Business
Investors robbed of $11 mn Bitcoins in four years: Study
New York, Jan 31
Frauds such as online ponzi
schemes have skimmed at least $11 million in Bitcoin deposits from
unsuspecting cyber customers over the past four years, a study says.
Bitcoin is the digital world's most popular virtual currency, with millions in circulation.
"Our
calculation of $11 million is almost certainly at the low-end," said
lead researcher Marie Vasek from Southern Methodist University in the
US.
"The amount of Bitcoin that depositors have lost to these scams is probably many millions more," Vasek added.
The
researchers identified 41 scams occurring between 2011 and 2014, in
which fraudulent sites stole Bitcoin from at least 13,000 victims.
"We found that the most successful scams draw the vast majority of their revenue from a few victims," Vasek said.
The
researchers were only able to track revenues for about 21 percent of
the scams, which would indicate that the amount of Bitcoin actually
stolen most likely far exceeds $11 million.
There are 13.7
million Bitcoin in circulation, according to blockchain.info. The number
of Bitcoin transactions exceeds 100,000 per day.
The researchers
identified four common scams by tracking forum discussions, where scams
are often initially advertised and later exposed, and by tracking web
sites.
Of all the scams, high-yield investment programmes,
otherwise known as online Ponzi schemes, which promise investors
outlandish interest rates on deposits, have taken in the lion's share of
money from victims, the study noted.
The other three scams identified by the researchers are - mining investment scams, scam wallets and exchange scams.
The
findings were presented at the 2015 19th International Financial
Cryptography and Data Security Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.