According to the Bangkok Post a Thailand-based bitcoin mining scam has cheated its customer out of around $1.35m only months after another group of Thais were accused of defrauding Finnish millionaire Aarni Otava Saarimaa out of $24m in bitcoin.
According to reports 30 people have filed complaints against CryptoMining.Farm (a website reportedly owned by the Vietnamese company Lifetime Technology Co. Ltd) but local police believe there may be as many as 140 victims. The complainants allege they were persuaded to buy virtual bitcoin mining contracts with a promise of a 70% return.
In theory these virtual mines lease shared mining power from a larger data centre to their users allowing them to enjoy the financial benefits of cryptocurrency mining without having to buy or run the necessary hardware. The reality is the majority of bitcoin mining setups are scams that lure their victims in on the back of outrageous promises about the potential returns.
The fact CryptoMining.Farm was a scam was unequivocally confirmed by one victim who said that although he’d been promised that he could withdraw his money at any time, what he actually found was a raft of unexpected conditions including their intention to pay out in 84 instalments over a total of 7 years!
In the wake of these reports Wissanu Krea-ngam, Thailand’s deputy Prime Minister, has been among the many public figures calling for tougher crypto regulations to be brought as it has become almost impossible to separate the fraudsters from legitimate enterprises.
However, this is not just a Thai problem.
Reports from India about a cryptocurrency scam that stole an estimated 1 billion rupees ($14 million) have just hit international headlines.
According to The Times of India the police in Mumbai have arrested Sanjay Sontakke, Rajnikant Kumavat, Alpesh Barodia and Kirankumar Panchsara and are looking for fifth suspect, Ashok Goyal, who they believe was also involved in the alleged scam. The arrests follow a complaint made by the victim - Umeshchand Jain - who claims the group had defrauded him of 10.2 million rupees (about $145,000) by selling him ‘Cashcoin’, their own cryptocurrency, by promising him the value of Cashcoin was about to double.
And this news comes only a month after Indian police arrested those involved in a scam involving 5 billion rupees (about $71.6 million) not to mention the publication of an independent report by crypto analytics specialists Chainalysis which claims a total of $36 million of Ethereum was stolen in 2018, more than double than was reported in 2017 which in itself is an extremely worrying trend.
If you have been the victim of a bitcoin or cryptocurrency scam or of any other type of digital fraud, please call us today on 020 7792 5649 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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