Ever since crypto has become mainstream, there have been numerous situations where people were scammed out of their investments.
With fraudulent activities running rampant in the crypto scene, many people show hesitation when it comes to making investments. That being said, numerous people still continue to make crypto investments.
While regulatory authorities across the globe are adopting different measures to reduce scams and other fraudulent activities, incorporating them completely could take some time.
It is a major reason why people still continue to fall victim to such issues, as the recent crypto scandal in Egypt suggests.
What Actually Happened
According to numerous reports, authorities in Egypt recently arrested more than twenty-five people on suspicion of their involvement in a large-scale crypto scam.
Among the people arrested, around thirteen of them were foreign citizens who allegedly defrauded numerous investors.
People following the case have noted that the network of scammers was successfully able to pocket over six hundred thousand Dollars from the investors.
Some people say that the amount could be significantly higher as authorities take a deeper look into the case. Like many countries across the globe, Egypt is also riddled with inflation and a terrible economic crisis and situations like this only make things worse.
Luring Investors through Fraudulent Means
The fraudulent online platform under investigation goes by the name of HoggPool and it promised people massive gains. According to numerous reputable reports, the platform lured investors by making false promises and fraudulent means.
Some of the individuals who fell victim to this vicious scam stated that it promised massive profits from a variety of sources like crypto trading services and crypto mining after charging a massive foreign exchange rate.
For those who don’t know, crypto trading is deemed to be completely illegal in Egypt and there are massive fines for those who dabble in it.
You may be surprised to learn that participating in any crypto related activity in this country could land an individual in prison along with a hefty fine of over 325000 Dollars.
What Happened to HoggPool?
After the authorities got involved with this scam case, Hoggpool ceased its operations abruptly and vanished with all of the money.
Authorities stated that the network intended to launch another platform known as Riot at the time when they got arrested.
According to the interior ministry, sixteen of the people who got arrested were from Egypt, while the others, as mentioned earlier, were foreign nationals.
Besides arresting some of the perpetrators, officials also ended up seizing close to one hundred mobile phones, more than forty foreign bank cards, and over three thousand SIM cards.
Egypt’s Poor Economic Condition and its Future
As discussed earlier, the economic condition of Egypt is in a poor state, with the Egyptian pound depreciating by close to half of its value against the United States Dollar.
To make matters worse, the shortage of Dollars has greatly minimized imports, putting an abrupt halt to the transportation of goods, and significantly damaging the imports/exports industry.
While it remains to be seen how Egypt will stand back on its feet, one thing is clear – fraudulent crypto activities only make matters worse for the nation.
This is why the first thing that Egypt or any other country that faces such a situation must create well thought out strategies to eradicate scams and frauds from the crypto scene.
As crypto trading becomes more and more popular, regulatory authorities from different countries are creating steps to ensure that digital currency trading is as transparent and safe as possible.
Final Thoughts
The authorities in Egypt are hard at work, investigating the HoggPool case and others similar to it.
By the look of things, it seems like there were more parties involved in this massive scam and it would not be surprising to see more people getting liked to it.