Scam Coins

ScamCoins- Clearly coins that have been created to scam you out of your money.  There are quite a few of them already and the list will continue to grow.  There are a few characteristics that scamcoins will typically have.  The Anatomy of a Scamcoin lists these characteristics.  Some of the coins listed below are already long gone and out of commission.  This is a compiled list of many lists I’ve found on the internet, so I don’t take credit for the evidence or accusations.  Sources are sited at the bottom of the page.  Special thanks to the creators and to those who contributed in those posts.

CoinMarketCap.Com A website that lists all the cryptocurrency markets that meet a list of 3 criteria in order to get listed.  The three criteria are:  Must be a CryptoCurrency, must be traded on a public exchange that is older than 30 days and with an API available, and must have a public URL that displays the total supply (total mined so far).  While some coins don’t exactly uphold to these criteria, the main question is Why is coinmarketcap listing scamcoins?  Is the evidence people bring forth not enough?  The only positive that comes from these scamcoins being listed on coinmarketcap is we get to see how much money is being dumped into nothing.  So if you’re going to invest in these scamcoins, please send your money to me instead or donate it as it will go towards a much better cause.  Some coins listed in green may not be scams.  Is your project on this list?  I’d love to hear from you.

Premined- Coins that were mined by developers or maybe even insiders before the public launch of the coin.  This type of action is full of suspicion, however there do seem to be some legitimate coins that have been premined.  Some of the pre-mined coins on this list don’t elaborate as to why they’ve been tagged as scamcoins just by being premined.  These details will be updated here once found.  It is a touchy subject as to the claims of any premined coin is a scam, so those listed are listed loosely and mostly because they are in the scamcoin thread.

Superblocks Blocks that when solved, reward the miners with a ridiculous amount of coins in comparison to any other “regular” block, thus giving early supporters a massive benefit if the coin succeeds.  This is certainly unethical.

IPO- An Initial Public Offering.  The first sale of stock by a company to the public. A company can raise money by issuing either debt or equity. If the company has never issued equity to the public, it’s known as an IPO. Companies fall into two broad categories: private and public.  The fact that this has made it into cryptocurrency is ridiculous and one should consider most if not all IPO AltCoins as scams.

Legend:  Listed on CoinMarketCap.com [56]  –  Not Listed on CoinMarketCap.com [67]

List of Scam Coins [123 Total] and growing…

AeroCoin

Africoin

AlienCoin: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=392204.0

AllAgesCoin

Alphacoin (ALF): Premined.

AmericanCoin (AMC): Pre-mined with 6.5k-14k blocks giving zero reward.

Argentum (ARG): Premined.

Atom: So much pre-mined it’s not even funny https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=380546.0

BatCoin: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=400753.0

Bells

Bitbar (BTB): Premined by small group of coin creators.  2000 coins mined during first three hours. Two months after launch, this amount still represented 50% of all coins in existence.

BitcoinScrypt: http://bitcoinscrypt.org/

BitLand: Lot of nothing.  No actual codes. Asking for BTC https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=398826.0

Bitnote: Premine Unknown. Problems with the Windows-qt client.  No support or imagination.

BiddleBabbleBoo Coin: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=379471.20

C-Notes: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=397916.0

CatCoin: One meme too many. Broken launch. Vanilla litecoin clone.

Cloudcoin (CDC): 1,000,000 premined, random blocks.

Coinye: Claimed fair launch, turned out to be premined, at just minutes after launch it was already on block 2,000.  The name should say enough and was not supported by Kanye West.

ColossusCoin

Copperlark (CL): Massively premined.

CreditCoin

Cryptonium: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=412037.0

CryptoStuds: Instamine https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=402464.0

CuntCoin: Death on arrival. Using Coingen. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=407952.0

DigiByte: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=408268.0

DimeCoin: Premined 8% of 460 billion coins.

DubstepCoin: Relaunch https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395599.0

Ducats: Premine? “No” — Someone go check the block explorer oh wait they don’t have ONE!

EarthCoin: Pre-mined 270 million coins. Discussion: http://www.reddit.com/r/scamcoin/comments/1tf3ch/earthcoin/

eMunnie: Next generation scam has arrived

EzCoin: Aged coin with no relevant services or community to speak of.

FastCoin: Unsustainable parameters chosen.  Exceptionally poor logo design.

Fckbankscoin: Aside from the terrible title, claimed to be the “worlds first and only protest coin”. Failed

FeatherCoin: 3 Million coins generated within the first 24 hours.

FlorinCoin: Pumped and dump

Fuckcoin: Premine 5%

GameCoin: Initial client released with a feathercoin logo, and FTC as the currency abbreviation.

GiftCoin: Quote “We are going to launch a brand new coin unique to any other. ” It is not unique nor is the algorithm it uses. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=392465.0

GIL: Premined

GoldCoin (GLD): Premining history.  2000% superblocks at start (3.2% instamine) causing massive amounts of coins to be generated during the first few hours. Hardforked.

Gridcoin: Instant mined, hostile devs and shady Proof-of-Stake developments. https://www.reddit.com/r/scamcoin/comments/2f5mj3/gridcoin_instant_mined_hostile_devs_and_shady_pos/

GrumpyCoin: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=403936.0

HoboNickels

HotCoin: Premine 2-3%

Infinitecoin www.reddit.com/r/infinitecoin

InternetPeso: This is not even a coin, just QR code branded as tangible currency with user-generated value.

JunkCoin: Name speaks for itself.

KaiserCoin: Seems to be the same scammers involved with QuarkCoin.  Quote from source: “It’s our friend Max up to his no-good. Where’s his buddy Bill? I thought they are not done with the Pump and Dump Quarkcoin.” https://twitter.com/search?q=%23KeiserCoin&src=hash

KarpCoin: They are running out of meme/animal/celebs and now it’s pokemon https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=400794.0

KlondikeCoin: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=407705.0

KushCoin: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=411457.0

LennyCoin https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=401120.0

LeproCoin: Huge premine. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=400393.0

LightCoin: LiteCoin clone. Vague to-do list. https://github.com/litecoinmessiah/lightcoin

Lights: IPO of IPO, 7th gen.  first of all it’s an IPO disguised as some useless cryptocurrency.  That and this post is laughable: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=404524.0

LiveCoin: Described as “Coigen S***”. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=406095.20

LottoCoin: Pump and dump

LotteryTickets

LuckyCoin (LKY): Superblocks at start followed by random superblocks.

MaleCoin

MarioBrosCoin: First Coinye and then Mario.

MarsCoin

MasterCoin (MST): Premined. Pree-sale period of 5,120.6 BTC. Blockhain address: http://blockchain.info/address/1EXoDusjGwvnjZUyKkxZ4UHEf77z6A5S4P
reddit.com/r/mastercoin Discussion: http://www.reddit.com/r/scamcoin/comments/1rue87/mastercoin/

MegaCoin: 50% of all coins will be generated during the first 5 months. The rest will be generated over the next couple of decades.  Initial client released using same ports as Litecoin. Developer refused to admit this was a problem for weeks until he caved and issued a patch.

MEMECoin (MEM): Premined, superblocks.

Mincoin (MNC): Started with no binaries and 25000% reward blocks. 868k coins were mined during the first three hours. Two months after launch, this amount still represented 75% of all coins in existence. No GUI client provided for weeks after release.

MonaCoin

MoonCoin: Premining accusation. total circulation 384.4 billions, on release page denied premined but http://moonminers.org/ states “MoonCoin is a premined SCAM with over 500+ blocks premined since the start. Im sorry but this pool isnt going to mine it. The first block of mooncoin is at 1388427134 ( Mon, 30 Dec 2013 18:12:14 GMT ) , 30 minutes earlier than anyone got access to source and / or wallet.”

Mr.TCoin: Terrible idea https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=411692.0. coingen

NanoTokens (NAN): Premined

Neon: IPO https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=400356.0

NobleCoin: Devs are not listing how much they are pre-mining anymore

NovaCoin: Premined.  Total shares: 504,839 NVC, price at $21.48 a share !  Rumors has it the creators mined most of the coin and hold about 90% shares.
From here, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=144047.0 check out this line “There have been claims that over 200.000 coins were premined by the developer. The developer has claimed that only 60.000 coins have been premined but apparently BTC-e admitted that they got 100.000 coins to accept this currency on their exchange” discussion: http://www.reddit.com/r/scamcoin/comments/1ru8ru/novacoin/

NOXXO: Already in its 9-generation.  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=400670.0

Nucoin (NUC): Premined

Nuggets (NUG): Premined

NutCoin: A sample quote “Nutcoin is not a copycoin, it was designed to have a real value based on the ‘real world’ necessity to buy goods, services, food, coffee or nuts, hence the name.” https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=393572.0

NxtCoin: http://www.reddit.com/r/scamcoin/comments/1si4xi/nxt_coin_discussion/ , also http://www.reddit.com/r/scamcoin/comments/1tmaz6/nxt_what_justifies_this_price/

NyanCoin

OilCoin: Dev Quote “HAVING ISSUES WITH THE CODE TRY TO GET IT SOLVED! PROJECT OILCOIN IS ON HOLD DUE TO LACK OF CODING BY NOW.
WILL GIVE UPDATE WHEN EVERYTHING IS SET TO GIVE A PERFECT START.”
Sheer madness. These “devs” can’t even generate and maintain their coins anymore. Oilcoin had a few nice designs, but the coin fall shorts by “mining for oil.”

OneCoin

One Last Coin: Premined

Orbitcoin (ORB): 66% premined

PandaCoin (PND): 2% Premined

Pennies (CENT): “Released” via an obscure website days before a bitcointalk forum post was made. Hidden Launch.

PesetaCoin: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=403378.0

PhoenixCoin (PXC): Massive Pre-Mine of 1,000,000 coins with poor explanation given.

PirateCoin

PowerCoin: “Backed By Power”

Protoshares

Q-coin: Proposal phase http://q-coin.org/

QQCoin

Quarkcoin: 98% or more already mined or pre-mined. 245,673,985 already in circulation since July 21, 2013 based on www.coinmarketcap.com. Great for pump and dump. On bitcointalk’s release page discussion: “Total of 247 million QRK will be mined in ~ 6 months, after that ~ 1 million QRK p.a. (~ 0.5% p.a inflation)”.  Auditing reveals:30.26% of all Quarks owned by 27 wallets. Discussion: http://www.reddit.com/r/scamcoin/comments/1rvp62/any_opinions_on_quarkcoin/ – http://quark.freeforums.net/thread/368/auditing-block-chain – https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260031.0  Regarding Quarkcoin’s development team:http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1su2aj/the_scam_behind_quarkcoin/ce1efux

QubitCoin

RichCoin (RCH): Premined

RiceCoin: Quote “the first commodity backed coin” uh huh. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=398709.0

Ripple: Tokens/money without mining, centralized system. It goes against the ideas of most cryptocurrencies stood for.
www.reddit.com/r/ripplershttp://ripplescam.org/ – http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1ezeil/exposing_the_ripple_scam/ http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/11172/is-ripple-a-scam

RealCoin (REC): Premined

Recoin (RED): 1,000,000 premined

ScamCoin: Obvious name.  No website.  No launch day ready. Emptied promises.

SexCoin: Pumped up 1200% on debut on coinmarketcap and then being dumped

ShareCoin: IPO https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=399375.0

ShoeCoin: Nothing to see. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=399279.0

SkyCoin (SYC): Premined

SocialCoin

StableCoin: 1,200,000 Premined. The coin that is unstable.  Dev disappeared a few months, promised mixing service, and while waiting for the update, larger holders dumped and flooded the market and tanked the price.

StackedCoin

TEXT: More IPO for next-generation https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=409655.0 . Seems like all next-generation coins are e-begging.

TopCoin: IPO https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=404622.0

Troptions

Turko: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=409779.0

UFOCoin (UFO): Premined 1.5%

UScoin (USC): Premined

USDE: Premine 1.5% of 1.6 Billion https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=410254.40

Unicoin: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=392204.0

VeroCoin: Next-gen “forging” and more IPO. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395758.0

VisaCoin: Barring legal threat from the real Visa company, It is pre-sale nearly 80BTC with outlandish claims and nonexistence source codes.

vCoin: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395534.0

Webcoin: Emptied talk and IPO

XenCoin (XNC): Premined

XCoin: Premined

YaCoin: Extreme low difficulty for instamine, disproportionate coins holding of 35% total coins are held by 20 wallets. www.reddit.com/r/yacoin Discussion: http://www.reddit.com/r/scamcoin/comments/1swa3s/yacoin_scam/

ZenithCoin: 50% of all block rewards goes to developer, with no explanation given.

  • Sources

http://cryptolife.net/the-anatomy-of-a-scamcoin-7-things-to-know-before-investing-in-an-altcoin/

http://altcoins.com/scamcoins

https://www.reddit.com/r/scamcoin/comments/1up2q4/a_list_of_coins_people_find_suspicious_january/

http://scforum.info/index.php?topic=8688.0

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421713.msg4586452#msg4586452

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=416541.0

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=419073.0