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Uganda Police Arrest Leader of $2.7 million Crypto Scam Ugandan police have revealed the arrest of one of the primary directors of a new cryptocurrency firm in the country that scammed investors off their capital. According to reports, the police arrested one Mr. Samson Lwanga, who happened to be the...

Reach us on: https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/uganda-police-arrest-leader-of-2-7-million-crypto-scam

What's your opinion?

A scammer siphoning out money from common people in the name of cryptocurrency - police did exactly what needs to be done! There's no other opinion! But the problem is actually much more deeper than we can think!

I am sure this Ugandan crypto scam is not the first ever crypto scam we have seen! In recent times, Plustoken pulled out a bigger scam worldwide! Majority of the ICOs from 2017 were used to fill their owner's pocket and scam people! Do you see the trend? Most disappointing is the involvement of the term "cryptocurrency" in all these scams which is constantly destroying the reputation of cryptos among the common mass!

That is effectively pushing the crypto community back in time and in bad reputation worldwide! I sincerely hope the situation becomes better in future!

Let's not be too narrow minded here. People are being scammed literally everywhere, even in first world countries like the United States whereas you'd assume that people would be more knowledgeable about these stuff.

https://fortune.com/2019/11/06/is-onecoin-the-biggest-financial-fraud-in-history/

Africans involve into scams, and for the same we can't term each and every scam ia donewby African people. Maybe in real-time data collective scams African people are much associated. When it comes to cryptocurrency related scams most were from western country people. This can be understood if we go through the exchange scams that have taken place till date.

There's no nationality in regards to scam. Literally everyone can get scammed if they're not careful enough. That's the best way to categorize them and not use a misleading generalization such as nationality or gender.

if there is a fraud like the same thing above but they are deceived by the valuable banknotes or there is a corruption case from the director of the BANK, whether people will blame money and the BANK, I think not, try to look again at this news whether people will blame the eyes crypto or crypto money will have a bad reputation, I don't think so, back to them, I'm concerned with this problem it seems that there are still many people who need to get education about this case that the investment error using crypto is the fault of the user not the crypto, eyes crypto money is just a tool, it doesn't mean that the crypto community is affected by each of these problems, whoever the culprit is should certainly get a heavy sentence

This fraud often occurs in my country and even has become a lot of victims who fall, of course, their companies use cryptocurrency that is easier than fiat.
The point is we have to be careful what they offer, do not be tempted by big profits, friends have become victims like and have entered thousands of dollars but they have not got their benefits, so I am happy when a police catches the scamer it will make a deterrent for them and satisfied to the user.

I hope to read more of this kind of news. But not just on the local level. It is easier to solve a crime of this kind when the network, operation, and victims are within a single jurisdiction. There are not much complications in terms of applicable laws and policies, case filing, and the rest of the processes. However, crypto scams are rampant worldwide. International crypto projects are promoted and launched one after the other in different countries all over the world. Sooner or later after their launching, everything goes quiet. Accountability is hard. Victims have very limited avenues to voice their complaints and issues. Most of the time, they are ranting on social media sites and even on this forum. But only up to that.

This isn't true. Africans are not the only ones who are getting scammed. Day by day millions of people are getting scammed in general, not just in cryptocurrency, Africans are not ready to believe in every scam Africans is just a bunch of pure risk-taker wanting to get their life better. It just happened that most of the investments out there near them are all scam.

Wow it's great news, Scammers must be arrested they are looting with their dirty scams, Thanks to Uganda Police

Every time something like this would happen, we need to clarify to the people we know that this was not what Bitcoins for, instead we tell them that is is the scammers who only use the name of Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies to stole the investor's money. We need to clarify it to them as soon as possible. because of this kind of event, bitcoin might look bad for some people if we don't tell them what's really going on here.

For a certain country, that $2.7 million is already huge, crypto scams are really everywhere and it mostly happen in poor countries where people are desperate in making quick return of their investment,.. in the crypto world, this is just a normal news but big in a certain country.

But this thread elaborates that in Western part, there are people who are actively scamming people just for their own profit. They make money doing bad things from those innocent people. That's very unfair and needs to stop.

Luckily the Uganda Police caught the Leader and I hope those people under it also should be accountable about the crime they made. But not only in Western, there are also scammers all around the world. So the best thing is don't trust anyone but yourself.

Not being a racist, but no matter what race or nationality, when it comes to crypto currency. Have trust issues.

it good to know that some country or authority is starting to arrest those scammers in crypto
scam in crypto give bad reputation in bitcoin for the few years and it's still happening right now
and i think if every country will try to chase those scammers they will start to become afraid to do bad things using crypto
if there is less fraud or scam crypto can gain more adoption and trust from some of the investors.

We know how tough living around this country and with that actions from the police it's very nice to read that they've complied where they are need to be more present. Scammers should be Trace and be punished each time they are being caught up. It's a good accomplishment for taking care of this and giving justice to those who got victimized.

I wonder how people could still be arrested despite of the decentralization of the cryptocurrency. I am not against arresting them, but I think people nowadays already know what's good and what's bad, through this, they should utilize the decentralized cryptocurrency in a way that it is not illegal.

Moving on, Cryptocurrency scams are still prominent and I think we need to enhance our regulation about how people should run investment platforms to lessen scams and frauds. But It is quite ironic to ask for regulation in a decentralized system. Maybe the solution is within us personally, to avoid these scams, we should be the one responsible to all of our transactions.

The unique thing about this kind of reports is that they have far more reaching effect than the arrest itself because it has just shown that countries are leaving up to their responsibilities to ensure that they protect their citizens from the menace of people who have used crypto as a means to get rich quick. The disadvantage here is that legitimate people in crypto might be caught in the over zealousness of the law enforcers and might be made to go through what they know nothing about. Either way, its a further message that do right in all your dealings.

Many people are financially stupid when it comes to the right knowledge on what to invest their in. I have been telling people around me to buy bitcoin and leave coins that have MLM futures alone that they will live to regret their action, They keep slamming me to show forth how much bitcoin has done for me and that bitcoin is already done making early users rich, I am amazed how people are been cheaply deceived. They hate the right knowledge because they want quick money.

Hackers have earned lots of money from developed countries also. Even the most advanced exchanges are hacked and nobody can trace the hackers. That's not fair to blame Africans if scam happens to them, everyone is victim of it.
Upbit Is the Seventh Major Crypto Exchange Hack of 2019
 (https://www.coindesk.com/upbit-is-the-sixth-major-crypto-exchange-hack-of-2019)

That's a great move by the Uganda police, very much appreciated. I hope investors will get their whole money back and on time. Such actions from law enforcement agencies will discourage the scammers and will help in bringing the faith of investors back in cryptocurrency. We need more such actions.

With the reach of internet and knowledge of crypto, poor neighborhoods in African countries and India turning to be internet scam center. Not to forget Eastern Europe like Russia which organizes high level crypto frauds. The real problem here is most of the societies have accepted such acts as they don't directly affect the population nearby while brings in income. But this would develop a negative thinking in all of population making their own lives miserable in the future.

It is a huge sum of money! But this is just one of many large-scale scams, even the scams take place publicly. Because they take many different forms, namely, they can be fake ICOs with the purpose of filling up the pockets of the leaders. They take advantage of cryptocurrency as a tool to trick people. It was also the cause of the cryptocurrency's failure, its reputation was misused and destroyed.

Not to mention that it sounds very racist. I don't see any proof that people from Africa get scammed more often, but even if that's true, there can be a good explanation of that. Like, for instance, that many African countries are not technologically advanced, and thus people are more naive when they see something new and something they don't understand well. Not to mention that many can be desperate and looking for any chance of getting a way out, no matter how improbable.
All in all, we should not focus on geography, race or anything like that. We should focus on scammers and how to make them punished for their deeds.
Anyway, I think Uganda is doing a great job prosecuting the scammers like that. It's important to make sure that crypto scammers don't getaway.

Such firms and directors must be liquidated! I hate scammers, especially when it comes to crypto. Because of such people, people do not believe in Bitcoin and investments, which greatly inhibits popularization! Mr. Samson Lwanga has to sit in jail.

I agree. I am glad that law enforcement agencies find fraudulent companies and put fraudsters behind bars. Such crypto scammers and their schemes must be eliminated, respect Uganda police

Will $ 2.7 million be returned to investors? This is a huge amount. I hope the funds will be returned, and the scammers will be sent to jail!

It's normal that there's crypto illegal activities. Even with fiat, that's already a normal thing. Positive side is it's good that the police were able to arrest scammers.  While the bad side here is, scams and illegal activities are growing as well, and it affects what's the government think of cryptocurrency. The more they see that illegal activities like this are rampant, it will be hard for them to accept crypto.

" From a rough average statistics, over 1,000 people registered with the cryptocurrency scam company but recently, there are glaring showcases

that the victims are numbering up to 10,000 or even more." - Quoted from article : So with every new scam, more people get burned and more

people will hesitate to ever invest in Bitcoin and other Alt coins ever again. The media do not get the full story and people reading this would

always link Bitcoin to scams like this.   >:(

Nah, this has nothing to do with race or even what country the scam originated in.  Hell, there have been scams galore in the US and one of the first was Bitcoin Savings & Trust out of Texas if I remember correctly.  Scams are everywhere bitcoin is to be found, and that's the truth.

Still, you don't hear much about Uganda around here.  If a country in Africa gets mentioned on the forum, it's usually Nigeria and not necessarily because of any scams happening there.  I just think crypto is really popular there.

Yeah, I hear you but crap like this still gives bitcoin a bad name no matter how much clarification you do.  Everyone here on bitcointalk knows that bitcoin is just the form of money involved in the scam, but try to tell that to the general public.  All they ever hear about bitcoin is stuff like Silk Road and the darkweb and all sorts of criminal activities.  It's a shame.

This singular act of scam perpetuated by this scammer would give Bitcoin a bad reputation in Uganda it is very unfortunate this is happening at a time when adoption of Bitcoin some African countries is very low and the act of tarnishing it image would not help the course of more people embracing in that particular country. The police did a good job for his arrest however the damage has been already.

I just hope these people learned there isn't guaranteed *huge returns* from short run crypto investment. Scams like this wouldn't happen if people were more educated about how investments work. I don't think these news are negative for bitcoin.
It's good to alert people to use crypto currency carefully and to not trust your money to anyone promising easy fast profits.
Nobody can blame bitcoin or crypto currency for their own mistakes.

It is good that she has been arrested, based on the article she do some fraudelent things that affects many investors, promising a thing that did not happen accordingly to the timeline and it still sucks , people believes in her and she do that thing. A whole market is affected in that.

Such scams bring bad image to cryptocurrencies. And this is one reason why altcoin market nowadays are getting worse. Too many options, crowded market for altcoins prove no purpose or advantage. It's actually worse than having a few reputable ones.

Scammers take advantage of the current era's hype for cryptocurrency adoption, and innocent investors blinded by greed are easily fallen to such scams. From the first line already, if a firm promises high unjustifiable returns/profit, and it just sound all too good, it's probably an exit scam.

In all fairness, he admitted that he was guilty and somehow feel regret on what he did. However, laws are laws — your mistake cannot be easily corrected by a small simple deed. He should pay for the crume he committed.

What I'm hoping right now is that the money frozen will able to disperse on its true investors very soon. I really felt bad because this incident may cause stigma on all Ugandans or even to whole Africa who are only just starting to embrace cryptocurrency. There's a tendency that majority of them get scared and now refuse to engage with it. Nonetheless, all I hope is that it won't serve as a hindrance for the crypto adoption there (I hope I'm just overthinking).

The image will surely take a bad impression especially with countries where adoptions is not that much people around will remember this things and will keep chasing inside their minds that investing or using Bitcoin can lead them to lose money. Good job for the policeman who able to chase those illegal doers and punished them with all the proper laws that runs under their jurisdiction.

Those scammers and hackers around the market should be punished because they tarnished the whole cryptocurrency market. There are people who are afraid to make investment or to adapt the cryptocurrencies because they are afraid that they may get scam. There is a misconception that been created because of the scammers where the people in my community if they heard the term bitcoin the first thing in their mind is a scam. Those policeman who arrest the leader of the scammers did a very good job and maybe they will arrest also many more scammers.

this is great now AFRICAN continent is making its way to clean the crypto community in their area.this is good initiative as scammers are all over crypto market and if the authority dont make necessary actions then investors might end up leaving and find another place for safety investing.