The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which critically monitors ICOs and other crypto projects in its function and, if necessary, discontinues them, has set up its own scam within the framework of crypto intelligence.

The HoweyCoin had its own page with all the usual features and advertising yada.

However, anyone who took a more critical look at the texts found warnings everywhere that the project was not quite in order. The texts contained all buzzwords, but no content. Investors could count on 1-2% interest through holding. The team only existed on its own site, the white paper was a bubble and the testimonials of Twitter users equally unreliable.

Of course there were still many people who would have liked to invest in HoweyCoin – every button on the site links to a SEC landing page with all warnings of fake ICOs. The name was already the first clue: The Howey text checks whether a transaction is an investment contract.

Funny detail: The team on the HoweyCoin site consists of members of the SEC with fake names. Josh Hinze, the project’s head architect, is actually Owen Donley, head of the SEC’s investor information department.

4th Australian Watchdog reports about (crypto)scams

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has published a report on fraud last year. The report deals separately with the scams around crypto currencies. 2.1 million Australian dollars (just under 800,000 euros) knew how to scrape fraudsters together.

On a total number of 340 million, the crypto crimes are actually still within limits. This is especially true when you see that ransomware is also packed under crypto. Hackers and other attackers who charged an amount in crypto currency (mostly BTC) for the decryption or release of personal data have taken part of the 1.2 million.

Otherwise most Aussis will have fallen for the classic scams – fake ICOs, send me 0.5 ETH and you get 5 ETH back, pyramid games, Ponzi schemes…

I have no idea what the amounts are in Germany, but make sure that your money does not go to scams: DYOR (Do Your Own Reasearch), ask, use forums and channels and never forget to think sober even in crypto intoxication.