The scam in the currency circle is really "arrogant". Today we will talk about the "number one case in the currency circle", the shocking fraud case

Experiencing many scams has given many traders a new understanding of the market. And I am used to seeing the shady stories of various industries, and I have always thought that my heart is strong enough.

However, it wasn't until I saw this shocking deception that I realized what true horror is.

On November 26, the PlusToken case, known as “the largest case in the currency circle”, announced the results of the second instance. The court announced that it dismissed the appeal and upheld the original verdict.

Although justice is not absent, looking back at PlusToken’s past actions and the long list of victims, it is still inevitable that people gasp: the scams in the cryptocurrency circle are truly "arrogant".

A money game involving 40 billion

What’s so scary about the PlusToken scam? The answer may be hidden in this series of survey results:

According to official statistics, in the PlusToken case, the number of victims involved in the case exceeded 2 million domestically, and more than one million abroad (mainly Japan, South Korea and other countries), and the funds involved reached an astonishing 40 billion yuan!

According to the court's judgment, the types of virtual currencies involved in the PlusToken case also cover 8 types of virtual currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Grapefruit Coin, and Ripple. It can be said to be rich and eclectic.

To be able to reach this level of funding, do you think there must be something special about PlusToken?

Sorry, although it has the title of "the biggest case in the currency circle", the PlusToken scam really doesn't have any special tricks. To sum up, there are just a few common tricks to cut leeks in the currency circle.

  • The first move: flatter yourself and create the image of a high-end multinational consortium.

According to official survey information, PlusToken was founded in Hangzhou in 2018 and made its fortune in Ethereum. It is just an ordinary financial company with mediocre strength.

However, in its promotion, PlusToken strives to create its own multinational company persona:

  • It frequently holds various events in Japan, South Korea and Russia to create the illusion of having deep foreign capital strength.

  • It claims to cooperate with Apple, Google, Samsung and other technology giants to develop platforms and directly connect with exchanges.

  • The second move: Propose a blockchain transaction model with extremely high return rates.

Judging from PlusToken’s early advertising, it was aimed at a group of novices who didn’t know much about the financial market. Most of these deceived investors were dazzled by PlusToken’s promise of 10%-30% monthly arbitrage income and a sixfold profit increase in a year.

A popular science point: arbitrage refers to buying low and selling high on different platforms to earn the price difference. In theory, the higher the spread between exchanges, the greater the arbitrage gains.

However, investors who have a little knowledge of the currency circle and financial markets should know that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies take a long time to transfer, prices fluctuate 24 hours a day, and the market does not close on weekends. They are notoriously volatile assets. .

30% arbitrage profit? In actual transactions, it is more likely that you think you have just bought goods at a super low price and are ready to sell at a high price, but the price of the currency there suddenly drops wildly...

  • The third trick: pull people's hair to get offline.

This trick can be said to be the most common pyramid scheme among various financial scams.

As shown in the figure below, PlusToken has formulated very detailed revenue rules for recommended users. The more people you recommend, the more money you will get. It’s such a common pyramid scheme, but I didn’t expect it to still be tried and true to this day.

I have to say that PlusToken’s development and offline plan is really very detailed. From sharing revenue to platform revenue, users are given subsidies in all aspects. But the key is that when the membership system becomes more and more expanded and the funds of new members fail to meet expectations, the risk of the entire fund collapse becomes higher.

Now, the PlusToken scam has been exposed and has been punished by law. It can be said that justice has been given to the victim. But this classic case should also give us more thoughts: For example, when facing the endless scams in the currency circle, what are the common tricks and lightning points that need to be paid attention to.

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How much do you know about the currency circle routines?

If you feel that one PlusToken case is not enough to reveal all the shady secrets of the currency circle, we can find more cases. After all, in addition to PlusToken, there have been many, many scams in the cryptocurrency industry in the past two years, which are almost impossible to guard against.

First of all, although it has been a long time ago, we cannot forget BCC (BitConnect), which was once known as the originator of the cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.

BitConnect was founded in 2016 and issued its first 28 million cryptocurrencies in early 2017, with a market value of more than $2.5 billion at its peak. But at the end of 2017, the myth of wealth creation was shattered and the founder of BitConnect was arrested in India.

Looking back at the history of BitConnect's success, we can find that it has provided a template for countless latecomers to follow.

  • They are keen on hyping up cryptocurrencies through various online and offline activities, and invite a large number of Internet celebrities to endorse them.

  • Known for its high profitability, it claims that if you invest 10,000 yuan, you will get your capital back in three months, with a daily fixed income of 0.25%.

  • Create a multi-level rebate system to encourage users to share recommendation codes like crazy and attract new users to the game.

  • It has to be said that since BitConnect became popular, we can see the shadow of this "pioneer" in other classic cryptocurrency scams.

    For example, the V-Dimension (VDS) coin has increased by as much as 4,000% in two months and is popular in the currency circle with the so-called "resonance mode". In its glory days, VDS used high returns as a selling point to attract a large number of users, causing the capital pool to grow larger and larger. However, as the new capital flow dropped significantly in the later period, the news that the platform would secretly manipulate prices was exposed, VDS was sold sharply, and the scam was instantly shattered.

    Another example is Newton Exchange, which sounds very high-end. It offers VGO with a premium of up to 16.5 times, and is using a set of premium methods to wildly lure traders to increase investment:

    According to the rules of Newton Exchange, the purchase of VGO and recharge to the exchange's unblocking area will automatically be at a premium, but users need to trade VGO to unblock the unlocked VGO, and the pending order must be higher than the premium price, which is considered to have raised the price of VGO.

Did you find it? Whether it is BitConnect, VDS, Newton Exchange or the PlusToken above, there are actually some tricks that cannot be avoided:

  • First, the packaging must be high-end enough. Whether it is PlusToken, which pretends to have "foreign origins", or Newton Exchange, which starts to copycat from its name, they all try their best to raise their own value.

  • Second, the benefits of the product must be high enough (it’s just talk anyway...), and it must also give people a sense of power. In fact, this is a game of lying courage.

  • Third, there is no way to escape the system of pulling people's hair to push them offline, and the higher the level and the higher the commission, the more people will be injured when the thunder explodes.

Just a reminder, PlusToken, the protagonist of the "biggest case in the cryptocurrency world", is really not in vain, because its membership level is as high as 3000 or more...

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We all say that the foreign exchange market is full of scams, but compared with the real source of chaos, the cryptocurrency market, it is still a small matter. If you encounter the above scams, please be very careful.

It should be noted that the currency circle has always been characterized by low transparency and high risks. After reading so many shocking cases above, I would like to remind everyone:

Before being tempted into the currency circle by high returns, you really need to think twice and think twice.

Original article reprinted from WeChat official account