One member of the Discord described losing more than $140,000 in tokens after clicking a link shared by a person appearing to be a member of the Polygon team, which advertised a token distribution to serve as a "pre-migration celebration".
Users suffer losses after Polygon Discord hack
McDonald's Instagram hacked, hackers claim $700,000 haul
They then boasted about their haul on the compromised Instagram account, changing the bio to say: "Sorry mah nigga you have just been rug pulled by India_X_Kr3w thank you for the $700,000 in Solana š®š³".
The token stunt by the massive company was perhaps made more believable by McDonald's previous forays into crypto, including when they launched a McRib-themed NFT project in December 2021. The company had also joked about a "Grimacecoin" back in January 2022, in a reply to a tweet from Elon Musk.
Crypto holder loses over $55 million to apparent phishing attack
The attacker later moved the stablecoins to a new wallet, and exchanged about half of them for 10,625 ETH.
Former CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank sentenced to more than 24 years in prison after putting bank funds into crypto scheme
Between May and July of 2023, Hanes transferred $47.1 million of the bank's funds to the fraudulent scheme. This ultimately led to the bank collapsing, with equity investors losing $9 million and the FDIC footing the bill. "There were people who lost 70, 80% of their retirement" as a result of their investment losses, stated a community member.
Hanes had also taken money from a local church, an investment club, and his daughter's college savings. These funds were reportedly used to buy cryptocurrency after those running the scheme told him they needed more money to "unlock" the returns on his investments ā a common tactic with these scams.
- "Former CEO of failed bank sentenced to prison", U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Kansas [archive]
- "Cryptocurrency 'pig butchering' scam wrecks Kansas bank, sends ex-CEO to prison for 24 years", NBC News [archive]
FutureNet founder arrested for alleged crypto fraud
Ziemian was wanted on international warrants from Poland and South Korea. FutureNet, which was established in 2018 and purported to be a crypto trading platform, is alleged to have defrauded numerous people of a combined $21 million. Victims were encouraged to buy "participation packages", and earn rewards for referring others to the scheme. Polish authorities warned that FutureNet might be a pyramid scheme in 2019, and South Korea began an investigation into the company in 2020.
Ziemian faces fraud, money laundering, and theft charges, which could be punished by life imprisonment in South Korea.
- "U Podgorici uhapÅ”eno meÄunarodno traženo lice koje se sumnjiÄi za viÅ”emilionske prevare", Vlada Crne Gore (in Montenegrin) [archive]
- "Co-founder of crypto fraud scheme FutureNet arrested in Montenegro", ReadWrite [archive]
Twitch streamer DNP3 pleads guilty to wire fraud after gambling away funds invested in crypto charity project
Now, Austin "DNP3" Taylor has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after stealing around $1.14 million in investor funds from his CluCoin project, which had claimed it would "help others in need". DNP3 himself had built up a reputation of making generous gifts while livestreaming. He transferred the stolen funds to online casinos, where he then gambled them away.
Taylor faces up to 20 years in prison. The statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office announced that authorities would be notifying identified victims via NFT, and encouraging them to submit statements to the FBI.
- "Founder of Miami-Based Cryptocurrency Token CluCoin Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud", U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida [archive]
Crypto holder loses $100,000 to "Coinbase support" scammer, found via a Google ad
Scammers impersonating crypto company support representatives are everywhere on social media and elsewhere. Now, it seems, they are purchasing Google ads to rise to the top of Google search rankings. While Google says they attempt to remove fraudulent advertisers, some slip through the cracks.
While phishing attacks like this are prevalent both in crypto and in tradfi, crypto platforms often do not have similar safeguards as major banking platforms to try to thwart unauthorized transactions, nor do they have the same ability to reverse transactions that are made.
SEC charges promoters of NovaTech pyramid scheme
The SEC's lawsuit also targets six other promoters of the NovaTech scheme, all of whom the agency says used "religious overtones" when attracting new investors. Ultimately, the scheme was revealed to be a Ponzi scheme, with new investors' money being used to pay out previous investors, as the promoters also took money for themselves.
- "SEC Charges NovaTech and its Principals and Promoters with $650 Million Crypto Fraud", US Securities and Exchange Commission [archive]
FTX settles complaint from the CFTC with $12.7 billion payout
Defendants Sam Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison, and Gary Wang, as well as the FTX and Alameda Research companies, will be prohibited from commodities trading, including trading bitcoin, ether, USDT, or other assets considered "digital asset commodities" by the CFTC. However, with Bankman-Fried already beginning a 25-year prison sentence, and Ellison and Wang due to be sentenced, this may be low on their list of worries.
- "Judge approves $12.7 billion settlement between FTX and CFTC, bringing 20-month-long lawsuit to an end", The Block [archive]
- Permanent injunction, document #44 in CFTC v. Bankman-Fried [archive]
North Korean developers steal $1.3 million from crypto project treasury
zachxbt traced the payment addresses for roughly 21 developers involved in this kind of activity, which he found had been working for at least 25 different cryptocurrency projects. They had earned around $375,000 over the past month.