A poker player was charged in Las Vegas this week for allegedly swindling a novice cryptocurrency trader for as much as 

: theft of more than $100,000, obtaining or using another person's identity to cause a financial loss of more than $30,000, and an unlawful felony act involving electronic mail or transmission of computer data, according to court records.

 on Tuesday that the victim, whose name is blacked out in an arrest warrant for Liakounakos, had notified authorities in November 2020 that he was the victim of a bitcoin scam.

The victim told police that he was approached by a business associate on the encrypted mobile chat app Telegram and agreed to a bitcoin transaction. The victim allegedly transferred $500,000 in bitcoin, including a $50,000 seller's fee.

The next day, the victim contacted the business associate to learn that they had not been aware of the transaction and the money had been sent to an imposter, according to the 

In the warrant for Liakounakos's arrest, a detective stated that he reviewed the transaction on the public blockchain "and observed the BTC (bitcoin) being moved rapidly in what is commonly known as ‘peeling’ to obfuscate where the BTC was going."

The following month, the victim was contacted by the imposter again, who proposed a bitcoin transaction of just under one million. The victim obtained an email from the imposter, which allowed police to issue an arrest warrant for Liakounakos.

A few months before the victim told police about the bitcoin scam, a poker forum was discussing an alleged six-figure scam by a poker player named Filippos Liakounakos, who was described as "the tall young Greek kid who plays PLO."

 was ripped off of $600k by Filippos Liakounakos."

"Cord Garcia is best known for his 1st place finish in the massive-field WSOP Colossus event in 2015, for $638k. I met him in 2018 at a $1500 NL event, and he was nice/friendly. Liked the kid," Witteles wrote in the thread, which includes an embedded tweet that has since been deleted.

"Anyway, this came out because Fleyshman decided to use the visibility of the 

 to create some of his own for Fillipos. Not sure if the claim is true, and Fleyshman has been known to stretch the truth, but my gut feeling is that this is true or mostly true."

Fleyshman is an entrepreneur and poker player who has $770,281 in 

Further accusations against Liakounakos are outlined in a 

 who accused the Greek player of owing $12,500 on the private club site 

 and refusing to pay. Liakounakos allegedly did not deny he owed the money but said he felt cheated and therefore refused to pay, according to "journeyman."

, which lists him as being from Greece and having one cash from the 2020 

GGPoker.com Event #84: $100 WSOP MILLION$

, in which he finished in 1,195th place for $559.

Liakounakos had his first court appearance on Wednesday morning.

Photo courtesy of Las Vegas Metropolitian Police Department

Poker Player Charged in Las Vegas for Alleged $500K Bitcoin Scam

. Now it’s responsible for one of the biggest thefts in the history of the technology. The gaming-focused blockchain Ronin Network announced earlier today that an 

 exploit allowed a hacker to “drain” roughly $600 million worth of crypto currency from the network.

“There has been a security breach on the Ronin Network,” the company 

 on its Substack. “Earlier today, we discovered that on March 23rd, Sky Mavis’s Ronin validator nodes and Axie DAO validator nodes were compromised resulting in 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5M USDC drained from the Ronin bridge in two transactions.”

The person responsible allegedly used hacked private keys to order the fraudulent withdrawals. How, you ask? According to Ronin, “the attacker found a backdoor through our gas-free RPC node, which they abused to get the signature for the Axie DAO validator.”

Basically, the Ronin “side-chain” for games like 

 uses “9 validator nodes” to prevent fraudulent transactions. However, in November, due to overwhelming demand by new 

 players, Ronin gave special privileges to Sky Mavis, the company behind the game, so it could sign transactions on its behalf.

 has exploded in popularity in certain quarters of the internet with the rise of NFTs and market speculation around blockchain gaming and the metaverse. 

Part critter collectathon, part deck building battle game

 claimed 1.8 million daily users last year, and broke 

$4 billion in lifetime NFT sales earlier this year

. Now it seems to have paid a price for its rapid growth, cutting security corners to rapidly service new users.

“The Axie DAO allowlisted Sky Mavis to sign various transactions on its behalf,” Ronin writes. “This was discontinued in December 2021, but the allowlist access was not revoked. Once the attacker got access to Sky Mavis systems they were able to get the signature from the Axie DAO validator by using the gas-free RPC.“

Ronin has apparently locked down accounts while it continues its investigation into the hack, meaning no one can get their funds out even as the price of RON, the network’s native token, has 

Weird how crypto currency networks, championed for their security and decentralization, keep getting burgled. Last August, a hacker made off with 

 from the Poly Network, though many of the funds were later returned. In January, hackers withdrew more than $30 million from Crypto.com in what the company initially referred to as a low-key “incident.” Most of those funds 

. It remains to be seen what will happen with the latest massive crypto breach.

Crypto Gaming's Biggest Success Story Scammed Out Of $600 Million

A malicious crypto token posing as 'Shiba Inu: Deployer', is using a smart contract on the blockchain, associating itself with Shiba Inu.

 | Pune |
April 23, 2022 3:50:26 pmMalicious tokens are trying to spoof Shiba Inu. (Photo: Twitter/ Shiba Inu)

Shiba Inu, the meme cryptocurrency is gaining significant traction 

after being listed on popular crypto app Robinhood.

 With the increasing popularity, scammers are on look out to steal Shib tokens from investors. Kaal Dhairya, a Shiba Inu developer, has warned in a blog post about how a scam token is trying to associate itself with the viral memecoin.

According to the developer, a malicious crypto token posing as ‘Shiba Inu: Deployer’, is using a smart contract on the blockchain, associating itself with Shiba Inu. The transaction that seem to be made through Shiba Inu token is a manipulation trick on the smart contract. Smart contracts are programs on blockchain that execute when a specific condition is met.

“The scammers / clever marketers make use of programming to fool lot of people of millions, sometimes more malicious code could drain your wallet on approval of the token, we see this everytime and it breaks our heart as we can’t do anything about it for them,” Dhariya wrote in a blog post.

Bitcoin of America adds Shiba Inu coin to their Bitcoin ATMs

He adds, “All honest tokens emit the correct information as events, with the correct sender and recipient addresses. This contract, however, has crafted code specifically to emit malicious events… so that the token can associate itself with prominent wallets.”

In February, another such malicious token was identified that also tried associated itself with Shiba Inu cryptocurrency. As per blockchain security firm Peckshield, the token dubbed as “ShibaTron” was a honeypot scam. Once investors bought the token, they were unable to sell or transfer the token.

In other news, creators behind Shiba Inu said they are now 

, with 100,595 plots of virtual lands. Inspired by a dog meme and posed as ‘Dogecoin killer’, SHIB’s value skyrocketed in 2021 and SHIB developers want to drop the ‘memecoin’ tag with the launch of its own 

. Creators of Shiba Inu metaverse have termed it ‘SHIB: The Metaverse’. The developers will allow users to buy virtual lands through a series of events. Users will have to visit the official Shiba Inu metaverse website.

Shiba Inu developer warns investors of a malicious SHIB token scam

The pair sold NFTs for 8,888 ice cream scoop characters called Frosties—and then disappeared.

Ethan Vinh Nguyen and Andre Marcus Quiddaoen Llacuna abandoned their proposed NFT project "Frosties" and absconded with $1 million in investors' money. Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Scammers are getting in on the NFT gold rush.

One such scheme came to an end last week when U.S. law enforcement arrested two 20-year-old men, Ethan Vinh Nguyen and Andre Marcus Quiddaoen Llacuna, in Los Angeles in connection with an alleged $1.1 million NFT fraud.

In January, the two launched an NFT collection called 

, releasing 8,888 ice cream scoop cartoon characters that sold out within an hour on OpenSea. They promised investors in the project early access to a related metaverse game and other perks, including the ability to “breed” new Frosties from existing characters.

Instead, less than an hour after the January 9 drop, Nguyen and Llacuna promptly abandoned Frosties, shutting down its website and 25,000-member Discord channel, and transferring all the funds into their own cryptocurrency wallets. Such a scam is known as a “rug pull,” where the creators of an advertised NFT or gaming project stop working on the release, but keep investors’ money.

Ethan Vinh Nguyen and Andre Marcus Quiddaoen Llacuna’s Frosties NFTs as seen on OpenSea.

The duo was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

“Mr. Nguyen and Mr. Llacuna promised investors the benefits of the Frosties NFTs, but when it sold out, they pulled the rug out from under the victims, almost immediately shutting down the website and transferring the money,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in a 

. “Our job as prosecutors and law enforcement is to protect investors from swindlers looking for a payday.”

 against Nguyen and Llacuna includes a screenshot of an apology message Nguyen sent to a moderator of Frostie’s community Discord server.

Ethan Vinh Nguyen allegedly sent this message to a Frosties Discord monitor admitting he never intended to follow through on the project’s announced road map. Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice.

“I know this is shocking, but this project is coming to an end. I never intended to keep the project going, and I don’t have a plan for anything in the future,” he wrote.

At the time of the launch, Frosties boasted all the ingredients for a hit NFT project. It had “a thriving community with a lot of activity, a roadmap, legitimate looking site, OpenSea account, and artwork,” Marcellus King, an investor who lost around $3,000 to the scam, told 

The arrests took place ahead of a second NFT drop from the same duo scheduled for this month. A 5,555-piece collection advertised as 

 was expected to bring in an additional $1.5 million, reports 

. Authorities believe that the two were planning to repeat the Frosties con, promising Embers buyers perks like giveaways, a DAO, airdrops, collaborations, and a 50,000-person Discord channel.

“Each individual Ember is carefully curated from over 150 traits, along with some incredibly rare 1/1s that have traits that can’t be found from any other Ember,” reads the project’s webpage. “Our vision is to create an amazing project that will shed light, joy, love, and creativity! Burn on, Embers!”

Both projects appeared to capitalize on the popularity of major NFT collections such as CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which each have thousands of computer-generated characters based on the same basic art template, some with rare, therefore valuable characteristics.

“I really like the art style. They looked really cute on the website. Frosties had a feeling that people would buy that, you know,” one duped investor, who spent about $1,000 on the project, told 

Nguyen and Llacuna organized both NFT projects under pseudonymous names—Llacuna goes by the handle “heyandre,” while Nguyen is alternately known as “Frostie,” “Jakefiftyeight,” “Jobo,” “Joboethan,” and “Meltfrost.” Neither could be reached directly for comment, and a message sent to the Embers Twitter account was not immediately returned.

Their arrest was a joint effort by the Southern District, the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, the New York Field Office of the Department of Homeland Security, and the New York Office of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Ethan Vinh Nguyen and Andre Marcus Quiddaoen Llacuna were planning to launch a round of investment for a new NFT project “Embers,” before their arrest. Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Frostie NFTs originally sold for 0.04 ETH (roughly $123 to $136) each. After the rug pull, prices plummeted. Some investors have since attempted to rehabilitate the Frosties tokens, which live on on the blockchain even after the project’s demise. In a process called “wrapping,” collectors have been re-minting them with a new smart contract outside the original developer’s control, reports 

” on OpenSea, but the floor price is only 0.01 ETH (about $34), which means it remains unlikely that investors will ever recoup their money.

“NFTs represent a new era for financial investments, but the same rules apply to an investment in an NFT or a real estate development,” IRS-CI special agent-in-charge Thomas Fattorusso said. “You can’t solicit funds for a business opportunity, abandon that business and abscond with money investors provided you.”

The arrests serve as a warning that while the metaverse represents countless new business opportunities, it also opens the door to new types of fraud. Cryptocurrency scams totaled some $2.8 billion last year, 37 percent in connection with “rug pull” cons, according to blockchain research firm 

“Where there is money to be made,” Williams said, “fraudsters will look for ways to steal it.”

Police Arrest Two 20-Year-Olds for Allegedly Conning Collectors Out of $1 Million—With Ice Cream-Themed NFT Artworks

Business was bad during the pandemic, so when mum-of-four Freya thought came across what she thought was a viable investment opportunity, she was sure it would turn everything around.

However, instead of changing her fortunes, she and her family soon discovered it was a cruel scam that would cost them a fortune.

Freya, 48, is now more than £30,000 out of pocket after being scammed by a mysterious and unlicensed cryptocurrency firm that claimed to be based in Canary Wharf.

‘It was devastating,’ she admits. ‘When something like this happens, it becomes hard to trust anyone again.’

Freya is one of many people who have fallen victim to con artists who promise huge payouts to people who invest in the volatile crypto markets – but end up being robbed of vast sums of money.

Digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ether operate without the need for central banks and government control, raising utopian hopes that crypto can be used to create a better, fairer financial system. However, its decentralised nature also offers criminals anonymity and the ability to target victims from anywhere in the world.

And the impact is not just financial, as crypto also poses a serious risk to the planet. Mining crypto – the process of verifying transactions and generating new coins – uses vast amounts of electricity and creates the same amount of CO2 each year as a small country.

Directly contributing to climate change, it’s ecological impact is so serious that President Biden ordered officials to urgently investigate ways to reduce the “negative climate impacts and environmental pollution” of crypto in a recent executive order.

Freya, from Telford, runs a business with her husband. As well as looking after her children, she provides care to her elderly mother, who has dementia, and father, who suffered a stroke that left him unable to speak.

Freya and her family lost thousands after being targeted by Crypto scammers (Picture: Getty Images)

In search of new income streams during a pandemic slowdown, the mum-of-four, who had a basic understanding of crypto, tells Metro.co.uk that she opened a Bitcoin trading account to pursue investment and then ‘came across’ a company called Invxsler online, in May 2021.

Marketing itself as a crypto investment service that offers huge returns, on the company’s website, it claims to allow customers to ‘trade like an expert and increase your profits with the power of 100X leverage’. In other words: send us your money and we’ll earn you 100 times as much.

‘Work had been a struggle due to Covid and Brexit,’ explains Freya. ‘We knew someone that had earned enough money trading bitcoin to put a deposit on a house in London. Plenty of people had earned a lot of cash so I thought I would give it a go. I wanted a company that seemed a bit more hands-on and Invxsler fitted the bill. How wrong could I be?’

Wanting to make sure that she was choosing a reputable company, Freya did some digging online and found ‘plenty’ of articles that claimed Invxsler was trustworthy. So, she sent them £200 to invest in crypto. Requests for more money began almost immediately.

An ‘account manager’ called Nina, who claimed to be Danish, phoned Freya’s husband and persuaded him to transfer more than £3,000 after doubling down on the false promises of the scheme.

‘They are really professional and good at what they do,’ Freya explains. ‘They talk about the weather, ask about the kids. You begin to trust them, but what they are really doing is taking you down a wormhole.’

Nina then started to call Freya every day, asking intimate questions about her family life, which did not seem worrying at the time due to the skill of the scammers. Freya told Nina about her money worries and her parents, and even began to regard her as a friend. Nina even managed to persuade their eldest child, who was over 18 at the time, to open an account with £1,000 – which was also never returned.

The scammers even persuaded Freya’s 18-year-old daughter to part with money to invest in cryptocurrency (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Then came the next stage in the scam. Freya was passed on to a ‘manager’ called Martin who claimed to know about another way of making even more cash.

She recalls: ‘He said we could make lots of money, but would need £10,000. The website looked professional and there were hardly any bad reviews at that point. The company was very good at talking to you in a caring, happy way as if they wanted us to profit.’

However, soon after both Nina and Martin claimed to have caught Covid, so a new representative called ‘Ian’ stepped in, explaining that he was building a group account that would raise one million pounds to be shared among 20 people.

Freya was invited to join, as long as she invested £18,000 – an amount she was assured would massively increase. In July 2021, Freya and her husband took the cash out of their business and handed it over to Invxler

‘This money was only needed for three days, we were told,’ she recalls. ‘Now we can’t withdraw it. I can’t access any of my £32,545 investment.

‘They brainwash you and try to pressure you into making fast decisions by saying that you will lose out on a lot of money unless you invest right now.’

However, their ordeal didn’t end there. The company kept asking Freya for money by putting more pressure on her to act quickly – a classic scammer tactic. She was told the group had now made each member £250k. However, the price of bitcoin was dropping fast and she would lose £30k unless she paid more than £20k.

The thought of parting with any more cash sent alarm bells ringing and Freya began asking more questions, demanding to get her money back or, at the least, to see some terms and conditions.

Since then, she has been waiting months for a call from Ian, but he never phoned.

And Freya is yet to see any of her money returned – despite calling the police and Action Fraud as well as filing a complaint with her bank and the crypto exchange she used to send payments.

After losing over £30k, Freya is speaking out to help others avoid falling victim to a similar crime.

‘I still find it upsetting and have lost confidence in myself,’ she admits. ‘I wouldn’t say I was a vulnerable person but if it can happen to us, it can happen to anyone. We were not able to get our money back.

The family are speaking out to warn others so they don’t fall victim to the scammers (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

‘They knew about our four kids. We told them that my parents were ill and elderly. But they didn’t care. I feel most guilty about my daughter, who also lost £10,000. It makes my stomach turn.’

Since the family were ripped off, the Invxler website has changed its address, but is still available online. Although a Google search now shows scam warnings and bad reviews, the fake positive reviews can still be seen. Metro.co.uk found one website that claimed Invxsler is a ‘luxury brokerage aiming to satisfy serious clients with a diverse service’ and discusses its ‘services’ in an authoritative, expert and convincing tone.

The Financial Conduct Authority has also issued a warning which states: ‘We believe this firm may be providing financial services or products in the UK without our authorisation [so] you should be wary of dealing with this unauthorised firm.’

Jane Lee is a Trust and Safety Architect at the digital fraud prevention company Sift, in San Francisco, whose work is dedicated to investigating new types of fraud.

She told Metro.co.uk about a dating site crypto scam called ‘pig butchering’. The name reflects the cruel, sadistic attitude scammers have towards their victims – and even appears to mock them.

‘In this scam, victims are referred to as pigs being prepared for slaughter,’ she explains. ‘They are raised for their meaty profit under the promise of “happily ever after” and big crypto wins. In reality, the victims are everyday people who are left financially and emotionally devastated.’

The ‘Pig Butchers’ spend months gaining the trust of people they meet on dating apps, using both romance and the false lure of fast crypto returns to swindle victims out of their savings.

They start by setting up fake profiles, matching potential victims and building trust before moving the conversation to WhatsApp, which is encrypted and allows the scammers to maintain anonymity and reduce their risk of getting caught. The victims are then won over with romantic messages and the promise of expensive gifts.

‘Inevitably, the conversation turns to money,’ says Jane. ‘The scammer will sell the allure of crypto gains, bragging about how much they’ve made investing, and promising to coach their target so they can earn a little extra cash, too.’

Scammers are also ‘romancing’ victims so they hand over money to ‘invest’ in crypto (Picture: Getty Images)

Victims are told to create an account on a legitimate crypto platform and then sent a link to a fake trading site controlled by the scammer. As victims ‘invest’, they are instantly shown fake graphs and metrics showing ‘profits’. Scammers persuade them to hand over as much money as they can and then simply disappear when asked to pay out earnings or give back the initial deposit.

Louise Bennett, who is civil fraud, cryptocurrency, and asset recovery partner at Keystone Law, has worked on several romance fraud cases in which criminals set up profiles on dating sites and persuade victims to transfer money.

In one scam, a victim lost £83,515 of life savings after falling prey to a ‘honeytrap’ on Tinder and being talked into opening an account with the crypto exchange Binance and then transferring cryptocurrency Tether (USDT) to a ‘bogus electronic platform’.

‘Romance frauds have dramatically increased due to the pandemic when communications moved online,’ says Louise. ‘My practise for this type of work has doubled in the past two years and I receive regular enquiries about honey trap scams, involving people losing thousands of pounds of cryptocurrency.

‘Fraudsters are very sophisticated, and these types of online romance scams are, more often than not, committed by members of a large organised criminal gang. The crypto world is largely unregulated, so it is ripe territory for fraudsters.

‘Thousands of frauds being committed daily and is on the rise across the board. As we are using online dating tools more than ever, it follows that we are seeing increased frauds within the honey trapping sphere.’

In fact, in the murky world of crypto fraud, no tactic is off-limits. This year, for instance, scammers have been taking advantage of the war in Ukraine. For the past two years, they have been preying on fears about the pandemic.

One group of criminals set up a fake currency called UkraineTokens. Anyone who bought it thought they were donating money to civilians affected by the conflict. In fact, they were simply giving money to fraudsters in exchange for a worthless currency. Criminals have also posed as refugees looking for crypto donations on social media or set up fake charity websites. The results are the same. Victims send over their crypto and never see it again.

‘Scammers will always take advantage of chaos,’ explains Michal Salat, threat intelligence director at the cybersecurity firm Avast. ‘By their nature, scammers don’t operate ethically and will take advantage of people trying to help the most desperate.’

Criminals are even using the conflict in Ukraine as a way to scam money (Picture: REUTERS)

It is often very difficult to identify the scammers because they are adept at hiding their tracks. However, some unlikely people have been associated with questionable crypto schemes.

Kim Kardashian was one of three celebs sued in a class action this year after she wrote an Instagram post about a cryptocurrency called EthereumMax.

‘Are you guys into crypto????’ Kardashian posted. ‘This is not financial advice but sharing what my friends just told me about the Ethereum Max token!’

After Kim’s post, the currency skyrocketed in value before plunging to a value of next to nothing. Kim has not yet spoken out on the incident, which Charles Randell, chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority described as the ‘financial promotion with the single biggest audience reach in history’.

The rise of so-called ‘finfluencers’ has also given criminals a new way to reach victims, says Sharon Davies, CEO of Young Enterprise.

‘Given the financial pressures of the pandemic and increase in social media usage, young people are more vulnerable than ever to online scams,’ she warns. ‘They are being drawn in by ‘get rich quick schemes’ and the misconception that brands and figures with large social media followings must be credible.

‘One common scam is fake brand collaboration requests, from people who appear to be working on behalf of a brand offering paid work. The majority of the time these ‘DM to collab’ offers are scams which trap users into buying products, and usually don’t exist.

‘Another type of scam that has surged in popularity during the pandemic centres around cryptocurrency investments. Young people see their favourite celebrities and influencers appearing to promote opportunities to invest in these digital currencies which can result in them nursing big losses.’

The energy used during crypto mining is causing huge damage to the environment (Picture: Getty Images)

rypto using large amounts of energy during ‘mining’, miners having to keep their computers running for a very long time just to process a single block, which uses a total of 150,000 kilowatt-hours of energy – enough to power 170 average US homes for a month.

“When you consider that crypto mining and transactions take place all over the world on a daily basis, the size of the problem quickly becomes apparent,’ explains Ivan Liljeqvist, a crypto industry expert and CEO of the blockchain development firm Moralis. ‘Several studies have already shown that bitcoin mining uses more electricity globally per year than in some small countries, which is frightening.’

Meanwhile, Jeremy Cheah, associate professor of decentralised finance at Nottingham Business School, adds that there are ‘numerous examples’ of communities ‘enduring’ the environmental impact of crypto.

‘Crypto mining has been shown to disproportionately impact the poor and vulnerable,’ he tells Metro.co.uk.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, locals are often ‘outcompeted’ by miners who use up cheap renewable electricity, meaning they cannot afford to power their homes. In Kosovo, 90% of crypto mining was powered by burning reserves of lignite – a type of cheap, low-grade coal – before the government banned mining.

‘At the height of the recent energy crisis, Kosovans experienced rolling blackouts across the country due to energy shortages,’ Cheah continues. “There are also other examples where environmental, labour and business groups are pressuring their local and national governments to act by banning mining. For example, the bitcoin mining activity has threatened New York’s climate and water quality by way of excessive carbon emissions and toxic chemicals being released into the air.’

While Cheah warns that ‘unfettered crypto mining activities’ will ‘impede the progress and realisation’ of the COP26 climate change goals of keeping global warming down to 1.5 degrees, there is hope on the horizon. Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, is moving towards a new consensus mechanism called proof of stake, which uses less energy. Other cryptocurrencies already use greener tech, so this trend is likely to continue.

The police are also becoming more adept at catching the bad guys. It is often claimed that crypto is as untraceable as cash, but this is not true. In fact, the blockchain is allowing investigators to trace and claw back stolen money, something demonstrated in February 2022 when police seized $4.5 Billion stolen from the exchange Bitfinex in 2016.

However, with crypto scammers still rife and environmental issues some way from being solved, the dark side of this virtual reality will continue to cast a shadow across the world of crypto.

Fraud, climate change and ‘pig butchering’ – welcome to the dark side of cryptocurrency

Here are the scams you need to watch out for

The world of cryptocurrency is growing rapidly — and cryptocurrency scams are following close behind. In fact, scammers 

ran away with $14 billion in crypto in 2021

, and victims saw a 79% increase in losses from cryptocurrency crime, including scams and theft, over the previous year.

Michela Menting, digital security research director at global technology intelligence firm 

, said there are two main types of cryptocurrency scams: one is a traditional scam that demands payment in cryptocurrency, and the other is a crypto-specific fake investment or venture.

Any scam involving cryptocurrency can cost you. So how do these scams work, and what should you look for to avoid getting conned?

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How do traditional scams use cryptocurrency?

The essence of a scam is a ploy to steal your money, your personal information, or both. Romance scams, imposter scams, and e-commerce scams are just a few of the common types of online scams that criminals use to trick you into sending them money.

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Cryptocurrency scams are similar, except that instead of requesting dollars or another fiat currency via bank transfer, gift card, or money order, the scammer demands payment in cryptocurrency. The 

: cryptocurrency transactions have no legal protection or dispute process, and they are not usually reversible.

Traditional scams that use cryptocurrency payments are "fairly well-known and nothing new in cyberspace," Menting said. "Unlike with banks and the possibility of reverse charges, no third party can make the recipient return the money."

, said that her organization’s helpline is receiving a lot of complaints about romance scams involving cryptocurrency.

Criminals are approaching targets on dating apps or social media, as in a 

 — but after establishing a relationship, they are offering to help victims get into crypto investing and ultimately stealing their money. 

While anyone can be a target for this scam, Nofziger says victims are often adults in their 40s or 50s.

"Remember, anytime you are on any platform where you are interacting with new people, there is a criminal waiting to build your trust and steal your money," Nofziger said.

Other common pay-in-crypto schemes include 

, in which a caller pretending to be a government official, law enforcement officer, love interest, or lottery representative asks you for money. They'll direct you to a cryptocurrency ATM and request that you transfer the funds to them using a QR code.

Scammers are also setting up cryptocurrency wallets 

 meant for other causes and running gated-investment or 

 that promise you can double your money if you send in your cryptocurrency, but you either lose your money or have to pay a lot to get it back. 

 about blackmail and extortion emails demanding payment in cryptocurrency as well as tweets, texts, and social-media posts sent from hacked accounts telling recipients to send funds in crypto to get huge returns. 

You may also encounter business opportunity or recruitment scams, which involve paying fees or buying into a platform using crypto with the promise of growing your money.

What are cryptocurrency investment scams?

Another type of cryptocurrency scam capitalizes on the hype surrounding digital currencies, conning people into investing in crypto with the promise of big returns or access to an exclusive application or product.

Menting describes one popular scam that involves buying cryptocurrency created for use within a specific game or app. Once players have bought in to make in-game purchases, the scammer discontinues or abandons the platform, taking the money people have spent on a now-worthless coin.

One example of this so-called "rug pull" scam: in late 2021, 

 on a fraudulent coin based on the Netflix series "Squid Game." 

"This type of scam [can] be applied to any type of application really, where the crypto is useless outside of the application itself," Menting said.

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, create another opportunity for fraudsters. Bad actors are creating counterfeit NFTs of digital art and selling them as genuine — or 

fraudulent NFT trading platforms or airdropped NFTs

 to engage in phishing and gain access to victims' crypto wallets. 

Pump-and-dump scams also take advantage of eager investors. Criminals spread rumors that a celebrity or billionaire is planning to back a specific cryptocurrency. Once people have bought in and driven up the price, scammers sell their shares and watch the value plummet.

Of course, cryptocurrency can also be lost in straight-up theft. Hackers can steal from public exchanges or find ways to gain access to private wallets using malware. In late March 2022, someone 

 from a company called the Ronin Network, which operated the blockchain on which the NFT-based online game Axie Infinity ran. 

Be wary of anything involving cryptocurrency, especially if the person pitching it to you is creating a sense of urgency or putting other kinds of pressure on you to buy in.

If someone you don't know — or even someone you think you know — demands payment in crypto, it's almost certainly a scam. Investing in or trading with digital currencies is risky, as cryptocurrency is speculative and does not guarantee real value or returns.

"Undoubtedly, the cryptocurrency space is fraught with uncertainty,” Menting said, “existing in a volatile and completely unpredictable bubble of hype, fraud and opportunity."

Cryptocurrency scams — what they are and how to avoid them

Experts say scams involving non-fungible tokens are only expected to rise.

The collectible, digital assets are skyrocketing in popularity by providing a secure trading...Read MoreSOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Spend enough time online, and you're sure to run into scammers who try to steal your money by asking you to confirm your credit card information or sign up for fake PC protection plans. Now, online scams have reached the lucrative world of 

 (NFTs) -- and a group of tech sleuths are fighting back.

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