Not a hack on an exchange or a phishing attack, but an actual scam perpetrated by an individual.
Onecoin.
Heard of it?
A movie starring Kate Winslet called Fake! was made about it.
It is an enormous ponzi scam orchestrated by Dr Ruja Ignatova.
Yes, she is a “Dr.” of sorts, she earned her PhD in 2005 (who knows if its legit).
Her magic trick allowed her to walk away with nearly $4b and it is more colloquially known as one of the biggest scam in modern history.
Essentially, she ran a stratospheric ponzi scheme with Onecoin.
She travelled the world in luxury yachts and private jets, gave keynotes at conferences and had audiences with Princes and wealthy elites all over the world.
Everyone believed they were going to get really rich by investing in Onecoin.
She is truly the CryptoQueen scam artist of the century.
Best part?
She was a convicted felon in Germany, where she spent 14 months in prison for fraud.
She declared bankruptcy and made headlines for that in Europe.
I mean, talk about background checks, did no one checked on her when she started raising funds again?
She started Onecoin in 2014, raised billions from princes and rich people all over the world, and wanted to look for a CTO.
In 2016, she approached a blockchain expert Bjorn Bercke and wanted him to work on Onecoin.
Bjorn was shocked to realised that Onecoin, a centralised currency built on a blockchain, doesn’t have a blockchain at all.
It is like buying a Ferrari only to realise that it doesn’t have an engine!
Bjorn didn’t join Onecoin as its CTO and went on to whistle-blow the whole thing.
Her brother took over as CEO and get arrested big time.
The cryptoqueen is still at large and authorities have not caught her.
That is also another amazing aspect of the story.
Its 2021, technology is ripe and with the amount of CCTVs, data, communications and social media going around these days, how is it that Ruja can remain hidden?
Aren’t there hired investigators or spies recruited by the wealthy people she conned out there to hunt her down?
She is better at being Jason bourne than Jason Bourne himself.
Oh and 1 more thing.
Ruja allegedly owns 220,000 bitcoins.
At USD $47k per bitcoin, she has around $10 billion in her possession.
Ok, maybe now that I say it out loud, it kind of make sense how she went ghost and got away with it all.
If you have that much bitcoin, you would have a desirable amount of power and influence at your beck and call.
This is a classic example of how cryptocurrency can be used for bad.
Bad actors like Ruja preyed on our greed and fears, allowing her to capitalize and make billions.
Just remember, for every bad example, there will be good ones and vice versa.
And don’t ever, for any reason, believe in a get-rich-quick scheme or anything that can give you guaranteed high returns for your investments.
Let logic and common sense prevail over emotions and FOMO.
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Do you think cryptocurrency makes scamming easier?
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#startups #business #startupx #growth #success #socialmedia #culture #entrepreneurship #strategy #onecoin #scams #bitcoin #eth #katewinslet #RujaIgnatova #crypto
