Welcome to Scam Spotters
Who We Are and Why We Did This
There is a spate of scammers within the crypto currency communities. Too many people have fallen victims to scams in the last 12 months. The Ponzi schemes, High Yield Interest Programs (HYIP) trading and arbitrage robots, all of which are being actively promoted and pushed on the unwary or the uneducated. So we – the XRP Community – are taking a stand. We’re not prepared to stand idly by whilst members of our community or anyone else within the crypto space are taken advantage of. ALL of us have worked hard to get to where we are, it’s time to stop innocent people being duped by conmen. This brief guide is designed to help you know what signals to look out for, understand how the scammers work but most importantly, stop you from falling for their tricks. Always remember that greed is the conman’s greatest weapon, honesty is their worst enemy.
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We’ve worked together as a community to create this guide. We want to work with other crypto communities to spread awareness and get these scammers’ platforms permanently shut down. The reality is that these scammers ruin lives. They destroy, they tear down, they steal. They cause untold misery, hurt, upset, disappointment, despair and countless lives have been lost because someone was financially ruined after getting scammed. Families get torn apart, friends turn on each other. The worst part is that these scammers do it all anonymously, never having to encounter their victims face to face. Guilt doesn’t play a part in their feelings; their only job is to get you to send them your money.
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If you have fallen victim to one of these schemes, you are not alone. There are thousands of people, just like you and me, who thought they saw a really good opportunity only to discover that they were sold a dream with no substance. It’s time to draw a line in the sand.
I've Been Scammed, I Feel Terrible
People feel embarrassed when they are duped. It’s a hard fact to admit you were wrong or you’ve lost out because of what you did. How could you – a rational thinker - send some stranger your crypto in the hope of them sending you more in return? How do you explain that to a police officer? Scammers rely on the feelings of embarrassment and guilt of their victims so they don’t feel they can contact the authorities.
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The first thing to do is to come to terms that your crypto is gone. The sooner you can make sense of what happened, the less damaging the situation becomes. Everyone – EVERYONE – makes mistakes and everyone will again in the future. Don’t beat yourself up forever about something you cannot change just make sure you never repeat the same mistake. It’s a tough pill to swallow at times but it still needs to go down. The mental energy you waste will affect your diet, your sleep pattern and your relationships. Accept that you have lost it all, learn from what happened and move on.
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Imagine trying to describe your situation to the police.
‘Well Officer, I sent someone some crypto over the internet and they told me they would send me a lot more back but then they didn’t. Other people I know on the internet said they were doing it too, it was all working for them and it looked fine. I didn’t sign a contract. I’ve never met the people at the company or spoken to anyone, but I do have an old Twitter handle for them, why yes, it’s an account that’s closed – how did you know? No, I don’t have any other contact details for them’.
This could be the reality when you report a finance scam you’re the victim of to the authorities. It’s an embarrassing conversation to have and it doesn’t sound like an idea anyone in their right mind would take up. Even if you make it through this far by contacting the police, you’ve then got to convince the authorities that you’re the victim of a scam and not a complete idiot. You’re not a complete idiot, but you’ve been played like one.
Regrettably, you cannot rely on law enforcement to help you. They may not be able to due to international constraints or be uninterested in your case as your losses aren’t high enough to warrant an individual investigation. Would you take one fraud case for a 1 million dollar sum or would you take on a million cases each for a 1 dollar sum? The more victims there are, the longer the case becomes. This in turn makes it more complicated to solve and therefore much less appealing for an investigation by the authorities.
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Find out which organisation to report the matter to for your country and direct others in the same situation as you to do the same. Some links are available below for these.
There is always strength in numbers and the more awareness that is raised, the more reports that are made, the faster we can stop any more victims falling foul to these scams.
What is a Ponzi Scheme?
Named after Charles Ponzi of New York City, early investors are paid out with funds from later investors. This gives the illusion that the early investors are succeeding and that the scheme works therefore encouraging more investors to join or reinvestment. Some of the most elite and brightest people on the planet fell for Bernie Madoff’s scheme including politicians, Hollywood stars and banks, including HSBC, Banco Santander and Medici. The estimated total losses are 64.8 billion dollars. That’s a figure of 64,000,000,000.00 to show the number of zeroes. Sorry, I missed a figure there – there is another 800,000,000.00 to add to that. These are only Madoff’s estimated losses, the true figure will never be known but is considered to be significantly higher.
To put this into context, at the time of writing, Bitcoin’s market cap is 70,265,745,646.00 Ethereum is 14,336,869,085.00 and XRP is 12,761,473,347.00. Bernie Madoff stole almost as much money as is invested in all of Bitcoin today. All of these figures are in USD.
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With the history lesson out of the way, let’s review how some of the ways that these schemes operate. Always bear in mind that these schemes are designed to make you part with your money. They will all use similar tactics, offers and promotions to get you to send them your money. The language they use in their pitch is designed in such a way that you begin to convince yourself that this is all real and you have the ‘Golden Ticket’. There is a formula that is used to prey on people’s vulnerabilities, emotions or greed.
What is Social Engineering Scamming?
If you’re on social media, you’re at risk. Con men aren’t stupid and they will use every trick in the book to get you to part from your crypto. We’ll be using Twitter for our examples but these scammers will contact you across all social media platforms. The same rules will apply.
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Beware of these indicators:
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The Twitter account is new (recently created in the last few months or less)
The Twitter account is old but has become active again (check their Twitter feed if you are concerned about this)
The account is spoofing someone else e.g. @Colinthecrypto1 is a different account from @C0linthecrypto1 or @colinthecyrpto1 This practice is absolutely prolific. You can check that the account is the right person by clicking on the profile.
No personal information or nothing verifiable on their Twitter account
There is a sad story that you may be told about the scammers past. They’re terminally ill, have had a family tragedy, a sick child, financial problems etc. Don’t take it at face value; there are a lot of sad stories on the internet.
Personal pictures can be faked. You can create or add any profile images that you want on your profile, the scammers certainly do.
In addition to this, be very aware of any conversations you are a part of. You will find that they have similar life experiences, an interest in the same hobbies that you have, they might share your birthday, support the same sports team - perhaps they have a dog too? Do you believe this is a happy coincidence? By creating common ground with their victim, the scammer builds trust, a common psychological trick.
What are Some Signs? Learn to Spot the Build Up or ‘Hook’
The build up or ‘hook’ is how they convince you to send them your money. These hooks are designed to prey on your greed rather than appeal to your common sense. Look out for:
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Secret flaws in the way the markets work
Follow the plan EXACTLY for instant wealth
Little or no effort on your part to get rich, all you need to do is send them the money
Limited time offer – hurry, buy now! Only a select few people/spaces left
You don’t need to know anything about the technology/markets to make money, they do it all for you
Absolutely 100% legal and safe – why would you need to tell people this if this was true? Would you eat at a restaurant which advertises their food as 100% legal and safe?
Always 100% risk free – your success is guaranteed
Fake testimonials – Mr Ocelot of 1 Internet Street has made lots of money and written about what saints these people are. They have saved his daughters life through their generosity and humanity. He now drives a Ferrari and this has all happened since September. He’s so blessed to have found these wonderful people and their fool proof system. Do you believe Mr Ocelot?
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Is any of this looking or sounding familiar yet? Have you seen this type of promotion for a guaranteed wealth creation program? So what do you do from here – should you invest in this promotion someone has notified you of? Will you get rich on this one? Imagine having a conversation with a friend, law enforcement officer or family member where you tell them about this ‘offer’ you were sent.
Now is the time that you need to question yourself very hard before you send this stranger your money.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Before you invest your money into a project, ask yourself these questions.
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If YOU had a secret method of making limitless amounts of money would YOU share it with strangers over Twitter, Telegram, Facebook, Youtube or Instagram for free?
How is it that YOU have stumbled across this opportunity that everyone else has missed out on?
Does this opportunity look too good to be true?
Do I know the person who introduced this to me?
Could I make more money from referrals than I can by investing?
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Don’t send anyone anything unless you know who they are. People have lost their entire investment by sending it to a stranger who they believed would make them rich.
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The moment you send your crypto onto anyone else is when you lose all control over it. As soon as those funds leave your wallet and arrive elsewhere always remember
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You cannot access that wallet
You have no control over that wallet
You have no control over what others do to or with that wallet
The wallet can be closed
The wallet owner can transfer whatever they want to wherever or whoever they want
You’re now reliant on the wallet owners’ promise to you, that they will send it all back to you and more. You’re taking a leap of blind faith, putting your trust in someone you have never even met.
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How I Lost Out
I fell victim to a bot scam, an Arbitrage robot that would generate an income for me over a set period of time. I had a target amount of XRP that I wanted to get, I was close to that figure and saw an opportunity to get there more quickly. Like many people my greed got in the way of good sense. I looked at the company and in spite of some of the flags that came up, I justified these to myself. I didn’t discuss these with anyone as I should have done. My justifications were
it’s a new company, there won’t be many people on their documents yet
they probably cannot afford a big office so have registered this company to a mailbox
There are some spelling mistakes and grammar errors for a professional company website, maybe they don’t know yet
I don’t understand the tech, but it’s clearly working for these people
Why should I miss out on something like this?
This will allow me to exceed my dream figure, I could do so much more
How much I could have made already instead of thinking about whether to invest
If I had stopped for a moment on this path, my justifications for why these red flags didn’t really matter, instead of connecting the dots in a pattern that suited me I wouldn’t have lost out. No-one put a gun to my head and forced me to do anything. I rationalised my choice using irrational thinking. Greed overtook common sense. The scammers’ tricks worked on me because I thought I was too clever to fall for any scam.
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Be very, very aware of your emotions before you invest. Any initial euphoric feelings will be countered by feelings of abject despair if you lose your investment. Guilt, embarrassment or shame are all common emotions when you’ve been scammed. Panic can set in and all your irrational thinking that led you to invest into this scheme in the first place will resurface. Except this time, you’ll be listing off all of the reasons why you should never have even given this ‘offer’ a second glance. The spelling and grammar mistakes from the website come back to haunt you, you remember seeing a comment about their customer services not responding to someone.
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I remember when discussions sprung up in my chat groups about my particular Arbitrage robot not paying out. I went to try and withdraw some of my profits as I had done in the past but the system was temporarily down. I went back to the discussion groups to find that something had happened across the whole arbitrage robot platform, all the bots weren’t paying out. The start of the ‘exit scam’ had begun.
What to Look for When Researching a Company?
But how can you tell if a company is suspicious? There are no hard and fast rules. Bernie Madoff had alerts raised about him to the authorities as early as 1999. It took until 2008 before his scheme was uncovered. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLP was founded in 1960. What should have been a respectable, long established, regulated financial company spent almost a decade cheating their customers before getting caught. There is potential that this happened from the outset, as far back as 1960, when this company was first founded. With Crypto being a relatively new concept and a fast moving market, companies will not have an established reputation that dates back years or decades. So what are some of these suspicious signals you might be able to pick up if you DYOR (Do Your Own Research) on a company?
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How long has the company been established?
Is there a website? Does it look professional with no spelling or grammar mistakes?
Is there a physical address/phone number?
Who is involved? Do they provide photos or bios of the staff/management?
Do they have a customer service contact?
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Contact the company. Take advantage of the services they offer and ask them the questions you want answering. You may find that they pretend to offer all of these facilities to you, just that the customer services team don’t respond to you immediately.
Or the phone number doesn’t work anymore.
Maybe the business address looks like a hairdresser rather than the plush offices you might expect to see several multi-millionaires working from. Does the building look like it contains philanthropists who are very busy generously dispensing their wealth to complete strangers?
Don’t always trust what you see at first sight. The scammers have these details displayed for a reason – it makes things look legitimate. They rely on you being lazy and not investigating them any further.
Useful Links
This page will get updated as regularly as needed. It will contain links to your local or international law enforcement agencies, suicide helplines or debt charities.
Use this information.
You are not alone, it's never too late and everybody makes mistakes. Talk to the right people before doing the wrong things.
Law Enforcement
https://www.europol.europa.eu/report-a-crime/report-cybercrime-online
https://www.usa.gov/stop-scams-frauds
https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
https://www.acorn.gov.au/
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Suicide Helplines
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United Kingdom 116 123
United States 1-800-273-8255
Canada 1 800 456 4566
Ireland 116 123
Philippines 2919
Australia 131 114
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Things to Remember
There is no honour among thieves.
Whatever story you are told, always remember it is just a story that someone has relayed to you. The ‘story’ is just that – a fictional tale that is designed to tug on your heartstrings or make you question your perceptions. It will use language and descriptions that encourage you to believe the scammers and take them at face value.
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Online fraud is now so prevalent that ‘Suckers lists’ now exist – 2014 in England a list of 160,000 names was discovered to be circulating on the Dark Web. The Suckers List is made up of people who parted with their money too easily and have been scammed before. These contacts were compiled, updated and sold to other scammers as a bulk data package for years before it was discovered. When the UK authorities started contacting the people on the list most were insistent they had never been scammed once. They were too savvy, smart and educated to fall victim to some criminal. They had lost money on some investments sure, but they were a victim of circumstance. Some people said they felt insulted by the authorities’ suggestion that they were vulnerable to or had been scammed. Denial is a natural reaction when someone accuses you of something you know isn’t true.
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A website is often referred to as a ‘shop front’. Keep in mind that all you might be viewing is a digital magic show. To use the real world counterpart, let’s assume you’ve been sent a FREE ticket by a complete stranger to the greatest magic show that will ever be performed. Understandably, you’re intrigued so you decide to go. It’s the start of the performance and you’re seated in the audience. You cannot control the props, lighting, stage, smoke effects, other audience members or sounds – how long would you be sitting there before you witnessed something you couldn’t rationally explain? David Copperfield has inexplicably gained the power of human flight – yet he can only do this in a few big, dark rooms near Las Vegas, not outside in the parking lot. You are seeing what the magician WANTS you to see. The con artist is no different – they have total control of all images, links, individuals and data they direct you to from their site.
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Like a magician’s props – stacked card decks or concealed pockets – they’re used to misdirect, mislead or misinform their victims.
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Purchases over the web can be incredibly difficult and expensive to recover. The processes take a long time and there is no guarantee of success. Lawyers are expensive and scammers know that, for most people, it is too much hassle or expense to try and recover their money so they walk away, accepting their losses. It makes their lives considerably easier.
About St. Jude
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