Tag Archives: crypto scams

After a threat of a lawsuit for displaying Bitcoin scams, The Guardian Australia launched an investigation to determine the nature of the increasing number of similar fraudulent activities. It concluded that there’s a group of fraudsters operating a massive global enterprise based in Moscow, Russia.Global BTC Scam Organization RevealedCryptoPotato reported in early October that the giant news media displayed a number of false Bitcoin advertisements that impersonated famous individuals. The...

The US Department of Justice announced that the founder of the Oyster Pearl cryptocurrency project, Amir Bruno Elmaani, has been charged with operating a tax evasion scheme for millions of dollars and was arrested. The 28-year old Elmaani is charged with two counts of tax evasion, each carrying up to five years in prison.Oyster Pearl Founder Charged And ArrestedThe protocol, launched several years ago, was advertised as a digital data-storage platform employing the IOTA blockchain to store...

Principal actors in the PlusToken Ponzi scheme have bagged 11-year prison sentences in China. The scheme managed to defraud investors of billions of dollars in various cryptocurrencies.End of the Road for PlusToken ScammersAccording to the South China Morning Post on Dec. 1, principal members of the PlusToken scam project were sentenced to 11 years imprisonment by a Chinese court. The suspects were found guilty of duping investors of $2.25 billion worth of crypto tokens.As previously reported...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has extradited a principal member of a fraudulent cryptocurrency mining and trading platform from Panama to the United States.AirBit Club Co-founder to Face Criminal Charges in the U.S.According to an announcement by the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss, U.S. authorities were able to extradite Gutemberg Dos Santos, co-founder of crypto Ponzi scheme AirBit Club.Dos Santos, who holds dual citizenship from Brazil and...

Chinese authorities seized around $4 billion worth of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from the notorious crypto Ponzi group PlusToken. This comes after the Chinese police arrested the core team running the scheme in July.Around $4 Billion Worth Of Bitcoin And Crypto Assets SeizedAccording to CryptoPotato’s previous report on the PlusToken saga, the crypto shysters (27 key operators) were arrested by the Chinese police in July earlier this year. Along with them, the police also arrested 82...

Scams within the cryptocurrency industry come in different shapes and forms, including impersonating legitimate applications downloadable from trusted establishments. A popular digital asset commentator recently warned the community about such a scam using the Uniswap name, resulting in the loss of $20,000.$20K Lost In A Uniswap-Impersonating ScamUniswap is a sort of decentralized exchange (DEX) running on the Ethereum blockchain that enables users to swap various tokens. Its popularity...

In 2019, cryptocurrency-related crime – thefts, hacks, fraud amounted to $4.5 billion. The latest data from blockchain forensics company CipherTrace shows that this number has fallen to $1.8 billion this year – a 60 percent reduction. Nonetheless, the DeFi space has seen an explosion in criminal activity. Mainstream Cryptocurrency Crime Declining Says CipherTrace In a tête-à-tête with Reuters, CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans observed that crypto exchanges and digital asset...

The leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has helped recover almost all $345,000 funds stolen due to an exit scam conducted by an automated market maker (AMM) dubbed Wine Swap. Binance Security Team Recovers 99.9% of Stolen Funds In a press release shared with CryptoPotato, the popular exchange shared that Wine Swap launched on Binance Smart Chain as an AMM platform on October 13th, 2020. However, just an hour after the product release, the team behind it “pulled the rug,”...

A 40-years-old man from Auckland has been arrested because of an alleged money laundering scheme he orchestrated. He has been served with multiple charges, amongst which dubious cryptocurrency transactions and purchases of luxury goods. Thousands Of New Zealand Dollars To Buy Cryptocurrency According to a recent news report, the arrested man faces a pile of 30 charges for his actions, most of which connected with money laundering. After appearing in the Auckland District...

This week, Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority made a startling revelation. Cryptocurrency fraud victims have lost at least €10 million between May 2019 and September 2020, the financial regulator said.Belgians Have Lost €10 Million In Cryptocurrency FraudBelgian citizens have lost almost 10 million euros to fraudulent crypto investment schemes. Belgium’s apex financial authority, the Financial Services and Markets Authority, said on Monday. According to the watchdog, this data...