Bitcoin Daily: Celebs Hit By Bitcoin Scam; Fraudsters Steal $19M From UK Investors

Australian TV presenters Karl Stefanovic and Waleed Aly are the latest celebrities to become victims of common bitcoin scams.

According to The Next Web, fraudsters create fake campaign pages on Facebook and promote their posts using celebrity endorsements of a specific cryptocurrency. The scam was first seen in 2017 after fraudsters used Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson to promote their fake campaigns.

In addition, the U.K.’s national fraud helpline has found that in the 12 months leading up to March 19, investors lost over £15 million ($19 million) to bitcoin scams.

Action Fraud found that more than 1,200 victims lost a total of £15,248,130 ($19 million), while over £41,000 ($53,000) per day was lost to scammers, according to The Next Web.

This news follows a recent Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) report that revealed most U.K. crypto investors don’t fully know what they are investing in.

In other news, white-hat hackers have earned a minimum of $7,400 for fixing security flaws found in popular crypto platforms.

Platforms Augur, Monero, ICON, and Stellar handed out rewards to security researchers, with Crypto.com, Robinhood, and Omise also recently paying white-hat hackers to fix their code, according to HackerOne data reviewed by Hard Fork.

As for which startup had the most bugs to fix,  Omise, the firm behind the OmiseGO crypto, came out on top with eight HackerOne vulnerability reports, while blockchain-based prediction betting market Augur was found with three bugs. Crypto.com also had three reports.

And blockchain-based trading platform CEDEX has announced that it has received more than 6,000 diamonds worth over $50 million in anticipation of its launch of a diamond exchange-traded fund (ETF).

CEDEX is planning to give traders different investment options before the ETF officially rolls out. The startup aims to turn diamonds into a tradeable asset class, as well as allow its customers trade on the inventory and create liquidity in the market.