Tag Archives: crypto scams

On November 13, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) announced that it had successfully cracked down on a criminal network engaged in online scams through call centers. The network was spread all around Europe. According to Europol, the operation was carried out on January 11, 2023, following an investigation that began in June 2022 at the request of the German authorities. In conjunction with the national authorities of the other countries,...

Victims of the Ponzi scheme BitConnect may finally find some respite. The United States District Court for the Southern District of California ordered over $17 million in restitution to be distributed to nearly 800 victims from over 40 different countries due to their investment losses in BitConnect, which defrauded thousands of investors across the world. The official press release by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) stated, “In truth, however, BitConnect operated a...

Less than two weeks into the new year, malicious entities have already started doing what they do best. According to the latest update by the blockchain security company CertiK, two recently created contracts – CirculateBUSD and CirculateWBNB – have been pumped away by the creators. The funds have been bridged to Ethereum and deposited into the OFAC-sanctioned coin mixer, Tornado Cash. By doing so, the creators of the two contracts managed to pull off what looks like an exit...

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Neil Chandran and seven other individuals and entities for orchestrating the fraudulent cryptocurrency investment scheme called CoinDeal.  The suspects allegedly defrauded investors with around $45 million over the years and used the money to buy real estate, cars, and a boat. Halting the Crime The SEC accused Neil Chandran, Michael Glaspie, Garry Davidson, Linda Knott, Amy Mossel, AEO Publishing Inc, Banner Co-Op, Inc,...

It’s no secret that wash trading continues to plague the crypto market. A paper titled “Crypto Wash Trading,” published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), found that an overwhelming number of unregulated crypto exchanges account for a sizeable portion of wash trades. The nonprofit research organization studied 29 major exchanges, such as Binance, Coinbase, and Huobi, as well as lesser-known exchanges from a period of July 9th to November 3rd, 2019. Wash...

The global investment banking firm – Jefferies Group – reportedly determined FTX creditors could retrieve as much as 40% of their lost money. In an interview for The Block, Joseph Femenia – Global Head of Distressed Debt Trading at Jefferies – said there’s light in the tunnel for FTX creditors who could recover between 20% and 40% of their assets.  The executive, who has formed a five-person team to work on issues related to the bankrupt exchange, explained that rates could...

It appears many digital currency fraudsters and malicious actors are targeting senior citizens, and many organizations out there are trying hard to show seniors how they can prevent themselves from falling victim to such traps. Seniors Don’t Always Get Crypto It’s believed many seniors out there are not tech or computer savvy; that they aren’t familiar with how crypto and distributed ledger systems work and thus they can be taken advantage of. Enterprises like Elder...

Joe Lonsdale – Co-Founder of the software company Palantir Technologies – thinks multiple cryptocurrency companies will go bankrupt in the future since most function like Ponzi schemes. However, he believes blockchain technology will remain a key part of the future financial system as it enables a “new and important way” to move money globally. Expect More Cases Like FTX According to Lonsdale, the lack of pertinent rules in the cryptocurrency sector and the assumption that...

Scams have been rampant this year despite the market slowdown. A new type of sneaky crypto scam with front-running scam bots on YouTube has shot up six-fold in 2022. These types of frauds attract users by posting advertisements on social media claiming to teach you how to make thousands of dollars of money in a day using a front-running bot. When clicked, these ads link users to a YouTube video showing how to create and deploy a front-running script to generate “profits.”...

The American authorities ordered Jeremy Spence (a.k.a. “Coin Signals”) to pay over $2.8 million in restitution to victims of his cryptocurrency fraud.  The US Department of Justice (DOJ) sentenced the criminal to 42 months in prison in May for running a scheme that defrauded investors with more than $5 million. ‘An Illustration of the CFTC’s Best Efforts’ The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that the US District Court for the Southern District of New York...