Crypto thefts, fraud hit $1.2 billion in Q1 report

[Vishnu.Reang]

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

The first part of your post was OK. But the second part shows your complete ignorance towards the basics of cryptocurrency. How KYC is going to prevent the exchange hacks? Most of the exchanges which were targeted by the hackers were KYC compliant. Cryptopia is a perfect example. On the other hand, BTC-e / Wex.nz which went without any mandatory KYC requirement survived for more than 7 years, before closing down due to unknown reasons.

[Xeaonapi]

the part of what are you saying is true i give you my vote 

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. 

[alexcopper]

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

The first part of your post was OK. But the second part shows your complete ignorance towards the basics of cryptocurrency. How KYC is going to prevent the exchange hacks? Most of the exchanges which were targeted by the hackers were KYC compliant. Cryptopia is a perfect example. On the other hand, BTC-e / Wex.nz which went without any mandatory KYC requirement survived for more than 7 years, before closing down due to unknown reasons.

What are your thoughts on having both KYC and AML complinace for exchanges?

[darylalban]

A whooping $1.2B this is indeed massive and portrays the image of cryptos in a bad light despite all regulations, KYCs, AMLs etc I wonder how those stealings aka hacking was successfully carried out without any trace and arrest. I think its high time this problem is nip in the bud else cryptos investors, adopters, hodlers and traders will lose confidence in it. More so cryptos stakeholders should devise  a better way or method of securing cryptos permanently to avoid all these embarrassing stories of hackings and theft.

I think that is my biggest fear is that this issue is going to excede beyond the random hacks. I really do not want to see people losing hope in a technology that has been so good to the world. We are all in this together, learning together losing together and ultimately building together. If we have the proper security teams working on this then both front and back end to protect the overarching community then I think we are on the right track .

[Apes]

I doubt the news. because the hottest issue lately is the binance hack, after that there is no news or info about other frauds especially with a great number. this community should know better know than Reuters news agency if there is a sensitive issue. everyone is very careful in storing their digital assets and the exchange places double the security, even if there a frud the value not big as that. so I really doubt it.

[Nasonn]

It's scary how hackers have taken advantage of the anonymous nature of crypto to steal huge amount of crypto and walk free, since they leave no identity behind and the funds cannot be reversed back on the blockchain.

[automaticmoney]

One of the big flaw crypto currency is hacking because of hacking most of the wallets are suffering security issue even some got closed the only way to protect from hacking is hardware wallets

[bitbunnny]

I doubt the news. because the hottest issue lately is the binance hack, after that there is no news or info about other frauds especially with a great number. this community should know better know than Reuters news agency if there is a sensitive issue. everyone is very careful in storing their digital assets and the exchange places double the security, even if there a frud the value not big as that. so I really doubt it.

We have to know that not only big exchanges are vulnerable to hacking but private wallets of users too. And that you will not be reading in news.
Crypto users should be more aware of danger and more protect their coins but the community is still not enough aware of that.
Criminals were always interested for every source of money and crypto is very attractive to them so I think that all kinds of frauds and hacking attacks will rise and the damage will grow.

[killat]

For some reason Paypal is better for business, because they keep it fair. You can ask for a refund if you got scammed. With crypto, you can't.

So, it can't be better than any form of traditional payment solution to be frank (unless what you are doing is against the terms of the particular payment processor).

[Ryan Dugan]

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

Because you a newb and don't know what you are talking about. Do you think if there are laws that are somehow going to make crime magically go away? How does asking customers for KYC stop fraud?
This article is biased and I don't even know how true this all is. But sure believe what you read online.

For some reason Paypal is better for business, because they keep it fair. You can ask for a refund if you got scammed. With crypto, you can't.

So, it can't be better than any form of traditional payment solution to be frank (unless what you are doing is against the terms of the particular payment processor).

Yes because paying 7% fee is awesome for your business right? Why would you want there to be refunded? So someone can do a chargeback on you?

[fortunecrypto]

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

Yeah I find this very alarming, and this is what those against Cryptocurrency adoption are pointing out and why some countries and companies do not want them, something drastic should be done against like a world body to regulate and strict compliance to KYC and AML but on second they are already very strict on this.

[rmilly]

I doubt the news. because the hottest issue lately is the binance hack, after that there is no news or info about other frauds especially with a great number. this community should know better know than Reuters news agency if there is a sensitive issue. everyone is very careful in storing their digital assets and the exchange places double the security, even if there a frud the value not big as that. so I really doubt it.

We have to know that not only big exchanges are vulnerable to hacking but private wallets of users too. And that you will not be reading in news.
Crypto users should be more aware of danger and more protect their coins but the community is still not enough aware of that.
Criminals were always interested for every source of money and crypto is very attractive to them so I think that all kinds of frauds and hacking attacks will rise and the damage will grow.

This is very real though. Any sort of vulnerability and these guys will swoop. We definitely need not only better education to users but also having these cyber security firms in place to watch for any illegal actions it can be solved sooner than later.

[Upgate]

Day by day, people seems to defraud their fellow human beings. That's the world we live in. it's quite unfortunate we are experiencing it in cryptocurrency. That's why it's always advice to invest with spare  money cos nobody seems to be safe in digital world. don't be carried away enticing exchange online

[Vishnu.Reang]

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

The first part of your post was OK. But the second part shows your complete ignorance towards the basics of cryptocurrency. How KYC is going to prevent the exchange hacks? Most of the exchanges which were targeted by the hackers were KYC compliant. Cryptopia is a perfect example. On the other hand, BTC-e / Wex.nz which went without any mandatory KYC requirement survived for more than 7 years, before closing down due to unknown reasons.

What are your thoughts on having both KYC and AML complinace for exchanges?

I don't have any issued in undergoing the KYC formalities, as long as the exchange owners do proper audits on a continuous basis. KYC should not be used as a tool to harass the users, because I have seen it being used to deny withdrawal permissions. In case KYC is mandatory, then it should be compulsory at the time of registration. They should not suddenly ask for KYC, when someone is withdrawing his coins.

[Cling18]

That's a lot of money. One of the reasons why some people are afraid to take the risk of investing in crypto is because of the huge number of fraud and scams scattered around the blockchain world. It's something that we have to get rid of. This number is alarming and we can't do something about it by being careful and smart in handling our funds.

[joshy23]

That's a lot of money. One of the reasons why some people are afraid to take the risk of investing in crypto is because of the huge number of fraud and scams scattered around the blockchain world. It's something that we have to get rid of. This number is alarming and we can't do something about it by being careful and smart in handling our funds.

The only way to prevent this is to always be careful dealing with anything inside this market, you can't escape the fact that scammers and hackers are coexisting inside this industry so better to be always prepared and aware with what possible precautions to take.

[uray]

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

In that contest it true that it is not a big thing, but lets see what blockchain is all about, every transaction is recorded and it is not like the rest of the financial transactions, every transactions can be traced and we could eliminate every fraud in the market and bitcoin could be a market that bad actors would not dare to try and we will reach those position in the future and i hope every fraud being done with blockchain will be traced back in the future and they will get punished for their actions.

[JohnsonX]

I guess most of the thefts involve exchanges, wouldn't keep money in them except for funds that will be immediately traded.

[shoreno]

I guess most of the thefts involve exchanges, wouldn't keep money in them except for funds that will be immediately traded.

ive witnessed alot of scams and when i check the scammers wallet i dont see any activity for a long period of time  . i think they intended to do it and this is part of their strategy so that the public will leave them overtime  . once the scammers gets a rest , thats the time that  they will move the funds on another dummy wallet or they will use some kind of a mixing service so that they wont leave any trace  .

1billion worth of cryptos for q1 is indeed pretty huge a but i am sure that this amount will got even more bigger after we progress  .

[denzkilim]

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.

That's correct, the number might be higher than the numbers reported. This hacking, stealing and any kinds of theft is a big problem in the Crypto Currency space and anyone can be a target even the top to crypto exchanges are a victim of these hacking that's why everyone should be more vigilant at times like this and anyone of us is a potential target of hackers.