Tagged: fraud

February 18, 2019 @ 7:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security has revealed that over 380 peer to peer lending platforms are currently under investigation. A release by Xinhua on Sunday said that about USD $1.5 billion in P2P lending assets were involved. Apparently, the Chinese police have seized or frozen cash,… Read More

February 17, 2019 @ 4:49 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Be careful: that romantic email from an unknown suitor could end up grabbing your data. So say cybersecurity researchers at the Mimecast Threat Labs, who warned the public this week that random emails offering gifts, flowers or other friendly gestures may contain infectious links designed… Read More

February 15, 2019 @ 10:57 pm By JD Alois  |  

There has been a good amount of discussion regarding the decision by Judge Gonzalo Curiel, of the US District Court for the Southern District of California, to grant the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) bid for a preliminary injunction against crypto company Blockvest LLC. Initially, the Court… Read More

February 15, 2019 @ 8:46 am By JD Alois  |  

In a valentine’s day reprieve, the Securities and Exchange Commission was granted a preliminary injunction against Blockvest LLC and its founder, Reginald Buddy Ringgold, III, pertaining to allegations of fraud connected with an initial coin offering (ICO). The judge overseeing the proceedings reconsidered the court’s previous order… Read More

February 14, 2019 @ 1:04 am By Cali Haan  |  

A “nationwide simultaneous operation” executed in 8 Turkish provinces has netted 24 individuals accused of conspiring to rob 13 million Turkish liras ($2.47 million) from “a cryptocurrency company” in Istanbul, The Daily Sabah reports. After receiving a complaint from the targeted business, law enforcement officers at… Read More

February 9, 2019 @ 8:52 am By Cali Haan  |  

The latest enforcement report from the Texas State Securities Board states that the regulator issued cease and desist orders against 16 unlicensed crypto ventures soliciting investors in Texas in 2018. The most noteworthy of those ventures is Bitconnect, a massive global crypto Ponzi scheme that accumulated… Read More

February 6, 2019 @ 1:16 am By Cali Haan  |  

20-year-old Dawson Bakies of Ohio has been charged with multiple counts of felony Identity Theft, Grand Larceny, Computer Tampering, Scheme to Defraud and other related felony and misdemeanor counts relating to alleged SIM-swap hacks on more than 50 victims across the US. The indictment of Bakies for… Read More

February 3, 2019 @ 1:09 pm By Cali Haan  |  

An Italian court has ordered the owner of the BitGrail cryptocurrency exchange, Francesco Firano, to declare bankruptcy and forfeit assets so they can be used to reimburse investors harmed when Firano “lost” 17 million Nano tokens (worth $170 million), a post by affected investors claims…. Read More

February 3, 2019 @ 10:53 am By Cali Haan  |  

Joel Ortiz, a 20-year-old California college student, has accepted a plea deal and has agreed to a sentence of 10 years for stealing $5 million in cryptocurrencies from victims he robbed via SIM-swap hack, Motherboard reports. Ortiz will be sentenced on March 14, and it… Read More

January 30, 2019 @ 3:51 am By Cali Haan  |  

Hackers may have created a fake LocalBitcoin forum page for the popular global peer-to-peer Bitcoins trading service LocalBitcoins, thereby conning “a number” of affected users out of disclosing the info needed to steal their digital coins. According to a report from LocalBitcoins on Reddit, the… Read More

January 29, 2019 @ 10:37 am By JD Alois  |  

CipherTrace is out with a report on cryptocurrency scams and fraud. It is widely known that crypto suffers from rampant acts of theft and cons as these digital assets have become the targets of global criminals seeking an easy payday or simply to launder illicit… Read More

January 29, 2019 @ 8:06 am By JD Alois  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued another warning regarding bogus websites promoting fraudulent cryptocurrency investments that are claimed to be supported by the government of Singapore. MAS provided a single example of a fabricated CNBC site that prominently states: “Singapore Officially Backs a… Read More

January 25, 2019 @ 1:04 am By Cali Haan  |  

Many have seen ads on social media from fake accounts of “celebrities” asking followers to send Ethereum cryptocurrency and receive much more back. According to Blockchain forensics” firm Chainalysis, these scams were much more profitable last year. In 2018, ETH-scam pervaders boosted their profits from… Read More

January 22, 2019 @ 11:58 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Two executives from the Korean cryptocurrency Komid have been imprisoned for creating fake volume on the exchange in order to deceive investors, Korean media outlet Blockinpress reports. Komid Choi has reportedly been sentenced in Seoul to three year’s imprisonment for fraud and embezzlement, and an accomplice, Park… Read More

January 22, 2019 @ 11:07 am By Cali Haan  |  

Seven men police believe conspired to rob multiple Bitcoin “mines” in Iceland have been convicted, and their leader sentenced to 4.5 years in prison, Icelandic news outlet DV reports. Starting in December 2017, and for several weeks thereafter, six men led by Sindri Thor Steffanson allegedly robbed… Read More

January 19, 2019 @ 10:35 am By Cali Haan  |  

Seven individuals have been arrested in Taiwan and charged with operating a crypto investment scheme police believe defrauded 1000 investors out of $51 million USD, Focus Taiwan reports. The seven are charged with “violating multiple banking and business…laws” covered by Taiwan’s Banking and Multi-Level Marketing Supervision acts. Among… Read More

January 11, 2019 @ 7:03 am By Cali Haan  |  

A Maltese-Italian actor and model named Davide Tucci has taken to Facebook to warn the public that his face and name are being used in fake Facebook ads, on websites and and in articles to promote Bitcoin-related scams, Malta Today reports. According to Tucci in… Read More

January 9, 2019 @ 2:37 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Riksbank of Sweden has issued a warning to the public that, “On certain websites and in social media, false information is circulating claiming that the Riksbank is selling e-kronas.” The Riksbank also says it has been contacted by individuals saying they have been solicited… Read More

January 8, 2019 @ 10:04 pm By Cali Haan  |  

John Bigatton, a licensed Australian finance professional who promote, Bitconnect, an apparent $2.6 billion USD cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that collapsed last January, has had his assets frozen by an Australian federal judge and has been banned from traveling, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. Bigatton is… Read More

January 8, 2019 @ 12:37 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Police in India say they have arrested the second-in-command of an elaborate crypto fraud that bilked investors out of 5 billion rupees (~$71.6 million USD), The Indian Express reports. The man, Rohit Kumar, has now been charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy and violation of the… Read More