Initial coin offering investors scammed
Here’s another reason to be leery of the initial coin offerings being done at a staggering pace in the cryptocurrency world: There’s a 1-in-10 chance you’ll end up a victim of theft.
Phishing scams have helped push up criminal losses to about $225 million this year, according to Chainalysis, a New York firm that analyzes transactions and provides anti-money-laundering software. In such scams, investors are tricked into sending money to Internet addresses pretending to be funding sites for digital token offerings related to the Ethereum blockchain technology.
More than 30,000 people have fallen prey to Ethereum-related cybercrime, losing an average of $7,500 each, with initial coin offerings amassing about $1.6 billion in proceeds this year, Chainalysis estimates.
“It’s a huge amount of money to generate in such a short period of time,” said Jonathan Levin, co-founder of Chainalysis, whose software and database are used by some of the largest bitcoin companies and U.S. law enforcement agencies. “The cryptocurrency phishers are doing
Phishing scams have helped push up criminal losses to about $225 million this year.
na Row shopping center near San Jose’s border with Santa Clara. With 15 employees and about 3,500 titles, the store is focused on presentation. Each book is displayed cover out, with customer ratings and reviews printed underneath. Almost all the books and products have at least four stars on Amazon.com, though exceptions are made for best-sellers with lower ratings.
“It’s an unusual bookstore, but it’s overall very charming,” said Yana Kosyakova, a Santa Clara resident who learned about the store after seeing signs posted a few months ago.
The Santana Row store is Amazon Books’ 10th location, and its second in California — the other is in San Diego. A Walnut Creek location will open this year, as will one in Los Angeles, according to Jennifer Cast, vice president of Amazon Books.
“People spend a lot of time in the physical world,” Cast said. “We wanted to bring a new way to shop for books and a new way to learn about our devices.”
Books are chosen based on the data Amazon collects about how its users pick books — both online and in person. Amazon said it intends for the store to make a profit, on a limited selection. “This is not overwhelming,” Cast said:
The online giant’s move to brick-and-mortar sites is noteworthy, since the number of physical bookstores in the U.S. declined from 14,676 in 1997 — the year Amazon became a publicly traded company — to around 9,700 in 2008, according to census data.
“I think it’s ironic — Amazon has been so predatory to brick-and-mortars in general,” said Calvin Crosby, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association.
“There’s always a new way for Amazon to take a percentage of our sales,” he said.
Crosby has visited Amazon Books’ New York City location, and said he wasn’t impressed, calling it “a kiosk” and “showroom-y.” He said the growth of Amazon bookstores detracts from local businesses, which offer a deeper experience for customers. “You get much more than a book put in your hand when you go to an independent bookstore.”
Typically, a small bookstore would stock 8,000 to 10,000 titles, substantially more than San Jose’s Amazon Books, he said.
The South Bay has a rich history of independent bookstores, Crosby said. Books Inc., which has locations around the Bay Area, traces its history back to the California Gold Rush. Family bookstore Hicklebee’s has been in San Jose since 1979, and Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park opened more than 60 years ago.
Amazon.com began as a bookseller in 1995 but soon expanded to many more sectors of retail. Amazon Books displays various types of Kindle tablets and e-readers in its stores, as well as its Echo line of smart-home devices. Sales associates offer “flash classes,” less than 10 minutes long, for shoppers who want to learn how to use Amazon gadgets in person before purchasing.
Los Altos resident Hank Lee stopped by the store to give the Kindles a closer look — he’s thinking of buying one for his wife. “I didn’t know they had such a range” of Kindles, he said.
The book selection will be refreshed every couple of weeks, and the ratings and review cards will be updated every six months, according to Cast. A shelf for computers and coding-related books was added in the Seattle location by popular demand — and, said Cast, “obviously it made sense in San Jose.”