Crypto scams Asia: In less than 24 hours, the governments of China and South Korea have dismantled two organized groups that were in charge of promoting pyramid schemes by using cryptocurrency investments as a background. This decision seems to further reinforce the firm position of both governments in the fight against the criminal use of blockchain technologies.
In recent months, with the rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies, scams, and pyramid schemes have increased notably in Asia, where the market has seen an even higher adoption rate than in the rest of the world.
Such is the importance of the Asian market that, for example, a few months ago South Korea was one of the best arbitrage opportunities for traders because the price of Bitcoin (available on Coinbase) in its exchanges and P2P markets was much higher than in the rest of the world. Also, when rumors were spread about the country’s policies against cryptos, the world’s markets crashed into a solid bearish run.
Asian Ponzi Scheme # 1: China’s 13M$ Datang-Coin
On April 19, Northwest China police reported the dismantling of an organized gang that engaged in a multimillion-dollar scam by deceiving investors with a non-existent Token.
They organized events in several cities such as Ningbo, eastern Zhejiang Province, and even as far as in Pnom Penh, Cambodia. However, the one that attracted the most attention was a massive event that they coordinated in the province of Xi’an, the “Global Blockchain Technology Development Forum” an event covered by the China Daily
To promote themselves they created a company: “Hong Kong Yongli Datang International Group” and hired a Caucasian-looking man for 30,000 Yuan to play the role of Evgeny Subbotin, their CEO.
They were in charge of promoting investment in their “DBTC” token, ensuring that for an investment of 480,000 US dollars, DBTC buyers could receive a daily income of 80,000 yuan (13,000 US dollars) thanks to the behavior of their cryptocurrency.
This allowed them to earn 13 million dollars in 18 days. When the police dismantled their main offices, the operation quickly spread to 31 provinces, resulting in the arrest of 9 individuals.
An image claiming to show the arrests.Courtesy: Huashang News
Asian Ponzi Scheme # 2: Korea’s 20M$ Hedge-Bitcoin (available on Coinbase)
Approximately 24 hours after the arrests in China, South Korean authorities announced the closure of a two-person operation for running a multilevel business since 2015 that was in charge of promoting the purchase of a non-existent token. The names of the couple are not known as they are not published for legal reasons. However, the authorities stated that they are 51 and 62 years old.