fraud
How to identify and avoid a crypto pump-and-dump scheme?
Educating oneself about the crypto ecosystem is crucial for investors to pursue during a bear market while awaiting a bull cycle. That being said, having a good understanding of crypto investment entails keeping an eye out for fraudulent projects that threaten to drain assets overnight, a.k.a. pump-and-dump schemes. Pump-and-dump in crypto is an orchestrated fraud that involves misleading investors into purchasing artificially inflated tokens — typically marketed and hyped by paying celebrities and social influencers. SafeMoon token is one of the most prominent examples of an alleged pump-and-dump scheme involving A-list celebrities, including Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty and YouTubers Jake Paul and Ben Phillips. Once the investors have purchased tokens at inflated prices, the peopl...
Social media blamed for $1B in crypto scam losses in 2021
The Federal Trade Commission has labeled social media and crypto a “combustible combination for fraud,” with nearly half of all crypto-related scams originating from social media platforms in 2021. Published on June 3, the report found that as much as $1 billion in crypto have been lost to scammers throughout the year, which was more than a five-fold increase from 2020, and nearly sixty times up from 2018. New analysis finds consumers reported losing more than $1 billion in #cryptocurrency to scams since 2021. Most of the losses consumers reported were to bogus cryptocurrency investment scams: https://t.co/MYGTcaw1aS #DataSpotlight /1 — FTC (@FTC) June 3, 2022 As of March 31, 2022, the amount of crypto lost was already approaching half of the 2021 figure, showing that momentum ...
How do crypto monitoring and blockchain analysis help avoid cryptocurrency fraud?
The primary functions of a blockchain analysis tools include address classification, providing investigation tools, monitoring transactions and risk analysis. The ability to link blockchain addresses to real-world identities is one of the most common uses of blockchain analysis software. Such tools use a variety of ways to identify real-world items on the blockchain. For instance, standard blockchain analysis techniques include web scraping and clustering algorithms. Clustering is the most prevalent method for identifying entities like exchanges, payment processors and wallets in analysis tools. Similarly, web scraping is utilized to analyze the cryptocurrency market. It can keep track of price changes and preserve them for later use in your database. As a result, you’ll be able to r...
DOJ indicts BitConnect’s Indian founder for $2.4B crypto Ponzi scheme
The founder of the infamous crypto exchange BitConnect, Satish Kumbhani, has been charged for allegedly misleading investors globally and defrauding them of $2.4 billion in the process. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), a San Diego-based federal grand jury specifically charged Kumbhani for orchestrating the alleged Ponzi scheme via BitConnect’s “Lending Program”: “BitConnect operated as a Ponzi scheme by paying earlier BitConnect investors with money from later investors. In total, Kumbhani and his co-conspirators obtained approximately $2.4 billion from investors.” BitConnect (BCC) price history. Source: CoinMarketCap Back in 2017 amid the hype, BitConnect (BCC) recorded an all-time high of $463.31 in trading price, which according to the DOJ reached a peak market capitalizati...
Singaporean megabank DBS works on expanding Bitcoin trading to retail
DBS Bank, Singapore’s largest bank, is working on expanding its cryptocurrency exchange beyond its current investor base of institutional clients, according to the CEO. DBS Bank CEO Piyush Gupta spoke of the bank’s cryptocurrency business during the Q4 2021 earnings call on Monday, stating that the company will focus on measures to further scale its crypto exchange operations in 2022. During the call, Gupta was asked whether DBS Bank has a roadmap for rolling out digital asset trading to retail investors. While the CEO did not provide a straightforward answer, he still said that DBS Bank did initiate some work in order to expand its current investor base, stating: “We’ve started doing the work on seeing how we get in a sensible way, take it out and expand it beyond the current investo...
Chainalysis report finds most NFT wash traders unprofitable
Nonfungible tokens (NFT) have taken the world by storm, resulting in mainstream interest and greater adoption of cryptocurrency. According to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, NFT popularity skyrocketed in 2021. Chainalysis’ “NFT Market Report” shows a minimum of $44.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency sent to Ethereum smart contracts associated with NFT marketplaces and collections last year. The report notes that this number was $106 million in 2020. While impressive, increasing scams and fraudulent activities have infiltrated the NFT space. For instance, major NFT marketplace OpenSea recently announced that its free minting tool was prone to misuse. As a result, OpenSea shared that 80% of NFTs created using this tool were either plagiarized, fake or spam. If that wasn’t bad enough, Ch...
The biggest crypto heists of all time
The biggest crypto heists to date are MT Gox, Bitgrail, Coincheck, KuCoin, PancakeBunny, Poly Network, Cream Finance, BadgerDAO, Vulcan Forged and Bitmart. MT Gox MT Gox was the first large-scale exchange hack, and it remains the most significant Bitcoin (BTC) heist from an exchange. The MT Gox robbery, on the other hand, was not a one-off occurrence. Rather, the site leaked cash from 2011 to February 2014. Hackers stole 100,000 BTC from the exchange and 750,000 BTC from its consumers over a few years. These Bitcoin burglaries were valued at $470 million at the time, but they’re now worth approximately ten times this amount. Shortly after the theft, MT Gox went into liquidation, with liquidators recovering roughly 200,000 of the stolen BTC. Bitgrail Bitgrail was a small Italian excha...
Pakistan to investigate Binance for multi-million dollar crypto scam
Pakistan‘s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) reportedly issued a formal notice to crypto exchange Binance in an effort to identify links around a multi-million crypto scam in the region. The government of Pakistan started a criminal investigation after receiving numerous complaints against an ongoing scam that involved misleading investors into sending funds from Binance wallets to unknown third-party wallets. According to local coverage, the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing has issued an order of attendance to Binance Pakistan’s general manager Hamza Khan to identify the exchange’s link to “fraudulent online investment mobile applications.” KARACHI: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has detected an online fraud of Rs100 billion using a cryptocurrency and issued notice to the local represent...
Indian taxman recovers $6.62M from WazirX for evading tax on commission
Indian crypto exchange WazirX has reportedly paid over $6.6 million (49.2 crore rupees) following non-payment of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on trade commissions. The total recovery includes the pending tax of $5.43 million (40.5 crore rupees), the interest and a penalty for non-payment. Government officials from the Central GST and Central Excise committee (CGST Mumbai Zone) recovered the funds from the crypto exchange after detecting a GST evasion of $5.43 million on the commissions. A typical GST fraud involves creating fake invoices without actually moving the goods between the seller and the buyer. Officers of CGST Mumbai East comm’te have detected GST Evasion of Rs 40.5 Cr. on commission of Wazir X Crypto Currency & recovered Rs 49.2 Cr. in cash as GST, interest & Pena...
Crypto fraudster arrested in Thailand for duping and stealing $15M from victims
The suspect is said to have collaborated with others to steal from unsuspecting victims through a bogus cryptocurrency scheme This weekend, Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division apprehended Mana Jumuang for running a cryptocurrency scheme that saw victims lose their funds between 2018 and 2019. The 50-year old is said to have been the mastermind behind the scam operation. He illegally obtained more than 500 million Baht (the equivalent of almost $15 million) before deserting investors. According to a story in the Bangkok Post, Jumuang had co-conspirators with whom he ran the scheme. He is said to have lured both local and foreign victims by promising them that they would gain huge profits in the range of 400% after an investment period of 200 days. Jumuang presented himself as a crypto gur...
Indian police commissioner issues a public warning against crypto frauds
The Additional Commissioner of Police Shikha Goel warned Indian citizens about the rise in cybercrime in an event hosted by the city police of Hyderabad, India, suggesting not to transfer cryptocurrencies to unauthorized private wallets. Goel highlighted the various methods that are actively being used by fraudsters to dupe investors such as lucrative investment opportunities, illegitimate bank transfers and cryptocurrencies. Acknowledging the growth of Indian crypto users, Goel added: “They [fraudsters] ask you to share your cryptocurrency details. And once you put it in your wallet, then the money is taken away.” After simplifying the elaborate fraud in a sentence, Goel also highlighted that sixteen such cases have been registered involving cryptocurrencies. Do not transfer your cryptocu...
It’s Drake’s Day, So What’s With All the Phony ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Albums on Spotify?
Notably, the problem extends to text searches on the Spotify app itself. A text search for “Certified Lover Boy Drake” on Spotify turns up an album entitled Drake by the artist Certified Lover Boy as the top result. When searching only for “Certified Lover Boy,” a Spotify-curated playlist of the entire album – but not the album itself – appears. Spotify did not immediately respond to Billboard’s request for comment. A source says Spotify is working with the music industry to address the issue, which is common among albums from major artists. Each DSP separately routes which albums, songs and playlists are surfaced when voice requests are made through Amazon’s Alexa. When reached for comment, Apple denied the problem was an issue with their hardware. Google did not respond to Billboard’s re...
