This cryptocurrency scam is made quite attractive to greedy people. For example, an unknown group of entrepreneurs is running the iCenter bot scam, which is a Ponzi scheme for Bitcoin and Litecoin, which provides no information on investment strategies, but somehow promises investors a 1.2% daily return. The iCenter scheme operates via group chat on Telegram. Starting with a small group of scammers, they get referral codes that they share with others, on blogs and on social media, wishing them to join the chat. Once there, newcomers see an uplifting and interesting message from the original scammers. Some of the newcomers decided to invest, where they were tasked with creating individual bitcoin wallets in order to store bitcoins. They agree to wait some time period - 99 or 120 days - to receive a significant return. During that time, newcomers often used social media to share their own referral code with friends, bringing more people into group chats and into investment schemes. When a new person joins, the person who recruits will get a percentage of the new funds, and the cycle continues, paying the previous participant each new round of investors. Some members are working very hard to raise new funds, posting video tutorials and pictures of themselves holding large sums of money to entice them to join the scam.
Some scammers commit outright scams. The founders of the scam cryptocurrency OneCoin scammed investors of $ 3.8 billion by convincing people that their non-existent cryptocurrency is real. Other scams are based on impressing potential victims with jargon or special knowledge claims. Global Trading Scammers claim they are taking advantage of the price differences on various cryptocurrency exchanges to profit from what is called arbitrage - simply buying cheap and selling at a higher price. Global Trading also uses a bot on Telegram - investors can send balance inquiry messages and get responses with false information about how much is on their accounts, sometimes even seeing balances go up by 1% in an hour. With returns looking like that, who could blame others for sharing the schemes with their friends and family on social media?
Another popular scam technique is called an "initial coin offering (ICO)." A potentially legitimate investment opportunity, ICOs are essentially a way for startup cryptocurrency companies to raise money from future users: In return for sending active cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum, customers are promised a discount on new cryptocoin. Many of the initial coin offerings turned out to be cryptocurrency scams, with organizers engaging in sneaky plots, even renting fake offices and creating fancy-looking marketing materials. In 2017, a lot of hype and media coverage about cryptocurrencies gave rise to a massive wave of ICO scams. In 2018, some 1,000 ICO attempts collapsed, costing at least $ 100 million. Many of these projects have no original ideas - more than 15% of them have copied ideas from other cryptocurrencies, or even plagiarized supporting documentation.
Investors looking for returns in the new technology sector are still quite attractive in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sectors - but should be careful, as they have quite a complex system. Newcomers and experts alike can potentially fall victim to cryptocurrency scams. In an environment like the current cryptocurrency market, potential investors must be very careful to research what they are putting in, and be sure to find out who is involved and what the real plans are for making money - without tricking anyone else.
