![\"\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/scam-4126798_1280-1-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIf we should guess, we\u2019d say that\u2019s an understatement. Not only cryptos have been stolen in the name of cryptos, after all. Let\u2019s meet the worst of the worst coming up next (and one of them that\u2019s still around).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Modern Tech<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nVietnam, 2017-2018. Cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs<\/a>) are making quite a buzz, and a lot of people want to invest and become a millionaire. This turned out to be a perfect breeding ground for the Modern Tech<\/a> scammers and their once considered \u201cbiggest digital money fraud in history\u201d. Or biggest cryptocurrency scam, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThey offered two tokens for sale: Pincoin and iFan. The first one was offered as an investment opportunity with monthly (and inexplicable) returns of up to 40%;<\/strong> while the second one promised to fuel a new social network for artists<\/a>. All that the users needed to do was to \u201cinvest\u201d a minimum of $1,000 in the mentioned tokens to earn a lot of money in a few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Biggest-cryptocurrency-scams-Modern-Tech\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Anuncio-de-Pincoin-ofreciendo-ganancias-de-un-40-mensual.-Fuente-Meteofinanza-560x480-1.png\")
Pincoin ad offering impossible profits. Source: Meteofinanza<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nNot surprisingly, they made the payments as promised in the beginning. That\u2019s because there were no miracle tokens, but a pyramid scheme<\/a> underway. A pyramid scheme doesn\u2019t offer any real product but instead is just waiting for new investors to pay the promised percentages to the oldest ones. When there are no more enough investors, then the pyramid falls and the admins flee away with the rest of the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThat\u2019s exactly what happened with Modern Tech in 2018. One shiny day, they abandoned their offices, closed all their social networks, and stopped all communications and payments to their clients. The scammers behind the scheme flew away with around $666 million.<\/strong> And they weren\u2019t caught yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBitClub Network<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nSpoiler: this was another pyramid scheme. But it wasn\u2019t disguised as an ICO but as a cloud mining platform. In case you\u2019re wondering, cloud mining is a system in which a company asks for money to buy cryptocurrency miners<\/a> (specialized machines), and build and maintain some mining farms. When these machines start to produce cryptocurrency, the earnings are shared with the investors, usually every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCloud Mining webpages are all around the Internet<\/strong>, offering contracts to anyone for a small investment and promising guaranteed returns for the mining. All without having to worry about the configuration and maintenance of the equipment. This might be true, but it might be fake too. BitClub Network showed that quite well, becoming one of the biggest cryptocurrency scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Biggest-cryptocurrency-scams-BitClub\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/BitClub-Network-original-site.-Source-screenshot-1024x499.jpg\")
BitClub Network original site. Source: screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThis malicious platform<\/a> was born in 2014, promising the sky and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWhen you join BitClub Network, you\u2019ll start earning Bitcoin almost immediately with no expensive equipment to buy. No sky-high power bills. And no software to install. We take care of all of the details. You get the rewards. Are you ready to start mining?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The deal was simple. The users needed to buy packs between $50 and $100,000 for daily profits of a minimum of 5% and a maximum of 12% with \u201cdaily withdrawals\u201d. In reality, there never were any miners. Only a bunch of scammers attracting new investors to pay to the oldest ones, and keeping most of the profits. They stole over $722 million this way.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd they were caught by U.S. authorities in 2019. Matthew Brent Goettsche, one of those arrested, dared to openly state<\/a> that the BitClub Network’s target was “dumb” investors. In his words, they were “building this whole model on the backs of idiots.” The original webpage is still online, so, please avoid it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPlus Token<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nIf you thought the people learned something from Modern Tech, you were wrong. By 2019, mainly in China<\/a>, South Korea, and Japan, around three million people were investing in a new ICO. This one offered the PLUS token, which, presumably, would be able to make profits between 9% and 20% per month.<\/strong> All this by doing cryptocurrency trading, cloud mining, and gathering referrals.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYou might think this seems like a fusion between Modern Tech and BitClub Network, and you wouldn\u2019t be too wrong. However, the reason behind its tremendous success was probably the marketing model. They didn\u2019t limit themselves to the digital world, but organized face-to-face meetings and bought physical ads to convince people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Biggest-scams-Plus-Token\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Plus-Token-event.-Source-chotaichinh.com-2.jpg\")
Plus Token event. Source: chotaichinh.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\u00a0In June that same year, the investors started to complain about problems with the withdrawals. As usual, the admins blamed hackers<\/a> at first, but then the pyramid was untenable. The scammers fled with over $3 billion in huge amounts in ETH, EOS, and BTC.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSoon after, six of them were caught<\/a> in Vanuatu and deported back to China. In July 2020, other 109 \u201cmasterminds\u201d and \u201ckey members\u201d were arrested<\/a> as well. By November<\/a> that year, the Chinese authorities seized around $4.2 billion in cryptocurrencies from these scammers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBitConnect<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nMaybe this one is special in the list because it was an actual cryptocurrency. BitConnect (BCC) was even listed in CoinMarketCap, and its market capitalization surpassed 2.1 billion by January 2018. Not everybody suspected it was the cooking end for one of the biggest cryptocurrency scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was born in 2016, and its main offering was a loan platform with the native token (no, it wasn\u2019t DeFi<\/a>). Supposedly, you could get up to 40% monthly profit on the funds borrowed. Likewise, you could earn up to 1% per day just for holdings (no, it wasn\u2019t staking<\/a>), plus another percentage for each referral that was included in the system (yes, it was a pyramid scheme).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAmerican authorities discovered this quickly. The Texas State Securities Board issued<\/a> an \u201cEmergency Cease and Desist Order\u201d against BitConnect and affiliated brands, alleging they were not registered and didn\u2019t show any legit information. The investment amount calculated back then was $4.1 billion.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSoon after, the admins closed the loan platform. Everybody panicked (with reasons), and a massive sell-off sent the BCC price to zero in a few days [CoinPaprika<\/a>]. This year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed<\/a> an action against five BitConnect promoters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They offered two tokens for sale: Pincoin and iFan. The first one was offered as an investment opportunity with monthly (and inexplicable) returns of up to 40%;<\/strong> while the second one promised to fuel a new social network for artists<\/a>. All that the users needed to do was to \u201cinvest\u201d a minimum of $1,000 in the mentioned tokens to earn a lot of money in a few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not surprisingly, they made the payments as promised in the beginning. That\u2019s because there were no miracle tokens, but a pyramid scheme<\/a> underway. A pyramid scheme doesn\u2019t offer any real product but instead is just waiting for new investors to pay the promised percentages to the oldest ones. When there are no more enough investors, then the pyramid falls and the admins flee away with the rest of the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s exactly what happened with Modern Tech in 2018. One shiny day, they abandoned their offices, closed all their social networks, and stopped all communications and payments to their clients. The scammers behind the scheme flew away with around $666 million.<\/strong> And they weren\u2019t caught yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spoiler: this was another pyramid scheme. But it wasn\u2019t disguised as an ICO but as a cloud mining platform. In case you\u2019re wondering, cloud mining is a system in which a company asks for money to buy cryptocurrency miners<\/a> (specialized machines), and build and maintain some mining farms. When these machines start to produce cryptocurrency, the earnings are shared with the investors, usually every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cloud Mining webpages are all around the Internet<\/strong>, offering contracts to anyone for a small investment and promising guaranteed returns for the mining. All without having to worry about the configuration and maintenance of the equipment. This might be true, but it might be fake too. BitClub Network showed that quite well, becoming one of the biggest cryptocurrency scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This malicious platform<\/a> was born in 2014, promising the sky and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you join BitClub Network, you\u2019ll start earning Bitcoin almost immediately with no expensive equipment to buy. No sky-high power bills. And no software to install. We take care of all of the details. You get the rewards. Are you ready to start mining?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The deal was simple. The users needed to buy packs between $50 and $100,000 for daily profits of a minimum of 5% and a maximum of 12% with \u201cdaily withdrawals\u201d. In reality, there never were any miners. Only a bunch of scammers attracting new investors to pay to the oldest ones, and keeping most of the profits. They stole over $722 million this way.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And they were caught by U.S. authorities in 2019. Matthew Brent Goettsche, one of those arrested, dared to openly state<\/a> that the BitClub Network’s target was “dumb” investors. In his words, they were “building this whole model on the backs of idiots.” The original webpage is still online, so, please avoid it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you thought the people learned something from Modern Tech, you were wrong. By 2019, mainly in China<\/a>, South Korea, and Japan, around three million people were investing in a new ICO. This one offered the PLUS token, which, presumably, would be able to make profits between 9% and 20% per month.<\/strong> All this by doing cryptocurrency trading, cloud mining, and gathering referrals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might think this seems like a fusion between Modern Tech and BitClub Network, and you wouldn\u2019t be too wrong. However, the reason behind its tremendous success was probably the marketing model. They didn\u2019t limit themselves to the digital world, but organized face-to-face meetings and bought physical ads to convince people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0In June that same year, the investors started to complain about problems with the withdrawals. As usual, the admins blamed hackers<\/a> at first, but then the pyramid was untenable. The scammers fled with over $3 billion in huge amounts in ETH, EOS, and BTC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after, six of them were caught<\/a> in Vanuatu and deported back to China. In July 2020, other 109 \u201cmasterminds\u201d and \u201ckey members\u201d were arrested<\/a> as well. By November<\/a> that year, the Chinese authorities seized around $4.2 billion in cryptocurrencies from these scammers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe this one is special in the list because it was an actual cryptocurrency. BitConnect (BCC) was even listed in CoinMarketCap, and its market capitalization surpassed 2.1 billion by January 2018. Not everybody suspected it was the cooking end for one of the biggest cryptocurrency scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was born in 2016, and its main offering was a loan platform with the native token (no, it wasn\u2019t DeFi<\/a>). Supposedly, you could get up to 40% monthly profit on the funds borrowed. Likewise, you could earn up to 1% per day just for holdings (no, it wasn\u2019t staking<\/a>), plus another percentage for each referral that was included in the system (yes, it was a pyramid scheme).<\/p>\n\n\n\n American authorities discovered this quickly. The Texas State Securities Board issued<\/a> an \u201cEmergency Cease and Desist Order\u201d against BitConnect and affiliated brands, alleging they were not registered and didn\u2019t show any legit information. The investment amount calculated back then was $4.1 billion.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after, the admins closed the loan platform. Everybody panicked (with reasons), and a massive sell-off sent the BCC price to zero in a few days [CoinPaprika<\/a>]. This year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed<\/a> an action against five BitConnect promoters.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBitClub Network<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Plus Token<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
BitConnect<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n