The cryptocurrency market is good. It is a space for new projects to launch themselves and has a whole community routing for it. To be a participant in the cryptocurrency market, you require a lot of patience. And that patience is rewarded in kind.
The cryptocurrency market, however, has a dark shadow that clouds its progress. And that dark shadow is the ICO space. The ICO space is used by companies and ventures to launch new projects and solutions on the blockchain with the help of the community. While this is a very subscribed way of launching a business, 5 out of 10 ICOs are fraudulent.
Okay, let’s be real. When we say that 5 out of 10 ICOs are fraudulent, we also include the ones that were unrealistic to begin with, projects that aren’t completed and of course the ones that are, in fact, scams.
But irrespective of which category the ICO falls under, money lost is money lost. In the stock market whenever there are IPOs that are conducted, there is a face and lawsuits work because of the laws that govern the market. The cryptocurrency market, however, is a fairly anonymous industry that works on the internet. Tracking scamsters and people promoting fake projects is significantly harder.
So how do you get this money back? How do investors get their investments back when the project they believed and invested in don’t deliver?
Here is how.
Getting Your Money Back
Before we jump into how to get your investment back and dish some responsibility on the scamsters, know that this is an arduous process. It involves a lot of work and could take months if not years before you see some real remuneration. And before beginning this process make sure that your monetary investment matches up to the time you will invest into getting it back. In the event that your contribution is small and you want the company to be held responsible, find a bunch of people who will support you and are in similar situations.
Also note that very few countries have actually set precedents to the effect of remuneration in the ICO space. But as more and more countries get involved in the cryptocurrency market, precedents and regulations will be set to make sure that investments are returned.
The Process
Now that you have weighed your options and have decided to go ahead with this, here is the process:
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Gather Proof
Before making any bold movements or announcements, collect as much information as possible. About how the company contacted you, correspondance, advertisements, investment acknowledgements, everything. Screenshot away.
Anything can be useful in the eyes of the court and everything is helpful. Stack up evidence against the company that disappeared on you to substantiate your claim of them having propagated a scam in the name of a promising project.
Another thing you can keep in your list of evidence, you can also use their roadmap and white paper too. These can be used as purpose of the project and will go in a long way towards proving that the company hasn’t made good on its promises both to the community and investors.
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Bank Accounts
Most cryptocurrency accounts are made in the following countries; Estonia, Singapore, Cayman Islands, Korea, etc. All the money that you have invested was sent to these bank accounts and because of this, you can only sue the company in the country that the bank accounts are in.
This is a step that requires a lot of thought because it costs a lot to sue in these countries and is a very long, tiresome process. -
File a Case
The next step is self explanatory. After having collected all the evidence you can possibly use against the company, file a case. In countries that do not have regulations governing the industry, make sure that the petition is signed by a group of people as it will be received with more conviction.
The tricky part of this step in the process, is figuring out who to sue. The cryptocurrency market has a lot of scamsters posing as other people to propagate their schemes and make the quick buck. Do as much research as you can on the team members listed on the website they used to lure you in and do a preliminary background check on each of them.
Either way, as an investor you have no other option but to sue the company that raised the ICO in the first place. And post this step in the process, it is a waiting game.
The cryptocurrency market has just as many real projects in the ICO space as it has fraudulent ones. But as an investor on the other side of the scenes, it is difficult to look past the rosy, pink vision that these companies give you and it is very possible that you can become a victim.
The countries that have set a precedent of returning investments from fraudulent ICOs are Canada and the United States of America. The American SEC has a full wing of dedicated officials that work solely on the fraudulent ICO space making sure that the newcomers in the market are kept safe from the scamsters. The reason for the SEC’s interest in the market also comes from the place that the cryptocurrency market and blockchain industry is regulated in the country. And with more and more countries getting on the cryptocurrency regulation bandwagon, it will become more accessible to people all over the country.
It is possible for you to get your investment back, but you will need to prepare to spend more money, a lot more time and adjust to the legal systems in these countries. It will also involve a lot of travel and can become cumbersome. But if you’ve been cheated out of money and you’re determined to get it back, this is what you need to do.
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