A Missing Crypto Queen, a $15 billion dollar scam, and what we can learn from this story.

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Avatar for thesatoshistore
4 years ago

So who is this woman? if you're new to crypto you might have never heard of her before.

Her name is Dr. Ruja Ignatova, she was the founder of OneCoin, one of the biggest crypto scams to ever exist. Dr. Ruja was a University of Oxford graduate hence she was seen as a figure of authority, and used her credentials to convince rather smart people, into falling for her pyramid scheme. Onecoin is reported to have cost investors over $15Billion dollars and this scam is still going on till today.

Onecoin posed as being the next bitcoin and then they sold educational materials for trading, to investors for hundreds of thousands of euros. These materials should never cost that much and no one in their right senses would buy them if not for the fact that they were also promised "Guaranteed" returns on their investments, and Onecoin had a cult-like following. The members of Onecoin felt like a community and believed they were going to change the world. But no one got rich apart from those at the top of this scheme.

They had WhatsApp groups for "insider info", they had their slangs and their hand signs for greeting each other. Some sold their houses and other valuable assets to buy-in.

Dr Ruja Ignatova and her brother Konstantin

Dr. Ruja went into hiding in 2017 after the FBI launched an indictment against her and up till today no one knows where Dr. Ruja is. There are many rumors of her being in Russia, some say she did plastic surgery and is probably unrecognizable. After she went into hiding, her brother Konstantin, a tattooed, muscular looking figure, took over as the leader of one coin. He was soon arrested by the FBI and plead guilty to fraud. He says he has no idea where his sister is and he's even hired private investigators to look for her but so far, no one knows where Dr. Ruja is.

One coin is still active today as we can see from their website and raking in millions of dollars. They don't even have a blockchain and you can see lots of spelling errors on the website.

Snapshot of Onecoin from 2016 on coinmarketcap.com to show you how big of a deal this coin was. It has been delisted since then.

So what can we learn?

  • Do not idolize people, focus on the technology.

  • Be wary of so-called "communities", technology should work whether you have a community or not, it shouldn't be dependent on it.

  • Do your own research

  • Don't invest more than you can afford to loose

  • Be careful of joining cult-like followings, the members never really know they are in a cult.

If you would like to learn how to avoid falling for schemes like this then check out this guide. If you found this post interesting, subscribe, and upvote for more posts like this. Cheers!

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4 years ago

Comments

I hate scammer.

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4 years ago

Such scammer will always show up. In the near future, we have to fight against these scavengers more when we have new crypto enthusiast. Awareness is the key element for this circumstance :I

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4 years ago

This was a major scam. I don't know how she manages to escape arrest so far.

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4 years ago

Definitely using the money she stole to protect herself

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4 years ago

It's very informative article. There are many scam site. I also lose some money for these kind of scam site.

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4 years ago

Nice post 👍

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4 years ago

Beware of scam coins

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4 years ago

Hehehehe even read.cash can become a cult 😂

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4 years ago

I hope she will be prison in jail.

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4 years ago

This kind of scam that hurts the crypto world

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4 years ago

I don't know whats the real truth but if she doesn't true must be in jail shall justice must prevent to her..

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4 years ago

Scammer hacker must be in jail

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4 years ago

Your warning is a good red flag for those who have ears. Some people are so gullible that they don't even know the right thing to do.

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4 years ago

Very informative. I've heard this one coin last 2017 the members of this are so hopeful they turn a blind eyes for this. They've been promised a lot of times but nothing happened. It's so sad. I feel for my co Filipino who dive into this.

I get to know this one coin from a friend in Facebook. I remember how arrogant she was. She is High and Mighty ❤️. Maybe now she learned her lesson not to hope so much and do research.

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4 years ago

Thank you so much for sharing this article now I know who really is Dr. Ruja Ignatova, Sounds interesting, I have learned a lot about this thank you so much again. Maybe we just need to investigate first before we decided what's best to do or what we need to do before we trust them.

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4 years ago

right must alwasy bear in mind investing is also gambling.... Golden Rules: Invest what you can afford to lose ( at the end if you take risk then there will be no regret of losing it because you accept its consequences). Thanks for this great articles. Such a reminder <3

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4 years ago

Damn i love Heist Stories. This was a planned scam which i believe had many more Mastermind involved

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4 years ago

I didn't know this woman yet what she did was unforgivable. I felt sorry for the people that were scammed by desperate tactics saying that they will huge amount of return eventhough they're not.

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4 years ago

Not really heard of this story but I feel sorry for those victims.

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4 years ago

Wow i just knew this story im new in crypto. but i think now a days there's a lot of scam token/platform.

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4 years ago

So she is behind one coin. An educated woman with digree. But still manage to still money from other. Such karma she's now hiding and never ever be able to live freely. She get what she deserve . She gives hope. A soaring high hope for those people who believe that one coin can surpass #BTC.

It's too Impossible to surpassed #BTC now.

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4 years ago

Imformative article. Impressive. Thank you.

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4 years ago

Wow this lady must be really smart to be able to pull out such a billion dollar scam. She must be living off that money till now in were ever she is

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4 years ago

Thanks for sharing this information. Many so called cryptos are out there scamming people of their funds. They promise that the price of their coin will increase after ICO and IEO to maybe x10 or even an hundred but disappear into thin air after that. Investors should make thorough research on things like this and only invest what they can afford to loose. Cheers!

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4 years ago