SEC Creates Phony ICO Website To Highlight Industry Fraud

Investing.com - The Securities and Exchange Commission launched a fake website promoting an initial coin offering to illustrate how easy it is to dupe uninformed investors.The effort is part of the agency's crackdown on the ICO process, which it considers rife with fraud and in violation of securities regulations. The site, HoweyCoins, has all the usual features of an ICO site, and is fully interactive.At the top of the site there is a pre-sale, countdown clock offering a bonus for investors to buy early.In the middle of the page is a link to a white paper, promoting the coin, which happens to be designed for the travel industry.There are even celebrity endorsements along with photos of the Howeycoins management team.The SEC says the site shows how easily "fraudsters can quickly build an attractive website and load it up with convoluted jargon to lure investors into phony deals."