Authorities crack down on Austria-based online crypto scam

Authorities in Austria, along with authorities in three other countries, have taken decisive action against online fraud in what appears to be a new cryptocurrency initiative.

In a press release dated May 8, the European Criminal Justice Authority revealed details of a coordinated effort supported by Europol to catch fraudsters who falsely claimed to have founded a company that launched a new crypto asset.

It was claimed that fraudsters operating in Austria developed special software and algorithms between December 2017 and February 2018. They lured investors with offers of 10 million tokens in exchange for the rights to purchase the new cryptocurrency in question.

Unfortunately, investors in the project suffered losses totaling €6 million; This figure is expected to rise as not all victims have been identified.

This latest incident is reminiscent of similar scams reported in the past. In November 2023, crypto.news highlighted a case in which the FBI arrested three people by exploiting vulnerabilities in banks to defraud them of more than $10 million, which was later converted into cryptocurrency.

Also in March 2024, a British citizen named Wen Jian was found guilty by a London court of defrauding more than 130,000 investors of $6 billion between 2017 and 2022.

The prevalence of such scams has led to significant financial losses for investors. In February 2024 alone, investors reported losses exceeding $412 million to scammers. In April 2024, cryptocurrency scams and exploits resulted in losses of $25.7 million, representing the lowest figure recorded in three years.

Moreover, PeckShield, an on-chain security firm, reported a decrease in losses from crypto attacks and scams in April, marking the first significant decline observed in 2024.