The rise of cryptocurrencies and its anonymous nature has made the industry a playground for scammers. The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency, it’s impossible to know the real person behind a computer screen. ICOs are being used to raise funds and 1 out of 5 ICOs are red flagged for some kind of false information or scam, according to a study done by the Wall Street Journal. The study revealed that out of some 2000 ICOs, 124 ICOs faked team members, 111 had copied whitepapers from other ICOs, and close to 50 didn’t even had a functional website.
According to a report published the Anti-Phishing Working Group via Reuters, crypto criminals have stolen $1.2 billion in cryptocurrencies since the beginning of year 2017. Keep in mind, there may be more crypto stolen that is not even known to the group. Cryptocurrency is also becoming a challenge for authorities to track illegal activities.
“One problem that we’re seeing in addition to the criminal activity like drug trafficking and money laundering using cryptocurrencies is the theft of these tokens by bad guys,” Dave Jevans, chief executive officer of cryptocurrency security firm CipherTrace, told Reuters in an interview.
Out of $1.2 billion, only about 20% has recovered from the bad guys.
Now, GDPR applicable, it will be even harder to track down criminals due to the new law .
“GDPR will negatively impact the overall security of the internet and will also inadvertently aid cybercriminals,” said Jevans. “By restricting access to critical information, the new law will significantly hinder investigations into cybercrime, cryptocurrency theft, phishing, ransomware, malware, fraud and crypto-jacking,” he added.