META-DeFi – Best Crypto Education Project – Special Commendation | The MAIAs 2022​

With new technologies and platforms emerging daily, even the financially literate can be prone to scams. META-DeFi aims to help people avoid fraud.

MAIAwards co-founder Michael Gilmore said, “We primarily award programmes that help people learn basic financial literacy, setting them up for future monetary security. But new technologies like decentralized finance and the blockchain are becoming more commonplace and are frequently prone to fraud. META-DeFi educates people on how these scams work and what to avoid.

“Their mission is admirable and necessary. That is why we awarded them with a Special Commendation.”

META-DeFi (Mitigating Emerging Threat Actors in Decentralized Finance) is a programme by GASO (Global Anti-Scam Org). It noted that although decentralized finance – known as DeFi – was creating new ways for economic empowerment, it also led to an accompanying rise in scams. META-DeFi aims to help minimize this fraud through education.

A META-DeFi spokesperson explains, “An alarming trend today is sophisticated teams of social engineers patiently driving victims into fraudulent online investments. These can be legitimate-looking websites, mobile apps, or decentralized apps (dApps) with professional-sounding customer service. Whether as financial advisors or romantic interests, they pretend to be very knowledgeable in finance and cryptocurrency.

“Their effects are devastating. The average loss per victim of such relationship-investment frauds worldwide is $83,000! Our surveys reveal that 75% of victims lost more than half their net worth, and one-third are in debt. These frauds have too commonly destroyed the lives of mid-career people that had bright futures

“Police cannot handle the rising caseloads and are still unfamiliar with cryptocurrency. Fraud syndicates are typically in dispersed jurisdictions using unregulated exchanges. Financial and technology companies can be merely reactive. Justice for online fraud victims may never come. Thus, prevention is key.”

META-DeFi is a multi-pronged initiative by GASO to close the gaps between transnational cybercriminals, fintech, regulations, and law enforcement. It does this through information, educating and informing people of the threats.

“The initiative exposes the latest online frauds through our website, social media, and news media. In addition, we do primary research and daily engagement with victims and perpetrators to gain insight into scams.

“We aim for universal appeal because anyone can fall for social engineering. Most victims we see are not elderly or technologically illiterate, but the schemes often involve multiple fraudsters such as scriptwriters, IT support, and money laundering networks – a whole organization. Their schemes can be so novel and perpetrators so patient that awareness is the best defence.”

The initiative involves a website, social and media outreach, original art, research, videos, and viral memes. And it has proven effective. In just six months, META-DeFi’s work against investment frauds has featured in multiple international publications, including The Strait Times, Nikkei Asia, South China Morning Post, Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

The aim is to ‘defend forward’ by promoting awareness. In addition, it also helps individuals with information, education, and advice.
“Our website has live chat volunteers that answer questions about suspected scams or know people who can answer. These chat agents can also dissuade emotionally and economically invested victims from investing more and break the psychological hold of con artists.

“Decentralized finance can change lives and create opportunities. But rampant misuse, fraud, and misunderstanding can destroy consumer confidence in DeFi and be its undoing. As a result, there has never been a greater need for META-DeFi than now.”

The approach has proven effective, with over 14000 queries in the eight months since the website began and posts about scams being read by tens of thousands.

MAIAwards’s Michael Gilmore said, “New financial opportunities are always exciting, but there needs to be an understanding of how it works and education on the dangers. Financial literacy is an ongoing process.”

For more information, you can visit their website, or email us at michael@maiawards.org.