New research published today, Aug. 6, has shed light on the infamous phenomenon of cryptocurrency-related Twitter accounts advertising fake “giveaways,” revealing a network of at least 15,000 scam bots. The analysis of Twitter bots, which continue to aggravate and even fool unsuspecting users, came from cybersecurity company Duo Security. The project involved a huge tranche of 88 million Twitter accounts, with researchers using machine learning techniques to train a bot classifier. Using just the latest 200 tweets from each account, the classifier unearthed a mesh of 15,000 bots at work spreading fake competitions and impersonating some of the cryptocurrency industry’s …

South Korean authorities are investigating a possible crypto investment scam involving the Seoul-based Shinil Group as the key figure, Korea JoongAng Daily reported July 31. Shinil Group (Shinil) allegedly promised to pay investors in gold from a sunken Russian shipwreck. Earlier this month, Shinil announced it had found the Dmitrii Donskoi, a Russian armored cruiser that sank 113 years ago, according to Reuters. The company claimed that the ship was loaded with 150 trillion won ($131 billion) worth of gold. To encourage investors to purchase the company’s own cryptocurrency, Shinil allegedly promised to reimburse them with the gold from the …

Valve Corporation has removed a game from its video game marketplace Steam that allegedly hijacked users’ computers to mine cryptocurrency, Motherboard reported July 30. The Steam game store has delisted Abstractism, an indie game accused of deceptive practices and cryptojacking, and has banned its developer from the platform. Steam took action following complaints from a number of users saying that the game setup file seemed to include a Trojan virus and malware disguised as steam.exe processes and launcher. Further investigation conducted by different players found that the programs were crypto miners that infected users’ computers to mine Monero. Game developer …

A Greek court has accepted a Russian request to extradite Bitcoin (BTC) fraud suspect Alexander Vinnik, complicating subsequent international litigation, the Associated Press reported July 30. A panel of senior judges in the city of Thessaloniki ruled in favor of a new extradition request from Russia for the accused computer expert. At a hearing on Monday, Vinnik reportedly denied allegations of fraudulent activity and said that he was fighting U.S. dominance in the global financial system. The court's decision complicates the case as the U.S. and France seek his extradition as well. Vinnik, who is a former owner of crypto …

The CEO of Vietnamese cryptocurrency mining firm Sky Mining has reportedly disappeared with investor and company funds worth an alleged $35 million, local media outlet VNExpress reported July 29. According to VNExpress, Sky Mining CEO Le Minh Tam disappeared a week ago, appearing to organize a cleanout of company assets. VNExpress notes that Sky Mining CEO Tam — although he has not been found in person — apologized for “everything” to investors in a Facebook post on Wednesday, explaining that the company’s profitability had fallen with the market’s volatility. Tam told investors to go to the company office in order …

The operator of now defunct Bitcoin (BTC) stock exchange BitFunder has pleaded guilty to federal charges of obstruction of justice and securities fraud, Reuters reports July 23. According to prosecutors, 37-year old Jon Montroll, also known as Ukyo, also pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, admitting that he provided false balance statements to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in an investigation of the fake 6,000 BTC BitFunder hack in 2013. Montroll, of Saginaw, Texas, operated BitFunder, where users could sell virtual shares of businesses for bitcoins, as well as Bitcoin exchange and depository WeExchange Australia Pty Ltd. Montroll …

A recent study prepared by ICO advisory firm Statis Group revealed that more than 80 percent of initial coin offerings (ICOs) conducted in 2017 were identified as scams. The study took into consideration the lifecycle of ICOs run in 2017, from the initial proposal of a sale availability to the most mature phase of trading on a crypto exchange. The research says that in 2017 “over 70 percent of ICO funding (by $ volume) to-date went to higher quality projects, although over 80 percent of projects (by # share) were identified as scams.” The analysts found that four percent of …

Billionaire entrepreneur and engineer Elon Musk has recently called attention to scam bots that impersonate famous people on Twitter to steal Ethereum (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies from their victims. Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin subsequently reacted to Musk’s tweet, suggesting on July 9 that CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey should take measures to ameliorate the situation. In his tweet, the world-famous founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX drew attention to crypto scammers on Twitter. Misspelling the name of Ethereum, Musk appeared to be impressed by the sophisticated “skillz” of the scammers: “I want to know who is running the Etherium scambots! …

According to court documents filed July 3, YouTube has been added as a defendant in a class action lawsuit against BitConnect. The lawsuit was initially filed on January, 24 by six individuals represent by law firm Silver Miller. The claimants state that crypto investment platform BitConnect issued crypto tokens that were unregistered securities, and obtained additional funds through a “wide-ranging Ponzi scheme.” The plaintiffs stated that their personal losses totalled $771,000. BitConnect allegedly used the funds received from new investors to meet the expectations of the existing ones. Per court documents acquired by Cointelegraph, BitConnect and its affiliated parties posted …

An official from Indian opposition party the Indian National Congress (INC) has demanded a probe into a “mega Bitcoin scam,” The Hindu reports July 5. The scam supposedly involves leaders of the majority Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Senior INC member Shaktisinh Gohil alleged that BJP officials were complicit in a “multi-layered” scam to launder money, which he claims the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Gujarat have estimated at Rs 5,000 crore, or about $723 million. The Hindu reports that the INC has demanded that the Supreme Court monitor an official investigation into into the matter. Gohil said that BJP members …

More than a thousand of crypto projects are “already dead” as of June 30, 2018, according to a recent TechCrunch report. The news outlet has based its claim on data from two websites: Coinopsy and DeadCoins. Coinopsy provides daily reviews of various cryptocurrencies, including ones that are already “dead.” It defines a “dead” token as exhibiting at least one of the following: “abandoned, scammed, website dead, no nodes, wallet issues, no social updates, low volume or developers have walked away from the project.” According to Coinopsy’s list, there are 247 “dead” coins as of press time. These include the notorious …

U.S. law enforcement has seized $17 mln in Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, and is seeking to seize about $24 mln more, from two Maryland, USA men, on charges of selling counterfeit drugs on the dark web, according to a Department of Justice (DoJ) press release published yesterday, June 26. In addition to around $17 million in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Law enforcement has seized $2.5 million in computer equipment, and over $1.5 million in cash. The government is further seeking to forfeit “no less than” $5.67 million, plus the value of 4,000 BTC (about $24 mln at press time), …