In 2021, crypto scammers succeeded in committing the largest theft in the history of the blockchain, robbing thousands of fans of the Squid Game, as well as deceiving the media and using them to pull off a fraudulent scheme. collected the loudest cryptocurrency scams of the outgoing year.

Robbery of the century

In August 2021, hackers managed to break into the Poly Network crypto platform. The attack stole more than $ 600 million in various digital currencies, making this the largest theft in the crypto coin industry, according to Mashable.

Poly Network reported the incident on their Twitter account and asked the "expensive hacker" to return the stolen funds.

The attacker transferred most of the cryptocurrency back to the platform, and explained his act with a desire to have fun.

Ultimately, the service announced that it did not intend to bring the hacker to justice. Instead, the Poly Network offered him a $ 500,000 reward and a position as a cybersecurity advisor.

Squid Game

The Squid cryptocurrency was created based on the popular Korean TV series Squid Game. The coin was originally conceived as part of the real Squid Game. The creators of the token said that its owners will participate in the game of six rounds. To participate, you had to buy a certain amount of Squid. The winner could take all the participants Squid.

The demand for the coin was extremely high, as evidenced by the price of the token. In just a few weeks, it rose from 1 cent to $ 2.34, that is, by 23,000%.

However, the game had one strange condition - it was impossible to sell a token, after the game it could only be exchanged for other coins or money. Also, buyers should have been alerted by the fact that no one gave the creators the right to use the name of the series.

The creators promised that the game will start in November, but in fact, at the beginning of this month, they withdrew the entire amount of the token capitalization, which exceeded $ 2 million.

This fraudulent scheme is called carpet pulling. Cryptocurrency creators in such cases simply take all the funds invested in their project and cash out the full amount.

“SQUID is the most sensational crypto scam of autumn 2021. Hype name, headlines in the press about tens of thousands of percent growth - the recipe for mass hysteria is not very complicated.

People were not stopped by the fact that SQUID had nothing to do with Netflix, nor CoinMarketCap's warnings about problems with the sale of the token, nor the project's suspicious-looking social networks.

Almost no one stupidly did their research before buying these tokens. The result is predictable, ”said Daniil Shepovalov, an IT expert and specialist in technical analysis (danya.ru).

The media were caught

In 2021, the world's major media were twice deceived by crypto scammers, who sent them fake press releases, which said that global companies would begin to accept cryptocurrency as payment.

So, in September it was announced that Walmart will start accepting Litecoin. A couple of months later, similar messages began to appear about the Kroger supermarket chain.

As a result, due to frequent mentions in the media, the price of Litecoin and Bitcoin rose by almost 40%, but after the denial, both coins collapsed. According to the portal, the fraudsters behind the fraud were pushing the price of crypto coins to increase their funds.

“I hope you didn't buy this”

Twitch streamer with 4 million subscribers Adin Ross has been promoting the MILF coin on one of his broadcasts for 20 minutes. The streamer transferred several hundred dollars to the crypt and watched its course live. In addition, he actively encouraged his viewers to follow his example, which they did.

Shortly thereafter, the price of the token plummeted by 98% - the creators of the coin withdrew all the money invested in the MILF.

Ross himself stated that he was paid "a lot of money" for advertising and during the broadcast he simply hoped that none of his subscribers would buy MILF. He also admitted that he himself would never spend his money on these tokens.

“Subscribers, remember I bought MILF tokens? So, I already said, but again, do not buy this garbage. I got paid and I don't care. I hope you didn’t buy it, ”said Ross.

African Scam

In the summer of 2021, another cryptocurrency scam occurred. The creators of the Africrypt crypto exchange from South Africa Amir and Rais Kaji disappeared along with the users' bitcoins for almost $ 2.3 billion.

Back in the spring of 2021, Kaji claimed that their investment firm had been hacked and all of their clients' accounts had been compromised. However, then the opposite turned out and the investors accused the brothers of theft, after which they disappeared.

The guilt of Amir and Raisa Kaji has not yet been established. However, if they did steal $ 2.3 billion in bitcoin, it would be the largest theft in history, according to Mashable.

Afcrypt investors are still trying to get their money back.“For those who actively shone in the public field, it is far from uncommon to start running when“ something went wrong ”. In the long term, hiding can be quite difficult: the world has become extremely transparent thanks to technology, digital traces remain everywhere, and face recognition systems will see and recognize you in the densest crowd, "Shepovalov said.

How esportsmen made money off of kids

In early June 2021, four content creators for the esports organization FaZe Clan Fraser Kay Hattree, Jarvis Jarvis Hattree, Jacob Teeqo Swerden and blogger Nikan began promoting a cryptocurrency called SaveTheKids [ Save the Children].

FaZe Clan members advertised a new coin to their multi-million audience, which supposedly was supposed to help charities.

As soon as the cryptocurrency became popular, all members of the organization sold their shares, making a profit at the expense of investors.

“Aggressive promotion with the help of influencers and at least indirect attachment to a strong brand is a common technique not only for scams, but in general in“ normal ”cryptocurrencies. Someone in one way or another has already become attached to NASA, someone to Disney, and this is far from the only example. If the information campaign among influencers is already in full swing, trying to “ride” on a HYIP token even for several hours can already be very dangerous, ”Shepovalov noted.

bbabo.Net