Emma Okonji
Disturbed by the global rise in
cryptocurrency fraud which has led to loss of several millions in
different currencies, including naira, one of the leading exchanges of
cryptocurrency in Nigeria, Luno, has said the deployment of additional
layers of security would go a long way in addressing the challenge,
especially for people that are above 60 years of age who are not always
online to monitor their accounts.
According to Luno, the additional
security layer would help customers in Nigeria where the market is
patronised by thousands of people most of whom trade in ignorance, to
create awareness and update security strategies to keep up with new
attack trends.
Having introduced an extra layer of
security for its customers that are over 60 years of age, Luno is
calling on all customers above the age of 60 years to send their
identity documents as soon as they open a wallet or account, through
Luno.
“This added layer of security will help
combat fraudulent and scammer activities that target vulnerable
customers, as we will be able to immediately verify their identity,”
Luno said in a statement.
Rise in scams is one of the main reasons
for investors’ dwindling confidence in cryptocurrencies. This has seen
the price of frontline cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, Ethereum
underperform in 2018. It is also responsible for increased push for more
regulatory oversight on the market from different quarters.
In August, the City of London Police
noted that there had been 203 reports of cryptocurrency fraud in the
months of June and July. Data from Action Fraud, its national fraud and
cybercrime reporting centre disclosed that victims lost £2.1 million,
which is an average of £10,096 per person.
Director of Action Fraud, Pauline Smith,
in an interview with the Financial Times recently, noted that
“opportunistic fraudsters are taking advantage of this market, offering
investments in cryptocurrencies and using every trick in the book to
defraud unsuspecting victims.”
Also in August, 22 year old Aarni Otava,
a millionaire from Finland reportedly lost 5,564.4 bitcoins, after
inadvertently sending them to fraudsters in Thailand. The Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) also raised scam alerts
because of a 12 month high incidence of scams involving
cryptocurrencies.
Australia-based bitcoin platform, bitcoin.com.au
recently highlighted four of the major cryptocurrency scams of 2018 to
include OneCoin, Centratech, Dragon Coin, and NCR Coin. These are fake
altcoins that have defrauded unsuspecting customers of their money.
One of the best ways to encounter a Cryptocurrency Fraud is to get in touch with reliable chargeback service providers such as scam recovery.
ReplyDelete