1.2k crypto scams have affected Australian investors in 2017

[Ubay82]

"News quote"

Local news media outlet ABC reports data it obtained from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) reveals 1289 complaints, some of which appear to relate to token offerings.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-scams-have-affected-over-12k-australian-investors-in-2017

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[eddie13]

Not surprising at all..
Scams left, right, and center in crypto..
Facebook is a scam cesspool..
Cloud mining advertisements all over, on youtube and such...
Scams, scams, scams..

Trust nothing!!

[francis2]

"News quote"

Local news media outlet ABC reports data it obtained from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) reveals 1289 complaints, some of which appear to relate to token offerings.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-scams-have-affected-over-12k-australian-investors-in-2017

And this is only the beginning we are going to see a lot more of this in the future since people are not able to distinguish a real investment offer and a scam they only look at the possible profits they can make and the scammers are always going to promise more profits since they have no intention of paying.

[avikz]

It's was pretty much expected. Until ICOs are not regularized and properly monitored by the local regulatory authority, this number will keep increasing. More than 70% of the ICO offerings are scam and never came back with the promised business. It needs to be properly regulated otherwise the ICO market will become very similar to the HYIP market.

I believe, Swiss government very recently provided a framework for the ICO business in their county. While it's not very extensive, it at least gives us a starting point. So ICOs originating from Swiss, will now have a better degree of security. All other countries should act now before it becomes totally crap.

[rehydrogenated]

Crypto, especially altcoins, are the wild wild west. People are investing in them without realizing that most of them promise nothing of value to begin with. I think a lot of people confuse tokens for actual stock in a company. If all the token is used for is to facilitate transactions on a website, it is basically a blockchain giftcard. Nevertheless, people put money into them like they are going to be rich owning a bunch of the company or something. If you want to buy discount giftcards from a brand new business that has never made any revenue, i guess that is your problem, but people need to realize what they are getting into.

[kaya11]

It's was pretty much expected. Until ICOs are not regularized and properly monitored by the local regulatory authority, this number will keep increasing. More than 70% of the ICO offerings are scam and never came back with the promised business. It needs to be properly regulated otherwise the ICO market will become very similar to the HYIP market.

That's is why security tokens will be in demand I think in this year and more KYC procedures to be maintained. In which both parties are monitored, I hope that could lessen scams even though a little bit. We need to be vigilant and must know who are the guys on the team and track their identities, just be sure they won't make such bad moves.

[Fayamba]

There should be an establish body that regulates ICOs in every country that accepts cryptocurrency before they are confirm for people to start investing, i think this will be a good move in stopping most scam projects.

[Mometaskers]

It's was pretty much expected. Until ICOs are not regularized and properly monitored by the local regulatory authority, this number will keep increasing. More than 70% of the ICO offerings are scam and never came back with the promised business. It needs to be properly regulated otherwise the ICO market will become very similar to the HYIP market.

I believe, Swiss government very recently provided a framework for the ICO business in their county. While it's not very extensive, it at least gives us a starting point. So ICOs originating Swiss, will now have a better degree of security. All other countries should act now before it becomes totally crap.

The sad part is that it's showing the crypto industry in a bad light and is just confirming in people's minds what the media is saying about cryptos (many people can't even distinguish between btc and alts). Some degree of regulation is really necessary to prevent people from getting ripped.

[Bervelukan]

Maybe they do not study and monitor the token that you want to make investing first, and make an investment as long as originally.

[glaciercapital]

It's was pretty much expected. Until ICOs are not regularized and properly monitored by the local regulatory authority, this number will keep increasing. More than 70% of the ICO offerings are scam and never came back with the promised business. It needs to be properly regulated otherwise the ICO market will become very similar to the HYIP market.

I believe, Swiss government very recently provided a framework for the ICO business in their county. While it's not very extensive, it at least gives us a starting point. So ICOs originating Swiss, will now have a better degree of security. All other countries should act now before it becomes totally crap.

The sad part is that it's showing the crypto industry in a bad light and is just confirming in people's minds what the media is saying about cryptos (many people can't even distinguish between btc and alts). Some degree of regulation is really necessary to prevent people from getting ripped.

Yes there are scams everywhere in the crypto space right now. Unfortunately I believe many of the people running these scams appear to not even understand that they are running scams, they are just focused on trying to get themselves rich

[pooya87]

how is this news and why is it news "now"!
the ICOs have been scamming people for a very long time now and before ethereum made this scam easy, they were creating new coins and were scamming people that way. the amount grown in the past year due to the growth that bitcoin brought to the whole market but the scams in the altcoin market are as old as the market itself.

[Mometaskers]

It's was pretty much expected. Until ICOs are not regularized and properly monitored by the local regulatory authority, this number will keep increasing. More than 70% of the ICO offerings are scam and never came back with the promised business. It needs to be properly regulated otherwise the ICO market will become very similar to the HYIP market.

I believe, Swiss government very recently provided a framework for the ICO business in their county. While it's not very extensive, it at least gives us a starting point. So ICOs originating Swiss, will now have a better degree of security. All other countries should act now before it becomes totally crap.

The sad part is that it's showing the crypto industry in a bad light and is just confirming in people's minds what the media is saying about cryptos (many people can't even distinguish between btc and alts). Some degree of regulation is really necessary to prevent people from getting ripped.

Yes there are scams everywhere in the crypto space right now. Unfortunately I believe many of the people running these scams appear to not even understand that they are running scams, they are just focused on trying to get themselves rich

I don't think so. How could you not know that you are running a scam when you run off with other people's money? There's definitely a malicious intent by the "founder". If it's a Ponzi-style scheme like what I keep seeing on Facebook, then yes, some of the "inviters" may be clueless but who ever started it definitely intend to rip off people.