UK Watchdog Announces $ 34 Million Loss in Cryptographic and Forex Scams Last Year



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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK's largest financial regulator, announced that crypto investors in the country had lost more than $ 34 million due to cryptocurrency and currency scams. changes between 2018 and 2019, according to the Financial Times of May 20.

According to data collected by the FCA from the Fraud Reporting Center and the UK Action Fraud Cyber ​​Crime, individual losses from scams increased from USD 76,000 to USD 18,500, while total losses decreased by USD 14 million .

However, the number of reports has more than tripled to 1,834, with 81% of them being crypto-fraudulent claims.

According to the report, the FCA plans to ban "high risk derivatives related to cryptoassets". For now, FCA Executive Director Mark Steward warns:

"Fraudsters can be very convincing, so always do your own research on all the companies you plan to invest with, to make sure that they are the real deal."

FCA reportedly stated that scammers were using social media to find potential investors. The regulator also noted that scams often used images of celebrities wearing false endorsements alongside images of luxury goods, such as cars and watches.

Last year, the consulting firm Statis Group, an expert in initial coin offerings, revealed that one study indicated that more than 80% of ICOs in 2017 were scams. The associated losses for this year totaled $ 1.34 billion.

As recently reported by Cointelegraph, new evidence has emerged suggesting that the so-called bitcoin exchange (BTC) Goxtrade is a scam. Goxtrade would have used real names and images of unaffiliated parts such as the blockchain figure Amber Baldet to fill out the webpage of its staff and is not registered in the United Kingdom's Register of Companies and Enterprises.

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