Hard Fork | Talk Show | Season 01 | Episode 08 | Understanding Crypto Scams and Frauds and the Legal recourse

Crypto Frauds, Scams, the World and India

Cryptocurrency has taken the world by storm, and it has brought with it, its own set of problems. Apart from the usual regulatory turmoil, there has also been use of crypto for illegal activities. Bitcoin’s growth also spurned a huge number of alternate cryptocurrencies most of which have been found to be dud or dead. According to Dead Coins, the number of coins or tokens which are either scams or fakes are more than 600+!!

Imagine, they all started as a promising token about to change the ways of the world. In India too, the number of coins which were posing as the next best thing after Bitcoin, turned out to be massive Ponzi schemes. Not to forget the multi-billion dollar so called high-yield investment programs like OneCoin and Bitconnect, which led to a humongous loss to people.

Why are we discussing crypto fraud?

While we have seen unprecedented growth of Crypto all over the world including India over the past 2 years, there has also been a spate of scams and frauds which have affected millions across the world. An unknown amount (some say billions of dollars’ worth) of digital assets have been stolen, scammed out of unsuspecting people.

We wanted to use this platform to highlight this aspect of crypto too to ensure that everyone out there could spend some more time to understand how crypto works, understand the kinds of scams which happen in crypto, keep your ears and eyes open and keep their crypto assets secure.

Questions on our mind

This is a new technology, it is related to monetary values; so while there are laws for monetary frauds in India, the questions remain:

• Is our current legal apparatus equipped enough to detect and understand a fraud in this new technology and how the Crypto industry functions?
• What is the legal recourse that a common man can take?
• What are the different types of frauds or scams that one can experience or encounter? Any or all examples will help the community in India.
• Can we understand what kinds of frauds are already registered as cases in an Indian court of law?
• What is the magnitude or scale of these scams and frauds?
• How easy is it to file a crypto fraud case in India?
• If someone has been affected with a fraud, what should they do in their own capacity to highlight it to the authorities?
• How can the Cyber-crime cell help in these matters?
• We have heard of some harassment stories with regards to the Police! How receptive is the Police on this subject?
• Do they really understand this system at all?
• How difficult is it to convince them what crypto is?

The guest

In the 8th Episode of Hard Fork, we called an expert lawyer dealing in legal cases related to crypto scams and frauds. Mohammed Danish is a lawyer by profession and Co-Founder of the much popular Crypto Kanoon. Danish has had a front row experience of the manner in which frauds, scams and cheating and extortions have happened in the crypto space.

He is currently representing Crypto-fraud victims and managing legal cases all over the country for clients who have been defrauded off their digital assets. His tremendous experience in handling crypto related cases over the past one and half years, and his superb understanding about the crypto technology makes it an easy and interesting conversation.

The conversation

Not only does Danish have a sound understanding of the crypto technologies, but he is also well versed with the ongoing happenings in the digital financial space. His precise knowledge about digital payment systems including that of cryptos led to some interesting revelations.

Many people have been duped of their savings, and probably that is why he has added crypto frauds in his legal repertoire. We discussed some specific ways in which scams and frauds have happened in the country. Extortions, abductions, cheatings, stealing on gun-point, exchanges which refuse to allow withdrawals of cryptos, and frauds done over peer-to-peer exchanges using other Indian digital payment systems.

All these cases are currently sub-judice and being pursued by Danish in multiple Indian courts. Highlighting these cases, are important for us. We want to ensure the new crypto enthusiast is aware of the ways in which their digital asset can be.

Hear it more on the Episode.

End Notes

We have now already premiered 8 episodes of “Hard Fork” – India’s first TV talk show on Crypto and Blockchain on Amazon Fire TV. All Hard Fork episodes are being simulcast on other platforms including YouTube and Facebook.

The Hard Fork YouTube Playlist

Watch Episode 8 of Hard Fork with Mohammed Danish on Amazon Fire TV (FounderINDIA channel), YouTube and Facebook.

We would love to hear genuine feedback from our viewers about the episode. If you like it please leave a comment, like it, subscribe the channel and do share it with like-minded people and beyond. Or write to us at [email protected] and [email protected].

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Cover Image source: Cryptolinenews