In recent years, the market for virtual currencies has been expanding steadily. It’s not about one country, but cryptocurrencies are spreading all over the world. If you are interested in cryptocurrencies, you may have heard the word “ICO”. While there are rumors that it is extremely profitable, there are constant stories of fraud. There must be as many people as there are stars who have actually invested and escaped with their money. So this time, I’m writing an article about ICO fraud methods and what ICO means.
ICO
ICO is an abbreviation for Initial Coin Offering. It sells its own cryptocurrency called “tokens” issued by businesses, and investors buy the tokens and wait for listing. Pre-listed tokens are nothing more than worthless entities, but if the value of the currency invested after listing increases, they can be sold at a high price. If a coin purchased for $ 1 per coin becomes $ 10,000 per coin after listing, you can make a lot of money. Therefore, this ICO project is said to be very profitable. On the other hand, there are countless coins whose value of coins has plummeted after listing and become almost worthless. Therefore, ICO investment is more like speculation than investment.
Percentage of ICO fraud
Satis Group LLC, an ICO digital asset advisory company in New York, is conducting research on ICOs. The survey roughly classifies the end of ICO into the following six categories.
| item | meaning | proportion |
| Failure | Refund funds to investors without collecting funds | 6% |
| Deadlock | Funds are not collected and it is not listed | 5% |
| scam | Unwilling to go public, then escape | 81％ |
| success | Successful target funding, successful development | 1.9% |
| Tapered | Target funding amount tapering development after successful | 4.4% |
| promising | Target funding amount successful, under development | 1% |
The fraud is over 80%. Most ICO deals are fraudulent, with the goal of tricking people into taking money from the beginning. ICO coins have a proper HP, and the white paper has a magnificent outlook, making it look like the person who is developing it has a great career. As a result, many investors are deceived and are constantly being deceived.
Fraud tricks
The pattern is largely understood because this ICO scam is a crime that has been committed worldwide for several years.
- 1: Talk about investment projects on SNS and matching apps
- 2: Tell the deposit destination and let them invest
- 3: Pretending to be listed and suddenly running away one day
Most ICO scams are based on social media such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or dating matching apps that offer investment stories. Of course, the criminal has no intention of going public, and if he collects money, he just runs away. Of course, the criminal does not leave a mark on his real name, phone number, address, etc., so it is very easy to escape.
Why there are so many ICO scams
ICO investment deals are very convenient for scammers. Because you can collect money without showing your face, you can fool the other person without having to tell your identity. Scammers don’t have to tell their real name or address, so it’s easy to escape. Therefore, evidence is hard to remain and it is easy to escape. Also, lawyers do not handle this type of scam. The reason is that evidence is hard to remain. ICO scams are also a great place to earn money for scammers, as evidenced by the large number of arrests each year.
Never invest in an ICO
Based on the above, it is a good idea not to touch the ICO investment itself. The fraud rate is too high, and an investment that you don’t know if it will be listed in the first place is too dangerous. I think it’s more constructive to invest in Bitcoin than to invest in unfamiliar coins.
コメント