Here's a list you certainly do not want to be on or associated with. And, if you were one of the "victims", you really don't want to admit you got "had" do you? Take a look at the top ten ICO scams that took advantage of unsuspecting investors to the tune of just short of $700 million. Oh, and if you happen to be one of the "scammers," don't toot your new Ferrari's horn at a cop car.

Bill Taylor/ FintekNews


"New data from Fortune Jack has found that ten of the most high-profile ICO scams have swindled a staggering $687.4 million from unsuspecting investors.

In a world that is becoming increasingly more regulated, many financial experts claim that fraud is becoming less frequent. But, despite such a notion, it could be argued that cybercriminals are not necessarily giving up – they’re just getting smarter.

When invested in correctly, cryptocurrencies can quickly turn the average investor into a multi-millionaire however, the decentralisation and lack of regulation for so many cryptocurrencies has paved the way for fraudsters to swindle thousands of unsuspecting investors.

So, what is the latest scam to enter the cryptocurrency market? The answer is Initial Coin Offering (ICO) scams...

Bitcoin Magazine defines an ICO as “ A fundraising mechanism in which new projects sell their underlying crypto tokens in exchange for bitcoin and ether. It’s somewhat similar to an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in which investors purchase shares of a company.”

ICOs are fairly new, however, as an awareness of cryptocurrency has spread, many investors have ploughed millions into a mechanisms all hoping to profit from the cryptocurrency phenomena.

In fact, new data reveals that $20.1 billion has been invested across 789 ICOs in 2018 to date, that’s a whopping 222% in the amount invested into ICO’s compared with the entirety of 2017...

The top ten biggest ICO scams to date

Scam name Amount of money scammed ($)
Pincoin and iFan 660,000,000
Plexcoin 15,000,000
Bitcard 5,000,000
Opair and Ebitz 2,900,000
Benebit 2,700,000
Bitconnect 700,000
Confido 375,000
REcoin and DRC 300,000
Ponzicoin 250,000
Karbon 200,000

 


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