It has come to light that a minimum of 700 French citizens were lured into the Bitcoin scam, resulting in a loss of around €31 million [around $35 million]. According to Autorité des marchés Financiers [AMF], the stock market regulators of France, people are being lured into the scam since the beginning of this year, when Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were on the high road of the market.
Investors were beguiled into the scheme with the use of advertisements related to Bitcoin investment. Through this, they collected information such as the name and phone number of the investors. Succeeding which, they followed up with the investors by offering them stupendous investment plans. They further extracted money from investors by selling false investment opportunities.
A lawyer specializing in Heritage issues, Helene Feron-Poloni said:
“Bitcoin is very complex to understand, very technical. Investors do not necessarily understand what is happening but simply say: this time, I do not miss the opportunity to earn money”
Additionally, the Marketing Director for Coinhouse, a cryptocurrency asset investment firm, Brian O’Hagan stated that they have discovered over 200 fraudulent portals, which are used to lure investors into investing in the scam.
Reports also suggest that France is not the only county in this bandwagon. The Belgium government officials are expecting frauds related to Bitcoin [BTC] and other cryptocurrencies to exceed €100 million mark.
In the month of September 2018, France set up its regulatory framework for Initial Coin Offering [ICO]. Now, the country is stepping up to regulate the cryptocurrency markets, according to recent reports. Officials have already implemented mandatory AMF registration for cryptocurrency exchanges and cryptographic keys custodians in an attempt to introduce a framework.
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