The Ecuadorian Attorney General’s Office ordered the search of the offices of the company Fortunario Activos Digitales, dedicated to the management of investments with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Some USD 7 million deposited in the accounts of shareholders and representatives of the firm were immobilized by order of a Judge.
The prosecution reported on Twitter that, together with the National Police, carried out 5 raids in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, for alleged illegal collection of money, a crime defined in articles 323 and 364 of the Organic Comprehensive Criminal Code of the South American country. This refers to the massive reception or collection of money without providing a good or service as consideration.
The law sets limits to the collection of money, in such a way that it can be advanced en masse only by entities authorized by the State. According to the Comprehensive Criminal Code of Ecuador, the illegal collection of money can have up to five years in prison for those who engage in this activity.
According to preliminary research, the company Fortunario would have defrauded bitcoin users by operating under a network of supposed companies that offered investment services on financial platforms, offering an annual interest rate of 17%, such as reported the local media.
In its publication, the Prosecutor’s Office does not clarify the number of people who are allegedly victims of Fortunario.
On its website, the company describes itself as “a group of experts in the area of investments in digital assets and financial markets with technical analysis and macroeconomic studies related to cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency arbitrage.”
Bitcoin scams grow in Ecuador
The use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in Ecuador is prohibited as a means of payment, but there is no rule that prevents investment with crypto assets. For this reason, the number of platforms that offer high profitability to capture the attention of users is increasing in the country. And at the same rate, scams grow.
In fact, the Superintendency of Banks reportedbetween January 2021 and March 2022, the existence of 38 companies and institutions that are not authorized to operate in the financial, insurance and securities sector.
Of those 38 unauthorized institutions, 10 offer bitcoin-related products. These include companies such as Mtcoin, Xapo, Elite Argotty and KRC Kapital.
To detect a possible scam, the authorities issue a series of alerts. For example, Luis Espinosa Goded, professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, points out that there are five elements that users should consider when to operate on platforms of cryptocurrencies.
He points out that the first alert is a guarantee of profitability greater than 10% per year. As a second key point, he recommends be wary of companies that have control of users’ cryptocurrencies.
Espinosa Goded also believes that it can be a false investment when the profit or utility depends on the number of partners or additional clients that the user must include in a certain platform or company. “In these cases, it’s more of a pyramid,” she says.
He also believes that the most important cryptocurrency is bitcoin, and that the invitation to invest with other little-known cryptocurrencies should generate mistrust. And finally, invite distrust companies that propose “a transformation of the way of life”; that is, as a kind of job, to solve their economic problems or to get rich.
To learn more about cryptocurrency scams, CriptoNoticias published a guide so that users can educate themselves, since there are numerous ways a scammer can seize them.