Fake Cryptocurrencies Flood The Market
Recently there have been a lot of cases of fraud related to cryptocurrency. Since the market is decentralized and is kept completely anonymous, anyone can open an online exchange and fraud people out of their money. In a lot of cases, some small online exchanges just up and run with people’s money and cryptocurrencies. Some exchanges are never working at all, some are easily hacked by attackers and some other exchanges control the supply and price of the cryptocurrency available on their site.
In a case of an alleged fraud, about 2,000 crore INR (=296,200,000 USD) was duped from people by making them do transactions in the GainBitcoin scheme. This fraud that cheated about 8000 investors has been one of the biggest cryptocurrency frauds in India.
Raj Kundra, husband of the Bollywood celebrity Shilpa Shetty, is one of the major launderers in this case. The Enforcement Directorate of brought in Raj Kundra for questioning. Raj Kundra was grilled in connection with this money laundering scheme.
Amit Bhardwaj, Founder and the CEO of GBMiners, is also connected to this fraud. He is also the author of the book “Cryptocurrency for Beginners”. GBMiners is infamous for its fraudulent methods. Amit Bhardwaj is also known to be connected to MCAP and GB21 frauds.
It is believed that Amit Bhardwaj and his accomplices allegedly duped investors from Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Nanded and other places in the state of Maharashtra. He was arrested by Pune police at the Delhi Airport on the charge of fraud and the money laundering of 8000 people of 2000 crore INR.
He had promised investors high returns and the means to mine Bitcoin on their own. When the time came to do his part, Amit fled India and was found in Bangkok. Seven people associated with him were also arrested.
In another fraud in Thane, Maharashtra, India, police busted an online cryptocurrency racket that duped people of 500 crore INR (=74,050,000 USD). As per the investigation, the fraudsters had coaxed hundreds of gullible investors to invest money with the promises of good returns. They succeeded in this by launching their own cryptocurrency known as Money Trade Coin (MTC).
On the official website of the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Global FZE, UAE and Money Trade Coin Ltd, UK. and Mr. Amit M. are listed as the joint owners of the intellectual property, that is, MTC. Though, Lakhanpal, said to be the director of Money Trade Coin Ltd., is still at large.
Lakhanpal had promised returns 20 times the invested money in six months. After the deadline, there was no contact from the office to the investors. This led to an enquiry, which then led to a full fletched investigation against fraud. In this case, over 25,000 investors were cheated and fell prey to the accused group of individuals.
Cryptocurrencies are anonymous and decentralized. Since there is no organization to confirm what is real or fake, it’s easy for scammers to cheat gullible people of their money. This year, there have been a lot of cases of fraud and hacks in the cryptocurrency market and it will still take some time before the market will be completely secure. Till then, every investor should be careful and only use credible sources for financial matters.
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