The ‘Achilles heal’ of Crypto is security.
This is ironic because the whole thing about Crypto is security and the safety it bring to things especially information.
However Crypto has been beset on all sides by scammers. Whether it is disappearing exchanges, scam ICOs, robbers, hackers, fake investment schemes and goings on in the dark web, Crypto has a massive crime problem.
Where there are resources there are predators, so this should not be a surprise.
Facebook’s Libra project recently dragged to congress for hearings to explain itself is causing a stir even while it now seems that it will be sometime before it goes live. A global private sector currency with a vast captive audience has made quite a few government money folks eyes bug out. Libra is a monetary ‘mars attack.’ It is also an inevitable one, bound to be followed by many large organizations in search of printing their own money.
The flip side of the criminal onslaught is the huge interest that Bitcoin and other cryptos garner in the general populations. You can’t be interviewed as a public figure without someone popping at Bitcoin question at you. Its as if every financial and political figure was asked about the future and stock price of Netflix a company with a similar marketcap to Bitcoin. This interest is not going away and will be a driver for the whole industry in the same way that bottom up interest in being online drove the take up of the internet and WWW.
So it is not surprising that this week finds the fist flush of Libra Crypto scammers moving in to steal money from the unwary.
At least one criminal outfit has advertised access to Libra on Facebook this week inviting ‘expressions of interest in Libra.’ Anyone who registered for that would then get hit up by a boiler room.
The curious user reported the following.
“Today I get a call from a boiler room saying they are Facebook In Switzerland and wanting me to set up an account So I can trade. Apparently, I don’t need to worry if I have not done it before a broker could do it for me. They were going to give $300 to start with to trade implying this was $300 of Libra.”
This is all reminiscent of the criminals who worked in ‘Binary Bets’ a simple bilk where if the vicious gambling product didn’t get you, then the company would by simply not paying your money back which was vastly more likely to be what you had left after losses than winnings. This was a very lucrative racket for some very shady people creating such a pestilence that the EU and many other jurisdictions shut down the basis of the swindle, the trading of ‘binary bets.’
If you see anything like this in future simply ignore it. The Libra scams have begun and there will be a world more of them coming our way.
The question I really want answered is, how on earth did this outfit get to advertise on Facebook? Having been pummeled for a $5bl fine for not keeping their users safe, here is a blatant example of Facebook putting its users at risk, by enabling a shady, unregulated and likely criminal organization to prey on its users.
Its unlikely that this Crypto ad showed up on this users Facebook without their being a filter for him being a trader, Crypto enthusiast or investor. Even if Facebook didn’t specifically target him for this outfit, how could they even get onto the platform at all?
If Facebook is going to launch Libra, it needs to care about these things and start locking out the obvious predators from their estate. How hard can it be to spot a financial bucket shop trying to sell your own unreleased Crytpo currency?
Really hard if you don’t give a wooden nickel.