Taiwan’s local businessman, Chen, was running an operation on social media platforms to trap over 100 cryptocurrency investors. He was also reportedly running a Taipei-based platform – Azure crypto Co. which offered investment services in cryptocurrency transactions.
The Taiwan Police has arrested 14 people for running this scam involving a whopping $5.41 million (150 Million New Taiwan Dollars) investment.
CIB investigator Kuo Yu-Chih said,
Chen and his staff set up Web sites, and allegedly used photographs of pretty women to attract mainly male victims, many of whom were in retirement with substantial savings.
The team of scammers promised high returns on cryptocurrencies such as Ether, Tron, and Tether while presenting themselves as financial advisers specializing in crypto mining. This was the way by which the scammers were duping the investors, Kuo said.
The suspects were charged with fraud, money laundering, and breaches of the Organized Crime Prevention Act. by CIB, according to the report shared by Taipei Times.
The CIB started monitoring the firm’s activities after receiving complaints from victims who had invested nearly $1.5 million (over 29 million New Taiwan dollars). After several months of investigation, the CIB raided the company office and the residences of Chen and his associates.
Due to the increase in no. of scams worldwide, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission published a new investor alert related to investment scams.
US SEC cited The “rising popularity” of initial coin offerings is considered the main reason for growing scams and exploits among retail investors. The SEC also said that the price surge of certain digital assets had been a critical factor for scammers to lure unsuspecting investors.
The SEC also highlighted BitConnect’s $2-billion scam that resulted in enormous losses for the retail investors.