The craziest crypto scams and hacks: Part 2: How investors put $4bn into OneCoin, a coin that didn’t even exist
Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain english.
This week we will take a look at the fascinating stories behind some of the largest crypto hacks and scams.
Today, let's investigate OneCoin – a coin that never even existed. Nonetheless, investors lost over $4bn dollars in the scheme.
OneCoin was founded by Dr. Ruja Ignatova, who is still running from the authorities, and Sebastian Greenwood, who's now in jail in the United States.
The promise was simple: OneCoin was a new, revolutionary crypto currency that could initially only be minted by insiders, potentially making them very rich. To become an insider though, you'd have to become an affiliate and the more new affiliates you bring in yourself, the more extra tokens you can mint.
The company armed its affiliates with marketing material and even created an internal exchange where tokens could be swapped for cash with other members. In order to use the exchange though, you'd have to buy a higher level of membership.
Smells like fraud to you? Not to many others, as the scheme was going on for years. In the end, and in hindsight obviously, there was no cryptocurrency and the two founders ran away with all the money.
The sad thing is: Where there is money, there are scams. And the promise of getting rich quickly blinds a lot of people's common sense. Keep your eyes open and always ask yourself: Why does someone want my money before I see anything in return for it? If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
And tomorrow: The case of a Secret Service Special Agent, who stole millions from an online drug marketplace.
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The craziest crypto scams and hacks: Part 2: How investors put $4bn into OneCoin, a coin that didn’t even exist
Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain english.
This week we will take a look at the fascinating stories behind some of the largest crypto hacks and scams.
Today, let's investigate OneCoin – a coin that never even existed. Nonetheless, investors lost over $4bn dollars in the scheme.
OneCoin was founded by Dr. Ruja Ignatova, who is still running from the authorities, and Sebastian Greenwood, who's now in jail in the United States.
The promise was simple: OneCoin was a new, revolutionary crypto currency that could initially only be minted by insiders, potentially making them very rich. To become an insider though, you'd have to become an affiliate and the more new affiliates you bring in yourself, the more extra tokens you can mint.
The company armed its affiliates with marketing material and even created an internal exchange where tokens could be swapped for cash with other members. In order to use the exchange though, you'd have to buy a higher level of membership.
Smells like fraud to you? Not to many others, as the scheme was going on for years. In the end, and in hindsight obviously, there was no cryptocurrency and the two founders ran away with all the money.
The sad thing is: Where there is money, there are scams. And the promise of getting rich quickly blinds a lot of people's common sense. Keep your eyes open and always ask yourself: Why does someone want my money before I see anything in return for it? If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
And tomorrow: The case of a Secret Service Special Agent, who stole millions from an online drug marketplace.