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What are the things in common in Binary Option Trading and Cryptocurrency ?

For those who used to invest in Binary Option in the last few years, and badly burnt or cheated by the various Binary Option Platforms, they would know lately, a lot of people having calling them and claiming that they money lost had been recovered.

The callers would claim they managed to recover their money and the money is now sitting pretty in one Cryptocurrency platform.

And to get access to the money, one needs to have a cryptocurrency account or wallet in order to execute the refund.

Binary Option

Few years ago, there were a lot of binary option trading platforms online.

There were quite a lot of people got themselves in this online Binary Option platform.

One of the common reason was they were not able to withdraw their money from the platform.

I believe a lot of people had lost money in Binary Option, either being cheated, or the trading platform just no longer there.

Scammers who operate the platform happily took the money and enjoy themselves.

Recovery Step

After the Binary Option scam, then came the recovery scam.

Someone claimed they were working for some expert companies specializing in debt recovery.

The callers who said they could help to recover the money as they had the means and resources.

What are the tricks of these debts' recovery companies?

The caller claimed they could help to recover the money lost in Binary Option trading,

However they listed out the following steps:

1. Furnish the proof of money transfer for Binary Option.

2. Provide evidence of identity of the investors.

3. They asked you to pay USD $1,000 being the fees for them to do the recovery.

4. Time frame would be within one month they could fully recover the amounts.

5. The fees charged would be 5% of the amount recovered minus the $1,000 upfront whichever is higher.

There are some doubt of what they were trying to tell you.

They claimed it was the company policy that they needed to collect some fees for doing the recovery.

I told them for normal recovery, the debt collector would do it base on success rate, and deduct the cost from the amount recovered, so there was no reason why an upfront payment need to be made.
After another year, now the new scamming plan surfaced.

What are the new methods scammers have?

lately I came across the newest method of the scammers who supposedly made their money already in Binary Option scam

1. Someone would call you over the phone.

2. The phone number seemed to be the local number even with the prefix of +65 assuming you are in Singapore.

3. Caller would tell you they had managed to recovery the money you lost in the Binary Option.

4. He would then inform you that he would be sending one email to you.

5. Ask you to read the email and click on the link in the email.

6. Then he said he would guide you over the phone on how to recover the money

7. So you click on the link and you notice a platform from one called https://altcrypt.cc/my-account/

8. In that website, you could see the amount equivalent in USD for EURO and some in Crypto currency

9. Caller then tried to explain that the money they recovered were in crypto currency

10. He further explained that the scammer after taking your money in the Binary Option, went to invest in cryptocurrency, that is the reason why the statement showed majority of the money was in cryptocurrency

11. After the explanation, then he said need to convert the cryptocurrency to the USD so that you would be able to receive your money.

12. In order to do so, one needed to pay USD $100 for the conversion.

13. When questioned why could not they just deduct whatever cost incurred from the money recovered and remit the balance.

14. He explained that he was from a company called infinityplus which is responsible to contact all the victims of the Binary Option.

15 infinityplus has nothing to do with that platform, they only charged 5% on the amount recovered.

16. Thus, the USD $100 was more like an administration fee.

17. Infinityplus has nothing to with the collection of the conversion fees.

What do we need to do upon hearing all these?

it seemed strange that a company which owned the website https://altcrypt.cc/my-account/ did the recovery without prior checking with you.

And they were so nice that they went all the ways to recover the money and now wanted to give you the money back.

I always believe in one saying -- there is no such thing as a free lunch. And another saying - too good to be true.

My suspicious was arisen because there were so many gaps from the conversation and unanswered questions which I posted to the caller.

Findings

My findings from internet search about the two websites, i.e. altcrypt and infinityplus showed the followings:

1. https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoScamBlacklist/comments/kpxguc/altcryptcc_scam/

2. https://uiliu.com/altcrypt-cc

3. https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoScamBlacklist/comments/kwj1o1/infinityplus/

judging from the comments in the two websites above, it is obvious that this is another scam the scammers started.

It seems that now they may want to have a third bite of the cherry after the Binary Option scam, the Recovery scam and now the Recovered Scam.

Leave a comment

Lastly if you have any comments and feedback, do put in your comments and feedback in the comment section below.

Cryptocurrency, most of you are familiar with this term especially those who were born in the 80s onward.

What is Cryptocurrency?

According to Investopedia.com and I quote:

Quote

"

What Is Cryptocurrency?

A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend.

Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on block chain technology—a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers.

A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that

• they are generally not issued by any central authority,
• rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation."

unquote.

There are so many exchange platforms offering trading of cryptocurrencies.

Hence for someone who just start to get into the game, which platform do you want to use?

Today I am going to talk about one such platform which I had an experience to encounter in the last few weeks.

The name of the platform is :

1.Laptop access - https://www.realbtcex.site/wap

2. Mobile access - https://www.realbtcex.site/app.html

For the mobile version, I tried using my mobile to access, however, I failed to do so, reason being my anti virus in the phone killed the access .

My anti virus software gave me the notice - THE SITE YOU WANTED TO ACCESS MAY HARM YOUR PHONE AND IT WAS BLOCKED.

What about the web version of the platform?

Some one strongly encouraged me to sign up for this cryptocurrency exchange platform.

The person even volunteered to teach me and guide me in trading cryptocurrency using platform.

She claimed it was the way forward to make few hundred dollars per night depending on how many trades one take.

So after I told her that I could not use the mobile version, she gave me the web based version.

To enable me to access the website, I needed to disable a bit of my anti virus so that I could have a peek at the website.

When the website was on screen, it looked very plain and did not give an impression it was a trading platform, albeit a cryptocurrency one.

This is how the dashboard look like

Now have a look at the wording of ABOUT US

This is extracted from the website:

"About

RealBTC was established in March 2019 and is headquartered in Singapore.

We have established global operation centers in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Switzerland. The core team comes from world-renowned financial companies and Internet technology companies.

It has obtained investment from well-known block chain funds such as JRR capital, NEO, and ONT.

The company also obtained multinational digital currency operating licenses such as MSB in the United States and VQF in Switzerland.

It is currently operating in compliance worldwide.

RealBTC will build a new generation of crypto-asset derivatives exchange, and is committed to providing a trading platform for crypto-assets with continuous transactions and data-free data, making cryptocurrency trading simpler, stable, and credible!

Our vision is to become the world's first fully functional, efficient, non-custodial trading platform, providing the highest transparency in any case.

RealBTC hopes to become the first real and democratic trading platform.

We are ready to gradually fix the functions on the platform to the block chain.

In 2021 let the platform have the ability to automate contract structure, trading and clearing."

Some Comments about the website

The website does not provide information who are the founders and people involved in running the exchange.

I had a hard time in finding where to register. The icons were actually right at the bottom of the site and need to enlarge to see the icons.

Conditions not filled still can register

In the website when one goes through the registration, there are some pages required certain information, and it was indicated the information was compulsory.

However, I noticed when I did not provide the information and clicked through to go to the next step, I was able to do so.

What does this tell you about the platform?

Do we as an investor still want to go ahead to put in Capital to this platform and do the trading?

Funding of the account

When I contacted the customer service and asked him how I could fund the account.

The Customer Service gave me a bank account number but it was under the name of an individual and not the platform name.

I asked the customer service why was it in the individual name and not in the name of the platform?

The customer service claimed they were just the custodian of the cryptocurrency and not responsible for the transaction between the seller and the buyer.

Cancellation of Account.

There is no cancellation of the account available.

I decided to get in touch with the customer service to find out.

The customer service told me  as long as I did not login to the platform for 180 days, the account would be canceled.

However if you insisted to cancel it immediately, the customer service said I needed to deposit USD $4,000 and after they have verified the capital and withdraw the money, then the account is deemed canceled.

Does it sound suspicious here?

I definitely think so, I strongly believe once I deposited the USD $ 4,000. The money would be gone for good.

After going through all these from opening account and the constant pressure from the person who recommended this site to me.

What made my doubt about this site was the eagerness and impatient of the person to get me to do the funding,

What are the main signals indicating this is a scam?

• The person who introduced me to the platform doing the trading at night,
• But she kept telling that afternoon had one big price movement,
• therefore must do the funding fast in order to cash in on the trade opportunity.

I checked with one of my source in US who was the cryptocurrency analyst, and I sent the link of the website to them for verification.

The results came back within minutes .

The analyst informed me someone had actually lost USD $100,000 in this platform and not able to get the money back.

Some other findings.

The platform did not even have the following:

"WARNING:
Never make payments to any external wallet addresses or account details provided by anyone (trader, manager, staff, etc).

Our Staff will NEVER ask you to send money to any wallet address, email, Western Union, Skrill or Bank account DIFFERENT from those provided on our website.

Customers who do so, do so at their own risk.

Always write to our support/email to confirm any of such claims."

Conclusion

If you really want to trade in cryptocurrency, it is better we do our own due diligence and find out which platform can be used.

it is better we make sure the platform is properly regulated by relevant authorities.

If you have any comments and feedback, do feel free to put your comments and feedback in the comments section below.  I will be happy to answer your comments.

What Is Investment?

Investment, a word which make a lot of people think, this is how to have more money, and is the way to have more money and gain some income.

When Did Scammers Strike?

However, a lot of people have not been successful in their investment, especially during depressing environment, be it business, economic, health whatever.

Consequently a lot of people, in their desperation, try all sorts of investment methods, and ways just try to make money or recoup whatever is lost.

And this is the time, crooks and scammers thrive on human greed, and take full advantage of the vulnerability of human, as a result of which, this further make the investors lost more instead of recouping their losses.

According to Federal Trade Commission in its report stated that in 2020, they received more than 2.2 million reports about fraud, and about $3.3 billion was lost, you can read more about this in here.

Why People Fell To Scammers?

The problem is a lot of people think it will not happen to us, just like a lot of people think, they will not be infected with COVID-19 virus, even though they do not take the basic precaution, like wearing masks or wash hands often. If we have this assumption, and lay down our guard, or get greedy with some money making opportunity, we may regret our action later.

The crooks and scammers are much more sophisticated, with their intelligence, just wonder why don't they put their skills to good use, maybe they find it easier to scam, and con people, so they can make a lot of money.

So what are the usual or the latest tricks these scammers employed?

1. Too good to be true investment platform

A lot of times, some platforms claim they can generate return on investment way above the norm.

Some investors tend to believe this lucrative returns, and decide to invest, only to find out later it is just another Ponzi Scheme in operation.

Most of the time, investors do not bother to carry out some due diligence and find out more about the platform before investing.

2. You are approached to invest in certain investment plan.

When someone approach you and tell you, that he has a fantastic investment scheme, whereby, if you invest, you are able to make a lot of money, this is actually a red flag for you.

You should raise doubt about this too good to be true investment plan, sadly, a lot of people decide not to take more action to find out more about the scheme.

3. Use of the latest technology

Scammer usually have the following in their website:

• Videos about their products or investment plan.
• Testimonies in video presentation from supposedly successful investors who reap huge and handsome returns.

Upon seeing the videos, some people tend to believe the investment plan is genuine.

They will think this investment product can be trusted, unaware the crooks have created the videos just to impress people.

If one bother to check and do more research, they will find out similar videos have been shown in other investment plan too.

4, The Truth Secret of the Successful Investment Plan

If a marketer wants you to invest in the product he is promoting, and claimed that his method and technology is more advance and easier to make profit,.

What will you do?

• Do you believe in him and jump in and give him money to invest for you?
• Did you ask him what his secret is?
• How is his method successful?
• Whether he can show some proof to substantiate his claim?

If he refuses to show you some concrete evidence, that by using his method or technology, you can reap handsome profit in investment, you need to raise red flag, and be alarm of possible fraud and scam

5. The Most Vulnerable Group

Which is the most vulnerable group for investment fraud?

The group which is more prone to financial fraud, is the retiree group with huge sum of money, as they tend to make payment for one lump sum distribution.

We need to educate those retirees:

• Not to hand over their money to someone,
• Wary of some one who claim can help them to grow their money.

Fraudsters are good at evoking emotion, especially among the older retirees, to hand over their money in dubious decision-making.

6. Is there a thing called Secret Formula in investment?

if someone approach you to invest with him, claiming he has invented a secret formula in investment, and sure make money.

Before you jump into the opportunity, do the following:

• Do ask him to show some hard evidence his secret formula has generated huge profit for him.
• Ask him to show his trading records,
• bank accounts statement showing he has made so much money
• using his so called secret formula.

If he fails to do so, or is not willing to do so.

This is the sign  you should just walk away from him.

7. Awareness of possible fraud.

The moment we accept the fact that we all are at risk to fraud, be financial, or otherwise, then we can safely say, we are at least at a certain level of awareness.

Who are the vulnerable group?

• People who believe they are not vulnerable to frauds, and
• these are the people who most likely fall into the trap,
• After all they are not going to take necessary steps to protect themselves,
• they are not aware and alert of fraud.

8. When Do Fraud Happen?

Fraud cases happen now and then.

It is more severe and rampant during crisis or disasters.

For example, the current COVID-19 Pandemic which has affected people from all walks of life, with people losing jobs,  businesses badly affected and forced to close.

When do fraudsters strike?

• When people in general are eager to generate income,
• In order to ease the financial strain.

9. Have some knowledge especially financial knowledge to be aware of fraud

Nothing beat having the knowledge, and able to identify possible fraud.

As mentioned by one expert, she said “Prior knowledge about fraud, even generally, is particularly helpful in avoiding victimization,” .

You can learn more about what she said in HERE. 

If you want to learn more about detection of investment fraud, click HERE

If you have any comments and feedback, do give your opinion in the comments below.