SEC Cracks Down on WhatsApp-Fueled Cryptocurrency Scams

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged two companies, Cryptoaiml and TSAI, with running dual international fraud schemes that bilked at least $15 million from investors via WhatsApp and other social media platforms.

The complaints against the companies were filed in New York federal court, accusing them of schemes that falsely told investors they were in regulatory compliance while stealing at least $12.5 million and $2.8 million, respectively.

Cryptoaiml allegedly created WhatsApp group chats to interact with investors, purporting to be 'experienced investment professionals' while forging advisor/client relationships and impersonating actual investment managers.

The company claimed to offer a crypto asset trading platform and provided investors with artificial intelligence-generated trading signals, but the platform was actually a vehicle for stealing clients' funds.