Canadian blockchain firm Vanbex has filed a lawsuit against its former contractor for spreading false and defamatory statements about the firm, as Vanbex announced on May 1. On March 14, Canadian police froze personal assets of the firm’s founders Kevin Hobbs and Lisa Cheng due to an allegedly fraudulent initial coin offering (ICO). According to court documents, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) determined that Vanbex founders Kevin Hobbs and Lisa Cheng were defrauding investors by offering investment in its token Etherparty (FUEL), while intending to use investor funds for personal benefit, rather than developing products. Following the reports, Vanbex’s …

In worsening news for users of Microsoft’s email services like Outlook, Hotmail and MSN, several cryptocurrency holders affected by a recent hack allege that the hackers responsible stole their crypto, as reported by Vice’s Motherboard on April 29. One victim claimed on a Dutch tech forum to have lost just over 1 bitcoin (BTC), or almost $5,400 at press time, when hackers used his email account to reset his password and gain access to his Kraken account on March 31st. Several Reddit users attested to similar experiences. According to Microsoft, the initial breach took place between January 1st and March …

A 190% increase in cryptocurrency scams saw Australian consumers lose $6.1 million Australian dollars ($4.3 million) in 2018, according to a report released by the country’s Competition and Consumer Commission on April 29. The substantial rise from the AU$2.1 million ($1.48 million) lost in 2017 came despite an industry wide slump in cryptocurrency prices, with Australian authorities receiving 674 reports where crypto was used to pay scammers. Most of the victims were targeted by investment scams where they are encouraged to purchase digital currencies or asked to make crypto payments for access to forex trading, commodity trading and other investment …

Singapore-based crypto exchange KuCoin has blocked a crypto wallet that is allegedly involved in a recent RChain (RHOC) token scam, RChain wrote in a blog post on April 26. RChain, the blockchain firm behind RHOC coin, informed its users that the company suffered a scam involving an escrow transaction containing counterfeit money. In the apparent deal, RChain was set to send 11 million RHOC tokens to its partners who expressed an interest in putting money into an escrow account. Once the money was in escrow, RChain sent RHOC tokens to their wallet as agreed. However, after the tokens were sent, …

A church in the Pacific nation of Samoa is at the center of scrutiny after ministers invited notorious cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme OneCoin to preach to its congregation, New Zealand-based media network Radio NZ reported on April 26. OneCoin, which is now all but defunct after the indictment of both its masterminds, raised hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide by luring investors with the promise of huge returns. Samoa’s central bank banned any activities involving the scheme in 2018, but representatives nonetheless succeeded in approaching the Samoa Worship Centre and pitched their likely fraudulent investment product to members. A number of …

Malta's financial regulator has issued a note to the public regarding the risks of crypto assets and the possibility for scams, news outlet Times of Malta reported on April 25. The Malta Financial Services Authority’s (MFSA) new guidance note intends to warn the public about cryptocurrency investments and related risks, and educate people on how to identify and avoid scams and fraudulent schemes. The guidance reportedly outlines the most common types of digital currency-associated scams, which include fake iInitial coin offerings (ICOs), crowdfunding ventures promising higher gains which are availed of once the coin becomes active, and fake exchange platforms …

American software security firm Symantec found a spike in a new crypto mining malware that mainly targets enterprises, TechCrunch reports on April 25. The new cryptojacking malware, dubbed Beapy, uses the leaked United States National Security Agency (NSA) hacking tools to spread throughout corporate networks to generate big sums of money from a large amount of computers, the report notes. First spotted in January 2019, Beapy reportedly surged to over 12,000 unique infection across 732 organizations since March, with more than 80% of infections located in China. As found by researchers, Beapy malware is reportedly spread through malicious emails. Once …

At least 95% of cryptocurrency crimes investigated by law enforcement involve bitcoin (BTC,) the co-founder and COO of Chainalysis told Fortune on April 24. Jonathan Levin, whose company offers investigation software for law enforcement to pursue bad actors, said BTC is “by far the favorite” for hackers and criminals. He revealed that law enforcement needs to take more sophisticated approaches to tackle darknets — and warned that the crypto industry was starting to see the beginnings of terrorism financing. Levin said the records left behind by crypto transactions has led to many arrests, as officials in the United States tackle …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have jointly issued an alert warning investors against fraudulent websites purporting to operate advisory and trading businesses. The alert, issued by the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy and the CFTC’s Office of Customer Education and Outreach, was published on April 24. The warning states that staff from both agencies have recently observed crypto-related investment scams where bad actors are touting “digital asset or ‘cryptocurrency’ advisory and trading businesses,” in some cases claiming they can invest clients’ funds in special crypto trading systems or …

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance announced on April 23 that two men plead guilty for illicitly selling steroids and controlled substances and laundering millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies and Western Union payments. Callaway Crain, 35, and Mark Sanchez, also 35, were allegedly behind the darknet website “NextDayGear,” and also manufactured some of the substances they sold. Among their products were reportedly injectable and oral steroids, as well as medication to counteract the adverse effects of their use, including Xanax, Valium and Viagra. Per the announcement, the defendants shipped over 10,000 packages across the United States, generating over $2.3 million …

Remember CoinBene, the cryptocurrency exchange platform that denied being hacked at the end of March 2019, and instead saying it was undergoing maintenance? Well, it turns out the platform is still under maintenance, or so the company says. Meanwhile, Cointelegraph has received exclusive details from stakeholders reportedly affected by the situation. These reports, for the most part, were only discussed on social media platforms like Twitter and Telegram but have yet to make an appearance on the cryptocurrency news circuit — until now. The CoinBene saga — timeline of events On Monday (March 25, 2019), there were massive outgoing transactions …

A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after becoming one of the first people in the United States to be convicted of stealing cryptocurrency by hacking into cell phones. Prosecutors in Santa Clara announced the jail sentence on April 22. In February, Joel Ortiz had pleaded guilty and to theft and accepted the 10-year plea deal. Ortiz stole more than $7.5 million from at least 40 victims: the press release notes that he then spent $10,000 a time at Los Angeles nightclubs, hired a helicopter to fly him and his friends to a music festival, and …