British investors lost £27 million ($34.38 million) to cryptocurrency scams over the last financial year, according to one of the UK’s financial regulators.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) reports that between April 1, 2018 and April 1, 2019 the average loss per victim was £14,600 ($18,500).

Reports of cryptocurrency scams also tripled over the same period. The FCA notes the number has gone up to 1,800 over the financial year. The FCA’s announcement states that fraudsters often used social media to promote “get-rich-quick” schemes.

The FCA’s description of how these scammers rip off their victims is an all too familiar story.

Social media posts are used to grab the attention of potential investors, often containing fake celebrity endorsements the ads redirect to professional looking websites which further persuade users to invest.

Typically, the scammers make false promises of high returns on investments to lure in their victims. The fraudsters then promise even greater returns on further investments. Of course, none of these returns are ever seen by the investor.

Combating cryptocurrency scams

To combat the rise in cryptocurrency scams in Britain, the FCA is partnering with consumer fraud helpline, Action Fraud. Together, the organizations are running an advertising campaign to raise awareness of fake cryptocurrency investments.

Indeed, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d read this story before, but it seems cryptocurrency investment scams aren’t going anywhere.

Recent figures from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) suggest the antipodean nation experienced a similar swell in cryptocurrency scams last year too. In 2018, Australians lost $4.3 million to similar fraud cases.

Earlier this year, a man from Jersey lost his life savings after investing $1.5 million into a similar cryptocurrency scam.

Maybe it’s time the UK took a leaf out of Belgium’s book and made its own list of known cryptocurrency scams .

You’ll need a bank account to use UnionBank’s new Bitcoin ATM

UnionBank (UBP), the seventh largest bank in the Philippines officially got itself into the cryptocurrency game this week, but there’s a catch. Users will be required to use a UBP bank account to exchange funds to and from virtual currency.

After announcing its proposed roll out back in February, UnionBank launched its first bank-based cryptocurrency ATM this week, the bank confirmed to Hard Fork.

It will only serve Bitcoin at the moment, though. UnionBank has not confirmed if it will offer other cryptocurrencies in the future.

The ATM is located in “ The ARK ,” UnionBank’s first fully digital branch, launched back in November 2017 in Makati. Rather than facing mountains of paperwork when opening accounts, customers can make use of digital terminals to do their banking instead.

“The reason we’re doing this is because our customers are asking for it,” UnionBank Chairman Justo A. Ortiz said in a statement, reports BusinessWorld .

Customers will also need a UBP bank account and will have to provide a government issued ID before they’re able to use the Bitcoin ATM (BATM), UBP told Hard Fork.

The BATM will allow UnionBank customers to buy and sell Bitcoin, and then withdraw cash immediately from the machine.

UBP’s BATM is actually the second to be installed in the Philippines. BitCoiniacs installed the first back in 2015, also in Makati.

According to UnionBank CEO Edwin Bautista, the bank is planning to roll out more cryptocurrency ATMs at its other branches after it’s obtained regulatory approval.

Any institutions that want to install a cryptocurrency ATM in the Philippines must be approved by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and satisfy specific virtual currency regulations.

According to the regulations , institutions offering virtual currency ATMs must, among other things, be registered with the SBP and prove there are suitable anti-money laundering (AML) processes in place.

Sorry if you thought this was a bank offering pseudonymous Bitcoin transactions, but it’s far from it.

Did you know? Hard Fork has its own stage at TNW2019 , our tech conference in Amsterdam. Check it out .

Cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX should declare bankruptcy, EY says

Defunct cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX’s should enter bankruptcy proceedings in a bid to minimize costs and facilitate the recovery of assets for creditors, according to a report by Ernst & Young (EY), its court appointed monitor.

Additionally, the report says that Gerald Cotten, the exchange‘s late founder, appeared to mix personal and business affairs, and that he could have used the company‘s funds to acquire assets outside the business.

In the report, EY also said the possibility of Quadriga coming out of restructuring appeared remote, adding that the investigation to recover assets could be handled more efficiently in bankruptcy. As part of the bankruptcy process, it would also be potentially easier to sell Quadriga’s assets.

According to the report, EY has come across some issues with some of the third-party payment processors holding customer funds. BillerFy and Costodian have not replied to EY’s letters; WB21, believed to “hold a significant amount of funds,” has been “uncooperative with each of the requests of the Monitor and has not provided even basic information.”

In fact, the cash flow statement for March – featured in the report – shows that Quadriga failed to collect any of the $ 442,786 (CAD $589,388) receivables from the third-party processors.

The Canadian exchange owes approximately $134 million to some 115,000 users after Cotten passed away suddenly in December last year, and failed to leave behind instructions on how to recover customers’ funds.

Quadriga ceased operations at the end of January and entered into creditor protection the following month.

The exchange’s collapse has caused many headlines across the globe in recent months, with speculation about the company mounting as specific details emerged following the founder’s passing.

A recent investigation showed that cold wallets used by the exchange to store Bitcoin for clients were empty for months before Cotten’s sudden death.

Additionally, investigations into Cotten’s early partner and co-founder Michael Patryn unearthed a past riddled with several criminal convictions.

The Quadriga saga is likely to continue for months to come but in the meantime, and as is the case in these situations, customers are left to suffer the consequences.

Did you know? Hard Fork has its own stage at TNW2019 , our tech conference in Amsterdam. Check it out .