Do not trust random people from the Internet, even if they come with a tempting offer and have bank receipts, passport copies, or other “official” documents. That is how shareholders of one of our clients got tricked into sending more than 500k CHF worth of shares to a scammer.
✔️ Do not fall for wishful thinking and false appeals to authority.
✔️ Do not transfer crypto assets to people you do not know.
✔️ Our Secondaries Widget can protect traders by ensuring delivery versus payment through blockchain-based atomic swaps.
Last autumn, the shareholders of one of our clients got emails with a tempting offer. A scammer using a made up name contacted them, saying he would be interested in buying their shares.
When the shareholders answered them, the scammer provided them with a share purchase agreement and fake bank receipts, falsely indicating that he wired the agreed amount to them. The shareholders then sent the scammer their shares, but never received a payment.
The scammer used two common tricks that require self-discipline to not fall for:
- Triggering wishful thinking: the scammer made an attractive offer that the victim wanted to be true. And when you want something to be true, you are likely to suspend your critical thinking.
- Appeal to authority: the scammer created false trust by appealing to official documents issued by an authority, in this case a bank. People tend to trust official looking documents even though they are very easy to alter and forge using modern software.
Talk to the Issuer
Since blockchain-based transactions are not reversible, there is not much that can be done after the fact. But there is one very effective way to save yourself from this type of scam: do not let yourself be put under time pressure and verify the transaction with the issuer. The issuer is typically very well informed about what is going on with their shares and shareholders. The issuer could for example have told the victims that “Mark Kanton” is not a real shareholder and that they should not trust that person.
Aktionariat could successfully prevent one shareholder from falling for this scam as he contacted our customer support for assistance with sending the shares to the scammer. Fortunately, our customer support recognized the nature of the planned transaction and could convince the shareholder to not send out their shares. This was pure luck, but it shows that talking to others about potential transactions can make a big difference.
A Safer Way to Trade Tokenised Shares
To address these kinds of risks, Aktionariat offers a Secondaries Widget - a secure and streamlined tool that allows tokenised shares to change hands in a safe, transparent, and automated way.
With our Secondaries Widget:
✅ Payment and transfer happen atomically – both parties either get what they agreed to, or nothing happens
✅ There’s no need to rely on external communication or trust – the smart contract handles the transaction
✅ You can enjoy peace of mind, knowing the trade is either fully completed or not executed at all
If you don’t find the Secondaries Widget on the issuer’s Investor Relations page, feel free to reach out to them and ask to enable it! We’ll gladly activate it for them - at no additional cost.
