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Topic: Crypto thefts, fraud hit $1.2 billion in Q1 report (Read 841 times)

member
Activity: 142
Merit: 11
Don't think that normal businesses have no fraud, they also steal hundreds of millions, banks do it, businesses of all types do it, investment businesses do it. Just because the headlines are like that for crypto it doesn't mean it only happens here. There is MASSIVE fraud out there not involving crypto, billions and billions of dollars, if we knew the real figure it would make the 1.2b seem like dust.

You are right, frauds are in every business be it a fiat currency or cryptocurrency. 1.2Billion in one quarter means around 5 billion per annum and this is not a big figure if compared with market volume of cryptocurrency.
jr. member
Activity: 255
Merit: 3
This article is interesting, there several interesting points.

The first one is that the fraud has dramatically increased compared to 2018. This is something that i was not expecting, I believed that the fraud level would be lower than in 2018 because of ICO s are not so popular anymore.

I dont understand how the OP thinks that KYC should help , this is about people scamming thru ICOs and lost funds thru exchange hacks.

I found very interesting that they keep statistics on how much funds are going out of the country.

Quote
An analysis of 164 million bitcoin transactions showed that cross-border payments to offshore exchanges have grown 46% over the last two years, contributing to the $8.7 trillion, or 11.5 percent of the world’s wealth, hidden offshore, the report said.



I thought that was interesting too. It's interesting to see that there are more countries than others that have shown the highest movement of laundered money. Is there a reason for that?
full member
Activity: 490
Merit: 123
This article is interesting, there several interesting points.

The first one is that the fraud has dramatically increased compared to 2018. This is something that i was not expecting, I believed that the fraud level would be lower than in 2018 because of ICO s are not so popular anymore.

I dont understand how the OP thinks that KYC should help , this is about people scamming thru ICOs and lost funds thru exchange hacks.

I found very interesting that they keep statistics on how much funds are going out of the country.

Quote
An analysis of 164 million bitcoin transactions showed that cross-border payments to offshore exchanges have grown 46% over the last two years, contributing to the $8.7 trillion, or 11.5 percent of the world’s wealth, hidden offshore, the report said.

jr. member
Activity: 247
Merit: 1
I wonder how Libra is going to have an effect on crypto thefts and fraud... really over all regulation
member
Activity: 254
Merit: 10
Streamies Rocks!!!!
It is truly appalling that the loss in just Q1 has reached over 1.7 billion USD. However, I still believe KYC and regulations take away the core concepts away from the 'decentralized' and 'anonymous' world of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. I think just like block chain technology and crypt I currencies have created a more effective means of transacting and transferring funds, a more effective model should be developed to checkmate fraud on the block chain.
full member
Activity: 1218
Merit: 105
I think it's way more than that to be honest, as there had been some thefts that are not publicized or are not being made public e.g. personal wallets, unknown exchanges/services etc. One cannot easily contain thefts as long as there are insecure platforms and personal vaults, so I don't think it's that surprising to know that such things exist in the cryptosphere, though somewhat more prevalent and frequent compared to banks, I should say (or perhaps 'more publicized' is more fitting?) Anyway, expect that number to rise as long as there are exploits to capitalize on. Sure enough, there'd be loads of thefts to follow as bitcoin and crypto is also considered money and it's gaining traction again after a few years.
That's correct, the number might be higher than the numbers reported. This hacking, stealing and any kinds of theft is a big problem in the Crypto Currency space and anyone can be a target even the top to crypto exchanges are a victim of these hacking that's why everyone should be more vigilant at times like this and anyone of us is a potential target of hackers.
full member
Activity: 1750
Merit: 118
I guess most of the thefts involve exchanges, wouldn't keep money in them except for funds that will be immediately traded. Sad

ive witnessed alot of scams and when i check the scammers wallet i dont see any activity for a long period of time  . i think they intended to do it and this is part of their strategy so that the public will leave them overtime  . once the scammers gets a rest , thats the time that  they will move the funds on another dummy wallet or they will use some kind of a mixing service so that they wont leave any trace  .

1billion worth of cryptos for q1 is indeed pretty huge a but i am sure that this amount will got even more bigger after we progress  .
member
Activity: 120
Merit: 10
I guess most of the thefts involve exchanges, wouldn't keep money in them except for funds that will be immediately traded. Sad
hero member
Activity: 1400
Merit: 505
let's give this some context. chargebacks and chargeback fraud alone costs e-commerce merchants $40 billion per year now.[/url]
so a rate of $5 billion/year doesn't seem that crazy for crypto theft and fraud. bitcoins cost more than $5k a pop---we're in the big leagues now. Wink
In that contest it true that it is not a big thing, but lets see what blockchain is all about, every transaction is recorded and it is not like the rest of the financial transactions, every transactions can be traced and we could eliminate every fraud in the market and bitcoin could be a market that bad actors would not dare to try and we will reach those position in the future and i hope every fraud being done with blockchain will be traced back in the future and they will get punished for their actions.
sr. member
Activity: 1078
Merit: 256
That's a lot of money. One of the reasons why some people are afraid to take the risk of investing in crypto is because of the huge number of fraud and scams scattered around the blockchain world. It's something that we have to get rid of. This number is alarming and we can't do something about it by being careful and smart in handling our funds.
The only way to prevent this is to always be careful dealing with anything inside this market, you can't escape the fact that scammers and hackers are coexisting inside this industry so better to be always prepared and aware with what possible precautions to take.
full member
Activity: 1708
Merit: 126
That's a lot of money. One of the reasons why some people are afraid to take the risk of investing in crypto is because of the huge number of fraud and scams scattered around the blockchain world. It's something that we have to get rid of. This number is alarming and we can't do something about it by being careful and smart in handling our funds.
sr. member
Activity: 1988
Merit: 453
I still can't wrap my mind around why people wouldn't want to have compliance with AML and KYC to better help that this doesn't happen

The first part of your post was OK. But the second part shows your complete ignorance towards the basics of cryptocurrency. How KYC is going to prevent the exchange hacks? Most of the exchanges which were targeted by the hackers were KYC compliant. Cryptopia is a perfect example. On the other hand, BTC-e / Wex.nz which went without any mandatory KYC requirement survived for more than 7 years, before closing down due to unknown reasons.

What are your thoughts on having both KYC and AML complinace for exchanges?

I don't have any issued in undergoing the KYC formalities, as long as the exchange owners do proper audits on a continuous basis. KYC should not be used as a tool to harass the users, because I have seen it being used to deny withdrawal permissions. In case KYC is mandatory, then it should be compulsory at the time of registration. They should not suddenly ask for KYC, when someone is withdrawing his coins.
member
Activity: 560
Merit: 14
Day by day, people seems to defraud their fellow human beings. That's the world we live in. it's quite unfortunate we are experiencing it in cryptocurrency. That's why it's always advice to invest with spare  money cos nobody seems to be safe in digital world. don't be carried away enticing exchange online
jr. member
Activity: 312
Merit: 1
I doubt the news. because the hottest issue lately is the binance hack, after that there is no news or info about other frauds especially with a great number. this community should know better know than Reuters news agency if there is a sensitive issue. everyone is very careful in storing their digital assets and the exchange places double the security, even if there a frud the value not big as that. so I really doubt it.

We have to know that not only big exchanges are vulnerable to hacking but private wallets of users too. And that you will not be reading in news.
Crypto users should be more aware of danger and more protect their coins but the community is still not enough aware of that.
Criminals were always interested for every source of money and crypto is very attractive to them so I think that all kinds of frauds and hacking attacks will rise and the damage will grow.

This is very real though. Any sort of vulnerability and these guys will swoop. We definitely need not only better education to users but also having these cyber security firms in place to watch for any illegal actions it can be solved sooner than later.
legendary
Activity: 2450
Merit: 1047
Can you believe that losses from the theft of crypto from exchanges due to fraud hit $1.2B?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currency-fraud/cryptocurrency-thefts-fraud-hit-1-2-billion-in-first-quarter-report-idUSKCN1S62P3

I still can't wrap my mind around why people wouldn't want to have compliance with AML and KYC to better help that this doesn't happen

Yeah I find this very alarming, and this is what those against Cryptocurrency adoption are pointing out and why some countries and companies do not want them, something drastic should be done against like a world body to regulate and strict compliance to KYC and AML but on second they are already very strict on this.
hero member
Activity: 924
Merit: 501
Can you believe that losses from the theft of crypto from exchanges due to fraud hit $1.2B?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currency-fraud/cryptocurrency-thefts-fraud-hit-1-2-billion-in-first-quarter-report-idUSKCN1S62P3

I still can't wrap my mind around why people wouldn't want to have compliance with AML and KYC to better help that this doesn't happen

Because you a newb and don't know what you are talking about. Do you think if there are laws that are somehow going to make crime magically go away? How does asking customers for KYC stop fraud?
This article is biased and I don't even know how true this all is. But sure believe what you read online.

For some reason Paypal is better for business, because they keep it fair. You can ask for a refund if you got scammed. With crypto, you can't.

So, it can't be better than any form of traditional payment solution to be frank (unless what you are doing is against the terms of the particular payment processor).

Yes because paying 7% fee is awesome for your business right? Why would you want there to be refunded? So someone can do a chargeback on you?
member
Activity: 742
Merit: 21
Be the reason someone smiles today
For some reason Paypal is better for business, because they keep it fair. You can ask for a refund if you got scammed. With crypto, you can't.

So, it can't be better than any form of traditional payment solution to be frank (unless what you are doing is against the terms of the particular payment processor).
legendary
Activity: 2912
Merit: 1068
WOLF.BET - Provably Fair Crypto Casino
I doubt the news. because the hottest issue lately is the binance hack, after that there is no news or info about other frauds especially with a great number. this community should know better know than Reuters news agency if there is a sensitive issue. everyone is very careful in storing their digital assets and the exchange places double the security, even if there a frud the value not big as that. so I really doubt it.

We have to know that not only big exchanges are vulnerable to hacking but private wallets of users too. And that you will not be reading in news.
Crypto users should be more aware of danger and more protect their coins but the community is still not enough aware of that.
Criminals were always interested for every source of money and crypto is very attractive to them so I think that all kinds of frauds and hacking attacks will rise and the damage will grow.
member
Activity: 420
Merit: 18
One of the big flaw crypto currency is hacking because of hacking most of the wallets are suffering security issue even some got closed the only way to protect from hacking is hardware wallets
jr. member
Activity: 616
Merit: 1
It's scary how hackers have taken advantage of the anonymous nature of crypto to steal huge amount of crypto and walk free, since they leave no identity behind and the funds cannot be reversed back on the blockchain.
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