Hey there readers, I am sure most of you who are associated with the crypto domain, already knows what Dogecoin is? So, let’s start this article with a brief introduction to Dogecoin. Dogecoin was initially created back in 2014 as a joke/meme coin to mock Bitcoin, due to which nobody considered the coin to have any growth potential at that time. However, from the start of this year, the world’s second-richest man, Elon Musk suddenly started mentioning Dogecoin in several of his tweets. This attracted many crypto investors to invest in the coin which made the coin go up by over 1000% just within a few days. Since then, the coin has become the talk of the town. Currently, the coin is also backed by billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban and is ranked as the seventh-largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of $35.4 billion. Recently, there has even been an advisory board set up to turn the meme asset into a fully functioning globally accepted payment method. The members of the advisory board include famous people like the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalin Buterin and also Jared Birchall (representing Elon Musk).
Hence, you can understand the gist of how Dogecoin rose to fame. The scammers are using this exact popularity of the coin to scam people of their hard-earned money.
Dogecoin Mining Scam
Enough with the introduction about Dogecoin. It is time for us to get to the main part concerning the recent scam that took place in Turkey. According to the local media houses, a person that goes by the name Turgut V scammed 1500 people of their money which amounts to $119.14 million in the name of mining the famous crypto-token, Dogecoin.
It is reported that the alleged scammer, Turgut V gained the trust of people by meeting them in various luxurious venues and also by arranging one on one Zoom calls. The scammer promised them a return of about 100% in the name of Dogecoin mining. After that, the scammer gathered all the victims to a Telegram channel through which he communicated the scamming process to the unsuspecting victims to buy the Dogecoin token and transfer it to him. So, the scammer could invest in some revolutionary Dogecoin mining technology on the victims’ behalf that will surely give them a 100% return within 40days.
It is reported that by this manner, the scammer was able to acquire about 350 million Dogecoin tokens that as mentioned earlier amounted to $119.14 Million.
As per one victim, the alleged scam operated perfectly for over 4 months and suddenly everything stopped/disappeared along with their investments.
Currently, the alleged scammer Turgut V is absconding. The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of Turkey has launched an investigation into this incident and also banned Turgut V from leaving Turkey. There are a total of 11 suspects which also includes the scammer’s romantic partner.
Safety Precuations
It is true that India currently lacks the necessary crypto regulations needed to track and stop these Ponzi schemes from popping up or happening. However, what the people of India can do or must know is that there are no legal or official middlemen or brokers in India for the crypto market. A person can only invest or even do anything related to crypto via official channels like officially enlisted apps or websites vetted by the Indian Govt. So, a person needs to make sure not to click on any random unknown links promising huge crypto gains.
In India, a person who wants to invest in crypto can do so, via official crypto exchanges such as WazirX.
That will be all for now folks. Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive weekly updates on all kinds of interesting topics.
