Scam

2020 was quite a controversial year for the cryptocurrency industry. It started with the bearish sentiment, triggering the collapse of the market. However, the second half of the year turned out to be positive for cryptocurrency, as COVID-related lockdown triggered a significant interest in it.

People tend to look up to celebrities. That is why when they set a trend for something, common folks take up the trend almost immediately. For this reason, scammers often use their popularity to look more reliable and attract potential victims.

The outbreak of coronavirus triggered a significant growth of cryptocurrency scams in early 2020. Now, the second wave of the pandemic might trigger another boost of fraudulent activity.

While scammers take advantage of celebrities’ names without them knowing about this, some of the stars willingly take part in fraudulent projects. Thus, a famous US rapper known as T.I. agreed to pay a fine amounting to $75,000 for promoting a fraudulent ICO.

Phishing attacks have been a widespread tool for stealing and misusing people’s credentials. Now, they have penetrated the cryptocurrency industry, mostly to get access and steal the users’ funds.

After the news that fraudsters use Binance to launder stolen cryptocurrency funds, the exchange decided to take action to stop such activity. They have established a strong cybersecurity alliance.

Talks about Ripple being a scam pop up every now and then. The altcoin’s runner, Brad Garlinghouse even had to handle several lawsuits concerning registration problems. Nevertheless, XRP remains the third-largest by market cap.

The CEO of Ryanair, an Irish budget airline, Michael Kevin O’Leary (59-years of age), was involved in promoting another cryptocurrency scam without even knowing it. That made him turn extremely bearish and compare Bitcoin (BTC) itself to a scam.

Back in July 2020, CoinIdol, a world blockchain news outlet, received an email from one of its readers that wished to stay anonymous saying one was scammed by a project called PrepayWay. Later on, another reader, Sempiira Joseph Nyagwa claimed he was also scammed by the project runners.