Identifying scams & Customer Reviews / Feedbacks

The field of blockchain & cryptocurrencies is a new area & a financial innovation. Financial market regulators, politicians, authorities & legislators currently understand this area poorly & due to a lack of legislation & understanding to protect the consumer, blockchain & crypto is for now, literally, the Wild West. In 2022, we saw the fall of various financial service providers & ecosystems such as Luna USD (Terraform Labs), Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital, BlockFi, Celsius Network, Alameda Research, FTX, possibly Genesis Trading (subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG)), possibly BUSD on the BNB-Blockchain (not BUSD from Paxos on the ETH-Blockchain), keep an eye on USDT (Tether) & their shenanigans, SEC lawsuit agains Rippel, etc. & many investors have lost their hard-earned money.

In addition, there are various scammers & organizations, who dress up as good sheep & ONLY have the intention of manipulating, pressuring & rugging unsuspecting investors. My passion is to advise & protect investors to the best of my knowledge & belief & to teach self custody. On my own Bitcoin & Crypto journey I have been victim of scams, rugs puls & have paid expensive apprentice money (Lehrgeld) 😤😡🤬😭

I want to help & educate people & enlighten them from my own personal mistakes, so that they do not fall into the same trap. Teach them to be wise as snakes, & yet free from deceit like doves.

The greatest satisfaction for me comes when we (my customers & I) can not only identify the scam but in some lucky cases we can scam the scammer & get the full or partial money back from those scumbags (beating scammers @ their own game). Scammers are humans & we can use the insatiable greedy & sometimes stupidity of those sharks agains them (BIG FAN of Scammer Payback on YT). For safety reasons, scamming the scammer is not always possible, when the customer has done a KYC (copy of ID/passport, proof of address, copy of salary statement, copy of tax certificate, employment contract, etc.) with those fraudsters. The security of the customers is always a top priority.

It can be very difficult & a hard pill to swallow for the customer to accept that he/she/it has been scammed & their hard earned money invested is gone. Shameful feelings, depression & even suicidal thoughts are on the agenda but NEVER the solution.

Helpful professionals & organisations - Switzerland Suicide Hotlines:

La Main Tendue
Secretariat central
Zahringerstrasse 53
CP 835 - 3000 BERNE 9
Hotline: 143
Website: 143.ch
E-mail Helpline: verband@tel-143.ch

PARSPAS
CP 2287 - 1950 Sion 2
Contact by: - Phone 
Hotline: +41 (0) 27 321 21 21
Website: parspas.ch
24 Hour service

Some ways that you can spot red flags 🚩 & self identify those di*ksuckers, as*holes, motherfu*king cheaters/swindlers/sharks/dodgers/fraudsters:

A so-called “investment manager” contacts you out of the blue. They promise to grow your money — but only if you buy cryptocurrency & transfer it into their online account. The investment website they steer you to looks real, but it’s really fake, & so are their promises. If you log in to your “investment account,” you won’t be able to withdraw your money at all, or only if you pay high fees.

A scammer pretends to be a celebrity who can multiply any cryptocurrency you send them. But celebrities aren’t contacting you through social media. It’s a scammer. & if you click on an unexpected link they send or send cryptocurrency to a so-called celebrity’s QR code, that money will go straight to a scammers & it’ll be gone.

An online “love interest” wants you to send money or cryptocurrency to help you invest. That’s a scam. As soon as someone you meet on a dating site or app asks you for money, or offers you investment advice, know this: that’s a scammer. The advice & offers to help you invest in cryptocurrency are nothing but scams. If you send them crypto, or money of any kind, it’ll be gone, & you typically won’t get it back.

Scammers guarantee that you’ll make money or promise big payouts with guaranteed returns. Nobody can make those guarantees. Much less in a short time. & there’s nothing “low risk” about cryptocurrency investments. So: if a company or person promises you’ll make a profit, that’s a scam. Even if there’s a celebrity endorsement or testimonials from happy investors. Those are easily faked.

Scammers promise free money. They’ll promise free cash or cryptocurrency, but free money promises are always fake.

Scammers make big claims without details or explanations. No matter what the investment, find out how it works & ask questions about where your money is going. Honest investment managers or advisors want to share that information & will back it up with details.

Scammers impersonate well-known companies. These come in waves, & scammers might say they’re from Amazon, Microsoft, FedEx, your bank, or many others. They’ll text, call, email, or send messages on social media — or maybe put a pop-up alert on your computer. They might say there’s fraud on your account, or your money is at risk — & to fix it, you need to buy crypto & send it to them. But that’s a scam. If you click the link in any message, answer the call, or call back the number on the pop-up, you’ll be connected to a scammer.

Scammers impersonate new or established businesses offering fraudulent crypto coins or tokens. They’ll say the company is entering the crypto world by issuing their own coin or token. They might create social media ads, news articles or a slick website to back it all up & trick people into buying. But these crypto coins & tokens are a scam that ends up stealing money from the people who buy them. Research online to find out whether a company has issued a coin or token. It will be widely reported in established media if it is true. 

Scammers impersonate government agencies, law enforcement, or utility companies. They might say there’s a legal problem, that you owe money, or your accounts or benefits are frozen as part of an investigation. They tell you to solve the problem or protect your money by buying cryptocurrency. They might say to send it to a wallet address they give you — for “safe keeping.” Some scammers even stay on the phone with you as they direct you to a cryptocurrency ATM & give step-by-step instruction on how to insert money & convert it to cryptocurrency. They’ll direct you to send the crypto by scanning a QR code they give you, which directs the payment right into their digital wallet — & then it’s gone.

Scammers list fake jobs on job sites. They might even send unsolicited job offers related to crypto like jobs helping recruit investors, selling or mining cryptocurrency, or helping convert cash to crypto. But these so-called “jobs” only start if you pay a fee in cryptocurrency. Which is always a scam, every time. As your first task in your “job,” these scammers send you a check to deposit into your bank account. (That check will turn out to be fake.) They’ll tell you to withdraw some of that money, buy cryptocurrency for a made-up “client,” & send it to a crypto account they give you. But if you do, the money will be gone, & you’ll be on the hook to repay that money to your bank.

Scammers will allege they are unable to withdraw or remit funds, & request the assistance of the victim in return for a share of the funds. This scam can take several forms. For instance, the scammer may request help with withdrawal of actual funds (USDC/USDT tokens, for example) in a wallet controlled by the scammer, who will even give the victim access to the wallet, claiming they are having difficulties withdrawing. The wallet credentials will usually be accurate, but the withdrawal will not be possible due to a lack of funds for gas fees (e.g., ETH on Ethereum, etc.). The unwitting victim will then send crypto to the wallet hoping to extract the funds from it. Little do they know that the scammer has employed a bot that monitors the wallet, which withdraws any funds transferred to it faster than any person could manually. Alternatively, they may allege being in a crypto-hostile country & request help with buying crypto on behalf of the person in return for cash. In this scenario, the victim buys the crypto & sends it, only to have the remittance they received clawed back (as it was sent using fraudulent cards/accounts) or never having received one, to begin with.

If it feels wrong, think twice

All cryptocurrency investment carries risk -- & the volatility means there's the chance of big losses as well as high rewards. That, however, doesn't mean it's a good idea to take unnecessary risks. When you hear stories of people who've made thousands or even millions of dollars by buying Bitcoin or Dogecoin before the prices exploded, it's tempting to buy small amounts of new coins in the hope they might see similar returns. The trouble is that for all the people who made millions, there are just as many (if not more) who lost all their money. Rather than gambling on a new coin that triggers lots of red flags, why not seek out the serious blockchain projects that are more likely to succeed instead? Both involve risk, but the latter is much more likely to give you rewards in the long run.

Very important Swiss Contact Points/Hotlines:

Zürich City Security Department