Taking a look at some of the crypto scams which left the investors helpless

With the ever-increasing adoption of the cryptocurrencies among the people, the risk of frauds and scams that can be carried on is increasing too. The investors, as well as the traders, must be very careful in choosing a cryptocurrency exchange or before investing in any kind of any Initial Coin Offering we must do an extensive research on the project because the hackers are constantly looking out for a chance to exploit our exploit the weakness of the millennials.  Scams in the Mining industry or in the form of multi-level marketing schemes and many other cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes are rising rapidly.

Below are some of the major cryptocurrency scams that occurred around the world and we must take lessons from them in order to safeguard ourselves and our interests from the futures scams:

Giza

The company offered a service to its customers to store all of their virtual assets in the company’s super secure currency holder. The company conducted a very professional looking initial coin offering and the investors were completely blown by the concept. It manages to raise almost $2.4 million USD within just one month of its offering. Post which the attitude of the company started to change according to the customers. According to the first-hand holders of the account in the company, they suddenly stopped replying to their emails. Even the website was managed within the duration of few weeks. According to another revelation done, the team members which were mentioned in the ICO white paper were nothing but paid actors and their photos were taken from the from a social media website, Instagram which made the project look legitimate.

2. Mining Max

Based on the Ethereum mining operation the company managed to attract Investments worth up to $250 Million USD. According to the customers, for initial few months, they received their share of returns without any loss and hence seemed to be realistic. However later they realized that the company was only into making some quick money and was not following a sustainable business model. The customers along with some of the Korean prosecutors have filed lawsuits against the company individuals. It was estimated that only $70 million USD was spent in contrast to $250 million dollars raised.

3. Benebit

From their seamless presentation and clean outlay, the scam managed to blindfold some of the major investors in investing in their project. The company promised a return of a unique cryptocurrency in Exchange with the customer loyalty. As per some of the media outlets the company managed to raise almost $3 Million USD along with its appealing concept. The main reason that a number of people were fooled by this was that the company spent almost $500,000 on the promotion of the Initial Coin Offering.

4. Bitconnect

Back in the year 2017, the company put forth a number of lending schemes which were very similar to Ponzi schemes before its customers. Many of the investors agreed to support the project and hence invested in them. However, it was very clear that the company had to shut down when it offered ridiculous interest rates which absolutely would not be feasible for a long run. The company finally closed its operation when it received a number of cease and desist orders. It is worth noting that prior to this it was listed as one among the top 20 Crypto tokens.

5. Seele ICO Impersonation

Even though the company was completely legitimate and had conducted all the procedures in a very legal fashion, some of the admins turned out to be scammers later on. The secretly contacted number of potential investors and made their way with almost $2 million worth of Ethereum. According to some news outlet, the scammers portrayed themselves as the owners of the official Telegram channel of the company and asked investors to invest, in exchange of Ether, way before the actual funding had started.

6. Confido

The project provided a service to help integrate smart contracts into the existing framework of various companies and startups who were looking forward to incorporating Blockchain Technology into their business model. The project recently conducted its initial coin offerings in the previous November, managed to raise almost $350,000 USD. Initially, the price was $1.20 per token but as the time passed the investors realize that this was just a plot to run away with a lot of investment. Post which they realized that they had a number of loopholes and bottlenecks in their model.  also, their various social media accounts almost vanished overnight.

7. Mtbtgwallet.com

The wallet providing service stole the private keys of its users to shell out their money. The miscreants stole almost $3.3 million. The owner of the company was a notable person in the Bitcoin gold community. it is also said that he had marketed his service using the discussion forums Reddit and Steem and attracted susceptible individuals.

8. Karbon

Claiming themselves to be a decentralized social Marketplace was nothing but a scam. The ICO raided almost $200,000.

9. Plexcoin

The ICO was launched the previous year managed to crowdfund an impressive amount of $15 million. Later the company had to shut down because of the promises that were unfulfilled on time.

10. Centratech

With it’s Visa and MasterCard debit service the company offered for a seamless fiat to crypto conversion. The ICO raised $32 million and the founders have been arrested since then for the frauds pertaining to the ICO.