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Crypto Queen – A woman who scammed the world 

Primary investors brought their relatives, relatives invited friends, the friends got a bigger investment network, and the cy

It was around 2009 when Crypto, a buzzword, hooked the attention of enthusiastic investors. While early age companies came up with the proposition of making us rich, we were still skeptical about the credibility of those coins. Weren’t we?

It was only until we realized the loopholes in traditional currencies after a series of economic crises and depressions that we started looking at Crypto as an alternative.

Crypto gained massive popularity around 2016 when we started investing in Bitcoins, Ethereum, etc.

But, you may have noticed that when people started investing in Crypto 3-4 years back, little were they concerned about blockchain, privacy, or long-term investment as the selling point.

I know this may seem out of place from where we currently see Crypto today

But, earlier, the uneducated masses were not interested in technology or economics. For them, Crypto appeared as a wave that could transform a million lives and pull them out of poverty.

And that is when many fraudsters nailed their marketing game and started exploiting people, spotting their weaknesses.

One such name was Dr. Ruja, famously known as Crypto Queen, who looted Billions via “One Coin.”

Yeah, you must be wondering what made people lose so much money to this lady!

Well! It was not only her princess-like sheen and that attire, usually carrying an expensive ballgown. There is more to the story.

One Coin – A scam

“One coin,” Dr. Ruja said in a talk, was the Bitcoin Killer.

Huge aspirations flooded the investment list as OneCoin drew around €30m of people’s money just within six months. [2]

But, what explains the sudden rise?

It was an MLM game on point

So, let us understand what MLM is.

MLM is referred to as Multi Level Marketing.

Often, it is a legitimate business strategy to increase sales where existing members are encouraged to promote the products and receive a fixed commission.

How does it go on a multi-level, then?

Multi-level marketing is branched, with existing members being incentivized to bring on recruits (sellers), and new sellers are further incentivized to bring more. The cycle continues, ultimately leading to huge sales.

It becomes a scam when covered with Pyramid schemes, as in the case of OneCoin.

This typically occurs when most of the operator’s profit funnels to the top. Helpful in increasing the number of members to hundreds and even thousands, the scheme is controversial with a high chance of marketing fraud.

As you can see in the case of OneCoin, MLM played out as an enabler for huge investments.

All in the name of a few incentives in the form of OneCoin.

Was it so easy to fool people!

Yeah, kind of. As Cryptocurrency as an idea was just entering the mainstream, it wasn’t easy to differentiate scamsters from regular Crypto sellers.

All the investors cared about was – making some easy money. And OneCoin promised that.

In a bid to replace Bitcoin, Dr. Ruja came up with the proposition of easy use for online transactions and easy exchange to Euro currencies. [2]

And so much ease led to a pitfall.

So, let us know how huge was the scam!

Well! huge enough that they made €90,000 in the first month with absolutely nothing. Bang! [3]

A huge part of OneCoin’s success can be accredited to the credibility Dr. Ruja created through her influential webinars, a highly academic background, and also by establishing a competition with Bitcoin.

It was easy to assume that something competing with Bitcoins with so many unique selling points ought to be bigger than that.

Now, to see the influence OneCoin had on the masses, let me give you an example of Jen McAdams.

Jen McAdams falls into a “Tycoon” trap

In what was considered an “unmissable opportunity,” – Adams was persuaded by her friends to watch an alluring up-tempo webinar of the famous “CryptoQueen.”

And guess what! The lady mesmerized Adam into spending a whopping Euro 1000 without a second thought.

And wait! It was not the end.

She could see the value of coins rising steadily, and before too long, she started persuading her relatives as well.

Watching excitedly on the screens of OneCoin. Anticipating to go on destination holidays.

And hitting the list of billionaires. All of it looked possible to those OneCoin investors.

And how could it not?

The biggest scam got covered in the “Let’s get rich faster” sheen after all!

Didn’t anyone spot the fraud?

One did. But was shut as he couldn’t bring enough evidence to the table.

He was a Bitcoin enthusiast, Timothy Curry, who appeared as a Samaritan trying to save people from a huge scam. [4]

But was rebuked by serious investors like Jen McAdam.

In what erupted as an intense argument over a video call, Timothy tried to explain how OneCoin is the biggest ever scam.

But all went in vain, with Adam not paying heed to a single argument only until she lost all her money to the Queen-looking fraudster.

So, what was he trying to explain?

Well! He was making the most important point – The missing Blockchain.

Whattt! How did the masses get fooled so easily?

Maybe, we were not aware of or perhaps not concerned about these nitty grittys.

But, Blockchain was huge!

It is now. But, as I said, Crypto was just in the emerging phase. So, little did people know about the technological intricacies.

So, How was Blockchain-based Crypto different from OneCoin.

One coin was based on an ASQ database, easily accessible and controllable by the founders and team members of the company.

Blockchain-based Crypto is a special database type that not even the inventors or government can change or take charge of it.

So, your money is in safe hands – by not being in anyone’s hands.

That is the point Timothy was trying to make!

Oh crap! Such a huge miss.

Where is that scamster CryptoQueen now?

Beyond anyone’s reach. An otherwise punctual Dr. Ruja, who had once invited famous American pop star Bebe Reyha, didn’t show up this time.

It was around 2017 that she went missing and is till date, counted as one of the biggest scamsters in the world with the FBI declaring the CryptoQueen as “most wanted.” [5]

Any chances of finding her?

Investigating agencies are finding it difficult. A reason for that can be explained by observing an abrupt pattern in which she has brought real estate properties.

Ruja bought a large property in Central Sofia and transferred it to Risk ltd company, only to transfer it later to an unnamed Panamanian. [6]

The same goes for other assets, making it difficult to track the exact location.

Few people, however, in the U.K, claimed to have seen her. But then showed no signs of certainty.

Or we never know, She could also hide in a plain sight after maybe a plastic surgery making her unrecognizable.

Perhaps closer to her, with her presence, right in front of our noses!

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