Crypto scams are nothing new with many investors having already lost billions through fake projects.
The latest scam involves the ABLE project (ABLX). It was marketed as a global blockchain bank and was able to raise more than 10,000 ETH through a public token pre-sale between April and August. At the time the crypto coins were worth $6.5 million. The project claimed to have institutional support from players around the South East Asia region.
ABLE Scam Revealed
The project managed to dupe investors to part with their cash in many ways. For example, the team members were made up of stock pictures and also had fake LinkedIn profiles. The list of advisors also consists of industry leaders around Southeast Asia who were unaware they were listed as part of the project.
All was well until the conclusion of the final sale and that’s when things got fishy. The founders vanished by deleting all their social media accounts including all Telegram groups. Efforts to reach them have been futile as messages go unanswered. At this point, it’s safe to assume the project was another scam.
It’s not only investors that have been scammed but also content creators and bounty members who spent hours promoting the project have not been compensated. Freelance campaign managers have also reported they haven’t been paid for their services.
It’s with these types of scams in the crypto space, especially through ICOs, that regulators around the globe recognize as a problem. Nations and agencies are doing what they think is right to curb scams like these.
Moreover, there are a few legit crypto companies that have aided this scam and they need to take responsibility. One is TrackICO, a company that reviews ICO projects and rates them. Given that investors visit such a website to find out which projects they should get involved in, by giving the ABLE project a perfect score of 5, they helped lured investors in.
It’s possible the site was paid to give the perfect score and for this reason has tarnished its name. It will be hard for investors to ever trust this ICO rating site again in the future.
The second one is Coinrail, a seemingly legit crypto exchange based in South Korea. This is the platform where most of the token sale took place. Even though crypto exchanges that support ICOs claim to adhere to the strict vetting process, it seems Coinrail failed with its due diligence.
John is a finance and technology journalist with a growing interest in cryptocurrencies. Writing is his passion and when he’s not writing he’s listening to the Beatles.
