Every day someone is talking about getting involved in the newest and hottest ICO (Internet Coin Offering). For anyone interested in investing in an ICO we recommend you start with this blog post to get a good education. The Securities And Exchange Commission(SEC) launched a spoof website to warn investors about the risks of participating in ‘initial coin offerings” or ICOs as they are known. Initial Coin Offerings are a way for upstart cryptocurrency firms to raise large amounts of money and scam investors.

The spoof website set up by the SEC is called HoweyCoins.com which mirrors marketing materials published by actual cryptocurrency promoters. The spoof website looks legitimate but it is not at all. When visitors click a button that says “ Buy Coins Now” they are rerouted to an Investor.gov site describes how easily you can be spoofed and outlines how easily people are fooled in ICOs. This is an excellent site that reveals how easily people take your money in an ICO. HoweyCoins is the SECs effort to combat the explosion of scammers and securities fraud associated with cryptocurrency.

Here is an SEC Emergency Action Against an ICO Scam.