Crypto scammers are getting innovative; Binance issues legal charges in Turkey

Sahana Kiran
crypto
Source – Unsplash

The crypto-verse isn’t new to scams or hacks. With the increase in popularity and price, fraudsters have started eyeing the digital asset market to pocket easy money. Despite immense regulatory pressure, scammers continue to dupe naive investors. Binance, the world’s largest exchange had to deal with leach off Turkish citizens.

Binance has a prominent presence all over the globe. Despite issues over licensing the exchange has managed to veer into an array of markets. Turkey has been extensively bullish on crypto. A wide range of people has been pouring their money into the market. The country alone accounts for 7 percent of the traffic on Binance. Banking on this, fraudsters decided to rent out billboards and went on to endorse several scammy opportunities.

The crypto exchange, however, did not let this go too far as the exchange further went on to slap these scammers with its legal wing.

Binance’s tweet read,

“For a while, billboards similar to the image below have been striking in different regions of Turkey. The image below has nothing to do with #Binance. Necessary legal processes have been initiated against persons who are clearly involved in fraudulent activities.”

The exchange was slowly elevating its presence in Turkey. In April, the platform rolled out a customer service center that was available to its Turkish users 24/7.

London records increase ‘crypto muggings’

Every country has muggers threatening the average Joe into giving them all their valuables. Moving over cash and gold, muggers have been eyeing crypto as well. Not just street smart, muggers have become ‘crypto smart’. The Guardian reported that thousands of pounds have been stolen from the mobile phones of the victims.

Victims revealed that they were mugged while trying to order an Uber. They are reportedly approached and are physically forced to hand over their phone. One victim disclosed that they had lost $6,136 worth of Ethereum from Coinbase. Another individual was forced to give up $7,366 worth of XRP after he was pinned against the wall while the scammers uncooked his phone through facial verification.

Additionally, these muggers seemed to be untethered by the condition of their prey. The Guardian reported,

“A victim said he had been vomiting under a bridge when a mugger forced him to unlock his phone using a fingerprint, then changed his security settings and stole $35,228 including cryptocurrency.”

Just when the regulators were slowly keeping up with the increasing demand for cryptocurrencies, hackers have found new ways to dupe people. Following this, regulators are likely to further increase their presence in the market.