Crypto Scams

Every new technological advance has two sides to its success story. One tells the tale of economic and social benefits that derive from it. The other one bears the ugly face of scamming, theft, and hoaxing. One clear example of this unofficial axiom is the surge in cryptocurrency scams that occurred throughout 2019. According to a CypherTrace report, hackers managed to steal more than $4.4 billion from cryptocurrency owners and entities last year. It is a staggering increase from the…

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) released a press release on April 13 regarding cryptocurrency scams. According to the FBI, more cryptocurrency scams associated with the COVID-19 pandemic could surface. The FBI said that as more people enter the cryptocurrency space, there would be more fraud schemes related to cryptocurrency. The elderly are specifically at risk but the FBI said everyone is vulnerable to such scams. The agency noted the availability of many virtual asset service providers online as well…

Scammers have been trying to leverage the fears over the current pandemic to dupe people. They are trying to lure people to download malicious applications, donate to fake charities, or purport to sell coronavirus fears. However, the pandemic seems to have led to a steep fall in the revenues of cryptocurrency scammers. On April 10, Chainalysis released data showing that the average value of transactions received by the wallets of known scams reduced by 30 percent last month. Besides, the…

New Zealand financial watchdog has cautioned the public over a suspect Bitcoin investment scheme. In its statement issued on April 6, the Financial Markets Authority(FMA) raised a red flag on the "Profit Bitcoin" project. The FMA labeled the venture a get-rich-quick scam. Allegedly, the scheme dupes the public that it offers software having a 99.4% success rate in winning Bitcoin trades. False Narrative According to the FMA, the project's website has telltale signs of a con job. To begin with,…

Over the years, we've experienced a surge in interest and growth in the use of cryptocurrency. The meteoric rise of digital currency has attracted many people's attention and potential investors. Unfortunately, this surge has also seen an increase in opportunistic crypto scammers and fraud cases. Cryptocurrency owners are more susceptible to hacking scams because online wallets store digital coins. Scammers have also realized clever ways to infiltrate software storage devices like desktops and mobile phones. The increase in fraud cases is…

On the 25th March 2020, the Malta Financial Services Authority warned against Foxtrades and Coinmalex crypto exchanges. The two crypto exchanges claim to be licensed by the nation, but the MFSA denied the claims.  For instance, Foxtrades indicates that the MFSA licensed it as a category three service provider on its website. Nevertheless, the MFSA wished to alert the public that Foxtrades is not a Maltese registered company, and urged the public from undertaking any business or transaction with the…

Bitfinex, a major digital currency exchange, announced on Tuesday the deployment of Shimmer, a proprietary surveillance tool to combat market abuse on the crypto trading and promote orderly trading. Bitfinex is a popular crypto trading platform for integrating the latest innovative tech to deliver high-performance trading solutions to its users. Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Bitfinex, said on Twitter that Bitfinex has chosen to develop its state-of-the-art surveillance system to meet the complex demand of an evolving digital asset class and…

Recently, CipherTrace released a detailed analysis of how two Chinese nationals laundered stolen crypto through various banks and crypto exchanges.  The two Chinese national hackers are Tian Yinyin and Li Jidong. The two hackers got charged with money laundering conspiracy and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business by the US Department of Justice. The Technique Used to Carry out the Fraud as per CipherTrace CipherTrace reported that the two Chinese hackers used a technique known as ‘peel chains’ to hide…

The world first heard of cryptocurrencies in 2009. Despite the initial skepticism over the digital coins and blockchain technology needed, the world slowly grew warm to the idea of decentralized currencies. With time, cryptocurrencies have attracted an increasingly massive number of global users. However, as the crypto industry continues to gain popularity, the chances of crypto cybercrimes increase. Cybercriminals are using ransomware-like tactics from various target devices to secretly mine cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency mining became a lucrative business as cryptocurrencies grew…