall for It!*, in which Van Rijnberk will appear on 4 November (RTL 5, 8.30 pm).
How could this have happened?
It started with an advert on his timeline. This was followed by a WhatsApp group with a friendly assistant, “Talia”, lessons from a charismatic analyst and an app that was neatly listed in the App Store. Everything seemed logical, verifiable and reliable. Step by step, that reality shifted, until, on 12 April 2026, there was nothing left of it.
Van Rijnberk reconstructs those six months using his own case file: chats, screenshots, transactions and his police report. He asks the questions every victim asks themselves. How could this have happened? And was there a point at which it was still possible to get out? The book does not end with the loss. It also follows what happened afterwards: the US Scam Centre Strike Force seized the fraudsters’ website, and shortly afterwards a copy was already online.
The book is written for readers who want to understand how this works, and for anyone who wants to make themselves or an older family member more resilient. At the back, there is a glossary for those unfamiliar with the language of crypto and investing. You’ll want to read this book in one go.
Not an exception, but an industry
Van Rijnberk is no exception. In 2025, 2.5 million Dutch people aged fifteen and over fell victim to online crime: one in six. One and a half million of them fell victim to online scams and fraud: one in ten (CBS, Security Monitor 2025). The AFM estimates the losses caused by investment fraud at 750 million euros per year. Only a fraction of these cases are reported to the police (AFM, From Pyramid to Iceberg, December 2025). Of the victims of investment fraud who reported the crime to the police or the Fraud Helpdesk in 2025, 22 per cent were aged 65 or over: the largest group. Together with those aged 56 to 65, this group accounts for 42 per cent (AFM).
Who stands to gain from this? According to internal documents reported by Reuters in November 2025, Meta derived an estimated 10 per cent of its revenue from adverts for scams and prohibited products. In May 2026, Santa Clara County took Meta to court over those adverts.
Consumer organisations from 27 countries lodged complaints with the European Commission. Van Rijnberk therefore refers to the platforms as “fences”: they do not commit the fraud themselves, but they do profit from it.
“I, too, thought I was clever enough not to be scammed. Given my background, I knew how images and stories persuade people. Yet it went wrong for me too, because everything seemed right: the advert, the app, the people. That’s exactly how it works. I wrote this book so that others can read about what took me six months to learn.”
— Jan-Willem van Rijnberk
Featured in Scam Alert
The programme *Scam Alert: Don’t Fall for It!* (RTL 5 and Videoland), presented by Ellie Lust, focuses on online scams. Van Rijnberk appears in episode 3, on Wednesday 4 November at 8.30 pm. In the foreword to the book, Lust writes about the shame victims feel, and about the courage it takes to talk about it.
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