The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has halted activity of another alleged cryptocurrency-related scam stealing millions of dollars from investors. According to a SEC’s announcement on June 19, the authority has been granted a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against two Pennsylvania-based brothers allegedly running three crypto scam schemes. According to the SEC, Sean Hvizdzak and Shane Hvizdzak lied about their crypto fund performance by fabricating financial statements, instead redirecting investor funds to their own accounts with banks as well as crypto exchanges. As ruled by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Hvizdzaks, …

The latest report from Flipside Crypto takes a deep look into Tron (TRX) with the hope of answering a question many critics in the cryptocurrency space have posed: "Is Tron a scam?”. Dubious past The report starts by rehashing the Tron’s compromised origins story — from the allegedly plagiarized white paper to the promise of the $20 million giveaway that was never fulfilled. However, the report comes an unexpected conclusion: “Turns out, looking at the active supply of TRX in the past 30 days reveals a very healthy and active ecosystem.” TRX 30-day asset flows. Source: Flipside Crypto. Glorias present …

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, is investigating two Bitcoin (BTC) scams in Strathcona County in Alberta, Canada. They allege that fraudsters impersonated the local authorities in order to extort their victims for money. According to The Sherwood Park News on June 16, one of the victims received a call by a person that claimed to be from the Canada Revenue Agency, or CRA. The other victim said that the scammer stated he was an RCMP officer. Depositing money into a Bitcoin machine The authority’s report states that both unidentified residents of Alberta’s county were asked to withdraw cash …

Bitisis, an Iran-based cryptocurrency exchange platform targeting Chinese investors with investment opportunities, has reportedly pulled an exit scam. Chinese police are currently investigating the exchange’s disappearance, with the platform appearing to have transferred users’ assets to three wallet addresses after abruptly suspending operations. However, the addresses in question are held by major cryptocurrency exchanges and have been frozen. The operators of Bitisis are reportedly linked to a number of other similar exchanges. Arbitrage Fraud? According to 8btc, Bitisis lured investors with promises of abundant arbitrage opportunities affiliate referral commissions and embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign targeting the users of …

The last two years have witnessed a hefty uptick in crypto-centric ransomware attacks. Not only are bad actors becoming more refined, but they are facilitating access to other, less sophisticated ones. According to experts, crypto crime of this nature has been especially prevalent amid the coronavirus pandemic. But how does it all connect, and what can the industry do to stamp it out? As with all groups, the cryptocurrency sector has its portion of bad apples. Since 2018, ransomware attacks worldwide have increased by 200%. To make matters worse, the software required to carry out such attacks is widely available …

After a week of searches, it appears that the culprit behind at least two of the anomalous high fee transactions on Ether (ETH) was found. As reported by Chinese blockchain analytics company PeckShield on June 16, the originating address appears to be coming from Korean platform GoodCycle, a recently launched peer-to-peer exchange that provides “investment” opportunities to its users. According to PeckShield, this platform shows all the signs of a Ponzi scheme, which would explain its rapid rise in popularity. The analysts conducted a thorough blockchain analysis and found that a wallet beginning with “0xcdd6a2b” was the origin of the …

Cryptocurrencies forensics experts from Xrplorer warned on June 15 of an elaborate phishing scam where hackers try to steal the secret keys of XRP users, under the false premise that Ripple is giving away tokens. According to the report, the scam campaign, whose origin dates back to approximately January 17, 2020, began sending memo messages with minimal XRP amounts that said: “Starting February 1, 2020, Ripple is releasing 3 Billion XRP to incentivize network users. Get 25% more XRP added to your account balance in just minutes.” The scammers linked to a website inside the memo impersonating the Ripple’s Insight …

Russ Albert Medlin — co-founder of alleged crypto Ponzi scheme BitClub — was arrested in South Jakarta under accusation of sexual assault on minors. Local news outlet Jakarta Globe reported on June 16 that local law enforcement arrested Medlin on Monday. Jakarta Police chief Yusri Yunus explained that law enforcement received “tip-offs from the public that underage women were often seen” at his residence. When surveilling the place where he was residing, the police saw three teenagers leave his house: “The officers intercepted and questioned three underage women, around 15 to 17 years old. They admitted the owner of the …

Cybercriminals have reportedly created a fake site version of the legitimate encrypted self-destructing notes service privnote.com. The fake version can be shared with other users to steal Bitcoin. According to a June 14 report from KrebsOnSecurity, the creators of the encrypted notes service complained about a fake clone site, privnotes.com, whose scam scheme consists of the following: “Any messages containing Bitcoin addresses will be automatically altered to include a different Bitcoin address, as long as the Internet addresses of the sender and receiver of the message are not the same.” Privnote.com said in the report that the phishing site does …

Crypto scammers have stolen at least $150,000 by impersonating SpaceX YouTube accounts and hosting fake Bitcoin giveaways. According to a June 9 report on Bleeping Computer, several scammers hacked legitimate YouTube accounts and changed the branding and content to emulate that of Elon Musk's SpaceX channel. The channels then broadcast archived footage of Musk as if it was a live event and asked viewers to send Bitcoin (BTC). Bleeping Computer reported that at least 80,000 people watched the live stream, which has brought in 15.31 BTC for the scammers since June 8. One of the Bitcoin addresses received 29 transactions …

Investors in the South African cryptocurrency firm VaultAge Solutions are planning to file a case against company CEO Willie Breedt for allegedly scamming 2,000 investors out of approximately $17 million. Breedt flees abroad On June 1, Cointelegraph reported that Breedt was believed to have fled South Africa for Mozambique in December 2019. The South African Department of Home Affairs indicated that he hadn’t returned since then. After fleeing to Mozambique, Breedt had reportedly cut all communications with his investors except for one email that tried reassuring them that their funds were safe and would be paid back to them. Local …

A new project has sprung up to take advantage of the tense situation in the United States and promote a new token. A massive wave of protests and riots continues to engulf the U.S. following George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. While an outpouring of support came from the crypto community as a whole, with many prominent members donating to support black rights activism, some saw this as an opportunity to make a quick buck. The result is the launch of a “George Floyd Token,” or FLYD. Its website asserts that the memory of George …