Author: BBC
The BBC has pulled a documentary about a cryptocurrency entrepreneur from television schedules at the last minute after the Guardian raised questions about some of its central claims. “The Crypto-Millionaire”, due to be broadcast at 7.30pm on Wednesday night, was to tell the story of Hanad Hassan, a 20-year-old from Birmingham who said he had become incredibly wealthy by trading cryptocurrencies. The programme claimed he had turned a $50 (£37) investment at the start of 2021 into $8m (£5.9m) by the end of the year – suggesting he had made an astonishing investment return of almost 16,000,000% in just nine months. An…
Rhonda Kampert was an early adopter. She bought six Bitcoins in 2013, when they cost about $80 each, and were the chatter of niche corners of the internet. “I used to listen to a radio talk show and they started talking about crypto and Bitcoin so I got interested,” she says. “Back then buying it was so complicated but I fumbled my way through the process and bought my coins.” Rhonda, who lives in the US state of Illinois, spent some of her digital money over the next year or so, then forgot about it. But when she saw headlines…
North Korean cyber-attacks have stolen millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency to fund the country’s missile programmes, a UN report briefed to media says. Between 2020 and mid-2021 cyber-attackers stole more than $50m (£37m) of digital assets, investigators found. Such attacks are an “important revenue source” for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme, they said. The findings were reportedly handed to the UN’s sanctions committee on Friday. The cyber-attacks targeted at least three cryptocurrency exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia. The report also referenced a study published last month by the security firm Chainalysis that suggested North Korean cyberattacks could have…
A man who lost approximately £150,000 in a romance fraud scam says the experience has “ruined” him and he now receives support from a counsellor. Tom, which is not his real name, was the victim of a cryptocurrency scam that started through a dating app. He said: “Trust was built but in the blink of an eye, everything was gone. I was sick to my stomach.” Tom, who is in his 30s, was struggling with a break-up, when he found himself looking for companionship online. Tom, from Weston-super-Mare, joined a dating app in 2020 where he started speaking to a…