Topic: Ponzi scheme scammer uses BTC to cover tracks - page 2. (Read 553 times)

There are many types of pyramid investments in online businesses but scammers combine pyramid investments with crypto to deceive investors and traders, but the pyramid investment mode can be easily identified because we are offered profits above 100% according to the investment period, even though cryptocurrency based pyramid investments are difficult to tracked but we can protect ourselves to avoid these investments by knowing some of the common characteristics of fraudulent investment modes:
1. The pyramid business will never get permission from the authorities and other financial legal entities.
2. They promise very high no-risk return guarantees, but actually they don't provide any guarantees.
3. The withdrawal process is difficult even your withdrawal will be delayed for a very long time
4. Maintenance "forever", usually the team frequently updates the maintenance information which means their scam strategy will end soon, they will take your money away.

I just saved someone I know a couple of months ago from falling  into the hands of these scammers. I just don't understand how they can't see that it's a scam. All they do in ponzi schemes is take money from Mr A, Mr B, add your own money to it and give it back to you. That kind of system is ALWAYS bound to crash (emphasis on always).
How do you see a business that pays you 100% to 300% ROI within just one month. That's a big red flag.
Another red flag is "no risk involved". That's one of the funniest things I've heard. In what world do you see an invested with 0% risk? It's screams scam but unfortunately people still fall for it.

The ponzi scheme creator must be really dumb, if he thinks that using BTC(without good BTC mixers) would cover his tracks.
It isn't that hard for the authorities to catch the creators of the ponzi scheme. It all comes to catching some of the people, who are at  the bottom and the middle of the pyramid and pressuring them into revealing the guys, who referred them to the scheme.
Every ponzi scheme begins with meetings in person between the scammer and his "investors" and direct "sales persuasion".
At some point, the people at the bottom of the pyramid will start complaining about not getting their 600% ROI. They are potential witnesses for the police.

They won't let you invest that much money in the first place. Investing a small amount of money will result in a small amount of profit, and he will gradually lower your vigilance. When you slowly increase the amount of money, they will put your money in their pockets, and you will not be able to find out who they are. It can only be said not to trust others very much at any time, even if that person is your friend. Protect your money, the only person you can trust is yourself.

Offering any investment plan can smell fishy because most of them will suggest people invest their money for earning high amounts of profits That's too bad especially when we see these kinds of people are using bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for their dirty stuff because this can show a bad face from bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to other people and for the people who don't have enough knowledge they thing bitcoin is used for criminal activities and for covering tracks of these people crimes.

There's nothing new here. Bitcoin and any other means of exchange will always be used for scamming. Even when Bitcoin still did not exist, we had telexfree ponzi scheme and several others that were done with cash.
Now, if they use Bitcoin to cover their tracks, they will eventually be unmasked as we all know that there is an ongoing clampdown on Bitcoin mixers and one way or another transactions can be tracked.

Long before Bitcoin's inception, scamming was already done. Some made it with gold while others have done it with cash, and even goods, so Bitcoin is not the problem. As with everything in life, humans are the problem

Do you guys know why there are scammers? 'coz there are people they can trick. But why are people being carried by  those frauds? 'coz people believe to easy way of earning money or profit. There's no such thing. Those people earning big time invested time and money which makes their methods 'easy' on our perspectives. Once something is unrealistic, be cautious and vigilant as well. Such as with what OP have mentioned. 100 bucks and 600% in returns just by storing it. How's that even possible? There's always that risk indeed on every means of investment but atleast you can minimize it by doing a bit of research or reading of what you are trying to drag yourself into.

I just did.

The thing is that they are not convinced it is a Ponzi scheme in the first place. They do not believe it is illegal. I tried to make the scheme clear and they showed me powerpoint presentations of "investment projects" from the scammer. It seems to me that the people in the pyramid are not the brightest minds in society. I've spoken to 3 of them and I immediately noticed that. I ask them questions like "If this was genuine, why are the richest people in society not involved in this?" and "If they make so much money, why do they need money from others?". And then they freeze, but hold on to the pyramid anyway.

A more intelligent person would do some research and figure it out. These people can't even figure it out when someone else does the work for them.
They have had 2 successful withdrawals and they are hoping that this will make them rich.

Both patients have told me about 2 Dutch women who are actively drawing as many people as possible to the scheme.
I think the first move is probably to report these women to the police. They are high up in the pyramid and they must know what is going on

You have some strange patients, who even involve their own children in something illegal - an honest citizen would report it to the police, anonymously of course. They know very well what it is about, the fact that they are persistent only proves that they are at the top of the pyramid and want to draw as many people into their network as possible.

By the way, did you read my previous post? For someone who is a doctor, you should pay a little more attention to well-intentioned advice.

Scammers of lately have mapped out so many means of scamming people of their hard earned resources be it fiat Bitcoin and other Crypto currencies. The truth it that most of their victims do know for sure and just like the other poster before me said that "they do know but for the fact that they do benefit from the scheme, they find it difficulty to report as they make huge profits from it."
 
Like I will always say there is nothing hidden under the sun, there is no crime schemes that can not be investigated as long as that wallet holding that ill gotten assets is doing transactions, the owner can be apprehended by the security agencies if they swung into actions. It is not a difficult one and it is no difference from what they agencies have been doing for long now but all it takes is just reporting the issue to them and watch them act.

This makes sense. I was not aware of this. I thought that it did not matter who brings the new participants. I have noticed that my friend is actively searching for new participants. By making accounts for her children, by contacting me and God knows how many others. And I have informed her about the scam but she does not want to believe it.

I do hope that for her children, she is not using much of her own money to get started. I just informed her about your post, but I have the impression that she does not want to hear it and is even getting pissed off at me for not letting it go. Clearly she will remain in the pyramid.
Same thing for her husband, who is also a patient of mine.

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But if you are in it for $10 000 and you get two guys to join for 100 bucks, I don't think the scammer will allow your withdrawal.
You could grow your bankroll to 10k, send a message to "customer service" saying that you would like to test the withdrawal and then get 2 family members in for 10k each (which of course you will not do)

But if he believes you and lets you withdraw, you can scam the scammer.
However, the withdrawn money is from victims. If they ever try to claim it back, and it is in the bank account of someone higher up in the pyramid, the victims may be charged as criminals. After all, the scammer has printscreens of their passports.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

I had similar experience not long ago and I made a post about it.
These fraudsters are intentional about their payment method because it become really difficult (not impossible) to track them, unlike a regular bank account where your information are stored in their database and the government are able to get access to them.
Also, I should mention that some of the people who engage in this ponzi schemes are aware they would get defrauded, but they just hope the platform doesn't crash as soon as they join and hopefully make some money.
However, like I was advised, when there's such "investment opportunity" make good research, and if the reward is too good to be true, that is little efforts with huge return, it's most likely a scam.

Does this mean they really know the owner of the scheme, because it's just a sudden change of payment option.
That means he can run but he cannot hide anymore if his identity was already known from the start where the member are paying fiat.
It is. But there are always ways to track them. It's not like Bitcoin is pure anonymous. Somehow, that address will try to send it to someone, mix it, or send to an exchange to make it to cash. Or, if ever he tries to use BTC directly, it can still be traced.

If the investigators or police really tracked him down, there will be a point that he needs to use a legal service to withdraw a big amount and that could lead to his arrest but there's a lot of ways now to cover tracks such as using a mixing service, coinjoin, selling Bitcoin to buy anonymous coins such as Monero and Zcash then use it to trade in P2p. If I can remember only few were arrested but not all.

Typical ponzi because of the word “promised” and “guaranteed” in returns. If you are one of the early birds, you would get lucky to exit with profit as long there are other ones after you.

It’s a gamble but others who are way behind are gonna be left out and not going to recover their investments.

This is where blockchain comes in that would trace your transactions that is immutable no matter where it goes. Plus, they are in public where everyone can view without the need to login.

That's how the Ponzi scheme is designed, you can only make money there if you're the one at the top, and those at the bottom are the ones who get in. Because what is paid to the early investors will also come from the last to enter that style. And with my knowledge of traditional Ponzi schemes, I have heard of many people being caught and imprisoned for scamming people.

Now, if the scammer's request is through Bitcoin, this is a big question for me right away. After all, it is certain that the address he will give is his bitcoin address and of course, he will not admit that it is his but will issue it to the bitcoin address of the company, because they will remain anonymous this way and it will be difficult to be traced by the concerned government agency.

Of course, scammers are using any available means in order to lessen the chance of getting into the court and to serve the time for the crime committed...and we have to remember that this is the case even if cryptocurrency has never came into the scene. Now, we already have some good technologies and mechanisms that can track people - the scammers - even if they are using Bitcoin. What can be harder is recovering the funds - again this is also true if the scammer can be using the fiat system - but for proving the fraud all one has to do is work for the victims because I am sure there can be records of transactions with the scammers and this can be a good advise for all to make sure  that documentation is always ready.

Bitcoin is characterized by anonymity. So many people think of scamming with Bitcoin. But Bitcoin also has the advantage of being open and transparent. We can see all transactions on the chain.
Don't blindly trust other people's words in all investments. Do your research before any investment. Use your own judgment.

It depends on how good the scammer to use Bitcoin without any trace and remain 100% anonymous. Bitcoin is pseudonymous where anyone can know the address, but they can't know who's the person who control that's address. If he's not run full node, there's a chance his IP address would be leaked since he's use someone server to connect his wallet. Or if he use centralized exchange and have submitted his KYC, he can be easily get frozen when someone report that address is from a scammer.

You know too well how the system works and sadly I have been a victim of this which crippled my first attempt of financial breakthrough. When the ponzi scheme fails, the people at the top of the pyramid must have benefited enough such that they wouldn't have the guts to purse the course and eventually the founder is caught, they would also be indicted. They will have no option than to hide in shame and enjoy their money in secret.

Some who are heartless will come back to console you and use the opportunity to introduce you to another ponzi scheme where they already occupied the bottom slots and you will come and deposit money which will be used to pay them as well.