Alleged cryptocurrency scammers arrested after backers turn on them
Disgruntled backers of Goal Green Global saw the arrest after helping police set up a sting operation.
After pouring millions of Philippine pesos into Goal Green Global, its backers were fed up, GMA reports. The Malaysian company claimed that any money sent to the company would be matched with valuable and rapidly appreciating carbon cyptocurrency tokens, but after several cash injections, there was still no sign of growing value.
After the third time, when the company claimed that their carbon token system glitched and they'd need another payment, backers were ready to cut ties for good. To do so, they approached local police and began working on a sting operation. The backers were soon rewarded by seeing the alleged scammers arrested in the middle of their presentation.
This Facebook post has aged very well. Source
"There's no guarantee of that [carbon token] value," said inspector Felizardo Laygo of the Philippine national police department, warning people to be careful in what they're buying. In this case, the signs may have been relatively obvious, with Goal Green Global throwing up red flags carbon dated to at least February 2017. In another classic indicator, it promised a return of millions of pesos in just three months.
Goal Green Global is reported to have changed its name to Blockchain Forest Decentralised Application at some point, ostensibly selling bags, real estate and other items for carbon tokens.
It may have been a profitable scheme though. The ten people that eventually turned on the suspects had lost millions between them, and authorities reportedly recovered about 50 million pesos (roughly AUD$1.25 million) after the arrests, although authorities believe there is more money from other victims around the world that has yet to be recovered.
At "only" a couple of million dollars stolen, it might be a lot smaller than other cryptocurrency scams, and much smaller than some of the bigger fiat currency scams, but it's still more than enough.
This is how other alleged crypto scams around the world have ended, and authorities urge those who have unlawfully been cheated out of money to report it.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author holds ETH, IOTA, ICX, VEN, XLM, SALT, BTC and NANO.
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