Crypto And Forex Scams Got Away With $34 Million In 2018: UK Report

The main financial regulator of the United Kingdom is in the coming altcoin news. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently reported that crypto investors in the country lost more than $34 million due to crypto and forex scams from 2018 to 2019. The news were first reported by the Financial Times on May 20.

As the data shows (gathered from the UK national fraud and cybercrime reporting center Action Fraud), the individual loss due to scams has decreased from $76,000 to $18,500 while the total losses fell by more than $14 million – being featured on many best cryptocurrency news sites.

Still, the crypto and forex scams were a subject in many reports and their number tripled to reach 1,834 with more than 81% of them being crypto scam claims. Right now, the FCA is actively considering a ban on “high-risk derivative products linked to crypto assets.”

As the FCA executive director Mark Steward said in his statement related to crypto and forex scams:

“Scammers can be very convincing so always do your own research into any firm you are considering investing with, to make sure that they are the real deal.”

The report is a viral topic in the latest cryptocurrency news – mostly because the FCA stated that scammers use social media to find potential investors. According to the regulator, crypto and forex scams like these often use pictures of celebrities with fake endorsements alongside images of luxury goods such as cars and watches.

In 2018, the initial coin offering (ICOs) advisory firm Statis Group released a study in which it found that more than 80% of ICOs in 2017 were scams. The associated losses for that year, as the study showed, totaled around $1.34 billion.

In the latest altcoin news, we can also see that new evidence surfaced, suggesting that purported Bitcoin (BTC) exchange Goxtrade is a Bitcoin scam. As the evidence shows, Goxtrade reportedly used the real names and photos of unaffiliated parties including the blockchain figure Amber Baldet to fill their website staff page and its absent from the UK’s registry of companies and businesses.

All in all, the number of crypto and forex scams is increasing and there must be certain regulation to prevent these billions which are lost on a yearly basis.