A lot of individuals have fallen victim to cryptocurrency scams by investing in what they thought were real and genuine cryptocurrencies. Despite several campaigns by enthusiasts of already proven cryptocurrencies, altcoin vendors and investors have insisted on the genuineness of their preferred coins.
Popularity and followership are definitely not among the properties that qualify a given entity as a real cryptocurrency. As a matter of fact, these characteristics reveal the extent to which these altcoins can be negatively rated at their levels of scam.
Do your homework
Lead Consultant at One27 Global Consult, Solomon Barnabas tells Cointelegraph about his ordeal at the hands of vendors of scam coins.
Barnabas says that such coin vendors always sold more referral programs to unsuspecting members with claims that the crowdfunding is necessary for adoption. This he said has caused him a lot of losses both in cash and credibility.
Barnabas says:
“The problem with such programs is that they do not only end up with losing your money, they mess up your relationship with friends and loved ones. The people that you refer to most from these programs are predominantly those who join because they trust and believe in you. Imagine having to struggle to rebuild a reputation that was built over almost a lifetime.”
Angelina Lazar, a rogue economist, ideologue and cryptocurrency revolutionary, advises anyone who intends to join a company that acquires or invests in any altcoin, to first seriously research what the cryptocurrency is, then study all the aspects of the coin itself. For example, such self-education has been made available and affordable by institutions such as Nexxus University.
#1, OneCoin
For Angelina Lazar, OneCoin takes the day as the current number one scam coin in the world. Lazar, who has become popular for her war on OneCoin, tells Cointelegraph that she is expecting conclusive information on OneCoin’s dealings within the next month.
This is after, what she refers to as, a nasty war between her camp and that of OneCoin. According to Lazar, her camp succeeded in getting all of OneCoin’s bank accounts shut down and even China's UnionPay is not interested in dealing with them anymore.
One common position adopted by the propagandists of OneCoin in recent times is the claim that OneCoin is not a cryptocurrency yet. This argument always seems to arise as soon as they realize that their product does not possess the fundamental characteristics of a genuine cryptocurrency. How these followers tend to pursue the cause of OneCoin like a religion is a development that is becoming a subject of keen interest.
To this effect, Lazar points out that the leaders at OneCoin have not relented in making efforts to convince their followers around the world that they are now going public.
She explains to Cointelegraph:
“Which exchange on the planet besides Nibiru would take that company public when their whole management team is being investigated and their CEO is both on bail and on probation simultaneously. That's two different cases in two different countries, mind you. And when they have not one bank account in their name and even all their tertiary accounts which they used for money-laundering in various other names were all shut down as well?”
#2, S-coin, OneCoin surrogate
Second is S-Coin (Coinspace). Packages for S-Coin range up to 12,000 euros. Lazar tells Cointelegraph that this is yet another pyramid scheme with, as she believes, an unsustainable compensation plan, just like OneCoin.
Another characteristic of S-Coin which resembles that of OneCoin is the promise of hope. The Coinspace community run what could be easily referred to as a pyramid scheme with the promise of releasing a cryptocurrency in the future. One major promise of theirs that raises some suspicion is the act of attaching a price of one Euro to the said cryptocurrency. At this point, the question of attaching value to an entity without the basic science of supply and demand comes to the forefront.
They ask the public to pay Bitcoins for S-Coins and claim they will mail the coins to their clients, a scenario that Lazar considers ridiculous because cryptocurrencies are supposed to be digital coins. Lazar says that if they were real and legit, they would be part and parcel of a real Blockchain and be only digital, so that they're spoken for, encrypted, ultimately secure, transparent, and safe and visible.
#3, EarthCoin: beware the set-up
The third top scam coin identified by Lazar is EarthCoin. Although a quick search on coinmarketcap.com reveals a market cap of $935,638 and an available supply of 9,346,468,332 EAC, Lazar does not seem convinced that the coin is genuine.
This coin also has its superblocks, whose coins were vastly pre-mined and even instamined, suggesting that some or all of a coin’s initial supply is generated automatically by the developer at, or prior to, the public launch, rather than being generated over time through a form of mining. Such tricks are usually applied in a pump and dump set-up schemes.
Nawaf Abdullah, CEO of a Ghana-based Bitcoin exchange eBitcoinics, tells Cointelegraph about his reluctance towards accepting EarthCoin.
Abdullah says:
“It is just one of those pump and dump coins which probably would have its HYIPs and all, right after getting the recognition it needs, they just dump it and it's back to the nothing, that’s what it is.”
With no good website, neither any robust information to tell what the coin really is or intends to achieve and a current volume, Nawaf says that all visible factors justify the coin as an element that can be dumped at any given moment.
“Seriously if you ask me I have no vivid info what to even tell you rather than what it is really and that's a big scam a coin it is. Not every cryptocoin is worth the try and EarthCoin is a stay away from type,” he concludes.
We may not see the last of creations that are characterized by unclear processes. However, it is the responsibility of every individual or group of investors to carry out proper due diligence ahead of venturing into new areas of investment.