“Before the launch of Libra and Telegram, a surge in fraud is possible”

The head of the department for countering unfair practices of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Valery Lyakh said that before the start of large-scale cryptocurrency projects like Libra and Telegram, a spike in fraud is possible.

Lyakh stressed that before the official launch of cryptocurrency projects in Russia, fraudulent companies may appear that allegedly sell tokens of these projects, however, after receiving the money, they usually disappear without a trace. Lyakh noted:

“I see a high risk that in the near future there may be a surge in fraud and financial pyramids associated with the sale of new cryptocurrencies. In the near future two large projects will be launched – Telegram and Facebook. I fear that during the next wave, which will be connected with financial products, they will try to sell the allegedly cryptocurrencies Telegram and Facebook before they actually come out. These are well-known companies, and scammers can take advantage of this. ”

Lyakh also said that the regulator rarely manages to close the sites of existing pyramids in time. Only in 10-15% of cases the Central Bank of the Russian Federation closes the sites of fraudulent companies still operating, in the remaining cases, the pyramids have already “outlived” their time and managed to “draw” funds from citizens. However, a draft law on pre-trial blocking of sites has already been developed, allowing you to act much faster.

Note that yesterday the operation director of the Facebook blockchain division of Calibra, Tomer Barel, said that options for the Libra investment token are already offered on the secondary market, but the company has nothing to do with it.