Two separate initial coin offerings are alleged to have undertaken exit scams in yet another round of pain for investors.

The two ICOs, RepuX and JoyToken, are said to have stolen $4.7 million and $3.3 million from investors respectively according to a report from TNW.

RepuX was attempting to raise funds for a “blockchain-backed platform [that] enables Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to capitalize on business solutions via the data sharing network.” Stuffed full of every buzzword possible, the company cited machine learning and artificial intelligence for a platform “by allowing SMEs to upload data and list potential use cases.” The company last updated its social media pages in October.

JoyToken didn’t sound quite as scammy, with the claim that it was developing a “platform and protocol that forms the foundation for a ‘trustless’ gambling ecosystem wherein smart contracts are used to automatically determine game outcomes.”

That said, anything related to the gambling industry presents an immediate risk since online gambling remains mostly illegal in the U.S.

The two companies were pushing separate products, but TNW found that both companies shared numerous connections, advisers and marketing partners with the registered address for both being a house in Stoke-On-Trent in the U.K. Both companies have also recently been dissolved as well, confirming that neither is currently trading.

The scam appears to go back a year when members of the BitcoinTalk forum started questioning the behavior of both companies, starting with their failure to pay fees to promoters of the ICOs.

Further investigation found that key staff indicated that they had stopped working there last year as well, suggesting that the companies may have started out legitimately, with the exit scam coming later.

The new scams are hardly a surprise at this point. A study in June found than three-quarters of all ICOs in 2017 were scams. Even those ICOs that were not outright frauds have a poor success rate as well. Not least, a separate study found more than $1 billion lost over in more than 1,000 ICOs.

Victims have very little redress either other than to file a police report. Although there are occasional arrests and money seized, it’s a rare occurrence.

Image: RepuX