When crypto-currencies like Bitcoin (BTC) were first introduced, they were claimed to offer the potential of a low-cost, frictionless international payment system. This has not really happened, as BTC turned out to be severely restricted on the volume of transactions it could handle. From then on, it increasingly became a vehicle for criminal transactions (including fraud) and speculation.

In the past twelve months, people have been buying BTC and other crypto-currencies primarily because of the expectation that they could later sell them at a profit. This has allowed existing holders of crypto-currencies to do precisely that. This is very much how “pump and dump” scams operate, usually involving unlisted (OTC) stocks.

“Pump and dump” scams used to involve selling by phone, but in recent years many switched to email spam. Now we are seeing crypto-currencies being advertised via spam. One example is Swisscoin (SIC), as in this email received on 2018-01-16:

It’s probably not news to you at this point if I tell you that bitcoin has made tons of people tons of money. Something else you probably already know is that it will never go up like crazy again. Its time to shine is long gone. That’s why we must look into what the next big thing is, and the truth is that there have been plenty over the last few months. Can you jump on the next huge one before it soars? Swiss coin {SIC} is the most likely candidate for a fifty thousand percent return this year. It has the support of the Switzerland government. It is already considered as legal in the country. It’s the type of coin that you can buy a thousand bucks of right now, sit on for a small period of time and you could make out crazy wealthy when all is said and done. SIC has already doubled since Saturday. This long Martin Luther King weekend could bring you even more upside if you act quickly. For those of you who know what this means- you can get it for under 50 satoshi right now. And if you have no clue what this means, it basically means that you can get in on the ground floor How do you get some? You just need an account at coinexchange. Read the currency’s official page to find out more info: https://swisscoin.eu/sic-deposits.html

The truth is, far from “having the support of the Switzerland government”, Swisscoin / swisscoin.eu is listed on a warning list by FINMA, Switzerland’s independent financial-markets regulator. The Swiss company listed in the FINMA warning did not have an office there. It was founded with a capital of only CHF 20,000. Its officers are based in Leipzig, Germany.

There is no “ground floor” opportunity for Swisscoin. It has been marketed via MLM since 2016 and various people called it a Ponzi scheme. The Dynamoo blog writes in a recent post:

There are questions as to whether Swisscoin is actually a cryptocurrency or a Ponzi scheme. Honestly, I don’t know and I’d advise you to do your own research. However, this has all the markings of a pump-and-dump scheme, so it’s quite possible that someone who bought Swisscoins at their peak wants to pump the price up so they can sell off their holdings. Given that the spam is being sent out from a network of hacked machines and does not comply with anti-spam laws, you can pretty much guarantee that this is not legitimate and should be avoided.

Never buy anything advertised via spam!