'Buyer beware': What scammers and Trump have in common

26 March

During his first term, President Donald Trump was very skeptical of cryptocurrencies. But these days, Trump — like many of his tech bro allies — is an enthusiastic cheerleader for crypto technology.

In an article published on March 26, Salon's Daria Solovieva details a potential problem with Trump's "embrace of crypto" and "shift toward deregulation" with the technology: scammers.

Trump's crypto deregulation push, according to Solovieva, "comes as the number of scams is set to increase."

"Crypto investors lost at least $9.9 billion last year as a result of scams, according to the latest data compiled by Chainalysis, a New York City-based blockchain analysis firm," Solovieva reports. "That estimate is expected to rise as more illicit addresses associated with fraud are identified in the coming months."

Eric Jardine, who focuses on cybercrime at Chainalysis, warns that as use of cryptocurrencies increases, cybercriminals will ramp up their use of AI technology to scam consumers.

Jardine told Salon, "Adoption, a driver of total crypto activity, will undoubtedly grow this year. So even if the rate of scam activity were to remain constant, scam volumes would still increase year-on-year. I also expect that we will see volumes surge due to the growing professionalization of the ecosystem and the proliferation of AI technologies."

Philadelphia-based attorney Terence Grugan, who is with the Market Street firm Ballard Spahr, urges cryptocurrency users to exercise great caution.

Grugan told Salon, "The expected absence of enforcement in the cryptocurrency market does not mean there are no legitimate issuers and products; it means the illegitimate ones may multiply and the maxim 'buyer beware' takes on greater importance. As with any investment or any product with a fluctuating value, buyers and users should seek as much information as possible about the product before exchanging their own hard currency for crypto."

Read the full Salon article at this link.

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