Aussie crypto scam worth A$2.7 million busted, five arrested

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A criminal group in Gold Coast, Australia were arrested for allegedly scamming over 100 Australians with A$2.7 million in cryptocurrency investment. Queensland Police charged five members of the group with fraud and money laundering after a complex and lengthy investigation known as Operation Quebec Walnut.

The criminal group posed as multiple cryptocurrency investment firms and websites from 2017 till May this year: “Exmount Holdings Ltd”, “The Quid Pro Quo Foundation”, “The Atlas Group”, “AFG Associates Pty Ltd”, “tradex123”, “exmounttrading”, “atlasfxgroup” and “amazonqus”.

They had a call center and sales staff and cold-called potential victims, persuading them to invest and promising lucrative returns. Victims were even offered a trial investment, so they could log in some sort of platform where they could watch their initial investment grow. When they tried to withdraw, however, the money had gone, and they could not get in touch with the company’s employees.

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There are a lot of similar cases of fraud and this negatively affects cryptocurrencies because a negative image is created, which will then be difficult to change. I’m afraid that in order to restore confidence and increase the popularity of cryptocurrencies, it takes more time for more people to gain knowledge about cryptocurrencies and the regulation of crypto exchangers, organizations working with cryptocurrencies and so on has been introduced.