Police in Russia have arrested an alleged creator of a crypto pyramid scheme from Kazakhstan who was facing an international arrest warrant, Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs (MOI) officially reported on May 28. The unnamed detainee is reportedly accused of defrauding investors using a scam crypto scheme promising high returns from crypto investments, involving a group of criminals. The MOI reported at least 300 fraud cases allegedly connected with the pyramid scheme, with one of the investors having reportedly lost around 14 million Kazakhstan tenge ($36,700) to the criminals. According to the report, the intruder fled Kazakhstan in early 2019 …

United States authorities have brought criminal charges against a LocalBitcoins trader in connection with operating an unlicensed money transmission business, a government press release confirmed on May 28. As revealed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, Las Vegas resident Morgan Rockoons will serve 21 months in federal prison for his activities, which also included a bitcoin (BTC)-based real estate fraud scheme. According to the release, Rockoons made over a thousand trades on the P2P platform until the end of 2017. Having failed to register as a money transmitter with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), …

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has warned the public that crypto project OneCoin “could be involved in a scam,” according to a notice released on May 28. The Australian financial regulator has issued an official warning against OneCoin, the entity operating under website onecoin.eu, urging the public to not deal with this company as it is not licensed in Australia. Similar to another warning concerning a different company published on May 21, the ASIC stated that OneCoin did not obtain two major licenses needed to offer investment services in the country. Specifically, the regulator noted that the company …

An app that claims to give users the chance to earn $45 a day in free bitcoin (BTC) is a scam, according to a tweet by an “independent malware hunter” posted on May 20. The software, known as Bitcoin Collector, is advertised on a website that supposedly enables users to share a unique URL with their friends with payouts of 3 ether (ETH) (worth about $800 at press time) for every 1,000 people who click on it. But according to a security researcher who goes by the nickname Frost on Twitter, the app is a front for attempts to steal …

Fraudsters have been adding fake cryptocurrency wallets to the Google Play store in an attempt to cash in on rising bitcoin (BTC) prices, ESET antivirus researchers claimed on May 23. One malicious app imitated the hardware wallet Trezor — and the investigation found that the software had ties to another fake app that has the potential to scam unsuspecting users out of money. While the app’s page on Google Play looked legitimate, the researchers said the software itself contains no Trezor branding at all, with a generic login screen phishing for credentials. According to ESET, more than 1,000 users had …

Dutch, Luxembourg authorities and Europol have shut down one of the three largest cryptocurrency tumblers, Europol reported on May 22. A cryptocurrency tumbler, also known as a cryptocurrency mixing service, is an anonymity tool that claims to transform transactions of non-private coins to private ones by mixing crypto funds with others, which makes it difficult to track the funds’ original source. According to the report, the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) has now seized six servers of major crypto tumbler Bestmixer.io, which had a reported turnover of at least $200 million since its launch in May 2018. The …

Two Chinese over-the-counter (OTC) traders have been accused of running an illicit bitcoin (BTC) loan scheme and collecting bitcoin by promising interest on deposits, Chinese newspaper The Beijing News reports on May 22. According to the article, Yi Zhou and Xiang Li convinced traders to send them their bitcoin holdings by promising them interest on their deposits, obtaining over 7,000 BTC (nearly $54.7 million at press time) from over 100 investors. The allegedly defrauded investors first started cultivating suspicions when the interest — which was paid in yen — stopped arriving on time in April. The two individuals reportedly gained …

Brazillian police have arrested ten people suspected of operating a cryptocurrency pyramid scheme worth 850 million reals ($210 million), local news media outlets including Correido Do Povo reported on May 21. As part of Operation Egypto, a swoop dedicated to unearthing unsanctioned financial schemes, Brazil’s tax agency joined police in orchestrating a crackdown on the figures behind Indeal, who they say amassed funds from 55,000 investors. They lured victims with the promise of a 15% payout in the first month after investment in the crypto scheme. In total, the investigation involved inspection of 13 individuals and five legal entities. “The …

Sean Coonce, engineering manager at cryptocurrency custodian BitGo, announced that he has fallen victim to a SIM swapping hack in a Medium post published on May 20. According to the post, Coonce had over $100,000 siphoned out of his account on cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in under 24 hours. In his post, Coone details SIM swapping, a practice that sees the attacker maliciously requesting a telecommunications carrier to redirect the traffic of a mobile phone number to a device over which they have control. This device is then used to obtain two-factor-authentication (2FA) codes which grant control over the victim’s online …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has halted a confirmed cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme after it took funds worth $30 million, the regulator confirmed in a press release on May 21. The principal behind Argyle Coin, Jose Angel Aman, is now subject to legal action for running a Ponzi scheme using funds he gained from investors in his alleged diamond resale outfit. Aman had previously drawn suspicion over similar diamond-related companies, each promising investors huge returns through the reselling of wholesale diamonds. Argyle Coin, it was claimed, had full backing in the precious stones. “As alleged, Aman operated a …

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued another warning on May 21 against an alleged crypto-related scam project. According to the report, the Australian financial regulator has today published a warning against an alleged scam entity dealing under two names, Dartalon Ltd and GFC Investments. The ASIC has red flagged the entity, reportedly claiming that the business “has made unsolicited calls or sent emails about investing, financial advice, credit or loans,” while it does not possess either an Australian Financial Services license or an Australian Credit license from the ASIC. According to Finance Magnates, the flagged website of …

A portion of the ether (ETH) stolen from hacked New Zealand-based cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia has been moved and deposited to a different crypto exchange, according to an analysis. Crypto Anti-Money Laundering startup Coinfirm tweeted about their findings on May 20. According to Coinfirm, 30,790 (over $7.778 million) of the stolen ether has been reportedly moved to a new address, and 10 ETH (over $2,500) moved to the hot wallet of another crypto exchange. A Twitter account dedicated to reporting on large transactions to and from cryptocurrency exchanges, Whale Alert, claims that 500 of the stolen ether (over $125,000) has today …