Joseph Rotunda, Director of Enforcement Division at Texas State Securities Board, stated that that the cryptocurrency market is "saturated" with numerous fraudulent schemes. He also said that their preliminary investigations have only uncovered "the tip of the iceberg." Moreover, deceptive marketing tactics are being used to lure investors into various crypto-related scams, according to US regulatory authorities.
Wind Wide Coin (WWC Inc), which claims that it's the "fastest growing cryptocurrency trading company" and was offering investors 10x return on their investments, is now also the target of Texas regulators. Reportedly, WWC Inc used misleading marketing and advertising tactics, including posting pictures of Prince Charles and Jennifer Aniston in order to promote their crypto "business." Interestingly, if you go to the company's website right now, then you will see a message saying that they're "down for maintenance."
"Promoters also know that anyone can be anyone and say anything about anything on the internet. Not surprisingly, they are also manipulating photographs, media, testimonials and other online information to deceive the public into believing their claims."US federal regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission have been heavily cracking down on cryptocurrency scams, especially since the past 6 months. Due to the rise of digital currency market, the number of fraudulent activities related to them have also increased drastically. In order to show people how these scams are typically orchestrated, the SEC has even gone as far as creating a website of their own called howeycoins.com.
The purpose of SEC's fictitious website is to show potential investors just how easy it is to create a whitepaper and nice-looking website, along with an online presence on various social media platforms. What the federal regulator is trying to convey to people is that we must never believe everything we read and see on the internet. Also, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn't.
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, William Francis Galvin, stated that the NASAA has uncovered around 30,000 registered cryptocurrency domain names. Also, most of them started to pop up toward the end of 2017 when the the cryptocurrency market reached record-level highs. However, Galvin clarified:
"Not every ICO or cryptocurrency-related investment is fraudulent, but we urge investors to approach any initial coin offering or cryptocurrency-related investment product with extreme caution, [because] it is a serious threat to ... investors."
