The world of initial issues of cryptographic currencies remains the US. There are many efforts by the authorities to safeguard the interests of investors in this type of micro-patronage for blockchain-based companies and the latest has been to ‘trick’ investors into showing them how easy it is to be swindled into such an initiative. Accordingly, the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of Investor Education and Advocacy has set up a fake ICO website to show that fraud is on the agenda in this sector after months of warnings about the risks of investing in these products.
The website, HoweyCoins.com, complies with all the characteristics, promises and the language of the ICOs considered false. When users click the ‘Buy Coins Now’ button, they are automatically redirected to the official SEC website, where investors will find tips and tools to avoid scams.
“We have created this fake website as an educational tool to alert investors to possible fraud involving digital assets such as cryptocurrency and initial coin offers (ICO),” said the SEC spokesman.
According to SEC, about 50% of all ICOs are fake ICO and disappear with all the funds
Some of the suspicious elements pointed out by the SEC are the advance of more than 1% of daily returns or forecasts of a minimum growth rate of between 7% and 15% annualized in profitability.
SEC also warns about ICOs that are backed by celebrities or that meet the SEC’s marketing requirements.
The fake ICO launched by SEC underlines the fact that about 50% of ICOs fail or disappear with the money. These are the shocking numbers of all the initiatives to raise funds through the issuance of digital tokens that were launched in 2017.
Only 54% were moving forward by mid-February 2018.
In the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken action against a number of cryptocurrency issues, slowing them down and, more recently, has announced that it will require all cryptocurrency exchange platforms to register and comply with the same rules that are applicable to the stock exchanges.
