(Duplicated) Coronavirus-linked Frauds Push Cryptocurrency Crimes to $1.4 Billion, According to Report

CipherTrace, a cryptocurrency intelligence company, has revealed that fraudulent activities triggered by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have made cryptocurrency crimes like hacks and thefts soar to an alarming level. As reported by Reuters on June 2, crypto frauds have reached $1.4 billion since the beginning of the year as coronavirus scams have necessitated some digital currency payment.

The menace of crypto frauds

CipherTrace announced that cryptocurrency fraud skyrocketed to $4.5 billion in 2019, and 2020 is following these footsteps.

Dave Jevans, CipherTrace CEO, noted, “Consumers, investors, and users continue to adopt cryptocurrency at a massive rate, and it is by far the fastest-growing payment system on the planet. At one trillion dollars in annual payments, cryptocurrency payments have grown from zero to 7% in 10 years, making this volume of funds attractive to bad actors.”

According to the report, most of the coronavirus-inspired frauds happened by preying victims in legitimate platforms and luring them into various chat rooms where Bitcoin payment was requested. 

Fraudsters have sophisticated their tendencies to the extent that they have been impersonating global entities like The Red Cross as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc. Therefore, aiding the extraction of personal information and crypto payments in the pretext of supporting victims. Cryptocurrency losses have also occurred based on the bogus sale of personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing kits.

The $1 billion Wotoken Ponzi scheme

CipherTrace stipulated that the major contributor to crypto losses so far this year is the Wotoken Ponzi scheme in China. Investors were promised considerable returns from algorithmic trading bots, but this emerged to be just a gimmick. 

On the other hand, Glassnode, an on-chain analysis company, recently depicted that 60% of Bitcoin supply has been immobile in the past 12 months showing that some investors view the leading crypto as a store of value based on this hodling trend.