Crypto thefts, fraud hit $1.2 billion in Q1 report

[akeegan]

Can you believe that losses from the theft of crypto from exchanges due to fraud hit $1.2B?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currency-fraud/cryptocurrency-thefts-fraud-hit-1-2-billion-in-first-quarter-report-idUSKCN1S62P3

I still can't wrap my mind around why people wouldn't want to have compliance with AML and KYC to better help that this doesn't happen

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[XinXan]

Don't think that normal businesses have no fraud, they also steal hundreds of millions, banks do it, businesses of all types do it, investment businesses do it. Just because the headlines are like that for crypto it doesn't mean it only happens here. There is MASSIVE fraud out there not involving crypto, billions and billions of dollars, if we knew the real figure it would make the 1.2b seem like dust.

[dothebeats]

I think it's way more than that to be honest, as there had been some thefts that are not publicized or are not being made public e.g. personal wallets, unknown exchanges/services etc. One cannot easily contain thefts as long as there are insecure platforms and personal vaults, so I don't think it's that surprising to know that such things exist in the cryptosphere, though somewhat more prevalent and frequent compared to banks, I should say (or perhaps 'more publicized' is more fitting?) Anyway, expect that number to rise as long as there are exploits to capitalize on. Sure enough, there'd be loads of thefts to follow as bitcoin and crypto is also considered money and it's gaining traction again after a few years.

[figmentofmyass]

Can you believe that losses from the theft of crypto from exchanges due to fraud hit $1.2B?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currency-fraud/cryptocurrency-thefts-fraud-hit-1-2-billion-in-first-quarter-report-idUSKCN1S62P3

I still can't wrap my mind around why people wouldn't want to have compliance with AML and KYC to better help that this doesn't happen

let's give this some context. chargebacks and chargeback fraud alone costs e-commerce merchants $40 billion per year now.

so a rate of $5 billion/year doesn't seem that crazy for crypto theft and fraud. bitcoins cost more than $5k a pop---we're in the big leagues now.

[Leonardo7]

What we need is actually a high-class cryptocurrency exchange with the best possible security measures in place. Tokenpay team is said to be building an unhackable dex with their Efin coin. I hope to see truely unhackage exchnage, users too need to be careful with their details and not cheaply fall for a scam as we had with the scamming ethereum classic Vision that stole people private keys out of ignorance and lack of research.

[pooya87]

that is what happens when you combine decentralization with centralization while having no regulations in the centralized field! most of these cases are the exchanges scamming their users that easily and a lot of it is not even recorded.
what we need to do is to stick to decentralization and try to develop better decentralized exchanges, decentralized market place,... and eliminate the centralized point of failure that currently is causing all these thefts.

[Erickan]

Don't think that normal businesses have no fraud, they also steal hundreds of millions, banks do it, businesses of all types do it, investment businesses do it. Just because the headlines are like that for crypto it doesn't mean it only happens here. There is MASSIVE fraud out there not involving crypto, billions and billions of dollars, if we knew the real figure it would make the 1.2b seem like dust.

There are no professions and fields that do not exist fraud and scam. In comparison, traditional economic sectors such as finance, industry and services have a huge percentage of frauds compared to crypto. You think which currency is used to make the world's most money-laundering, inflation, and fraud tool. Yes it is fiat, namely USD, not something else. They are just exaggerating the news about crypto and turning it into a kind of money for criminals.

[Anonylz]

To be honest, am not surprise at this number because the rate at which you hear different tales of exchanges been hacked is quite alarming, i wonder why it's so - should i say easy to breach the securities of this exchanges, not to mention the countless scam project we have this days that have walked away with millions of investors funds,
Can't say regulations would be the ultimate solution because some of the more regulated sectors do faces such as well, but it will give a bit of control in the crypto space.

[Genemind]

I guess it's the right time for every exchange to add more restrictions and security. We can't question is there are lots of exchanges who are requiring Kyc. Everything online is hackable so we must submit and comply with the requirements to at least lessen the crime rate.

[Kakmakr]

Let's expose this bullshit! - "In the first quarter of 2019, theft of digital currencies from exchanges and scams totaled $356 million, while losses from fraud or misappropriated funds amounted to $851 million, the respected U.S.-based CipherTrace said in a quarterly report.

So what Reuters have done, is to add the supposed Bitfinex amount as misappropriated funds, which has not been proven and created a clickbait article with massive amounts of fraud and theft to put Bitcoin in a bad light. <The amount used in the Bitfinex/Tether witch-hunt is $850 Million>  

This is a US government and media concocted witch-hunt to scare people away from Crypto currencies. 

[Haunebu]

Let's expose this bullshit! - "In the first quarter of 2019, theft of digital currencies from exchanges and scams totaled $356 million, while losses from fraud or misappropriated funds amounted to $851 million, the respected U.S.-based CipherTrace said in a quarterly report.

So what Reuters have done, is to add the supposed Bitfinex amount as misappropriated funds, which has not been proven and created a clickbait article with massive amounts of fraud and theft to put Bitcoin in a bad light. <The amount used in the Bitfinex/Tether witch-hunt is $850 Million>  

This is a US government and media concocted witch-hunt to scare people away from Crypto currencies. 

Damn. This makes complete sense. The extent to which the media goes to grab attention by demeaning BTC is astounding. These guys continue to scare away more and more investors which is why the adoption rate is slowing down.

The good thing is that more and more people are realizing that majority of the stuff that media churns out are rumors and gossip and nothing more.

[Beerwizzard]

It seems like a couple points are still a bit questionable:
1. Almost all major exchanges are requiring to set any kind of 2fa as a part of their verification process. So how could someone steal their money?
2. If this $1.2B were stolen from unpopular exchanges then how we can be sure that this data they provided is legit? Maybe exchange administration stole user's money and claim that was a hack.

[carter34]

Not suppressing at the figure because I have witnessed some experience where I have recorded lost tokens and couldn't know what went wrong. I only let go because you can't get justice to that as far as I know.

[XinXan]

Don't think that normal businesses have no fraud, they also steal hundreds of millions, banks do it, businesses of all types do it, investment businesses do it. Just because the headlines are like that for crypto it doesn't mean it only happens here. There is MASSIVE fraud out there not involving crypto, billions and billions of dollars, if we knew the real figure it would make the 1.2b seem like dust.

There are no professions and fields that do not exist fraud and scam. In comparison, traditional economic sectors such as finance, industry and services have a huge percentage of frauds compared to crypto. You think which currency is used to make the world's most money-laundering, inflation, and fraud tool. Yes it is fiat, namely USD, not something else. They are just exaggerating the news about crypto and turning it into a kind of money for criminals.

There are individuals out there that have stolen more money alone than in the whole crypto space. Obviously criminals have existed and done this since forever, long before bitcoin existed, just like terrorists had enough funding long before any kind of cryptocurrency existed, these headlines are just clickbait, exaggeration to attract viewers.

[fndsr]

I am also concerned about the current situation, something that has value is definitely an easy target for thieves to seize other people's assets, let's all save our assets properly to be safer from theft

[nauane]

Don't think that normal businesses have no fraud, they also steal hundreds of millions, banks do it, businesses of all types do it, investment businesses do it. Just because the headlines are like that for crypto it doesn't mean it only happens here. There is MASSIVE fraud out there not involving crypto, billions and billions of dollars, if we knew the real figure it would make the 1.2b seem like dust.

There are no professions and fields that do not exist fraud and scam. In comparison, traditional economic sectors such as finance, industry and services have a huge percentage of frauds compared to crypto. You think which currency is used to make the world's most money-laundering, inflation, and fraud tool. Yes it is fiat, namely USD, not something else. They are just exaggerating the news about crypto and turning it into a kind of money for criminals.

There are individuals out there that have stolen more money alone than in the whole crypto space. Obviously criminals have existed and done this since forever, long before bitcoin existed, just like terrorists had enough funding long before any kind of cryptocurrency existed, these headlines are just clickbait, exaggeration to attract viewers.

Are the banks not robbed every day ? Do the thief not stole people belongings on the daily basis ? Sometimes i feel that the crypto fraud news are sent with the intention of bring the bitcoin price down, maybe for the benefit of the whale and for the panic seller of the retail investors  

[rmilly]

Let's expose this bullshit! - "In the first quarter of 2019, theft of digital currencies from exchanges and scams totaled $356 million, while losses from fraud or misappropriated funds amounted to $851 million, the respected U.S.-based CipherTrace said in a quarterly report.

So what Reuters have done, is to add the supposed Bitfinex amount as misappropriated funds, which has not been proven and created a clickbait article with massive amounts of fraud and theft to put Bitcoin in a bad light. <The amount used in the Bitfinex/Tether witch-hunt is $850 Million>  

This is a US government and media concocted witch-hunt to scare people away from Crypto currencies. 

Just had a look into the entire report released by ciphertrace. Do you still think that this is to scare people from crypto or just a means to better help compliance? https://ciphertrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ciphertrace-q1-2019-cryptocurrency-anti-money-laundering-report.pdf

[okala]

They have been widespread of financial fraud all over the world economy and even the banking sector and all other financial institutions are all facing this same problem of fraud if it not hacking into exchange it will be laundering of money from one country to another. And how are we sure that kyc will solve the problem of insecurity of crypto assets because the hacker can still hack any exchange even with full kyc process in place, all that we should work towards is for exchanges to upgrade they security softwares in other to prevent hack. $1.2 billion is huge.

[vycl87]

Crypto assets have been stolen for years. But it seems to me that this year, there was less interference than in previous years.

I think exchanges have to be more careful because of the investment amount is getting bigger day by day.

[Slow death]

Can you believe that losses from the theft of crypto from exchanges due to fraud hit $1.2B?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currency-fraud/cryptocurrency-thefts-fraud-hit-1-2-billion-in-first-quarter-report-idUSKCN1S62P3

I still can't wrap my mind around why people wouldn't want to have compliance with AML and KYC to better help that this doesn't happen

one of the things that makes me very angry and disappointed with this cases of hackers is that the thieves are never found and punished. different from real life where there are many chances of thieves being found and punished. We need laws, we need governments to inspect the exchanges. we need to have responsible exchanges and there is another question: how are the people who lost their funds in the exchanges will be compensated?