Bumper year for currency rip-offs

Crypto catastrophes continue to lure punters into parting with cash

LOUNGING in a swimming pool in Monaco might seem like an odd way to give an interview, but it suited Jobadiah ‘Joby’ Weeks to flaunt his wealth.

He claimed that others could also get rich by investing in his Bitcoin business, Bitclub Network.

Now Weeks, 38, has been charged with a £540million worldwide cryptocurrency fraud alongside fellow Americans Matthew Goettsche, 37 and Joseph Abel, 49.

“The indictment describes the defendants’ use of the complex world of cryptocurrency to take advantage of unsuspecting investors,” said US Attorney Craig Carpenito.

“What they allegedly did amounts to little more than a modern, high-tech Ponzi scheme that defrauded victims of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

The arrests are just the latest in what’s been a bumper year for global crytpo catastrophes.

There was USI-TECH, which claimed to be a platform to allow users to automatically trade Bitcoin with promises of “excellent profits”.

Investors were encouraged to increase earnings by recruiting others but were left high and dry when the website disappeared. Besides UK victims, I’ve been contacted by people caught out by USI-TECH in Australia, the United States, South Africa, Japan and Malaysia. Meanwhile the hunt by the FBI continues for 39-year-old Ruja Ignatova, founder of the collapsed £3billion Onecoin scam that recruited victims worldwide, including many in Britain.

It would flatter this sham to call it a cryptocurrency as there never was any currency that could be traded on money markets.

US Attorney Geoffrey S Berman described it as “a pyramid scheme based on smoke and mirrors”.

Then there’s the grim saga of Quadrigacx, a cryptocurrency exchange which went under last year after the sudden death of its 30-year-old Canadian founder, Gerald Cotten.

Now lawyers for creditors owed around £122million are saying they want to check that he really is dead by having the body exhumed.

Cotten was the only person who had the passwords of digital wallets containing the cryptocurrency accounts of more than 100,000 users.

Besides these debacles, 2019 has seen myriad fly-by-night supposed crypto trading scam sites.

They typically start by asking for a modest investment of £250 but convince users to put in more and more money by appearing to show huge profits through successful buying and selling.

But there is no trading, it’s all a lure to con more money out of victims before the sites disappear.

My advice: if it’s not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, run a mile.

NICKED Joby Weeks has been arrested over a £540m scheme