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When Founders Become Hackers

We all know hackers invade the security and steal the fund or essential data from the storage. What happens when the founders of a crypto exchange themselves execute a big scam. Definitely investors lose their faith on this type of crypto exchange.

BitcoinSouthAfrica.jpg [source](https://cryptopotato.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/BitcoinSouthAfrica.jpg)

The founders of Africrypt, a South African cryptocurrency investment firm, have disappeared with 69000 bitcoins of their investors. Their names are Ameer and Raees Cajee. They both are brothers. This news is published here https://cryptopotato.com/a-major-crypto-scam-in-south-africa-two-brothers-and-69000-btc-have-vanished-together/ .

How can investors believe this type of exchange? This is not the first crypto scam. There have been several such scams before today. That’s why government of most countries are worried of the use of cryptocurrencies.

Some history of crypto scams

  1. In 2011, there was a company called MyBitcoin who used to offer wallet services to store bitcoin. In the month of August, MyBitcoin stopped functioning and vanished from the web. According to them, the site was hacked by scammers.

  2. In March 2012, hackers attacked the shared online web host Linode and stole around 46,703 bitcoins from there.

  3. Another Bitcoin ponzi scheme the Bitcoin Savings and Trust was shut down in August 2012. The company had promised their customers to pay seven percent on savings per week.

  4. The next hackers attack happened in September 2012. It severely hit Bitfloor, a Bitcoin exchange. 24,000 bitcoins were stolen by attackers in that attack. The company couldn’t afford the stolen bitcoins and became insolvent.

  5. The largest bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox was severely attacked by hackers in February 2014. The exchange lost 850,000 bitcoins in the incident.

  6. Bitstamp exchange was also suffered from hacking attack in January 2015. According to the company, hackers stole around 19000 bitcoins from the exchange.

  7. Bitfinex was also attacked by hackers in August 2016. They had siphoned off 120,000 bitcoins worth of $77 millions from the exchange.

The above data are sourced from here https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/a-brief-history-of-bitcoin-hacks-and-frauds/

All these scams either executed by hackers or the creators and customers suffered. That’s why crypto regulations are required to stop these scams. Unfortunately virtual currencies are not yet regulated all over the world. Few countries allowed the use of cryptocurrencies but with several restrictions.

In India, government authorities are working on crypto bill but we are not sure whether cryptocurrency will be regulated or not. In order to prevent crypto scams, the industry must have regulations. Otherwise, hacking will continue.


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When Founders Become Hackers was published on and last updated on 24 Jun 2021.