Cyberscams | FinTelegram News

Category: Cyberscams

January 14, 2021

Scam Alert – Crypto Ad Scheme AdBit working in legal stealth mode

Currently, cryptocurrencies are back in high demand - both among investors and scammers. As in 2017, the rapid rise of Bitcoin et al. in recent weeks has sparked a hype in which even inexperienced investors want to get on board. Most recently, the UK regulator FCA has warned that investors in cryptocurrencies may lose all their money. Either via the highly volatile prices or scams. The crypto hype is also being addressed by the crypto ad scheme AdBit (www.adbit.biz) working in legal stealth mode.

December 3, 2020

U.S. prosecutors indicted and arrested six individuals in the AirBit Club Crypto Ponzi Scheme

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Gutemberg Dos Santos, a citizen of Brazil and the United States, was extradited from Panama on November 25, 2020. Dos Santos is charged by indictment with co-defendants Pablo Renato Rodriguez, Scott Hughes, Cecilia Millan, Karina Chairez, and Jackie Aguilar for running the international crypto fraud scheme and money laundering operations around the notorious AirBit Club, a fraudulent MLM Crypto Ponzi scheme.

December 3, 2020

U.S. prosecutors indicted and arrested six individuals in the AirBit Club Crypto Ponzi Scheme

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Gutemberg Dos Santos, a citizen of Brazil and the United States, was extradited from Panama on November 25, 2020. Dos Santos is charged by indictment with co-defendants Pablo Renato Rodriguez, Scott Hughes, Cecilia Millan, Karina Chairez, and Jackie Aguilar for running the international crypto fraud scheme and money laundering operations around the notorious AirBit Club, a fraudulent MLM Crypto Ponzi scheme.

December 2, 2020

Shalon Case – U.S. Prosecutors seek a 20-year prison term for Russian hacker!

Andrei Tyurin has been a co-conspirator of the Israeli Gery "Gabi" Shalon who carried out the biggest financial hack in U.S. history. In Sept 2019 Tyurin a/k/a “Andrei Tiurin,” pled guilty to computer intrusion, wire fraud, bank fraud, and illegal online gambling offenses in connection with this hacker attack. Allegedly, Tyurin was paid $19 million for his work, scheming with Shalon to destroy evidence that might lead to their apprehension. Prosecutors are seeking a prison term between 15 to 20 years.

November 6, 2020

Law and Tax Enforcement Actions – Start with Payment Processors to chase cybercriminals

FinTelegram is frequently contacted by law enforcement agencies in various jurisdictions with requests for information. It has become known in the international law enforcement scene that FinTelegram has indeed valuable information and contacts. In our respective discussions, we recommend starting enforcement actions against facilitating payment processors. They are the backbone and payment data hubs of the ever-expanding cybercrime universe and its scams.

October 28, 2020

Investor Warning – Bogus Law Firms and Funds Recovery Experts Eternity Law and Roshental Law

Victims of scams, unlawful or malicious business practices are typically desperate and psychologically vulnerable. In their distress, they often seek help from self-proclaimed funds recovery experts and unfortunately often end up back with scammers. These funds recovery scammers demand many thousands of Euros initial payment just to become active. Often they disguise themselves as lawyers or criminal law experts and rip off the victims again. These are the worst of all scammers.

October 12, 2020

The Fake Regulator Scam targets victims with forged emails and fake orders

The Fake Regulator Scam model is for sure not new, but amid the COVID-19 crisis and the many scams, it seems to be booming again. After the UK FCA, the German BaFin, the Austrian FMA has recently issued a warning against scammers who approach potential victims as alleged employees of the regulatory authority and offer various services that are supposed to bring money to the potential victim.

August 18, 2020

Celebrity and influencer investment scams are the new social media reality

Shocking but true. Social media or message services are a main channel for scammers. Over the last four months, the UK National Cyber Security Centre has taken down over 300,000 malicious URLs linking to fake celebrity-endorsed investment schemes featuring famous faces such as Richard Branson and Martin Lewis. Scammers ruthlessly rip off naive consumers and small investors via fake celebrity accounts, unscrupulous influencers, fake success stories, and false endorsements.

August 14, 2020

Dutch Regulator warns individuals found on boiler room ‘sucker lists’

Dutch watchdog AFM warned 2,500 Dutch individuals that their names appear on a boiler room's potential client list. The list was seized during an international criminal investigation in Marbella in March 2020. The Dutch Police started the investigation over two years ago after a total of 40 people reported they had been conned out of a combined €6m by boiler rooms operating under such company names as FX-CI, Global Trading Investment Group, or Power Capital Financial Trading.

August 7, 2020

The CySEC Scam Tourism – Launch of Investigative Series

CySEC is the financial supervisory authority of the Republic of Cyprus and a sort of gatekeeper for the EU financial markets. Cyprus has developed into the single most important gateway to EU financial markets for non-EU citizens and organizations. The Israeli financial scene in particular makes intensive use of this gateway. But also Russian individuals and companies enter the EU financial markets via Cyprus. The CySEC is controversial within the EU regulators because of its "relaxed" approach.

July 31, 2020

Crypto Manipulation: Chinese authorities arrested 27 individuals involved in huge PlusToken crypto scheme

The gigantic Chinese PlusToken crypto scheme has kept the crypto markets massively busy in the last two years. PlusToken with $5.7B raised from some 800,000 members is said to have been a driving force behind manipulations in the crypto markets. In a Chinese law enforcement action, 27 key individuals involved in the PlusToken crypto scheme have been arrested. Several Chinese news outlets reported that another 82 members of the scheme have been arrested.

July 15, 2020

PumaTS – Israeli-Bulgarian White Label Broker Platform Provider Vanished

On 23 June 2020 FinTelegram News issued a Request for Information (RFI) concerning the white label broker platform Puma Trading Solutions aka PumaTS operating in Bulgaria. We wanted to know more about this platform and the company and the people behind it. Officially the PumaTS White Label Broker solution is operated by the Bulgarian Marketing and Consulting Ltd. At least this company concludes the license, marketing, and platform services agreements with its clients. In response to our RFI, the PumaTS website that was available at www.pumats.com has disappeared. Fortunately, FinTelegram received plenty of intel on PumaTS.