From forged Twitter accounts claiming to send free Ether and Bitcoin to imitators sending bogus emails to ICO investors, cryptocurrency scams are rising at high rate. Even Apple’s co-founder, Steve Wozniak, lost seven Bitcoins to an online fraud. The most recent company who joined the list of scammers is BTC Global. The binary options trading platform steals more than $50 million Bitcoins from people in South Africa, America, Australia and others.
More than 27,500 victims filed complaints against the BTC Global to South Africa’s Directorate, known as the ‘Hawks‘. According to spokesperson Captain Lloyd Ramovha, “I have spoken to one of the investigators in our team and he has confirmed that this matter came to them about two weeks ago. There are in excess of 27‚500 complainants with many outside South Africa. The amount is over $50-million and could rise as more victims come forward.”
What is BTC Global?
BTC Global was started in Sep. 25, 2017 by ‘famous’ trader Steven Twain. His achievements in binary options trading led people to trust that the company was reliable. However, the company was criticized and called out for being a scam ever since it was released. Reviews questioned the “unmatched returns” presented by the company.
BTC Global initially, authorized people to pay for BTC from the platform, followed by an advice to invest in their company to get 2% to 14% weekly returns. Victims told South African newspaper Times LIVE that their investments varied from $1,341.92 (R16,000) to $0.1 million (R1.4 million).
In the beginning, people received dividends that were unpredictable, but two weeks ago, Twain moved out from the online world. People instantly reported the company and investigations began a few days later. Ramovha explained the condition, “The investigation is in its infancy. I am not sure whether it is a fraudulent investment operation. BTC Global is being investigated for violation of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act.”
The rest of the team published status updates on Facebook as well as an announcement on the official website. According to the BTC Global team, remittance facts were sent to Twain as per schedule on Feb. 18, 2017 – but the team didn’t get any answer from him. Ever since that day, no one in the leadership and admin team has heard a word from Twain. The announcement further stated:
The admin team cannot find him. If anyone has information on how we can get in contact with him please inform us immediately. We call for the threats, harassment, and violence on leaders and admin to stop. It is inexpressive that people can behave like this. If you feel you’ve had a misdeed committed against you, you need to follow the legal procedures to deal with the matter. We are as taken aback and heated by everyone. But we all knew the risks involved in placing funds with Steven. We all became contented with Steven. And all of us funded him separately. Until Steven Twain reappear or is found, the admin team cannot do anything.
One of the team members, Cheri Ward, also filed a complaint against a man who “bullied her at her home”. Others are also bothered since their home addresses and personal details have been posted all over the internet by annoyed investors.
Ricky Makan is a venture capitalist and Crypto Enthusiast best known for pioneering the market for Digital Marketing. He is a Co-founder of Unkrypted, a platform which provides the latest news and information that helps understand everything about the ever-evolving world of digital currencies.