[SCAM WARNING] TheTopSpotOnline Plagiarized Whitepaper

[FatFork]

What happened: TheTopSpotOnline is yet another fake project with completely plagiarized whitepaper from multiple sources.

Scammer Profile: TheTopSpotOnline
Flag Type 1 (support/oppose): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=3150

ANN Thread: [ANN] TheTopSpotOnline - Music NFT Marketplaces [archived]
Other Threads: Bounty Campaign (bounty manager: qqwx)

Website: https://www.thetopspotonline.com/
[archived]

Whitepaper: https://www.thetopspotonline.com/ico/THETOPSPOTONLINE%20WHITEPAPER.pdf
[archived]


Most of the content in the whitepaper is plagiarized from multiple sources, for example:


Source: https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/blockchain-tutorial/what-is-nft


Source: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/cryptocurrency


Source: https://zerion.io/blog/crypto-coins-vs-tokens-the-difference-explained/


Source: https://www.antiersolutions.com/things-to-know-about-nft-marketplace-for-music/


Source: https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/the-evolving-landscape-of-nft-marketplaces

Some other sources were also used:
https://littleninjaznfts.gitbook.io/little-ninjaz-nft-project/little-ninjaz-nfts-white-paper
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/initial-coin-offerings-icos-how-profit-from-them-paul-oliver#

[1714196135]

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[1714196135]

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[robelneo]

So I'll warn them that the alibi is that they hire a freelancer to create a whitepaper for them and they did not know that this freelancer just copied other project's whitepaper, because this is the most common alibis by these clone projects will not work anymore it's been used by hundreds of scam projects that got busted for plagiarism.
But still let's see if they have a better alibi, something that we have not read.

[GxSTxV]

Great catch! Unfortunately we come across hundreds new projects daily that attempt to raise funds from investors by manipulating their real goals, often through presale events or NFT sales then disappearing once they get what they wanted. It is crucial to check every detail carefully before investing any money in these ICO projects.

So I'll warn them that the alibi is that they hire a freelancer to create a whitepaper for them and they did not know that this freelancer just copied other project's whitepaper, because this is the most common alibis by these clone projects will not work anymore it's been used by hundreds of scam projects that got busted for plagiarism.
But still let's see if they have a better alibi, something that we have not read.

Is it wise to hire a freelancer for your project? After all it means entrusting someone else with the responsibility of executing another person's ideas and plans means only one thing which is a clear scam attempt . The most crucial aspects of any project are the whitepaper and roadmap, which determine whether or not investors will put their money in it. Therefore it is the worst excuse one can give for hiring a freelancer or that a teammate messed up as you have mentioned.

[ScamViruS]

Great catch! Unfortunately we come across hundreds new projects daily that attempt to raise funds from investors by manipulating their real goals, often through presale events or NFT sales then disappearing once they get what they wanted. It is crucial to check every detail carefully before investing any money in these ICO projects.

With the market trending positive, the number of such projects coming to market has increased. Since many investors are now in the market, such projects are quickly created and marketed to crypto investors by explaining various things to them.
But the reality is that the project team does not have the ability to write an original white paper. Therefore, the purpose of creating such a project is to quickly launch it in the market to attract investors.

[robelneo]

So I'll warn them that the alibi is that they hire a freelancer to create a whitepaper for them and they did not know that this freelancer just copied other project's whitepaper, because this is the most common alibis by these clone projects will not work anymore it's been used by hundreds of scam projects that got busted for plagiarism.
But still let's see if they have a better alibi, something that we have not read.

Is it wise to hire a freelancer for your their project? After all it means entrusting someone else with the responsibility of executing another person's ideas and plans means only one thing which is a clear scam attempt . The most crucial aspects of any project are the whitepaper and roadmap, which determine whether or not investors will put their money in it. Therefore it is the worst excuse one can give for hiring a freelancer or that a teammate messed up as you have mentioned.

This is the most common alibi and I just make it clear if ever they are going to post something like this, developers are actually hiring freelancers to do this job and are being offered on freelance sites like Fiverr, you give them the general idea of what the project and platform will be and they approve it once the work is done, but unfortunately these past developers are not good in doing their research if the work of the freelancer is a plagiarized one.

On this one, I don't think they can come out with a better alibi, these bounty hunters should stop doing tasks for this scam project.

[virasog]

This is the most common alibi and I just make it clear if ever they are going to post something like this, developers are actually hiring freelancers to do this job and are being offered on freelance sites like Fiverr, you give them the general idea of what the project and platform will be and they approve it once the work is done, but unfortunately these past developers are not good in doing their research if the work of the freelancer is a plagiarized one.

On this one, I don't think they can come out with a better alibi, these bounty hunters should stop doing tasks for this scam project.

If they can't produce their own white paper, you can understand how lazy are they whom can't even write or produce their own white paper. I feel sorry for the people who invest in such projects without any due diligence.

With the market trending positive, the number of such projects coming to market has increased. Since many investors are now in the market, such projects are quickly created and marketed to crypto investors by explaining various things to them.
But the reality is that the project team does not have the ability to write an original white paper. Therefore, the purpose of creating such a project is to quickly launch it in the market to attract investors.

Why do we see so new scam projects popping up every day ? This is because most of the crypto investors are so dumb that they will not even care to investigate about the project.    Scammers know this very well and they keep on coming up with new projects every now and then, to get people's hard earn money from this immature market.

[holydarkness]

Their team details worried me a bit, I can only confirm one from the four of them. I can't find anything about Mcclinton or Jenkins, Bishop is somewhat provable that he's a real person, but he doesn't mention the company on his profile. Only Jones does.

[albon]

Good catch; thanks for taking the time to expose this scam project and alert the community.

And this is what scam projects do. They start their scam career by buying a domain for a few dollars, then writing a plagiarized whitepaper, then creating an ANN topic about their project, and hiring a bounty manager to promote their project by deceiving innocent bounty hunters who work for weeks, and in the end, the bounty hunters don't get anything, and even if they get, they will receive worthless coins that they can't exchange.

I have supported the flag, and I hope you continue your great work 

[yhiaali3]

Great effort, thank you.
Unfortunately a lot of this nonsense has gone around lately, these are really stupid scammers if they don't even know how to write a white paper!!! How can they deceive users!!!

This is obvious stupidity, at least if they want to deceive people, they should write the white paper for the project in a professional way that attracts users!!! But they steal the white paper from other projects, this is the biggest stupidity in deception.!!!

[smyslov]

Great effort, thank you.
Unfortunately, a lot of this nonsense has gone around lately, these are really stupid scammers if they don't even know how to write a white paper!!! How can they deceive users!!!

The whitepaper is the hardest part because it's the conceptualization of the project or platform it embodies the whole idea, how t work, and what it tries to resolve, these scammers really don't have anything because they have nothing so they have to copy-paste or hire people to come out with the idea, so to bust scam ICO we just have to look for their whitepaper

This is obvious stupidity, at least if they want to deceive people, they should write the white paper for the project in a professional way that attracts users!!! But they steal the white paper from other projects, this is the biggest stupidity in deception.!!!

They don't know this thing, they don't even know that there is a scam section here because they don't research, only  a real project with a dedicated team can come out with a real and original whitepaper.

[holydarkness]

[...] so to bust scam ICO we just have to look for their whitepaper

[...]

I beg to differ on this part of statement. Whitepaper, plagiarized, is indeed a major determining factor, but it is not the only factor that we just have to look at it to determine. In a sense that just because a project's whitepaper is free from plagiarism it doesn't instantly translates as the project is legit. I've meet many project with no traces of plagiarism but the project is still questionable. For instance, there was this project that propose to pool funds to buy company shares --in India, if I have to be specific-- from an "experienced" trader in US. Their whitepaper is well written, the profile matched my background check, but upon further investigation, that CEO doesn't even have an in-depth knowledge of regulations in India --that's readily available on simple internet search-- that made his proposal rather obsolete. They're never to be seen and heard on this forum anymore after I exposed this fact.

[yhiaali3]

They don't know this thing, they don't even know that there is a scam section here because they don't research, only  a real project with a dedicated team can come out with a real and original whitepaper.

Yes, I agree with you on this point. Not only do they not search, unfortunately some novice users do not search, so they fall victim to these stupid fraudulent projects. If these victims made a little effort and searched as forum members do, especially those who write in this section, they would have discovered the fraud immediately.

On this occasion, I would like to pay tribute to the diligent members who write in the fraud section of the forum and expose these fraudulent projects. They deserve every thanks for their efforts.

[yhiaali3]

They don't know this thing, they don't even know that there is a scam section here because they don't research, only  a real project with a dedicated team can come out with a real and original whitepaper.

Yes, I agree with you on this point. Not only do they not search, unfortunately some novice users do not search, so they fall victim to these stupid fraudulent projects. If these victims made a little effort and searched as forum members do, especially those who write in this section, they would have discovered the fraud immediately.

On this occasion, I would like to pay tribute to the diligent members who write in the fraud section of the forum and expose these fraudulent projects. They deserve every thanks for their efforts.

[coin-investor]

Doing crowdfunding nowadays is very hard, developers need to gain the trust of investors, and they need to make an almost perfect and competitive platform for a project, and to get caught plagiarising their whitepaper can be considered a grave mistake, I have seen developers defending their whitepaper from coincidence to the writer's fault, but developers should be meticulous in details because so many have eyes on every detail on every project that asks for crowdfunding.
Investors learned their lessons from the past ICOs and they want and ask for a high standard for these ICOs.

[ScamViruS]

With the market trending positive, the number of such projects coming to market has increased. Since many investors are now in the market, such projects are quickly created and marketed to crypto investors by explaining various things to them.
But the reality is that the project team does not have the ability to write an original white paper. Therefore, the purpose of creating such a project is to quickly launch it in the market to attract investors.

Why do we see so new scam projects popping up every day ? This is because most of the crypto investors are so dumb that they will not even care to investigate about the project.    Scammers know this very well and they keep on coming up with new projects every now and then, to get people's hard earn money from this immature market.

Because there are many investors in the crypto market who invest in such projects, because of their limited knowledge about such scams, they do not understand the purpose of such projects, which results in them being cheated after investing. The project team that cannot create a unique content, steal the content of other projects and launch their project in the market, then it is not right to expect anything better from them. So until crypto investors become aware of such scams, such projects will continue to hit the market.

[robelneo]

A good and capable developer who has an extensive background on the platform he is developing or promises to develop, can and will provide a good and unique whitepaper, he will not let a freelancer do this for him even give him the idea of what to write, why would he what guarantees that the freelancer where he gave the idea will not post in other platforms first before giving the finished whitepaper to the developer who hire him.
So if the developer told us that it's the fault of the writer he hire, this is a fake developer, it's not really the composition and configuration of the words but the idea that the reader can easily understand and only a real developer can do this.

[TheTopSpotOnline]

Hello, not a scam not even slightly actual scam is person claiming its a scam. Something a person has been working exceptionally hard on for the past 2 years and someone points to wording in a whitepaper as his only proof.  It's good to get rid of people trying to scam people but you do your cause a disservice when you are not thorough.

Most developers aren't ICO whitepaper writers. Most developers are just that developers so it would make sense to hire someone that writes whitepapers to write it. Because the developer is pending time writing code. But I understand check me out. I am real. TheTopSpotOnline is very real and I look forward to showing everyone my work.

Do a little better research.

email: bpjones@thetopspotonline.com
linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-p-jones/

https://www.facebook.com/bpjones101


 

[holydarkness]

Hello, not a scam not even slightly actual scam is person claiming its a scam. Something a person has been working exceptionally hard on for the past 2 years and someone points to wording in a whitepaper as his only proof.  It's good to get rid of people trying to scam people but you do your cause a disservice when you are not thorough.

Most developers aren't ICO whitepaper writers. Most developers are just that developers so it would make sense to hire someone that writes whitepapers to write it. Because the developer is pending time writing code. But I understand check me out. I am real. TheTopSpotOnline is very real and I look forward to showing everyone my work.

Do a little better research.

email: bpjones@thetopspotonline.com
linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-p-jones/

https://www.facebook.com/bpjones101


 

First of all, thank you for --finally-- coming here. For that part of excuse, hiring a freelancer, kindly refer to and answer robelneo's post here.

As for your request to do a better research, I've actually did a slightly further research, as written here, which more or less matched the due diligence, where only Jones can be verified as an employee of the platform, and here, only B.P. Jones who "replied", asking people to verify through him. May I know the reason why the other three didn't mention TopSpotOnline on their curriculum vitae, or you didn't list the other three people's emails here so we can get a wider variety to verify?

[FatFork]

Hello, not a scam not even slightly actual scam is person claiming its a scam. Something a person has been working exceptionally hard on for the past 2 years and someone points to wording in a whitepaper as his only proof.  It's good to get rid of people trying to scam people but you do your cause a disservice when you are not thorough.

Most developers aren't ICO whitepaper writers. Most developers are just that developers so it would make sense to hire someone that writes whitepapers to write it. Because the developer is pending time writing code. But I understand check me out. I am real. TheTopSpotOnline is very real and I look forward to showing everyone my work.

Do a little better research.

email: bpjones@thetopspotonline.com
linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-p-jones/

https://www.facebook.com/bpjones101

I appreciate your defense of your project, but I believe it is important to consider all the facts before making such bold claims. I'm not a scammer and don't enjoy seeing other people being scammed. In fact, I'm a big proponent of transparency and accountability - so your accusations are unfounded and unprofessional.

The notion that you worked hard on a project for two years does not necessarily mean that it can't be a scam. The whitepaper is a crucial component of any project, and if it contains plagiarized content or misleading information, it raises red flags. While I can understand that not all developers are proficient in writing whitepapers, it is still their responsibility to ensure that the content is accurate and not plagiarized. It's not just about the wording in the whitepaper. It's about the overall quality of the project, and how it stands out from other projects in its niche. It is not uncommon for scammers to hire writers on freelance websites to create their white papers. This means that even if your company hired someone else to write your whitepaper, you still have some responsibility for ensuring that it doesn't steal content, ideas or solutions from other projects. How would you feel if someone stole your work, which took years to complete, and passed it off as their own? Would you consider such a project to be a scam?

As for your request for better research, I can assure you that my research was thorough and accurate. As you can see from the OP, I have meticulously listed out the various sources from which the content was copied verbatim, and have provided a side-by-side comparison to clearly demonstrate my findings. If you feel that my research is flawed, please let me know where and how I should improve it. I will gladly review the content again and make any necessary changes.

[Rikafip]

Most developers aren't ICO whitepaper writers. Most developers are just that developers so it would make sense to hire someone that writes whitepapers to write it. Because the developer is pending time writing code. But I understand check me out. I am real.

That's a standrad excuse that we heard every time someone cought altcoin project plagiarizing whitepaper or having stock image photos. Its always someone elses fault and not your own. But even if you indeed hired someone to write the whitepaper, its your responsibility to see if everything is legit.

By the way, I see on your website that you signed yourself under few articles. So how come are you capable of writing articles yet you had to hire someone to write whitepaper for you? Or you also didn't write those articles and someone else did it for you?