Cryptocurrency scams have been around since the dawn of cryptocurrencies. This is one of the drawbacks of the largely unregulated financial industry. The people behind these crypto scams are creative. They come up with all kinds of ways to separate you from your digital assets. Some of these crypto scams are also very successful. Which ones have you come across?
1: OneCoin
OneCoin is a Ponzi scheme created by Ruja Ignatova. They claimed their project was a "Bitcoin killer" and defrauded $4 billion from investors. Ignatova was put on the FBI's wanted list after she disappeared in 2017. However, her brother was arrested in 2019 and pleaded guilty to fraud.
2: Todex
Thodex is a Turkish cryptocurrency exchange. Owner Faruk Fatih Özer fled in April 2022 with $2 billion in his luggage. The exchange closed after claiming to have suffered a cyberattack.
At the time, it had 391,000 users.In September 2022, police managed to arrest Özer in Albania.
3：AnubisDAO
AnubisDAO was launched in 2021 after the popular Dogecoin project. The project raised $136,000 in ETH. This was worth $60 million at the time.
Investors will receive $ANKH tokens in return. The tokens were issued on the now defunct “Copper” platform. However, there is no website or whitepaper.
4. Squid Game
Squid Game and its $SQUID token is a P2E blockchain game. By purchasing $SQUID tokens, you can enter the game platform.
Its peak price reached $2,861 and its market cap reached $2.1 trillion. It was launched on Binance Smart Chain. Scammers made off with $3.3 million.
5. Mutant Planet of the Apes NFT
Aurelien Michel, a 24-year-old French citizen who was then living in the UAE, launched the sketchy Mutant Ape Planet NFT series.
These NFTs are counterfeits and have nothing to do with Mutant Ape Yacht Club. He stole $2.9 million but was arrested at JFK Airport in New York.
6. Luna Production
Luna Yield is a DeFi yield aggregator. In August 2021, the team completed the project with $6.7 million in just two days. It was launched on SolPAD, an IDO platform based on Solana.
This is only the second project they have launched. Scammers have managed to launder their contraband on Tornado Cash.
7.StableMagnet
StableMagnet promised to bring huge deposit returns to investors in June 2021. The fraud team defrauded $27 million.
The StableMagnet team manipulated the liquidity pool smart contract. The project did not provide an audit. Using a backdoor in the smart contract, they successfully drained the funds.
8. PlusToken
PlusToken is a Chinese cryptocurrency platform that defrauded users of $2.25 billion between May 2018 and June 2019.
Today, this amount is worth about $11 billion. It was also a Ponzi scheme. China arrested a total of 100 people. In November 2020, the main perpetrators were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 2 to 11 years.
9. WoToken
WoToken is another Chinese Ponzi scheme. This time, 715,429 people were defrauded of $1.1 billion. One of the team members was also allegedly involved in the PlusToken scam.
The incident took place between July 2018 and October 2019. Four team members were sentenced to prison. However, only $63.6 million was recovered.
10.BitConnect
BitConnect is another Ponzi scheme. It defrauded $2.5 billion from users in 2017 and 2018. On January 17, 2018, their $BCC token dropped from nearly $525 to $1.
This project works with trading robots and offers high returns. Have you participated in these projects? Leave a comment in the comments section!
