Topic: Beware: FORSAGE another scheme (Ponzi) (Read 589 times)

Some time ago I was browsing social media and came across this ad about Forsage and then I ended up on this thread.
The scheme that is owned by Forsage is indeed a ponzi scheme which requires making ETH deposits at the beginning and must refer other people to get bonuses from the referrals made.

When I see this Forsage Contract Address it is clearly written that this Forsage is considered a Ponzi scheme reported by the Philippine SEC and is Very High Risk and should be avoided.

There are reports from the Philippines SEC





Forsage is the No.1 Ethereum Dapp by active users at the time of writing.
Image: DappStats

Hi,

Just a question - are there actually people that have been dealing in Forsage and have been able to withdraw at least a reasonable amount of money? (And then not the actual initial people)
I suppose technically you could do a quick in and out? But if that's if they don't hinder you for from withdrawing a larger sum of money?

If we look at duneanalytics report website, we can see that this Forsage scam is repsonsible for almost 10% of all ethereum fees,
and they nearly $90,000,000 dollars worth ethereum have been sent, that is 356,188 ETH:
https://explore.duneanalytics.com/public/dashboards/mnDPj2Gtk3DNjpDjMC71QRbIgsi4HtALnN3SsTkM

Someone create website to show real forsage account balances:
https://forsage.breadcrumbs.app/

I had been an anti-ponzi scheme advocate since 2017 ( before the last bullrun/ ATH). This kind of scheme makes me cringe every time I saw one or two. I myself had been victimized by this type of scheme that's why I know how it feels to lose your hard-earned money.

Even drop an unsolicited  warning to anyone who posts and shares anything related to this project. This has been rampant in Facebook posts. Sadly, most of them don't listen since they were earning from the scheme.
A sad reality.

Actually they can hunt them down as they are disclosing their personal information in public through Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. They cannot shut down the system, but they can hunt people who are promoting this heavily on public either online or a face-to-face meetup where a witness can take a photo of that person who promote Forsage to the prospect.

And by the way, SEC Philippines has marked Forsage's smart contract address as "high risk" here: https://etherscan.io/address/0x5acc84a3e955Bdd76467d3348077d003f00fFB97

It's kinda difficult for the Philippines right now. As time goes by, they are spreading especially in some social media.
The only downside here Philippine Government can't do anything here to take down the Forsage since it is under Ethereum network.

The only SEC Philippines can do is to aware of the people of the Philippines about this kind of Ponzi Scheme and as I saw on their advisory, there's some serious case for promoting Forsage but still, it's difficult or seemly they can't sue or get those people.

The one behind Forsage is Lado Okhotnikov and based on his Facebook profile, he is from Moscow, Russia.

My sister's office mate recently informed me that his "not so close" friend who is a local morning talk show host is also promoting Forsage. Since the talk show host and I aren't connected yet on Facebook, I informed him to share the SEC's advisory and Inquirer news article to her or else she will be included in the long list of promoters who are subject to pay a hefty fine of P5 million pesos or 21 years of imprisonment.

I also un-followed (not unfriend) some of my Facebook contacts who heavily promote Forsage and ignoring the SEC's warnings. Despite that they claimed that they've earned at least 1 million in pesos or just six figures, the ones down below are suffering.

There are rumors that they are going to launch "Forsage Academy". Maybe it's an academy to educate members to scam more people on the planet. How can they say they are not soliciting or ain't an investment or get-rich quick scheme, where they keep inviting people to invest?

Inviting people to join Forsage and invest some Ethereum in their matrix cycle with "guaranteed earnings" is still an act of solicitation.

I wash shocked yesterday to see my cousin who works on abroad have a promotional post about forsage, so I quickly message her and told that this is a risky ponzi scheme using ethereum cryptocurrency. To here knowledge she thought it was legit cause almost all of her office mate got joined and some who earned already. (This is on UAE country) So since she's older than me, I just explained to her how it works but of course out of respect I cant force her not to join but only to give warning. Then I gave here couple of links to sec warning and other precaution. She said, that she will pull out all after the first earning then never recruit again.

Ahhh this is nuts she dont know anything about crypto but forsage influence here just like that. Money really have a way, do hope she listen to me.

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Where is this forsage started? I mean which country is the source of it, Im thinking irs Russia cause when I clicked the site its language have default on it and only translating to english.

The sad part is that if he defies your warning and keeps promoting Forsage, he'll be in trouble by paying P5 million hefty fine or 21 years of imprisonment. The platform itself might be decentralised and cannot get shut down by the government (like they say that SEC doesn't have the jurisdiction over it), the ones who promote and recruit people to join Forsage are "centralised".

Someone out there could have collected screenshots and links of various Facebook accounts and groups who actively promote Forsage and other similar ponzi schemes like Voomo and OpenAlexa and submitted it to the authorities. Maybe these people who have earned big enough in Forsage could say that P5 million pesos is just "piece of cake" for them.

Yes Forsage's system can't be stopped, but the ones who heavily promote it in public are a different story and can be stopped. And why would they say it's not an investment or get-rich quick scheme if they keep soliciting people to invest in Forsage? Matrixes, cyclers or doubler methods are proven enough to be called as ponzi schemes long before Bitcoin was born.

Nah, I bet most of them don't know this forum either . I think most of them are bunch of people who just joined because of fast income but unaware of all the risks and even with regards to concept of cryptocurrency.

Update: I already sent him a PM and gave him warning politely but I'm seenzoned lol. I can no longer help him, it's his own choice.

Yes Facebook is their ground for referring new people because they know that they cannot get referrals here in Bitcointalk and anyone promoting it here will get tagged, they even defending this scam project, they have to defend it because they have money invested and they want to profit more in this Ponzi scheme, they must be stopped and all their admins be prosecuted, it's only a matter of time.

I'm so glad that I bumped into this thread. At least I prove to myself that I'm not the only one thinking that it was a scam (maybe not at the moment but in the future for sure).

Actually, my not so close friend of mine also use Forsage and currently posting proofs of payouts in FB. So I verify whether it is legit or not and yeah my gut feel is right — it was another ponzi scheme which seems Filipinos are never getting tired of. Hmm I guess his an early adopter that's why he can make payouts, too bad for him because he don't know the real situation. How ironic that he was a CpE graduate but seems not so knowledgeable regarding crypto scams tsk. Can you give me tips on how can I give him a warning without getting offended ?

UPDATE: The Securities and Exchange Commission Philippines has officially published an advisory against Forsage.

Source: http://www.sec.gov.ph/forsageforsage-is-not-registered-with-the-commission-and-operates-without-the-necessary-license-and-or-authority-to-solicit-accept-or-take-investments-placements-from-the-public-nor-to-issue-investme/

And it was also exposed in Philstar, a local media newspaper and website: https://www.philstar.com/the-freeman/cebu-business/2020/06/30/2024523/ethereum-based-ponzi-schemes

JUST IN: Popular local newspaper and media site Inquirer just published this that heavily mentioned Forsage: https://business.inquirer.net/301427/sec-warns-against-more-investment-scams



Above image is the zoomed out first page of SEC's official advisory against Forsage. You can verify it by going to the link above.

Although they could claim that no government would shut them down due to being "decentralised", but the ones who promote or support it heavily on Facebook and other social media channels are being screenshot and submitted their details to the BIR and SEC that would make them pay a hefty fine of up to P5 million Philippine pesos or years of imprisonment.

I just don't like that they're going to create a bad image of Ethereum and cryptocurrencies in the Philippines because of these schemes. I feel bad for the newbies who ended up falling to this scheme. It's because when they are exit scammed, and they hear next time about Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc., they would generally call them as scams while being lazy enough to use their internet best friends (Google, Youtube and Wikipedia).

They just need to be educated about the real and positive use cases of Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc., rather than listening mostly on the media without taking time to research.

It looks like the SEC Philippines has acknowledged the request to investigate Forsage, and this is their response:



The shared image was from my Facebook contact's timeline.

The name was censored to protect the identity of the one who requested SEC Philippines to investigate and assess Forsage. Expect that there will be a SEC Philippines advisory against Forsage soon.

It may not be shut down by the government due that commissions are paid directly to Trust Wallet, but those who were involved in heavily promoting Forsage will pay a hefty fine or imprisonment or both.

It often happens that the first investors who receive money are members of this scheme. This is done for one purpose-to show new investors that investors are already investing in the project and they are getting their profit. It should be remembered that all Ponzi schemes do not have a real business and therefore do not have any financial ability to ensure the payment of profit on the taken capital.

In the beginning people always make some money 😀
Owners know very well how to "inspire " members in the beginning with some profits.
Because of it many more members join with hope to also make some "fast money " and financial piramide collapse soon or later,  because there is no real product and members need more new members to earn some money.

Yeap, you can definitely initially make some money off it. The plan is to pretty much make you a bit of money at the very start, for you to get greedy to put more money into the honeypot. It's the most common argument: "how is X a scam? I just made X money recently". I couldn't count how much I've seen such statement with the BitConnect fiasco in 2017.

Exactly what I wanted to say. The current ponzi schemes are targeted at people who know little to nothing about how cryptocurrencies work. How do I know this? I've had chats with some people who are members of the so called – "Ethereum Money" project and majority, if not all of them have the slightest idea about ETH. Sadly, scams like this targets gullible and desperate people who want to make money as easy and fast as possible.

If I remembered correctly, A similar scheme (Zarfund) was created in 2016 that  ripped hundreds and thousands of users. All of these schemes camouflages their operations with 'referral' programs. They simply Rob Peter  to pay Paul.

At the end of the day:


Let's not get carried away by the urge to make quick money and end up doing more harm than good to our savings.

Very clear ponzi and the most funniest thing is that it's pyramid. You can't earn if you don't refer, never. Those that promote it won't tell you this.
I was reading and argument about this some days ago whereby someone was try to make it look like Ethereum is related to forsage. This is the stupid way ponzi shillers promote scheme in the name of cryptocurrency and dirty the name blockchain and crypto once they exist scam. Those that got scammed will never want to hear anything about crypto.

Well, thank you for bringing this topic up here, --this is also very trending in our place and most of my friends on Facebook and even in the telegram they are talking on this. But I know that this is a Ponzi scheme I never tried to put my money there. This a kind of business investment which is fooling people obviously, where is the profit generated comes from? From the member itself,  because your income here is based mainly on the number of people you have recruited and there is no actual product that represents that the profit was generated came from.

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Indeed, thank you for sharing it here. Perhaps others will blindly be getting interested because of their sweet promises.
They used the smart contracts of ETH just to fool naive people.

Those payment proof they are posting in various social media is their attraction for people to join, but investors should realized that these people are early members and for them to continue to receive their payout, they need to continue referring people, once the money stops coming in then it's game over.

It's sad that these ponzi owners will always take advantage of newbies in crypto. A lot of newbies are being misled by them and made their investors think that they are legitimately generating revenue through those tasks and requirements that they have made.

Thanks for this OP.

They are full Scam!!! Some early adopters can even get paid, but this comes with stupendous tasks and the payment small still they are scam, they can be patient if they choose to. still they are scam,

They're already a scam to start with. It's just that they'd make the ponzi money pool bigger and bigger first to be able to maximize the amount of money they could potentially run off with.

Thanks for informing us buddy, this is a scam website, they keep saying some beautiful words so people will get attracted to it but only a few people will receive a good return on it. It is somehow related to the scam website named: PANDEMIC CRYPTO, I had tried this website before saying that they will double my investment for just 24 hours but nothing happens, its already a month have passed when I invested on this website that is recommended by my friend, I believed her because she had shown it the result of her investment and she received the payment but sadly it is a Ponzi scheme.

I had realized that there is now an investment website that will offer to double your investment for just a few days. I will be more vigilant now and do some research first before trying some websites or better read some reviews to be more contented of being real of the website.

Recently, this is popping up everywhere. It's a clear ponzi scam regardless of their whatever smart contract is there. I have been asked to join; when I checked I got surprised that people are still investing on such ponzis.
I have no idea about smart contract though, can a smart contract be overwritten?

This is just so right, most people do not have enough knowledge about what they invested on, some even do not have any idea at all about it, that is why they are easily scammed. I saw a mate of my on whatsapp telling people they could become a millionaire in two years by trading in cryptocurrencies, some people will just be lured by that and later even lose, some this way fall victim of ponzi scheme and lose. In life, we need to do a thorough research before we invested our funds on such.

This thread should be moved in the scam section it deserves to be here because it is a Ponzi scheme in the tradition of Bitconnectcoin, I have seen a lot of my friends in Facebook promoting this and their big attraction is posting their payment proof, and showcasing luxuries supposedly they bought like cars.
It's only a matter of time before the authorities go after those running this Ponzi scheme and their promoters, after Onecoin and Bitconnecoin this is the new big scam.

This is a Ponzi scheme like scam, they just change some few steps. the only people who can earn in this are those who got there first and they will likely get some people to join because they think the site is legit and paying but little they know they are being used to get more people to be a victim by this method. after a few days, whoever followed to do those steps, are likely to get scam in the future. Anyway, we need to understand that whatever investment method that using a pyramiding scheme, are more likely to become scam later on.

Any moderators who can move this topic to Scam Accusations section please? I don't think this topic is appropriate here in the Beginners & Help section.

As for Forsage, yes it is definitely a ponzi scam. My sister's office mate reached out to me to check if Forsage is legit or not. As I have checked the entire website and system, I've already concluded that the system was nothing but another ponzi scheme.

Oh and by the way, I saw this post on Facebook regarding the "developer and founder" of Forsage himself named Lado Okhotnikov.

Here is his Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/lado.okhotnikov

So this is his personal account, and I don't see him promote Forsage there. However, his face matches the promotional and interview videos below:

Video #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dswptZpxR-I
Video #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cmxQrOmIFE
Video #3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-25CRPTRgmE
Video #4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9-pJEGE7uk

FB watch video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2900404056721911

Note: I'm just sharing these for reference.

This dude is just one of the hundreds who are creating a bad image on cryptocurrencies and blockchain, especially Ethereum. Here in the Philippines, I've seen stupid idiots who are promoting this heavily and defending Forsage from haters or those who are saying negative about it. Until now, they are still suffering from "shiny income syndrome" or "shiny object syndrome".

This is why the broadcast media in the Philippines are using the word "Bitcoin scam" or "cryptocurrency scam" in their headlines to make all Filipinos believe in general that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are scam without taking time to research and educate themselves.

Any offer that gives you "guarantee" of 3x, 4x, 10x, etc., in return of investment are completely scam and ponzi. You're only lucky if you are an early bird, but those who came in late are gonna be sorry and may lose their hard-earned money.

I also heard this last money, my friend approach me if I am familiar with FORSAGE since he said someone told him to invest there, well at my first thought, it's already a Ponzi scheme.
I also tried to search for some Facebook groups and viola, they started with lot of members for every group, especially they got Forsage Philippines, jeez! For sure lot of my fellow countrymen will get scam again and again.

A similar scheme, with all the yada yada yada on blockchain contract and so forth is Ace Returns. As their website states:

What can really go wrong with such an enchanting offer?

For the gullible: You will very likely lose all that you (think that you) invest in this type of scheme.

Thanks for the heads up.

The problem with newbies is that they want to earn but earn everything quickly. Which is practically impossible in this world unless you get some kind of inheritance.

Pyramid based schemes always look great on paper, but the truth is that they are Ponzi schemes and such schemes should be always be avoided because you will not only destroy your investment but also others.

Keep away from giveaways and pyramid schemes they are meant only to scam you.

Here's what is trending in my country right now, "make money leveraging on ethereum smart contract and trust wallet". The likes of Ethereum million Money, and the project the OP just highlighted are those succeeding in defrauding millions of my country men off their hard earned Fiats. It's no surprise as the youth are more interested in making quick money instead of learning the technology behind cryptocurrency and probably taking their time to learn cryptocurrency trading or having the patience to involve themselves into investing.

The funny part is that neither of the promoters of this Ponzi have any idea of what smart contracts are or are even interested in engaging in cryptocurrency trading or investing but are conscious of the reward they'll get from introducing more gullible individuals into the scheme they found themselves in as a result of greed.

Most times I get tried of trying to educate them that what they're engaging themselves in aren't associated with cryptocurrency in anyway but just like other previous projects that claimed to be trading cryptocurrency or whatever are scams and they'll end as the likes of MMM did. We lack proper enlightenment in my country and it's troubling as many are getting decieved daily.

I have been bombarded with this offer for the last few weeks 
Still, I wouldn’t agree that every MLM is a scam.
If we are talking about a legal company that has a specific product that is used every day and for which there is a demand, then it is a legal business and not a scam.
One very good example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriflame
''Oriflame Holding AG is a multi-level marketing cosmetics company founded in Sweden in 1967 by Jonas af Jochnick, Robert af Jochnick, and Bengt Hellsten. The company is based in Switzerland and until 17 July 2019 [1] was listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm Exchange. It has a presence in more than 60 countries and is marketed by 3 million Oriflame distributors, generating annual sales of around €1.3 billion in 2018''

Anything that related to multilevel marketing is a scam. Pyramiding scheme has been happening in the past and even they incorporated crypto still it proven to be scam later on. Maybe now, there are lots of those who are earning from it but those who are starting from the bottom will realized that this is not a worth investment.

I have some friends into crypto tried it out and they are earning but seeing the concept and method, Im sure it will go down if they dont have much fund in circulation.

 A very likely question you hear newbies asking -HOW CAN I MAKE MONEY THROUGH CRYPTOCURRENCIES-. At the comfort of their homes,leisure places and more.
I was shocked when I saw on the WhatsApp status of a person-am very sure doesn't no anything about cryptocurrencies- about how to make money from ethereum I chatted the person up and he decided to tell me about it immediately I cut in and asked him who is the founder of ethereum. He was short of words.

Back on track, newbies are fooled into thinking they are doing the right thing -in making money- when they dont have knowledge of it.

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               FORSAGE
              

  FORSAGE is an online platform claiming to be based on smart contract and uses ethereum, this scheme (Ponzi) is growing in many places fooling/deceiving people. And like Ponzi schemes they ask you to
+ Make deposits of ethereum (on registration)
+ Refer 3 people -to make them look real they say this is not compulsory but later on you would find out that it was-
+ Grow in levels
+ Minimum amount of withdrawal/completing task before being eligible to do so.
+Proud themselves with what the real ethereum has achieved and give blind over ambitious price prediction for ethereum.
If you want to get money so badly just work for it, -just because a Ponzi scheme paid of someone doesn't make them less a Ponzi scheme- flee from Ponzi scheme