Streaming and production giant Netflix will soon produce a documentary series on the infamous Bitfinex hack — one of the biggest financial crimes from 2016 stealing 119,756 Bitcoin (BTC) — worth $72 million at the time. The Netflix documentary will be centered around a New York-based couple and their link to laundering nearly 120,000 BTC tied to the crime. According to Netflix, the documentary will be directed by American filmmaker Chris Smith with Nick Bilton as the co-executive producer. The announcement read: “Netflix has ordered a documentary series about a married couple’s alleged scheme to launder billions of dollars worth …

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a warning against the rise in romance scams in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the latest trend involving cryptocurrencies. Just a few days ahead of Valentine’s day, the FBI San Francisco field office alerted the public about the rise in romance scams based on the complaints filed with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). A romance scam involves creating fake accounts and convincing unwary investors — both men and women — to transfer funds under the pretext of getting romantic. According to the information shared by the FBI: …

The BBC has pulled a documentary focused on a 20-year-old crypto trader who supposedly turned $50 into an $8 million fortune last year. The doco was titled “The Crypto Millionaire” and followed the story of Birmingham-based Hanad Hassan, who claims to have made a return of around 16,000,000% in one year from trading unspecified crypto assets. The story was set to be broadcast this week and explore how Hassan had started to give back to the community following his newfound wealth, however the show was canned after the Guardian reported on Feb. 10 that it had raised concerns with the …

New York resident Heather Morgan, 31, claims to be many things: “a serial entrepreneur, prolific writer, irreverent comedic rapper, and investor in B2B software companies with high growth potential.” But her LinkedIn bio doesn’t mention anything about her alleged capability to help launder hacked cryptocurrency. Yesterday morning, FBI agents arrested Morgan — or was it her rapper alter-ego Razzlekhan?— and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein for allegedly conspiring to launder crypto connected to the 2016 Bitfinex hack that saw 119,756 Bitcoin (BTC) drained from the crypto exchange. The pair have strongly proclaimed their innocence during a New York court appearance on …

The Wonderland protocol became the talk of the decentralized finance (DeFi) world after the platform was found at the center of a brewing controversy. On Jan. 27, DeFi analyst zachxbt revealed that one of the anonymous co-founders of Wonderland happened to be QuadrigaCX co-founder Michael Patryn, who has been operating under the name of Sifu. QuadrigaCX is a defunct crypto exchange from Canada which closed when Gerald Cotten, the exchange founder and sole person with knowledge of the exchange's wallet keys, passed away. Following his death, $169 million worth of user funds were irreversibly lost. Cotten's passing led to a …

Nonfungible tokens (NFT) have taken the world by storm, resulting in mainstream interest and greater adoption of cryptocurrency. According to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, NFT popularity skyrocketed in 2021. Chainalysis’ “NFT Market Report” shows a minimum of $44.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency sent to Ethereum smart contracts associated with NFT marketplaces and collections last year. The report notes that this number was $106 million in 2020. While impressive, increasing scams and fraudulent activities have infiltrated the NFT space. For instance, major NFT marketplace OpenSea recently announced that its free minting tool was prone to misuse. As a result, OpenSea shared …

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has alerted the crypto community against a 'massive' SMS phishing scam targeting Binance customers. On Friday, CZ tweeted alerting users of a phishing scam campaign directed at Binance users through SMS. There is a massive Phishing scam via SMS with a link to cancel withdrawals. It leads to a phishing website to harvest your credential as in the screenshot below. NEVER click on links from SMS! Always go to https://t.co/9rMMAmtCxH via a bookmark or type it in. Stay #SAFU pic.twitter.com/erNwe90FN1 — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) February 4, 2022 As per the screenshot shared by CZ, the scam …

Australia's consumer and competition (ACCC) watchdog is investigating Facebook’s parent company Meta for a long running series of fraudulent cryptocurrency advertisements of the platform. The news comes just a day after Cointelegraph reported that billionaire businessman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest was pursuing criminal action against the social media giant for allegedly serving users crypto scam ads and fake articles which used his name and likeness. Numerous other high profile celebrities from Hugh Jackman to Nicole Kidman have been fraudulently employed to draw users into investment scams. The ACCC alleges that Meta allowed the crypto scammers to breach Australian consumer law, defrauding …

Australian billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest is taking Facebook to court over scammy cryptocurrency ads that he alleges used his name to defraud victims. The Fortescue Metals chairman is accusing Facebook of breaching Australia’s money-laundering laws, claiming that it “knowingly profits from this cycle of illegal ads” that it failed to remove. An initial court hearing in the Western Australian Magistrates court is scheduled for Mar. 28, with a committal hearing expected later in 2022. Forrest is bringing forward the charges under Part 10 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, with the consent of the Attorney-General Michaelia Cash. According to the filings, …

On Wednesday, American Youtuber and "internet detective" Coffeezillaa published a recorded interview of himself and disgraced Youtuber Paul "Ice Poseidon" Denino. During the session, Denino allegedly confirmed that he made off with $750k worth of his investors' money through rug pulling a crypto project dubbed "Cxcoin." The ordeal started last July, when Denino created the Cxcoin for streamers and content creators on the Binance Smart Chain. Denino then allegedly promoted the coin to his community of followers, telling them that "don't worry, no rug [pull] here all the money is locked [in a smart contract] lol, my wallets are pinned." …

In the world of digital finance, where the weapon of choice for a heist is a computer rather than a semi-automatic firearm, tracking down scams and frauds from across the world becomes a near-impossible feat for centralized police forces. However, in an interview with Cointelegraph, an anonymous cyber vigilante shares insights into how he went about tracking down a group of decentralized finance (DeFi) scammers responsible for the $25 million StableMagnet rug pull, coordinating with police authorities and eventually having the stolen money returned back to the investors. The StableMagnet platform lured unwary investors under the pretext of high returns …

How to avoid cryptocurrency scams? One of the best ways to protect your crypto investment is to secure a wallet and do your own research about the projects in the market. Don't believe everything you're told. Instead, examine any claims made about investment, especially if they appear too good to be true or promise huge returns in a short period. Also, do not trust anyone who contacts you personally, whether a government official, a public personality, or a stranger, and asks for Bitcoin payments or offers you an "investment opportunity." Whenever possible, enable two-factor authentication on your cryptocurrency wallet and …