Pakistanis Lose Millions to Crypto Scam

Investors from Pakistan have become victims of a massive fraud using cryptocurrency. The country’s main law enforcement agency has issued a notice to crypto exchange Binance in relation to the scam which resulted in the loss of $100 million dollars for people. In this article, we will be looking at what actually happened and how it started, who was involved, what they were trying to do, and why we should care about it.
Binance Exchanges Limited is an international trading platform that facilitates both retail and institutional investors. According to its website, “Binance exchanges offer institutional clients access to over 200 world-renowned securities and futures exchange traded on more than 130 different asset classes including gold, forex, equity, options, cryptocurrencies, exchange traded funds, exchange traded non-listed securities (ETN), private equity, real estate portfolio management and other investment products through one global multi-asset clearing and settlement system.”

Pakistanis Lose Millions to Crypto Scam

The group operates three business units — the first unit being their proprietary FX platform, where customers can make direct quotes and trades with qualified liquidity providers on their own behalf and exchange-trade. These include brokerages like CME Group, Interbank Offerings, Fidelity Global Markets, ING Direct, RBS Capital Market, US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) ClearPort LLC, etc. The second unit being professional managed accounts, where buyers and sellers of securities are able to trade between themselves on Binance with each other via peer-to-peer or privately traded cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, Dash, Litecoin, EOS, Ethereum, Lisk, NEO, Cryptoshares, Zcash, Tezos, Qtum, among others. And lastly, they also provide merchant services for listed tokenized securities. Since early this March, there have been reports of an ongoing scam which resulted in losses on multiple levels. While some investors lost thousands of dollars on tokens, others lost millions on crypto.
Now, let’s dive into everything and see how this transaction came about. Let’s start by talking with our esteemed guest, CEO of Binance himself. His words are priceless as he opened up about the latest developments. He shared his story at length. As you read his full statement, you will learn everything you need to know about the recent market rally. Some might think it’s too much information, but I assure you that if you are not reading this article right now, you should be because this information makes a great deal of sense! You can get detailed knowledge on all of these topics in just a few minutes of reading his tweet. Please click here to read it.

“I want everyone to know exactly how serious we are about this scam and what we are doing to fight it. We know first hand that even though we believe people have not yet been caught in this scam, our team of experts along with our colleagues at cybersecurity, civil defense, data science and law enforcement agencies all worked very hard to prevent this scam from bringing down so many families and businesses. So while we’ve repeatedly denied any involvement of anyone else who may have created, promoted or sold these tokens at prices that made them desirable as they spiked, the media have repeatedly mentioned anonymous wallets or wallets as if these coins were legitimately worth billions. But there is still truth to blockchain scams; I’m proud to say that we are working towards ensuring the safety and security of every single investor and supporter of Binance on all platforms around the world. This includes taking every precaution possible including making sure that our users, investors and community of advisors are protected from this scam and scams in general,“.
In light of this latest news, Binance has gone a step further. They are asking all of its partners to follow certain rules when it comes to protecting your customer information or your assets. One of the partners is cryptocurrency exchange API provider Coinbase, and the request was not specific. However, we are already aware of several complaints on the matter.
“Coinbase and U.S. financial institutions that have invested significant amounts of money in digital assets were quick to take action. Coinbase set out a public notice offering some guidelines. And after extensive inquiries on our part, we found clear evidence that these banks and financial institutions have used fake addresses to transfer bitcoin from USDT, ETH, GBTC, and another 15 of the top 20 cryptocurrencies. A list can also be found with the help of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).”

This isn’t the only scam Binance finds itself involved in. Recently, BTCTalk reported that four additional companies had invested significant sums of capital into the project. There is also mention of several exchanges operating within the region. What does it mean? Well, to begin with, the report states that these exchanges took part in transferring Bitcoin from Dollar to Etherum and then back to Bitcoin, among other things. Then there is the fact that those exchanges have no regulations governing the movement of cryptocurrency within the region. Now, when we delve into details, there is mention of two exchange brokers of Binance—CoinCommity and Bitfinex. Interestingly enough, they both operate in the same industry, and are owned by the Chinese company Binance. Binance is considered the most dominant name in the space today. All of these questions are crucial. If you don’t believe me, please see my previous article in which I explained everything you need to know about the scam and the steps Binance takes to stop it from happening again.