$87 Million Crypto Scam Exposed, Norway Charges Four Suspects

[K_vin]

Norwegian authorities have prosecuted four men in connection with a large-scale investment scam that allegedly defrauded investors of NOK 963 million ($86.5 million) between March 2015 and November 2018.

According to Økokrim, Norway’s economic crime agency, the operation worked by encouraging people to buy “product packages” containing digital assets. However, the only money flowing in came from new investors, making it a classic Ponzi scheme.

Prosecutors claim more than NOK 700 million ($62.7 million) was laundered through a Norwegian investment firm before being transferred to accounts in several Asian countries.

The four accused are Norwegian men in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. Three are suspected of collecting money from investors, while the fourth is accused of handling the laundering process.

Among the accused is Terje Hvidsten, a former art dealer with previous fraud convictions. Another suspect, Dag Hætta Eriksen, also has a criminal record related to fraud and corruption. The remaining two suspects include a 52-year-old from Romerike, who denies any wrongdoing, and a 70-year-old former lawyer accused of laundering funds.

The scheme operated under different names, including Crypto888 Club, Octa Partners, and Nano Club. Each rebranding introduced a new cryptocurrency—OctaCoin, NanoCoin, and Ormeus Coin.
 Please guys let's be careful, crypto scams are getting crazier by the day

 Read the full story here.
https://www.bitdegree.org/crypto/news/87-million-crypto-scam-exposed-norway-charges-four-suspects

[cr1776]

The best (and most logical) option is to just buy bitcoin and not store it on an exchange.  All but perhaps a handful of alt coins are scams or meme coins with no value or use.  And even those alts are too centralized and don't have the security of bitcoin. 

[luckyindia-silverbond]

Thanks K-vin for the Info & Post.  Scams of Crypto are plenty. It is really difficult to differentiate Real & Ponzi schemes. If there is a Reputable Neutral Third Party Reliable & Trustable Agency which offers Ratings exclusively to Crypto Coins & Projects, it Would be nice.

[BIT-BENDER]

The best (and most logical) option is to just buy bitcoin and not store it on an exchange.  All but perhaps a handful of alt coins are scams or meme coins with no value or use.  And even those alts are too centralized and don't have the security of bitcoin. 

This is a good advice but an even better advice is to remove greedy and easy money from your mind completely. There are people that only wants to have Bitcoin and scammers knows this so they come up with various schemes that offers an opportunity to free, easy Bitcoin which ends up being a scam.
Avoiding greedy and the idea that you can get easy money will help anyone to be safe.

[Rruchi man]

~

Because of how the economy has become difficult, some people will never learn their lesson and will still choose to be involved in scamming others of their cryptocurrency. There are some people who have equated the difficulty they are facing from the economy to any punishments they will get if they get caught for stealing from others, and so because of this, do not consider that as anything much.

Newbies to cryptocurrency are the most at danger to this; this is why they need to be extra cautious.

[bestcandy]

Norwegian authorities have prosecuted four men in connection with a large-scale investment scam that allegedly defrauded investors of NOK 963 million ($86.5 million) between March 2015 and November 2018.

According to Økokrim, Norway’s economic crime agency, the operation worked by encouraging people to buy “product packages” containing digital assets. However, the only money flowing in came from new investors, making it a classic Ponzi scheme.

Prosecutors claim more than NOK 700 million ($62.7 million) was laundered through a Norwegian investment firm before being transferred to accounts in several Asian countries.

The four accused are Norwegian men in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. Three are suspected of collecting money from investors, while the fourth is accused of handling the laundering process.

Among the accused is Terje Hvidsten, a former art dealer with previous fraud convictions. Another suspect, Dag Hætta Eriksen, also has a criminal record related to fraud and corruption. The remaining two suspects include a 52-year-old from Romerike, who denies any wrongdoing, and a 70-year-old former lawyer accused of laundering funds.

The scheme operated under different names, including Crypto888 Club, Octa Partners, and Nano Club. Each rebranding introduced a new cryptocurrency—OctaCoin, NanoCoin, and Ormeus Coin.
 Please guys let's be careful, crypto scams are getting crazier by the day

 Read the full story here.
https://www.bitdegree.org/crypto/news/87-million-crypto-scam-exposed-norway-charges-four-suspects

The level fraudulence activities in the world now is becoming unbearable and if drastic measure is not put in place to curtail fraudulence activities it will be very dangerous to what the impact will be in the near future because many people are now seeing fraud as a career.
I think the best way to comb fraudulence activities across the world is to put a dead penalty to anyone found guilty of fraud.
As for those four men, they should be sentence to dead if they are found guilty of the crime labelled against them to serve as a warning to other fraudster or to anyone that is aspiring to be a fraudster.

[Lucius]

$87 Million Crypto Scam Exposed, Norway Charges Four Suspects

Does this have anything to do with Bitcoin? Most cryptocurrencies are by their nature scam projects that have no goal or purpose, and the sooner people realize this, the sooner they will avoid falling for such cheap tricks. The only thing interesting to me in this story is that it managed to happen in Norway, which is one of the best regulated countries in the world, and that they have only now decided to do something about it.

Although perhaps all of this is not so strange, the Nordic countries are clearly not what they once were, or at least that's how it seems to me.

[K_vin]

The best (and most logical) option is to just buy bitcoin and not store it on an exchange.  All but perhaps a handful of alt coins are scams or meme coins with no value or use.  And even those alts are too centralized and don't have the security of bitcoin. 

You know sometimes because of crazy pumps(which eventually descipates over a short time anyways)in these alts, it is quit easy to trick fragile traders especially newbies into these scams, i just wish every one protects there investments properly

$87 Million Crypto Scam Exposed, Norway Charges Four Suspects

Does this have anything to do with Bitcoin? Most cryptocurrencies are by their nature scam projects that have no goal or purpose, and the sooner people realize this, the sooner they will avoid falling for such cheap tricks. The only thing interesting to me in this story is that it managed to happen in Norway, which is one of the best regulated countries in the world, and that they have only now decided to do something about it.

Although perhaps all of this is not so strange, the Nordic countries are clearly not what they once were, or at least that's how it seems to me.

The scam is spreading even into countries that where once strictly regulated,

Norwegian authorities have prosecuted four men in connection with a large-scale investment scam that allegedly defrauded investors of NOK 963 million ($86.5 million) between March 2015 and November 2018.

According to Økokrim, Norway’s economic crime agency, the operation worked by encouraging people to buy “product packages” containing digital assets. However, the only money flowing in came from new investors, making it a classic Ponzi scheme.

Prosecutors claim more than NOK 700 million ($62.7 million) was laundered through a Norwegian investment firm before being transferred to accounts in several Asian countries.

The four accused are Norwegian men in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. Three are suspected of collecting money from investors, while the fourth is accused of handling the laundering process.

Among the accused is Terje Hvidsten, a former art dealer with previous fraud convictions. Another suspect, Dag Hætta Eriksen, also has a criminal record related to fraud and corruption. The remaining two suspects include a 52-year-old from Romerike, who denies any wrongdoing, and a 70-year-old former lawyer accused of laundering funds.

The scheme operated under different names, including Crypto888 Club, Octa Partners, and Nano Club. Each rebranding introduced a new cryptocurrency—OctaCoin, NanoCoin, and Ormeus Coin.
 Please guys let's be careful, crypto scams are getting crazier by the day

 Read the full story here.
https://www.bitdegree.org/crypto/news/87-million-crypto-scam-exposed-norway-charges-four-suspects

The level fraudulence activities in the world now is becoming unbearable and if drastic measure is not put in place to curtail fraudulence activities it will be very dangerous to what the impact will be in the near future because many people are now seeing fraud as a career.
I think the best way to comb fraudulence activities across the world is to put a dead penalty to anyone found guilty of fraud.
As for those four men, they should be sentence to dead if they are found guilty of the crime labelled against them to serve as a warning to other fraudster or to anyone that is aspiring to be a fraudster.

My dear the truth is even if a death penalty is placed on it, people will still do it,  i think the best way to avoid or atleas caution this is for traders and investors to take their time to learn about crypto before finally investing in it,.then always use a regulated and well used exchange for transactions

~

Because of how the economy has become difficult, some people will never learn their lesson and will still choose to be involved in scamming others of their cryptocurrency. There are some people who have equated the difficulty they are facing from the economy to any punishments they will get if they get caught for stealing from others, and so because of this, do not consider that as anything much.

Newbies to cryptocurrency are the most at danger to this; this is why they need to be extra cautious.

Honestly newbies are the most vulnerable to this

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[Davidvictorson]

We have to be very careful out there. Crypto scams can occur in any country and any continent of the world. People who carry out these scams are regular people and can be from any age group, any profession (as we can see that one of the accomplices is a lawyer by profession). Further, a person who has a criminal record is likely to commit a crime again especially if it was a fraud or corruption case. Lastly, as much as you should buy only Bitcoin, do not participate in a ponzi scheme even if Bitcoin is what is used in it.

[Hazink]

Just imagine the fraud that was committed from 2015 to 2018, which is 7-10 years ago, and the scammers being caught, and this period was the time when I even thought people were so much afraid of crypto, not to talk about people falling victim to such a scam that large amount of money.

The good thing is that they have been caught, but the victims are those who I pity because their chance of getting their money back is very low. Now that this type of scam awareness is everywhere, it will be harder for a larger number of people to fall victim; some will, but others can easily detect.

[bitbollo]

I will continue to say that greed is one of the biggest problems for the most of people.
Why they decide to invest in a product/program like these described here? Just because they want try to be "smarter" than other people and earn as much as they can.
This is something that will never end. The second issue is the total ignorance in financial markets and what should be seen in a company.
The worst part (if the stolen money was not enough) is the link made by media since bitcoin and/or crypto are just scams.

[headingnorth]

The reality is these scams are impossible to stop. Scamming was very common even before the existence of the internet and crypto.
In the old days the scams were sent to people by traditional snail mail, or someone called you on the phone to try to scam you. Of course the scams back then were not related to crypto at all.

When I was a kid in the 1980s I remember receiving some of these ridiculous and very obvious scams in the mail and wondered how anyone could be dumb enough to fall for them. People just have to use their common sense and not fall for them, and educate your friends and family about them. They prey on people's greed and stupidity, which seems to be unlimited.

[Kemarit]

I will continue to say that greed is one of the biggest problems for the most of people.
Why they decide to invest in a product/program like these described here? Just because they want try to be "smarter" than other people and earn as much as they can.
This is something that will never end. The second issue is the total ignorance in financial markets and what should be seen in a company.
The worst part (if the stolen money was not enough) is the link made by media since bitcoin and/or crypto are just scams.

Greed and then lack of understanding of how crypto works. I mean why would you blindly invest because of a promised of a good money? And we have seen this throughout the financial world, not just in crypto wherein the classic "Ponzi" scheme was being applied by the criminals. And this what drove crypto to be in the bad light as something because used by the criminals.

It's good though to hear that they unravel the Ponzi scheme and arrested the people behind. Perhaps with this arrest and then Norway being once of the most advanced nation, this might be the last one that someone will pull out like this in their country.

[coolcoinz]

Wow 2015... they were early. If only they knew that they could make millions the legal way, just buying bitcoin and sitting on it for a few years
I remember that between 2014 and 16 there was a lot of similar scams involving fake mining companies, exchanges, mining hardware resellers and of course shitcoins, but those who were smart and navigated the space with caution made a lot of money. If they put these guys who are in their 60s and 70s in jail that's life for them. Game over.

[tread93]

Norwegian authorities have prosecuted four men in connection with a large-scale investment scam that allegedly defrauded investors of NOK 963 million ($86.5 million) between March 2015 and November 2018.

According to Økokrim, Norway’s economic crime agency, the operation worked by encouraging people to buy “product packages” containing digital assets. However, the only money flowing in came from new investors, making it a classic Ponzi scheme.

Prosecutors claim more than NOK 700 million ($62.7 million) was laundered through a Norwegian investment firm before being transferred to accounts in several Asian countries.

The four accused are Norwegian men in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. Three are suspected of collecting money from investors, while the fourth is accused of handling the laundering process.

Among the accused is Terje Hvidsten, a former art dealer with previous fraud convictions. Another suspect, Dag Hætta Eriksen, also has a criminal record related to fraud and corruption. The remaining two suspects include a 52-year-old from Romerike, who denies any wrongdoing, and a 70-year-old former lawyer accused of laundering funds.

The scheme operated under different names, including Crypto888 Club, Octa Partners, and Nano Club. Each rebranding introduced a new cryptocurrency—OctaCoin, NanoCoin, and Ormeus Coin.
 Please guys let's be careful, crypto scams are getting crazier by the day

 Read the full story here.
https://www.bitdegree.org/crypto/news/87-million-crypto-scam-exposed-norway-charges-four-suspects

The level fraudulence activities in the world now is becoming unbearable and if drastic measure is not put in place to curtail fraudulence activities it will be very dangerous to what the impact will be in the near future because many people are now seeing fraud as a career.
I think the best way to comb fraudulence activities across the world is to put a dead penalty to anyone found guilty of fraud.
As for those four men, they should be sentence to dead if they are found guilty of the crime labelled against them to serve as a warning to other fraudster or to anyone that is aspiring to be a fraudster.

That would never happen because fraud is considered a white collar crime at least in the US. The death penalty seems pretty harsh but it definitely might stop hackers, it would just require a pretty sophisticated task force and unilateral agreement amoung nations to uphold that sentence structure. The thing the fraudsters usually see is either a plea deal for information or they get life in prison or something. For FTX for example everyone lost money, yes, but eventually law enforcement came in and shut it all down and plugged in a seasoned CEO to fix the whole mess and put a repayment plan for stolen funds, which had its first dispersement for FTX claims less than 50k just yesterday and the next one slated for march I believe. It is crazy though people will go lower and lower and stop at no end to screw people over for money at any cost and its sickening.

[Darker45]

This is kind of interesting. The perpetrators are old men. Usually, it's the other way around. It's usually old men and women who fall victim to such crimes, perhaps because of their limited understanding of new technologies or failure to catch up with the latest. In this case, however, it's old men who developed a somewhat sophisticated crypto scam. They have platforms. They have coins. They rebrand into new platforms with new coins.

[X-ray]

the bad thing about these scams are that, they always try to use the word crypto and blockchain in their scam tainting bitcoin's reputation and when people realize they got scammed, they'd blame bitcoin instead.

really a good news that these people finally getting caught but it always irks me how vulnerable people will dismiss the idea of investing into bitcoin with obvious historical performance and instead settle with these absurd scammy coins.

[wheelz1200]

Its shocking to me that over time huge ponzis still exist and thrive for scammers.  I guess thats why im weary about ever putting money into something i understand and can vet myself without the "trust me bro" advice on investments.  Not that its secure knowing a product and thinking its safe but by doing that you can sniff out scams a lot easier.

[Text]

Honestly newbies are the most vulnerable to this

The really bad thing is that these scams also keep evolving making it difficult for newcomers to differentiate between legitimate projects and Ponzi schemes. Education and understanding how blockchain works as well as recognising red flags are essential to avoiding financial losses. We shouldn’t just rely on regulations because scammers will always find ways to exploit loopholes. Our best defence is to stay cautious and use only trusted platforms.

[Yaunfitda]

Honestly newbies are the most vulnerable to this

The really bad thing is that these scams also keep evolving making it difficult for newcomers to differentiate between legitimate projects and Ponzi schemes. Education and understanding how blockchain works as well as recognising red flags are essential to avoiding financial losses. We shouldn’t just rely on regulations because scammers will always find ways to exploit loopholes. Our best defence is to stay cautious and use only trusted platforms.

But the pattern is still the same, i.e. too good to be true offers, high yield returns, and that is already a red flag. And it's not just applicable for crypto, we have seen throughout mankind's history on how this is run and so people should be aware of already. Perhaps it was just that crypto is really new for some and they could have been brainwashed by this scammers that somewhat they are going to get good returns in just couple of month. Many of us could still remember the Bitcoin doubler scam around 2015-2017 wherein it was really prevalent and many of us here might fallen for it (including myself). And it's true, out best weapon on this kind of attack are self education and only trust platforms that have build their reputation already in the crypto space.