Crypto scams - the faked deaths, missing billions and disrupted industry - listen to author and crypto guru Erica Stanford

The Irish Tech News Podcast

Erica Stanford, author Crypto Wars

In every new, emerging technology and in every industry there are opportunists, and there will always be some who seek to take advantage of circumstances. Lack of regulation, poverty, a global pandemic, or misunderstood, new technologies all create hotbeds for everything from opportunists to organised crime. In what was the Wild West of the fledging ecosystem around the game-changing new technology of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, numbers and the audacity of projects falling into the 'scam' category have been almost unprecedented. In crypto, especially during the 2016-2018 boom- or bubble - depending on who you ask- a time where many new cryptocurrencies and projects were launched and raised millions- then billions- pretty much out of thin air- but sadly still ongoing today- Ponzi schemes, exit scams, and even joke businesses have cumulatively parted tens of billions of dollars, if not more, from millions of people all around the world.

If thousands of people can lose billions of dollars in OneCoin, masterminded by the now infamous Missing Cryptoqueen made famous by the BBC's podcast series and called 'one of the biggest scams in history' by The Times, what makes you think your money is safe? OneCoin isn't alone. Crypto Wars: Faked Deaths, Missing Billions and Industry Disruption reveals some of the most shocking scams affected millions of innocent people all around the world with everything from religious leaders to celebrities involved. In this book, you get exclusive access to the back story of the most extreme Ponzi schemes, the most bizarre hoaxes and brutal exit strategies from some of the biggest charlatans of crypto. The book doesn't just touch on scams, but also on some of the mistakes and events that have shaped crypto history, albeit at the cost of some of its investors.

Written by Erica Stanford, the founder of the UK's thriving crypto community, the Crypto Curry Club, featuring interviews with several of those who have been driving investigations into the biggest scams including an exclusive interview with Jamie Bartlett from the BBC's Missing Cryptoqueen to give some insight into how some of these scams got so big, often right under the regulators' watchful gaze, how people fall for them, how some people can tell, often within a minute, what is a scam and what isn't, some overview into the Wild West of some of crypto's rockier moments, some clarity into how these scams operate and so hopefully prevent people for falling for them and hopefully some optimism about some of the great that crypto is doing and continues to do for millions of people around the world.

Your host is Jillian Godsil, award winning journalist, broadcaster and author. Her latest book can be found here https://persons-of-interest.io/