However, with large portions of the public looking to invest in cryptocurrencies and the relative ease of creating a project with an ICO, it is an unfortunate reality that
ICO scams are increasing in frequency.
ICO scams advertised on Facebook may have lured gullible investors and it is right to put a stop to these kinds of practices.
The agency has also issued warnings against potential
ICO scams and «pump and dump» schemes by public companies.
This should rather be seen as a means by which Facebook is trying to keep the community safe by regulating and cracking down on scam promotions as the number
ICO scams are on the rise with many of them being promoted by major social media outlets like YouTube, Google and Facebook.
Even bigger, perhaps, than
the ICO scams and constant upheaval in the cryptocurrency market, something else is waiting for us...
With clearer regulations and a friendly framework, the number of
ICO scams could be reduced substantially.
In Thailand, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Thai SEC) recently expressed their view on ICOs indicating they realize the potential of ICOs to satisfy startup funding needs; however, without governmental regulation, the Thai SEC also expressed concerns about
ICO scams which is similar to the Investor Alert issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the U.S. SEC) in July of 2017.
The SEC last month announced it would target
ICO scams, and has recently issued several subpoenas to US - based individuals and companies as it looks to crack down on a range of ICO - related financial irregularities.
Bitcoin has seen a lot of government concern this year ranging from Chinese and South Korean Ban on ICO's to SEC «s warning on
ICO scams.
However, while this move will eradicate
ICO scams, it will also put a major setback for genuine startups based out of China that want to raise funds through a token sale.
There have also been several unfortunate instances of
ICO scams.
ICO scams can, however, be avoided.
In this article we will go over three obvious
ICO scams that were able to defraud investors off their cryptocurrency.
I knew that it was just a matter of time before the HYIP scam artist moves into
the ICO SCAMS.
As cryptocurrencies keep rising in price and popularity, so are
ICO scams on the rise.
Explaining the reason why they think banning crypto ads by Google was the best thing to do to curb
ICO scams, Roy said:
There were many successful ICOs in the past couple of years, but there have been also many unsuccessful ICOs and
ICO scams.
There have been many unsuccessful ICOs and
ICO scams recently.
Hence, the whitelist shall protect the investor's money and avoid potential
ICO scams, which is a mounting issue in the cryptocurrency market.
Until there are firm guidelines in place that protect the majority of users from
ICO scams and misleading investment opportunities, these extreme sanctions are likely to remain in effect.
That is how many Ponzi, High Yield Investment Programs and
ICO scams attract investors» attention — by promising no risk and ludicrous investment returns in an extremely short amount of time.
In light of the amount of
ICO scams that have been piggybacking off the hype surrounding the Telegram ICO, CEO Pavel Durov went on Twitter to say: «Attention: Telegram publishes its official announcements only at https://telegram.org.
Do you think that governments should implement more regulations in order to protect investors from
ICO scams?
If the removal of ads contributes to cleaning up
ICO scams, that is a good thing.
We have already created a page on how to spot
ICO Scams
You must have heard about
ICO scams that are very popular at the moment.
After about 32,000 investors allegedly lost the equivalent of $ 658 million in two Vietnamese
ICO scams, the country's prime minister called for the proposal of ICO and cryptocurrency regulations.
[6] Press Release, Company Halts ICO After SEC Raises Registration Concerns (Dec. 11, 2017), available at https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2017-227; Press Release, SEC Emergency Action Halts
ICO Scam (Dec. 4, 2017), available at https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2017-219; Press Release, SEC Exposes Two Initial Coin Offerings Purportedly Backed by Real Estate and Diamonds (Sept. 29, 2017), available at https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2017-185-0.
In November, the FBI charged Brooklyn businessman Maksim Zaslavskiy with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud for allegedly bilking investors out of $ 300,000 through
an ICO scam called REcoin which he claimed was «the first - ever cryptocurrency backed by real estate.»
Even so, the history of crypto currency ICO's isn't without its dark spots (always check if an website is real and not
an ico scamming one).
This alone makes it almost certain that it's
an ICO scam.
Through our study of various crypto related scams, we have identified 4 main ways scammers use social media to defraud users: Impersonation, Ponzi / HYIP and
ICO scam promotion, Malware distribution, and Chatroom scams.
This type of
ICO scam is not too hard to spot if you take your time to conduct some due diligence, which you absolutely should if you intend to invest in an ICO.
As is evidenced by the latest
ICO scam that just made off with over 2 million of investors money, there is definitely a need for a mechanism that regulates how developers can access funds raised.
The latest
ICO scam alert announced is othor.org which claims to have Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum as a member of their team.
There are many examples, but the biggest
ICO scam (as of writing this article: 30.3.2017) that we know is GameBet Coin (GBT)!
This way they committed the biggest
ICO scam, worth 268 BTC!
Similarly, the Arise
ICO scam was recorded at a lower figure than the $ 600 million reported.
Not exact matches
However regulators are keeping a closer eye on
ICO activity, amid a rising number of reports of
scams.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the space, examining whether tokens can be unregulated sales of securities, and in late August warned about pump - and - dump
scams disguising themselves as
ICOs.
At the same time, there has been continued instances of
scams in the initial coin offering (
ICO) market.
There are huge risks here, as many of the startups launching
ICOs are getting regular people to buy into thin or implausible business plans — or, worse, outright
scamming them with pump - and - dump schemes.
Nearly as bad, the SEC says the digital tokens they claimed to be selling «don't really exist,» meaning REcoin and DRC — much like the notorious global
scam OneCoin — weren't running on blockchains at all, and therefore weren't even really
ICOs.
One expert said the majority of initial coin offerings, or
ICOs, are
scams — but it's still a booming business.
How do you tell
scam ICOs from legitimate ones?
It doesn't take a financial whiz to understand that many
ICOs operate like classic pump and dump
scams or pyramid schemes.
And in late August, it froze the shares of four companies on suspicions they were hyping upcoming
ICOs in order to conduct pump - and - dump
scams.
China's regulators moved to ban
ICO in 2017, saying the practice involved financial
scams and other illegal activities.
Robinson says
ICOs are like early bitcoin startups back in 2011 — many of the companies were either risky, unsustainable ideas,
scams, or run by pioneers who move fast and break things.
Many initial coin offerings (
ICOs) have been labeled as
scams.