Another great liar of the century has become a global public enemy.
In early July, the FBI released a list of the world's top ten most wanted criminals, including Ruja Ignatova, one of the most wanted, with a maximum reward of $100,000.
Faced with more than 600,000 yuan, Chinese netizens said that this was too little.
It's not that the public has high standards, it's that her "cost of crime" is too outrageous.
You must know that she has defrauded more than 36 billion yuan and deceived 3 million people in more than 170 countries around the world.
Among these people, 2 million were from China, and about 15 billion yuan was taken away.
Ruja, who made this scam of the century, is the founder of Onecoin, the world’s second largest virtual currency, and its market value was once second only to Bitcoin.
In just three years, she took away more than 30 billion yuan, and then disappeared from the world, and her whereabouts are still unknown.
The most frightening thing is that OneCoin has been recognized by China as a pyramid scheme since 2018, and 98 prisoners have been arrested. However, there are still believers who rely on OneCoin to make money.
How a foreign female liar reached out to China. And stirred up the currency circle for so many years?
A swindler who loves money as much as his life,
From a beautiful academic to a prisoner
During the Spring Festival of 2018, entrepreneur Yu Hong created a group called "Sleepless at Three O'clock Blockchain", and all the people in the group were distinguished.
There are big names in the venture capital circle, such as Li Xiaolai, Xue Manzi and Xu Xiaoping, as well as big names in the entertainment industry such as Wang Feng, Hu Haiquan and Gao Xiaosong.
This group blessed by celebrities made blockchain popular overnight.
But as early as 2014, OneCoin had already become popular in China, but the only big boss on the platform at that time was founder Ruja.
Judging from her life experience, she is a complete fraudster.
Ruja was born in an ordinary family in Bulgaria. He immigrated to Germany with his parents when he was ten years old. Although his family background was average, he had been yearning for the upper class since he was a child.
In order to earn enough money, Ruja studied hard and gilded herself. She obtained double doctorates in law from Oxford University and the University of Konstanz.
After graduation, he also served as CEO and CFO of Bulgaria's largest fund management company, with assets under management of nearly 2 billion yuan.
Ruja, who loves money as much as her life, looked at the large amount of money in her hand that did not belong to her, and realized that there was no "money prospect" in taking the right path, so she started her career of fraud.
In 2012, she and her father bought a bankrupt company. Using financial and legal knowledge, she disguised the company's finances and accounts as making money, and then looked for a bad person to take over.
It was just the first time they entered the "fraud", but they were quickly discovered, and the father and daughter were given a two-year suspended sentence.
After the overturn, Ruja not only did not repent, but she even wanted to do something big. She focused on Bitcoin, which made countless people rich overnight.
She teamed up with a professional liar, roped in her brother, and created OneCoin.
When creating OneCoin, Ruja packaged it as a "perfect currency" and gave it to anyone who wanted it.
Bitcoin has it, OneCoin has it:
Using blockchain technology, transactions are safer;
Super high interest rates, make money while sitting at home;
Available in limited quantities, cannot be counterfeited and is not affected by inflation.
The most attractive thing about Bitcoin is its ultra-high return on investment. Therefore, Ruja claimed that OneCoin will become “a more profitable Bitcoin.”
They also made a special website. After many people spent money to buy OneCoin, they were very happy to see the soaring numbers.
In order to convince users that they had made money, a restaurant accepted diners to pay with OneCoin. I wonder if this restaurant was also part of her scheme.
She also produced a set of paid textbooks and courses, and worked hard to publicize the necessity of taking classes, so that people who do not understand cryptocurrency can come to take classes and buy coins with confidence after taking the class.
The courses are not only very expensive, but there is no upper limit on the price. Ordinary members can purchase teaching packages ranging from 100 to 120,000 euros, and celebrities can purchase teaching packages of up to 220,000 euros.
She emphasized in the interview that you should not buy cryptocurrencies randomly if you don’t understand them, but you should learn them first before investing.
This wave of operations is definitely the ceiling of trust. While breaking doubts, you can also make money by selling courses and coins.
Ruja, a really ordinary fraudster.
The big scam that turned over Bitcoin,
Brainwash 3 million people around the world
The best thing about Ruja is that she not only made OneCoin popular, but also made the people who were defrauded put her on the altar.
Compared with other scammers in the currency circle, Ruja has a very powerful ability, which is the ability to pull people's heads.
In just one year, OneCoin has attracted 3 million people in 170 countries around the world, including 2 million in China alone.
How did Ruja fool so many people?
1. Create a rice circle culture and brainwash millions of people
The fandom culture is something that Ruja plays very smoothly in the currency circle.
She marketed her Ph.D. status, emphasized her resume at top consulting firms, and packaged herself as a cryptocurrency expert.
As a "doctor", Ruja was invited to participate in so-called "blockchain seminars" held in many countries, and was also invited to participate in a symposium by the British "Economist".
In order to strengthen her image, she also paid to have her photo on the cover of the Bulgarian edition of Forbes magazine.
These platforms are implicitly endorsing VicCoin and attracting a wave of fans to her.
Since 2016, Ruja has given speeches all over the world. Every time she appears, she is covered in jewelry and has flaming red lips. Her fanatical followers have given her a resounding name: Crypto Queen.
At London's Wembley Stadium, 90,000 spectators were packed to capacity, making special support gestures, and the scene was comparable to a celebrity concert.
She also has a special way of talking to fans: People who buy OneCoin are family members, and those who say bad things about OneCoin are enemies who prevent everyone from making money.
As a result, these "family members" not only paid for their own money, but also took the initiative to provide benefits to others. If there were opponents, they would attack them in groups.
Someone exposed her scam online, but was wildly abused by fans and received death threats.
With the support of crazy family members, Ruja raised 4 billion yuan in 2016 alone.
2. Original coin circle MLM method: membership system
When OneCoin was introduced to China, it had a strong smell of money-making.
In China, "OneCoin" is not something you can buy if you want. They stipulate that if you want to become a member of the "OneCoin" organization, you must pay membership fees of different specifications.
The entry level is 130 euros, and there are advanced, professional, and executive levels in between. The highest level, the Festival Tycoon level, is 18,830 euros. The higher the level, the more rebates you will enjoy.
After joining, there is also an overbearing clause that not only cannot cancel the membership, but also does not provide refunds.
This pyramid model looks like a pyramid scheme. Look at their slogan, it's a brainwashing song.
This model of people pulling people to lead has enabled OneCoin to develop 7 downlines, 27 fund pool accounts, and more than 140 membership levels in China.
OneCoin is selling like crazy in China, but its founder disappeared in 2017.
Why is the currency circle targeted by pyramid schemes?
OneCoin’s slogan on its official website is: Innovation brings profits.
She realized her dream of being a rich woman by relying on the "innovation" of using currency circles as a pyramid scheme.
Buy a mansion in London; go to one of the most famous museums in the UK, the Victoria and Albert Museum; buy a yacht and invite celebrities to sing to you on the boat.
This so-called innovation turned the currency circle into a pyramid scheme and gradually became a scam template.
In the past two years, the virtual currency platform Plus Token was judged to be a pyramid scheme. More than 2 million people participated in the entire project, with more than 3,000 levels, and the amount involved was as high as 50 billion yuan.
Why is a virtual currency platform always targeted by pyramid schemes?
First of all, the more sophisticated the industry, the more likely it is that information gaps can be used to defraud money.
This is the case with OneCoin. Victims are all over the world, but the people who are most deceived are people in developing countries.
There was a poor African man who didn't know what OneCoin was. He just heard from his relatives that it could make money, so he sold the three goats he had at home.
At its peak, OneCoin's market value was more than 50% of Bitcoin's. However, people have not noticed the most terrifying problem - OneCoin is not a cryptocurrency at all!
The night before Plus Token ran away, the official announced the suspension of withdrawals. The explanation given was that "a large number of transactions caused block congestion, which in turn was hacked." The official had to upgrade the system.
Secondly, it is hard to refuse to earn filters.
Since the birth of Bitcoin in 2009, its price has increased from US$0.0025 to over US$10,000 currently, a surge of 4 million times.
When OneCoin first entered China, it had high hopes and was called the next generation of Bitcoin.
As the hype continues to rise, blockchain has now been played by marketers at a rapid pace.
Many people don’t know that there has long been a black industry of virtual currency in China, that is, a blockchain MLM system development company with virtual mining machines + transactions.
You can issue a set of virtual currency with 80,000 yuan. If you make enough, you will go offline. If the capital chain is broken, you can change your vest and continue to cheat.
Most of their methods of attracting people are strangers adding friends, recommending "blockchain financial management projects", and saying "you can make thousands of dollars every day, and you can make an order in a few minutes, and each order will cost you hundreds of dollars." "The routine is attractive.
When looking at how to make money, many people will try it with the mentality of giving it a try, but no matter what form of MLM or pyramid model, it will always be the ordinary people at the bottom who are oppressed.
Conclusion:
There is a story in the MLM circle. A person said: Whoever gives me 10 yuan, I can tell him how to make 100 yuan. Someone really didn't believe in evil and gave me 10 yuan.
The answer is: Just find 10 more idiots like you.
Nowadays, although OneCoin is wanted globally, ordinary people who were defrauded in those years still cannot get back their lost money.
Regarding investment, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has sounded the alarm to us more than once: high returns mean high risks. If the return rate exceeds 6%, there will be a question mark. If the return rate exceeds 8%, it will be very dangerous. If it exceeds 10%, you will be prepared to lose all your principal.
In the story of beating a drum to spread flowers, no matter what kind of vest you change, you can't get rid of the essence of a liar.
People cannot make money beyond their knowledge. Trying to make money without understanding the mechanism of making money is tantamount to a gambler.
To prevent the emergence of the next “crypto queen”, all we can do is remember: invest with caution!
