As crypto investments surge, so do scams, with fraudsters exploiting people’s hopes for quick profits.
In South Korea, a recent bust revealed a major $232 million scam targeting over 15,000 victims, primarily middle-aged individuals.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Police arrested 215 people linked to the fraud, including a prominent YouTuber with a 620,000-strong following.
This group allegedly ran a fake investment consultancy from late 2021 to early 2023, luring victims with ads promising up to 20x returns. Victims were even urged to sell assets like their homes to invest.
The scammers promoted 28 low-volume tokens, six of which they had created, manipulating prices to appear profitable. After investor losses, they collected sensitive information under the guise of “compensation” promises, using it to take out loans in their names.
The ringleader, known as Mr. A, fled to Australia but was caught on November 13. Police urge caution against “get-rich-quick” schemes as they investigate further.
The U.S. Department of Justice has sentenced Dwayne Golden, 57, of Pennsylvania to 97 months in prison for orchestrating a fraudulent crypto investment scheme that stole over $40 million from investors.
The first half of 2025 has become the most damaging six-month period in crypto history, with over $2.1 billion stolen across 75+ separate incidents, according to new data.
A new breed of cyber-attack is sweeping through crypto media, exploiting site pop-ups and wallet-connect prompts instead of smart-contract bugs.
CoinMarketCap, one of the most widely used crypto data tracking platforms, is reportedly facing a front-end security breach, with multiple users encountering a suspicious prompt to verify their wallets.