The French stock markets regulator AMF has seen over a 14,000% surge in enquiries related to fraudulent crypto offers in 2018 as opposed to 2016, the agency wrote in a new annual report released May 7. In the report, the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) specified that the number of enquiries associated with crypto-related scams online has surged to over 2,600 in 2018 from only 18 similar enquiries back in 2016. With that, the amount of fraudulent online offers in other industries such as foreign exchange (forex) and binary options have significantly decreased, the AMF noted. As such, fraudulent offers …

Fraud impacts organizations of all types and sizes across a wide range of industries and geographies. Consequences can be direct, through financial losses, or indirect, through fines and reputational fallout. In 2018, firms worldwide lost more than $7 billion to internal fraud schemes, according to a “2018 Report to Nations,” by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) — which analysed 2,600 real cases of occupational fraud from companies across 125 territories and 23 industries. Addressing the risk of fraud is a key challenge for all organizations. Blockchain as a solution Blockchain is an anti-fraud technology by design. The essence …

A senior executive at one of Asia’s biggest banks has said the $9 trillion trade finance industry needs to be digitized in order to tackle fraud, according to a Bloomberg article published on May 5. Ng Chuey Peng, managing director and head of global commodities finance at Singapore’s Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd. (OCBC), criticized the industry’s reliance on paper receipts, and warned forgeries have become so sophisticated that can be difficult to spot fake documents. Paper records are regularly used for everything from invoices to establishing the ownership of goods, and without them, banks are often unable to lend money …

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 …

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 …

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 …

NChain chief scientist and Bitcoin SV (BSV) proponent Craig Wright has filed a libel claim in the United Kingdom against cryptocurrency podcaster Peter McCormack. The podcaster tweeted a photo of the legal notice on April 18. The reason provided for the claim is that McCormack accused Wright of fraud and falsely claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin (BTC). According to BSV-focused crypto news outlet CoinGeek, the claim aims to “prevent McCormack from making further fraudulent claims that Wright is not the individual behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym.” Furthermore, Wright also seeks £100,000 (over $130,000) in damages, plus …

Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has updated a blacklist of crypto-related websites associated with fraud, according to an official statement on April 4. Following a previous crypto-related scam blacklist update in December 2018, the FSMA has added seven new crypto trading platforms where it has found signs of fraud. The blacklist now includes a total of 120 websites. In the statement, the financial authority noted that it continued to receive new complaints of consumers who invested in cryptocurrencies on those trading platforms, adding that crypto fraud is still taking place in Belgium. Similar to the previous update, the …

Disclaimer: this article has been updated to include comments from Vanbex. Canadian police have frozen assets of the founders of blockchain consulting firm Vanbex, which raised $22 million in an alleged fraudulent initial coin offering (ICO). The development was reported in a court document released on March 14. According to the document, Vanbex founders Kevin Hobbs and Lisa Cheng claimed to the public that they operated a Vancouver-based cryptocurrency firm, starting from 2017. The firm, which was interchangeably called Vanbex and Etherparty, is actually a shell company that developed no useable products, the court document argues. The police have now …

Cryptocurrency exchange HitBTC appealed to the specificity of its cryptography in an ongoing dispute with the team behind altcoin Bitcoin Private (BTCP). The post was published on HitBTC’s blog on Tuesday, March 26. The dispute involves HitBTC’s delisting of the altcoin, whose team then accused the exchange of fraud. HitBTC, currently ranked by CoinMarketCap as the world’s 15th largest exchange by adjusted daily trade volume, claims that the BTCP team had offered an “unsuitable” solution for moving its funds prior to a scheduled coinburn. In the recent blog post — titled “Explanation of the situation with BTCP” — the exchange …

United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard P. Donoghue unsealed a nine-count indictment against Patrick McDonnell today, according to a press release from the Department of Justice (DoJ) on March 26. Following his arrest earlier today, McDonnell — the owner and operators of purported investment firm CabbageTech — was charged with nine counts of wire fraud in connection with an alleged plan to defraud cryptocurrency investors. Donoghue said in the press release: “As alleged, the defendant defrauded investors by making false promises and sending them fraudulent balance statements, hiding the fact that he was stealing their …

Law enforcement in Mumbai, India have arrested four more suspects allegedly involved in a cryptocurrency scam that amassed an estimated 1 billion rupees (over $14 million). English-language daily media outlet The Times of India reported on the arrests on March 22. Per the report, the police arrested Ashok Goyal Jaipuria, Asif Malpani, Baljit Singh Saini and Pradeep Arora from Delhi. Several of Goyal’s bank accounts have been reportedly frozen as well, since he is allegedly the head of the scheme. The Times of India also states that an unnamed Bollywood actor who reportedly attended promotional events of the scam will …