Recently, there has been a serious increase in the number of cryptocurrency fraud cases. The names of celebrities who appeal to a wide audience on social media are often involved in these fraud cases.
The last name involved in a fraud case was Lana Rhoades, one of the world’s most famous pornographers. Rhoades’ followers accused the adult film actress of ‘fraud’.
When he couldn’t find what he expected from the project, he took the money and disappeared
Rhoades, who has been making money for a while through OnlyFans, a platform where people collect money in exchange for their photos and videos, is a failed business. He is accused of defrauding his followers after the NFT project. Rhoades, who entered the crypto market with a collection that he claimed to be successful in his own way and encouraged his followers to invest in this project, allegedly defrauded his followers for more than $ 1.5 million.
In the last week of January, the project named “Cryptosis”, in which animations of celebrities were shown, was launched; Rhoades had promised his fans that this NFT plan would be successful and would give them a good return on investment. The NFT program, which was guaranteed to reward its investors with properties in Metaverse video games like Sandbox or Descentraland, included the purchase of several unique NFT pieces as compensation.
Rhoades, who has a serious following of 16.8 million on Instagram, drew attention to the gradual appreciation of the NFT plan. In fact, Rhoades’ goal was to get the NFT project to other celebrities; however, due to the lack of trust in the project, Rhoades did not reach its goal and the project was not valued. Rhoades, who allegedly could not find what he expected from the project, fled with a huge amount of money.
Rhoades asked scam investors to focus on important things like the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Rhoades’ crypto scam going public despite several YouTubers talking about it took a few hours. Rhoades, who shut down his Twitter account following the news of the incident, deleted his Twitter account after implying that the creators were fed up with their ideas and that the creators were just trying to get the attention of the viewers.
In Rhoades’ defense, sometimes NFT-based crypto investment projects may not be successful; However, he noted that this does not mean that it is a fraud. In addition, Rhoades asked his investors to focus on more important things, such as the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, rather than opinions on the NFT plan.
However, investigators involved stated that contrary to Rhoades’ defense, many investors who complained about the situation were defrauded by Rhoades. One victim, who chose to remain anonymous, admitted to spending about $4000 on a Lana NFT part and that the image is no longer worth anything. On the other hand, those who defended Rhoades claimed that Rhoades escaped from the NFT program due to the harassment he experienced.