SEC creates fake ICO site to educate investors

It's been several months since the ICOs are in the sights of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) . For good reason, the ease of their implementation and the lack of regulation have led to numerous scams. In order to educate market investors to the potential risks associated with it, the SEC has created and promoted a fake ICO.

The goal is not to hurt investors by freezing their funds to give them a good lesson. The idea is rather to announce their arguments through humor. Indeed, HoweyCoins.com is a parody site mocking ICOs , with a (fake) eight-page white paper , partnerships (fake too) with celebrities, and a (fake) team supposed to work on the ICO.

The site in question contains all the red flags put forward by the SEC : the promise of guaranteed returns, partnerships with celebrities, discounts on the purchase of tokens, a white paper with a complex but vague explanation the investment opportunity, and a countdown highlighting the time left to invest in the ICO.

When an investor clicks on "buy coins now" he is immediately redirected to a SEC warning page about the risks of investing in ICOs.

The term Howey is not trivial. Indeed, it refers to Howey, which arose out of a 1946 Supreme Court decision, SEC v. WJ Howey Co. , ruling that a transaction is an investment contract, or a guarantee, if "a person invests his money in a joint venture and is expected to profit only through the efforts of the sponsor or 'a third ".

Many have been positive reactions to this initiative: