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Is "ICO Madness" an Initial Coin Offering Scam?

ICO Madness located at ico-winners.online appears to be an untrustworthy website claiming to offer exclusive presale opportunities for Digital Asset Investors. The operators of the website appears to use automated tools to gather the personal information of domain name owners send them spam emails offering them to join their website. Below is a sample of the spam email.

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The "ICO Madness" Spam Email

Subject: ICO Madness gives you exclusive access

From: Domain Service - info@rezom.org

To: [Name of domain name owner]

[Address of domain name owner]

ICO Madness gives you exclusive access.

As you know, ICOs have 3 main stages: Presale, Crowdsale & Public Listing (on exchanges). Many high-networth investors, or "whales" as known in the cryptocurrency world, are being given priority in ICOs at the Presale stage allowing them to buy-in at a significantly discounted rate before the public even get a chance to participate.

At ICO Madness we curate and negotiate even better priority rates for our members, even before the Presale begins; giving exclusivity to you and not only high-networth cryptocurrency investors.

ICO Madness - Exclusive Presale Opportunities for Digital Asset Investors.

© Copyright 2014-2018 ICO Madness - All Rights Reserved

The "ICO Madness" Website at ico-winners.online

Initial Coin Offerings(ICOs) are very high risk and speculative investments, are scams in some cases, and often offer no protection for investors. Even in cases of legitimate ICOs, funded projects are typically in an early and therefore high-risk stage of development. ICOs can be used for a wide range of activities, ranging from corporate finance to charitable fundraising to outright fraud. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned investors to beware of scammers using ICOs to execute "pump and dump" schemes, in which the scammers talk up the value of an ICO in order to generate interest and drive up the value of the coins, and then quickly "dumps" the coins for a profit. However, the SEC has also acknowledged that ICOs may provide fair and lawful investment opportunities.

What is Initial Coin Offerings(ICOs)?

Initial Coin Offerings(ICOs) is an unregulated and controversial means of crowdfunding via the use of cryptocurrency, which can be a source of capital for startup companies. In an ICO a percentage of the newly issued cryptocurrency is sold to investors in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The term may be analogous with 'token sale' or crowdsale, which refers to a method of selling participation in an economy, giving investors access to the features of a particular project starting at a later date.

ICOs may sell a right of ownership or royalties to a project. The coin in an ICO is a symbol of ownership interest in an enterprise - a digital stock certificate if you will. In contrast to initial public offerings (IPOs), where investors gain shares in the ownership of the company, for ICOs the investors buy coins of the company, which can appreciate in value if the business is successful.

Crackdown on Fundraising by Token-based Digital Currencies

There has been a crackdown on fundraising through launches of token-based digital currencies. China has banned initial coin offerings (ICO) which has caused chaos among start-ups looking to raise money through the novel fund-raising scheme, prompting halts, about-turns, and re-thinks. So, is this like the dotcom bubble of 2000?

The dot-com bubble was a historic economic bubble and period of excessive speculation that occurred roughly from 1997 to 2001, a period of extreme growth in the usage and adaptation of the Internet by businesses and consumers. During this period, many Internet-based companies, commonly referred to as dot-coms, were founded, many of which failed completely and shut down. Others stock declined by 86% and lost a large portion of their market capitalization.

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Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.

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