Police in Taipei has apprehended 15 suspects involved in a scam initial coin offering (ICO) scheme known as IBCoins, which generated nearly $8.13 million for the bad actors since September 2018, local news source, Focus Taiwan reported on January 26, 2019.
“Shitcoin” Scam
Per sources close to the matter, Li Chi-hsun, the chief of the 7th Investigation Corps of Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) has revealed to local news sources that the authorities have apprehended at least 15 suspects involved in a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency scam project in two raids carried out on January 9 and January 17, 2019.
The crypto thieves led by Lin allegedly sold an unknown altcoin named IBCoin to more than 30 unsuspecting investors who were deceived into believing the coin would appreciate within a short period.
Lin allegedly bought the ‘shitcoin’ in 2017 through one of his associates in China at the rate of NT$1.5 per coin, then he and his gang sold it for a massive NT$50 to NT$100 per coin to gullible investors.
Lured by Lambos
Reportedly, in a bid to make their victims highly interested in purchasing IBCoins, the fraudsters often took to social media to post pictures of their lavish lifestyles and expensive cars they claimed to have bought with gains from their IBCoins investment.
According to the investigators, the deceitful behavior of the crypto criminals paid off handsomely as more than 30 locals easily fell into the IBCoins trap, with one victim reportedly investing NT$600,000 in the scheme.
However, none of the victims has reported ever seeing any profit from their IBCoins holdings to date, since the coin does not have any use case whatsoever, neither is it traded on any cryptocurrency exchange.
Interestingly, the CIB reportedly said that during the raid, it succeeded in retrieving NT$2.02 million in cash, three expensive cars and the whitepaper for the fraudulent project.
The 15 arrested suspects have now been charged with fraud, and the case has been passed onto the Taipei District Prosecutors Office.
Although the Taiwanese authorities are yet to legalize bitcoin and other digital assets, residents of the state have since joined the cryptocurrency bandwagon and rogue actors keep wreaking havoc on investors through illicit schemes.
As reported by BTCManager on January 21, 2019, the Taichung District Prosecutors Office indicted seven locals for orchestrating a bitcoin-based Ponzi scheme which generated USD 50 million from over 1,000 people.
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