Post by Scamaranga on Jun 4, 2021 14:03:35 GMT
Last week, my friend George called me. He is a 3d artist, produces short 3d clips of different nature and basically has fun with his work and lands some freelance jobs every now and then.
He was excited about a proposal he received through a popular (in his sector) website where he uploads some of his work, sort of an online gallery that also gets him some jobs occasionally. One rep/headhunter of a huge crypto company - the company does exist and is indeed big - contacted him because they noticed his outstanding work and wanted to do business with him.
The proposal was heavy on the technical side, involving Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFTs), crypto currency, and minting hundreds or thousands of copies of one of his works (which would be selected among 5 candidates he would propose), and showing them off in places to sell them. My friend isn't familiar at all with crypto or this kind of stuff - neither am I - but the main idea would be he'd be getting (pricey) royalties for every sale/reproduction of his work, and they'd only keep a 20% share of all that.
Sounds great doesn't it? Fortunately next day George grew suspicious and started asking questions. They provided him a (legit) LinkedIn profile from a high-up dude there and scheduled a call for next Monday with said directive. The call was made through Telegram. It was a voice-only call and George could very easily notice the guy on the other side of the line definitely wasn't a native English speaker.
The conversation not only didn't clear his questions up, but made more doubts evident. They were answered in a long, unpunctuated and messy email. Not only this, but there was also a €200 fee he'd have to satisfy in advance (don't know what for). All this was starting to look very fishy to him so he told the rep he didn't trust the guy he talked to on the phone. The rep answered some of his questions and suspicions with very familiar sentences like
Then George called me a second time, and he was stressed. The scammer was pressing him hard to get the money soon. The moment he told me they were asking for money I told him to stop contact inmediately and forward me everything.
The name of the rep obviosuly didn't exist anywhere, and his profile pic on that site was nowhere to be found on the internet either. All a reverse image search engine could find was a postimg.cc upload from early this year. The emails they sent were from a <company_name>.exchange domain, and the official domain is obviosuly different. I checked the domain's WHOIS info, couldn't see much (almost everything was "REDACTED FOR PRIVACY"), but I could see it was registered just a couple of months ago.
I told George what he already knew and he understood he should drop contact immediately. The "high-up person" persona already blocked him on Telegram, he sent a few angry messages annoyed at the idea they would have been trying to scam him.
It was educating and unsettling at the same time to see his chats - those of both my friend a real potential victim - and the emotional ups and downs he went through with the scammer in such a brief time. I can't forget how stressed and in desperate need of truth he was when he called the second time. It's shocking how scammer psychological manipulation can affect someone in such a brief time. I can't imagine what real victims of nastier scams such as romance may be going through.
The scammer had complete and absolute control of the situation. He would delay his replies for hours or days, and my friend replied instantly every chat or email he got. One day George doubted him, he'd stay silent for a couple of days then George would ask for forgiveness and try to stay in good terms with him. There was a lot of money to lose in his mind.
I would have never thought these scumbags would be targeting artists and people in such a niche website. It's the first time I hear of this kind of scam.
If anyone wants details of the scammers I can provide them. It's a pity they're not baitable because there is no credible way to contact them from a "clean" profile.
He was excited about a proposal he received through a popular (in his sector) website where he uploads some of his work, sort of an online gallery that also gets him some jobs occasionally. One rep/headhunter of a huge crypto company - the company does exist and is indeed big - contacted him because they noticed his outstanding work and wanted to do business with him.
The proposal was heavy on the technical side, involving Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFTs), crypto currency, and minting hundreds or thousands of copies of one of his works (which would be selected among 5 candidates he would propose), and showing them off in places to sell them. My friend isn't familiar at all with crypto or this kind of stuff - neither am I - but the main idea would be he'd be getting (pricey) royalties for every sale/reproduction of his work, and they'd only keep a 20% share of all that.
Sounds great doesn't it? Fortunately next day George grew suspicious and started asking questions. They provided him a (legit) LinkedIn profile from a high-up dude there and scheduled a call for next Monday with said directive. The call was made through Telegram. It was a voice-only call and George could very easily notice the guy on the other side of the line definitely wasn't a native English speaker.
The conversation not only didn't clear his questions up, but made more doubts evident. They were answered in a long, unpunctuated and messy email. Not only this, but there was also a €200 fee he'd have to satisfy in advance (don't know what for). All this was starting to look very fishy to him so he told the rep he didn't trust the guy he talked to on the phone. The rep answered some of his questions and suspicions with very familiar sentences like
I don’t see anything wrong with the contract George and if you don’t trust them because the person you spoke with had an accent then it’s okay
Just forget about the contract okay
This project is not meant for everybody I just thought you had some great artworks that might me be worth it that’s why I presented the opportunity to you
Then George called me a second time, and he was stressed. The scammer was pressing him hard to get the money soon. The moment he told me they were asking for money I told him to stop contact inmediately and forward me everything.
The name of the rep obviosuly didn't exist anywhere, and his profile pic on that site was nowhere to be found on the internet either. All a reverse image search engine could find was a postimg.cc upload from early this year. The emails they sent were from a <company_name>.exchange domain, and the official domain is obviosuly different. I checked the domain's WHOIS info, couldn't see much (almost everything was "REDACTED FOR PRIVACY"), but I could see it was registered just a couple of months ago.
I told George what he already knew and he understood he should drop contact immediately. The "high-up person" persona already blocked him on Telegram, he sent a few angry messages annoyed at the idea they would have been trying to scam him.
It was educating and unsettling at the same time to see his chats - those of both my friend a real potential victim - and the emotional ups and downs he went through with the scammer in such a brief time. I can't forget how stressed and in desperate need of truth he was when he called the second time. It's shocking how scammer psychological manipulation can affect someone in such a brief time. I can't imagine what real victims of nastier scams such as romance may be going through.
The scammer had complete and absolute control of the situation. He would delay his replies for hours or days, and my friend replied instantly every chat or email he got. One day George doubted him, he'd stay silent for a couple of days then George would ask for forgiveness and try to stay in good terms with him. There was a lot of money to lose in his mind.
I would have never thought these scumbags would be targeting artists and people in such a niche website. It's the first time I hear of this kind of scam.
If anyone wants details of the scammers I can provide them. It's a pity they're not baitable because there is no credible way to contact them from a "clean" profile.
Stay safe!
ETA: Forgot to mention George explained when he knew the truth that he was told about an admission test/exam of some kind. Most likely there would have been an entry fee involved. And of course he would have to take care of insurance later. And then.... blah blah blah. Scumbags.
x5, 
, 
, 
x67, 
x6, 
x11, 
x9, 
x4, 
x2, 
x14, 
x3, 
, 
x4, 
, 
, many 
