Cryptocurrency Scammers Are Making Fortunes By Ripping Off 'Greedy' Investors

[royalcrypt]

LONDON — Investors have lost $670 million of cryptocurrencies in hacks and scams over the last three months, according to data shared with Business Insider.

Crypto Aware, which gives investment advice for crypto, compiled data on all the major hacks and scams in the space between June 2011 and March 2018.

The data shows that over $1.7 billion-worth of cryptocurrency was stolen over the period, with $670 million lost in the first three months of 2018 alone. It means that 40% of all cryptocurrency theft by value has occurred in just the last three months.

Notable losses since the start of the year include the $400 million hack of Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck in January and a $170 million hack of cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail in February.

Anna Wu, the founder of Crypto Aware, told Business Insider: "Cryptocurrency is receiving more and more validation as a means of value transfer, with top coins reaching historically high prices toward the end of last year. This attracted a lot of new, unseasoned investors who are not well versed in terms of online security and who are identified as easy targets by scammers."

The total size of the cryptocurrency market rose from around $27 billion in April 2017 to close to $270 billion as of Tuesday. The market exploded thanks to the rise of bitcoin against the dollar and the new trend of "initial coin offerings" (ICOs), where startups issue their own digital coins to fund their businesses. Startups raised $5.6 billion through ICOs in 2017.

Wu said: "Cryptocurrency frauds, scams, and hacks tend to rise every time there is considerable upward momentum in pricing for cryptocurrency market, so be extra cautious when the market is bullish."

Crypto Aware's figures highlight the risks associated with the volatile and unregulated market. Many investors store their crypto centrally on exchanges and these large holdings make them an attractive target for hackers.

Scammers have also fraudulently raised millions from unknowing investors, such as Chinese Ponzi scheme "Asian-European Currency" which was shut down by police in early 2017.

Wu told BI that investors shouldn't invest more than they can afford to lose and should inspect URLs closely.

"Phishing scams are by far the most popular type of scams and you can easily avoid them by checking the website address against the officially published URLs character by character," she said.

Wu added: "If it seems too good to be true - it is. Investment scams often try to entice gullible investors with unrealistic returns. Don't be greedy."

https://onecryptocoinnews.blogspot.in/2018/04/cryptocurrency-scammers-are-making.html

Original source: https://read.bi/2GGx1LH

[BrentMack]

Greed is what is often targeted by the scammers. Take bitconnect for example, it was an obvious ponzi scheme but people still fell for it because they believed that they would make millions in such a little time. If you don't want to get scammed, don't be greedy.

[stompix]

LONDON — Investors have lost $670 million of cryptocurrencies in hacks and scams over the last three months, according to data shared with Business Insider.

Only 670$ millions this year?
I thought that only the damage from Bitconnect and the top ICOs that went missing would topple that.

And there are the news from Vietnam with two huge scams, Philippine with a few tens of millions...

I guess we're pretty lucky greedy people are not that wealthy or we could count money lost in the scams in tens of billions.

The downside is that now scammers have enough money to star far more elaborate ICOs that would attract more people.
With a few millions you could buy enough advertising to fool an entire country.

[Btcwashu]

LONDON — Investors have lost $670 million of cryptocurrencies in hacks and scams over the last three months, according to data shared with Business Insider.

Only 670$ millions this year?
I thought that only the damage from Bitconnect and the top ICOs that went missing would topple that.

And there are the news from Vietnam with two huge scams, Philippine with a few tens of millions...

I guess we're pretty lucky greedy people are not that wealthy or we could count money lost in the scams in tens of billions.

The downside is that now scammers have enough money to star far more elaborate ICOs that would attract more people.
With a few millions you could buy enough advertising to fool an entire country.

Greedy investors are the favorite of the scammers. Because that kind of investors are need an easy money in a short period of time. They fell that it was a risk but they really did not mind it. They only received or being feed of the wrong information coming from the scammers and that's why they are easy to get scammed.

[merchantofzeny]

Well if it was a hacking incident, I wouldn't call the investors greedy. After all if they have their money in a legit project or exchange and that got hacked, you can't say that they were asking for it. Think of depositors in a bank that went under.

The scams though, they are partly at fault. This for example is a typical get-rich-quickly scheme that should have raised red flags for any sane person.

http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/04/10/bitcoin-scam-pnp.html

My country is no stranger to huge Ponzis exploding every 5 years or so you kinda wonder why they never learn.

The downside is that now scammers have enough money to star far more elaborate ICOs that would attract more people.
With a few millions you could buy enough advertising to fool an entire country.

Yes, get gullible people as your front, get celeb endorsers and then disappear without a trace.

[Slugmonkey]

This is really bad for the aim bitcoin has for itself of being universally accepted. And undermines other cryptos reputation as well. This is the reason there is so much need for regulation in this space. The reason bitcoin is not at say 30k is because people get scammed and lose their faith in cryptos. Bitcoin has yet to survive many decades of crisis to be extremely trusted like say gold or notes but this inside hollow maneuvers are just a hindrance.

[Kingofbitcoin12345]

If we look at that figures that is even small than the reality of fiat investment scammed and corruption happening in our world every year.. What I mean is our greediness as a people who thirst money is beyond what currency we have either bitcoin,, fiat or even metals like gold and silvers.. Can we stop it?? Yes by living in the forest with no electricity,, no internet and isolated..

It is our individuality that decide our fate,, do what is right and be secured..

[godzillarekt007]

Are we really surprised by this? I just learned about the biggest scam in crypto history today and it was off the amount you mention by itself. Clearly it was a ponzi scheme because they offered guaranteed returns but honestly I don't feel bad for those who get fleeced. When a project asks you for money or guarantees you income some red flags should go off. If not, hopefully you can learn after getting scammed once.

https://decentralpost.com/2018/04/12/biggest-ico-exit-scam-to-date-in-vietnam-660-million-raised-and-disappeared/

[stompix]

Are we really surprised by this? I just learned about the biggest scam in crypto history today and it was off the amount you mention by itself. Clearly it was a ponzi scheme because they offered guaranteed returns but honestly I don't feel bad for those who get fleeced. When a project asks you for money or guarantees you income some red flags should go off. If not, hopefully you can learn after getting scammed once.

https://decentralpost.com/2018/04/12/biggest-ico-exit-scam-to-date-in-vietnam-660-million-raised-and-disappeared/

Oh, wait a minute!!!

They did manage to raise 660 millions?
In one newspaper I read that the 660 millions was their target not how much they managed to get!!

All that I can say it's ...WOW!!!

I've checked the forum and it does seem they have run a couple of bounty + signature campaigns.
180 pages of promoting a scam

How did they take the money, via ETH only?
32 000 people investing in Vietnam alone seems to much, did they accept any other kind of payments?

If we look at that figures that is even small than the reality of fiat investment scammed and corruption happening in our world every year.. What I mean is our greediness as a people who thirst money is beyond what currency we have,, either bitcoin,, fiat or even metals like gold and silvers.. Can we stop it?? Yes by living in the forest with no electricity,, no internet and isolated..

It is our individuality that decide our fate,, do what is right and be secured..

Compare those numbers to the numbers of people that use fiat to have a true sight of the deal.
The largest ponzi scheme ever was at around 65 billions, if we compare with Bitconnect is 30:1 and with this Vietnamese scam 100:1.
But cryptos never come close to the derivatives market for example, and their 1.2 quadriloin.

[Notcalculator]

This is why crypto related ads are getting banned left and right. It's just easier to ban them all. Also You really cant blame those "greedy" investors. Investors have to be opportunistic and because the technology is new, they probably dont fully understand it.

If we look at that figures that is even small than the reality of fiat investment scammed and corruption happening in our world every year.. What I mean is our greediness as a people who thirst money is beyond what currency we have either bitcoin,, fiat or even metals like gold and silvers.. Can we stop it?? Yes by living in the forest with no electricity,, no internet and isolated..

It is our individuality that decide our fate,, do what is right and be secured..

This is true too. You cant blame fiat the same way you cant blame cryptos for scams.

[dothebeats]

Most of the time, those who got burned are those ones who are too lazy to do proper research in investing whereas those who did their homeworks don't tend to get victimized by these amateur schemes. The stats are just a fine example on how gullible people can be if they were presented with sparkling words that promises fortunes they never had before in an instant. Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency don't offer that; those who managed to get rich due to their investments on cryptocurrency was around when no one else was paying attention. They think they can replicate the success these pioneers made by joining into a new ICO/investment scheme and thinking they have outsmarted others, but little do they know that they're just being lured into the hands of scammers who've been doing this for so long.

[harizen]

Im really pissed off to this opportunistic scammers but in the first place why people easily believes in those easy money earning techniques. They are easily blinded by the promises so in general, the victims here are also liable why they are being scammed.

Recently here in our country, there are lots of people got fooled by crypto investment scheme (the scammers are now in jail). I look at the proposed terms and plans and all I can say is !@#$%. Double the money within a short time frame, wtf! Majority of those people who invest doesn't even know what bitcoin is so how the hell they just throw away their money easily in these kind of scheme. Because of that incident, another misleading title of headline about crypto was being shown by the media resulting in increase of negative views about bitcoin especially for those newcomers who are lazy to do research.

It is our individuality that decide our fate,, do what is right and be secured..

Sometimes what they think is "right" is actually a foolish thing to do in reality. Some people really have to experienced worst before changing their mindset.

[European Central Bank]

where does the 'greedy' part come in when you're the innocent victim of an exchange's security incompetence?

as for the victims of ponzis, i don't have any sympathy. there've been so many and the red flags are so damn red then it's pure mindless greed that drives people into ignoring any good sense.

[bettercrypto]

Greed is what is often targeted by the scammers. Take bitconnect for example, it was an obvious ponzi scheme but people still fell for it because they believed that they would make millions in such a little time. If you don't want to get scammed, don't be greedy.

I think it is not only the greediness of the people that pushed them to invest in scam, sometimes we can consider the needs, faith, trust and ignorance.
1. Needs- we invest for our future needs, we secure ourselves in terms of disaster and emergency.
2. Faith- we have faith in product or investment.  We are easily attach to the benefits that will bring to us by HYIP.
3. Trust- we always give our trust if we find something better with investment. Legal papers can easily blind other perspectives of the people.
4. Ignorance - if you are not ignorant, you will never lend your hand in scam.

There are always factor behind our failure but we need to rise up again for our future. Greed is always seen by the potential scammer to the investor. If you are greed, you will not let your dreams fly high.

[aso118]

where does the 'greedy' part come in when you're the innocent victim of an exchange's security incompetence?

as for the victims of ponzis, i don't have any sympathy. there've been so many and the red flags are so damn red then it's pure mindless greed that drives people into ignoring any good sense.

True. It is unfair for people to combine the losses from cryptocurrency frauds, scams, and hacks. People who invest in ponzi schemes and fraudulent ICOs have only themselves to blame. People who fall prey to phishing scheme can be blamed for being naive and not technically sophisticated, but not greed. When exchanges go bust, people can only be blamed for being lazy (and not transferring bitcoins to their own wallets).

[npredtorch]

There's an addition to that sum for an almost $19M.
Anyone have heard of the now popular NewG scam in the Philippines?

It's quite pathetic to think that most of the victims are people who doesn't even have a clue on cryptocurrency.
Yeah, most of them have zero knowledge on crypto. If you'll ask them, all they can say is "bitcoin, a money on the internet".  They've got sweet-talked like hell with endless promises.

[Slow death]

Greed is what is often targeted by the scammers. Take bitconnect for example, it was an obvious ponzi scheme but people still fell for it because they believed that they would make millions in such a little time. If you don't want to get scammed, don't be greedy.

Who does not want to have easy profits? imagine that someone tells you that you will have a profit of 300% per month, wow people are already falling in this blow and do not even investigate who the people behind this project and how it is possible that these people behind this project can offer 300 % of profit per month. just think why the hell would that person need other people's money, but few people think about it.

That's why you're correct. Greed  makes people not see the obvious

Notable losses since the start of the year include the $400 million hack of Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck in January and a $170 million hack of cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail in February.

this is the exchange's fault

[Baofeng]

That's pure greed here. Scammers are taking advantage of this and those unsuspecting victims really thinks that they can get easy money that's why scammers are really targeting them. I'm sure that no amount of advise if people are swayed by this 'sweet talkers" saying this and that, blah blah blah. As if people are hypnotized with $$$$ in their eyes. lol.

Just in the Philippines alone, millions worth of money has been taken away by the scammers but if you look at those suspects, no can't imagine how they pull it off. They easily convince them to put millions into it without really understand what crypto is and what risk it has.

[0t3p0t]

There's an addition to that sum for an almost $19M.
Anyone have heard of the now popular NewG scam in the Philippines?

It's quite pathetic to think that most of the victims are people who doesn't even have a clue on cryptocurrency.
Yeah, most of them have zero knowledge on crypto. If you'll ask them, all they can say is "bitcoin, a money on the internet".  They've got sweet-talked like hell with endless promises.

Yeah I agree. No doubt they got fooled by these kind of scammers. These innocent people should learn, make their own due diligence or even asks to those who have knowledge already about cryptocurrency investments or educate themselves on how to play the market for them to understand how cryptocurrency works. That is why I myself teaches everyone here in my local community about crypto but seems only few are interested. Convincing these people is really hard but I will try my very best to educate them so that they will be aware of possible scam if ever there will be something this kind of modus operandi.

[Pattberry]

The market is not regulated and so expect more con artist to come over and take advantage of the situation, it is not a big secret to identify legitimate project from a scam one, the only thing you need to do before investment is to learn about the project and how competent the team is and are they transparent and clarify your doubts, if so you could avoid them.