Crypto scam: A retired correction officer charged as defrauded $600,000

[Cryptocrit]

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGPJ8NeCfYi063IDNkZ8fzIFVAJIBgxKHb_2Kd9b7Rs1WDQMYcsn1wTHP0wQoeSiXJ8NOIl5YLxOxgQLlhtnfOi0_r921SM4h38wAqBnIeTLk99ZAgMr_SDe8uyx3-go3rS7ija8Olu8zsdJj48fLdO2b9U4H_O-0U_dpDxY_8pUNZxgAIC7kQ34CqZ_iq/w638-h640/Screenshot_3.jpg

Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said a former corrections officer was arrested Wednesday for running a cryptocurrency scam that defrauded first responders of more than $600,000, US

John DeSalvo, 47, of Upper Township is also accused of soliciting up to $100,000 from members of an online investment group in the same scam. In both cases, he cut most of the money he would have spent on unrelated expenses, officials said.

He was charged with two counts each of wire fraud, bank fraud and embezzlement and is scheduled to appear in federal court in Newark on Wednesday afternoon.

DeSalvo was accused of creating the Blazar Token in 2021 and marketing it to first responders on social media, promising them it would supplement their retirement plans. It told potential investors that they were getting a return of more than 20% with zero risk and misled them with several false statements, including saying that the coin was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well. and it will be available for purchase in the main. stock exchange. authorities said.

https://www.cryptocrit.xyz/2023/08/crypto-scam-retired-correction-officer.html

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[hugeblack]

Aren't promises such as a return of more than 20% without any risks sufficient to sound the alarm, since the person or project that makes such promises to you is a scam? I do not know, but any return that seems too good to be true is scam, or any return higher than medium-risk investments in your country is considered good promises to be true, because the most honest of these projects will venture money into high-risk investments. If you win, they will give you the return, otherwise you will steal that money.

I hope this scammer gets caught and jailed for a long time.

[rhomelmabini]

Saying 20% return and it is approved by the SEC should be the hint by these investors and likely no one has ever research if it's true. Maybe his former position in the government makes him credible of the claims of his investment scheme considering most of his clients are government officials as well.

[nelson4lov]

Anything that sounds too good to be true is probably not true. 20% "guaranteed" profit with zero risks was too good to be true. I keep wondering how people easily line up to donate their money to whoever is soliciting for them to do so as investment without verifying if the business or organization is legit and whether or not they have a business model that actually works and generate income where the supposed profits are to be gotten from.

If there's no business and nothing going on to generate revenue then its just a regular ponzi scheme since money don't grow from air. Sad thing is that if there's a new investment opportunity of this sort, people will still line up for it.

[babygun]

Saying 20% return and it is approved by the SEC should be the hint by these investors and likely no one has ever research if it's true. Maybe his former position in the government makes him credible of the claims of his investment scheme considering most of his clients are government officials as well.

While we would not fall for it, I am can see why (a lot) of peop’e would fall for it or have fallen for it. He has a credible background that gives trust and while 20% is high it is only not so unrealistic as promising 100% or more. Scams have and will always exist and we all need to be careful as it can happen to all of us. They become more and more professional and if you don’t pay close attention, you can and will get scammed.

[hugeblack]

Anything that sounds too good to be true is probably not true. 20% "guaranteed" profit with zero risks was too good to be true. I keep wondering how people easily line up to donate their money to whoever is soliciting for them to do so as investment without verifying if the business or organization is legit and whether or not they have a business model that actually works and generate income where the supposed profits are to be gotten from.

If there's no business and nothing going on to generate revenue then its just a regular ponzi scheme since money don't grow from air. Sad thing is that if there's a new investment opportunity of this sort, people will still line up for it.

This scam has continued and continues for years in a way that makes me doubt that these investors get this money for free. Many people close their minds when they find that a friend, a YouTuber, or a famous personality has invested in a certain currency. They consider that others are smart and have researched and that their investment is successful, so they understand They tire them out but in fact it's all a Ponzi scheme.
You will succeed in identifying 90% of fraudulent projects if you stop for a quarter of an hour and search for the project without greed.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Aren't promises such as a return of more than 20% without any risks sufficient to sound the alarm, since the person or project that makes such promises to you is a scam? I do not know, but any return that seems too good to be true is scam, or any return higher than medium-risk investments in your country is considered good promises to be true, because the most honest of these projects will venture money into high-risk investments. If you win, they will give you the return, otherwise you will steal that money.

I hope this scammer gets caught and jailed for a long time.

Yes, that is the first sign that it is a too good to be true offer. But the thing is that maybe he uses his position to influence investors on his projects or whatever involvement he has with this coin or token.

And so, being corrections officer, it could have added some reputation and trust by the investors and then who wouldn't want 20%. But I guess for us, who have seen the dark side of crypto investments and token and other scammers, we are not going to fall for it.

[dimonstration]

It told potential investors that they were getting a return of more than 20% with zero risk and misled them with several false statements, including saying that the coin was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well.

20% profit with zero risk while SEC has an approval for this kind of investment? Who’s in the right mind who will believe on this false promise no matter what this guy background. SEC will not approve this kind of business proposal since even Bitcoin ETF having a hard time be approve just because of its risk involved due to volatility yet this guy manage to get SEC approval on a scammy project goal?

[Coyster]

And so, being corrections officer, it could have added some reputation and trust by the investors and then who wouldn't want 20%.

Fair enough, but still not an excuse. Don't trust; but verify! That is very important for everyone to know, whether it is crypto investment or not, so long as you are putting your money into something, always verify the details of it all and not just blindly trust whatsoever you are told.

Having said that, the no risk offer was enough to get to gullible investors, it is really sad that everyday people lose money to schemes such as this, even when there are enough red flags, i think greed also has a part to play in alluring the victims.

[Xal0lex]

Nothing changes in this world. It is enough to promise a high return on investment and tell that there is no risk, as investors' brains turn off and they carry their money into various fraudulent schemes, not even realizing that there is no investment without risk and increased returns are usually accompanied by a scam. How many such stories have already happened and how many more will happen in the future.

[kentrolla]

It's really sad state of affair as there are 1000s of such scammers who are easily getting away and though seasoned users will be aware of these 20% return, daily returns scam but still ammeters will not be able to identify it and decentralized nature of crypto makes it even more difficult to track these cyber criminals. We should ensure not to fall trap for anything which offers daily/weekly/monthly returns as there is no easy way to earn and should consider trading and staking on top exchanges as the only option of earning some profits.

High returns ponzi schemes should be avoided altogether.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

And so, being corrections officer, it could have added some reputation and trust by the investors and then who wouldn't want 20%.

Fair enough, but still not an excuse. Don't trust; but verify! That is very important for everyone to know, whether it is crypto investment or not, so long as you are putting your money into something, always verify the details of it all and not just blindly trust whatsoever you are told.

Yes, but the problem here might lie on the investors themselves, if this is crypto investors, then for sure we are going to call that 20% returns as exorbitant and could be the first sign of scams.

Having said that, the no risk offer was enough to get to gullible investors, it is really sad that everyday people lose money to schemes such as this, even when there are enough red flags, i think greed also has a part to play in alluring the victims.

Good point, as I have said, who doesn't want to get 20% ROI. But this is the trap that is being set by this criminals. The good thing in this case is that he is caught and possible face jail time, not sure though how the investors will get their money back.

[LogitechMouse]

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It told potential investors that they were getting a return of more than 20% with zero risk and misled them with several false statements, including saying that the coin was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well. and it will be available for purchase in the main. stock exchange. authorities said.

20% return? Reminded me of Terra Luna's staking where they are giving 20% as well.
Zero Risk? All of the investments have risks. Even the ones who are being considered "one of the safest" investments still have risks.

I feel very disappointed for these investors because they fell for the fact that they've said that the coin has been approved by SEC because they will not fall into this kind of scam attempt if they just spend a few minutes of their time making some research. I mean with the 2 things that I said above is enough already that the investment is a scam. Who in the hell will give 20% return to it's investors, and take note that it has 0 risk. That phrase is the most absurd phrase that I've ever heard when it comes to investing. 0 RISK? Funny, but hey... it works because many fell for it.

Overall, I always believe that investors will not learn if they will not experience it, so sometimes, seeing them being scammed for the first time is a good thing because they know it already thus, they know what they need to do in the future. Getting scammed once is still ok, but getting scammed twice then you have a problem already.

[yazher]

This is clearly a Ponzi Scheme but when you don't have any idea of what is it all about then you will just get blinded by the good-to-be-true offers especially when bitcoins season is going on and when its price is currently at its peak, the news will often publish positive feedback with it and the results are taken advantage by such scammers using the opportunity to fool the others. This is why we need to be careful when it comes to some kinds of offers such as this one because we never know that we are just being lured and when we take their bait that's the start of our loss in our investment. It's always important to shield yourself with enough knowledge before making any investment when it comes to the crypto industry.

[woez]

The same film with a different new cassette. yes. That's how they work and they (Fake developers) and they are not alone in carrying out their actions and it becomes a bitter pill to swallow for investors who believe too much in the sweet promises of the project and this feels strange if we read it because I think they also have a previous investment portfolio and already understand the twists and turns of the journey.

[o48o]

Saying 20% return and it is approved by the SEC should be the hint by these investors and likely no one has ever research if it's true. Maybe his former position in the government makes him credible of the claims of his investment scheme considering most of his clients are government officials as well.

Yep, first thing i noticed. A direct contradiction on how SEC operates which instantly reveals this being an obvious lie.
What baffles me is that these scammers aren't even smart and yet they are scamming $600k. Imagine how ignorant those investors have to be to fall for this.

Someone could say that it's their fault putting their money in but i don't see it like that. There are ton of old, not tech savvy old people who are just happy to talk someone and being part of something.
Which is the reason we have laws for protecting ignorant people. You don't even need crypto for these scams, all it needs is a promise of roi. Just like Onecoin scam.

[AakZaki]

It's really sad state of affair as there are 1000s of such scammers who are easily getting away and though seasoned users will be aware of these 20% return, daily returns scam but still ammeters will not be able to identify it and decentralized nature of crypto makes it even more difficult to track these cyber criminals. We should ensure not to fall trap for anything which offers daily/weekly/monthly returns as there is no easy way to earn and should consider trading and staking on top exchanges as the only option of earning some profits.

High returns ponzi schemes should be avoided altogether.

Fraud that occurs in crypto can actually be tracked and all transactions are recorded on Blockchain, the fraudster's tracks will not disappear. this only depends on how the government regulations to carry out an investigation if the victim requests it because many have been harmed. Even though there are several Mixer platforms that will censor transactions, the government still has the authority to open the mixer platform's servers to find out where the money is going.
We really have to be wary of all offers that provide lots of unreasonable profits, many fraudsters lurk and build projects with ponzi schemes, that needs to be watched out for.