Bitcoin Forum

I had actually installed plus token wallet back in May this year after knowing their dividend sharing model and looking at the increase in price. It was giving me a scammy feeling from the beginning so I posted a thread in this forum seeking the advice from the members on 14 May. But surprisingly no one bothered to reply so I dropped the plan of investing their minimum amount, $500. Thank God that I did not invest a dime and uninstalled the app.

Anyway, I think this is a temporary phase in the market. Price is decreasing because of higher supply but that is not going to last forever. I don't think it will be able to create a permanent dent in the market because demand is robust. If you have seen the trend, its very clear that the price is not just falling, it is also increasing to some extent before falling again. So if you stay put at this time and try to score some bitcoins below 10k price, it's going to be beneficial.

But such kind of incidents are actually reminding us the requirement of a strict regulatory policy at international level. Scams are on the rise and without a strict global norm, such incidents will occur again and the scammers will get away it!

Let them, cheap bitcoin for all, this is the chance before the halving bull run...

I guess those coins would be considered dirty? But if they are moving them into exchanges i doubt they care. Wonder why they didn't bother with mixers.

So it was another MLM thing? bring n people and cash out 10x your investment? Heh, so typical.

Did anyone hear about the PlusToken scam? 10 million investors scammed of $3 billion seems like a massive number! Ciphertrace mentioned in their recent report that the PlusTooken scheme was the largest single incidnet of loss in 2019.

The image in this article shows the movement of money from addresses which is pretty crazy. Movements of 50-100 BTC batches appear to move into exchanges.

This is so disappointing imo another scheme and a big one at that

https://cointelegraph.com/news/3b-ponzi-scheme-is-now-allegedly-dumping-bitcoin-by-the-hundreds

I went and read CipherTrace's report to see if I could find more on this story.

This is what I found

2019 the Year of the Exit Scam

Massive PlusToken Wallet Ponzi Scheme Impacts 2.4 Million Users

US$2.9 billion worth of deposits appear to have been lost when Chinese police broke up an alleged Ponzi scheme involving the purportedly South Korea-based crypto wallet and exchange, PlusToken. It is unknown how many people were affected, but PlusToken claimed to have between 2.4 and 3 million users/investors. CipherTrace has not definitively confirmed this apparent fraud or exit scam. The details of who was behind PlusToken and where its custodial funds went are currently shrouded in a mystery involving Chinese nationals, Chinese police, the government of Vanuatu, and the two supposed co-founders—a Russian known only as “Leo” and South Korean who uses the name “Kim Jung Un.” If confirmed, it would be the largest such loss ever, dwarfing even the US$600 million exit scam pulled off last year in Vietnam (See CipherTrace Q3 2018 Cryptocurrency AML Report).

The wallet required users to download an app through which they could deposit crypto and also invest in PlusToken (PLUS). The company claimed the PlusToken coin, which is based on the Ethereum blockchain was developed by the core team of a major technology company. The wallet reportedly held Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, XRP, DOGE coin, Dash coin, and PLUS coin (the native cryptocurrency of Plus Token). Users accessed the wallet through a mobile app and could trade online at the PlusToken exchange website, pstoex.com. Both were not functioning at the time of this report. However, a copy of the whitepaper is still on LinkedIn
https://www.slideshare.net/ArnoBalzer/white-paper-plus-token.

A Crypto High Yield Investment Product Popular in Asia
PlusToken appears to have been a popular in Japan, South Korea and China, and the company claimed it would have 10 million users by July 2019. Typical of a HYIP (High Yield Investment Product), the astounding user growth (if they truly had some 3 million users) stemmed from advertising huge returns. Specifically, PlusToken and its affiliates claimed that even in weak crypto market by using arbitrage among various cryptocurrencies (enabled by a bot called AI-Dog) and cloud crypto mining they could deliver wallet holders an ROI of between 8 and 16 percent each month, which was paid out in PLUS. Users were required to deposit a minimum of US$500 worth of crypto assets to participate.

PlusToken members could also make money by bringing new users into a multi-level marketing program typical of a pyramid scheme. In fact, new users could only join by through invitation from an existing PlusToken holder. However, it appeared there was no verifiable source of business revenue other than proceeds from new membership.

Meeting with Prince Charles Lends Credibility
All of this led to multiple warnings in the crypto community that PlusToken was a scam. The company’s founder publically dismissed those reports. However, after a company press release, replete with photos, claimed that on February, 2019 Leo had met with England’s Prince Charles at an Invest in Futures event hosted by the prince’s charitable foundation, PlusToken gained some newfound credibility. “Leo and Prince Charles had intimate talks on how the blockchain serves economic society, according to a press release promoting a new PlusToken exchange. Also, he put forward valuable advice on the development of future blockchain-related bills issue in the UK. Besides, Leo donated at the charity dinner generously and won a lot of complement.”

With today’s potential for deep fake photos, CipherTrace researchers reached out to the Prince Charles Foundation to validate the authenticity of the photos. The Foundation confirmed “Leo” had in fact attended the dinner, however staff were not willing to provide other information, such as his last name, due to concerns over the GDPR.


On June 28, 2019, Chinese police arrived on Vanuatu and arrested the “Plus Token Six” for running an “internet scam.” The Island’s government allowed China to almost immediately extradite the six—who were either Vanuatu citizens or applying for citizenship—back to the mainland.


Alarm Bells Go Off in June as “Technical Difficulties” Prevent Users from Withdrawing Funds
In late June, PlusToken users began to experience trouble withdrawing custodial crypto assets. On June users found that withdrawals on the PlusToken app were frozen due to alleged “technical difficulties,” but by June 29 the PlusToken app had completely shut down due to alleged “system maintenance.” This caused great concern among the PlusToken Community.

“The PlusToken Six”
Also on June 29, Hong Kong’s leading newspaper, the South China Morning Post, reported that six Chinese nationals wanted by Beijing for operating an internet scam were arrested on the Pacific island of Vanuatu and extradited back to China. Vanuatu law enforcement and immigration authorities along with Chinese police raided a property where the six were conducting their operation. Subsequently the Chinese tech news agency 36Kr claimed to confirm that the “internet scam” reported by the Post was, in fact, PlusToken. Specifically, the arrests were for running a multi-level marketing company (pyramid scheme). As reported by the New York Times, China has been making a major crackdown on such business models, including Amway and Herbalife.

On July 12, a PlusToken community website responded to the incident, claiming the six arrested in China were PlusToken users and not associated with the company, and “Thus, no need bother about this rumors (sic).” The statement further claims that withdrawals remain restricted because the server is still unstable and urges users to wait “until server synchronization and stabilization” and not to worry if they cannot log in because its technical team is trying to recover the server and data. The statement then asks users to stop trying to log in until they receive confirmation that the severs are back up.

This was not the first time PlusToken has warned users not to believe “rumors.” In October 2018, after news started circulating in China that PlusToken was being investigated for violating Chinese regulations and engaging in fraudulent activity, the company’s co-founder, Leo, posted a video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3RTwNvgMu8 shot in his “hometown” of Kazan, Russia, telling users to “not pay attention to any haters.”

On July 10, China’s Yuncheng Public Security Bureau told the Daily Planet Daily that the case is still under investigation and that there are suspects that have since fled. As of the release of this report, Plus Token’s official site, pltoken.io, also appears to be down with the last archive in archive.org occurring on July 1, 2019.

The case has even raised political concerns in the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand regarding the increasing influence of China. The local newspaper reported that the rapid extradition of people who were either citizens of Vanuatu or applying for citizenship showed how the government bent to the will of the Chinese, and may have confirmed fears that Chinese intelligence was operating covertly in the country. “When they arrived in Vanuatu, Chinese law enforcement provided critical information to Vanuatu police concerning the PlusToken scammers. They not only knew their names; they knew where they lived,” said a report in Vanuatu’s Daily Post.

This also raises issues for international regulators and cryptocurrency users as to the 3-billion-dollar question: there is no word from the Chinese authorities on the fate of the missing user funds. Certainly this “exit scam” warrants further investigation, because unlike similar cryptocurrency frauds, it is not clear that insiders made off with the loot. CipherTrace will provide updates if available in next quarter’s report.

On July 12, PlusToken responded to the incident on its website, claiming the six Chinese nationals arrested in Vanuatu were PlusToken users and not associated with the company, and “Thus, no need bother about this rumors [sic].” (See screenshot above). The statement further claims that withdrawals remain restricted because the server is still unstable and urges users to wait “until server synchronization and stabilization” and not to worry if they cannot log in because its technical team is trying to recover the server and data. The statement then asks users to stop trying to log in until they receive confirmation that the severs are back up. As of now there are no further updates.

The image in this article shows the movement of money from addresses which is pretty crazy. Movements of 50-100 BTC batches appear to move into exchanges.

is there any proof of this? i read the ciphertrace report and it says nothing about that. the only thing i see is this tweet storm, (https://twitter.com/DoveyWan/status/1161696977609879552) where the claims about 50-100 BTC batches seem to be unsourced. all the activity on those two large addresses she posted ended in may/july so we need a more comprehensive analysis to verify.

This is so disappointing imo another scheme and a big one at that

ALLEGEDLY

even the contelegraph headline stipulates that condition


there is zero proof that this is happening

How do you really get scammed 3 billion dollars, why would anyone invest THAT much into something. Maybe they got funded lets say 100 million at most but the total supply of wan they have in their possession times the price of wan equals to 3 billion dollars?

It wasn't a typical ICO or something. It was a Ponzi scheme, like Bitconnect 2.0. Plus Token was paying out unsustainable profits on deposits to lure people in. As a result, thousands of people started using their custodial wallet (for BTC, ETH, EOS, others) as their normal wallet. That's how they accumulated so much crypto.

If the returns are too good to be true, sometimes you need to start doubting that program. Because more than likely, there are loopholes in the system and they are only luring potential users with good investment returns. I hope people who are responsible on this fraud will get what they deserve. Don't be so greedy because it will cost you a lot in return.

This story begun when someone called Dovey Wan begun to suspect some large movement of bitcoins by some wallets and begun to spread ehat she has discovered in twitter.

Carlton Banks might be right and Dovey Wan might be wrong.

However, where are the large amount of bitcoins going? Are they going to exchanges? How much has been sent to them? What are the exchanges not telling us? Are those coins frozen by exchanges?

my understanding is that ponzi cant never profit in the long run

it is funny that nobody does a simple calculation to realize how fake these numbers that have been spreading by the news sites are.
here is what they are basically saying: "$3 billion dollar worth of bitcoin was sold and price only went down about 5% and came back up in less than 12 hours". so either bitcoin market grew ridiculously big overnight and we missed it that it could absorb this many coins sold without moving at all or the number was a big lie!

Did anyone hear about the PlusToken scam? 10 million investors scammed of $3 billion seems like a massive number! Ciphertrace mentioned in their recent report that the PlusTooken scheme was the largest single incidnet of loss in 2019.

The image in this article shows the movement of money from addresses which is pretty crazy. Movements of 50-100 BTC batches appear to move into exchanges.

This is so disappointing imo another scheme and a big one at that

https://cointelegraph.com/news/3b-ponzi-scheme-is-now-allegedly-dumping-bitcoin-by-the-hundreds

I
But such kind of incidents are actually reminding us the requirement of a strict regulatory policy at international level. Scams are on the rise and without a strict global norm, such incidents will occur again and the scammers will get away it!

Did anyone hear about the PlusToken scam? 10 million investors scammed of $3 billion seems like a massive number! Ciphertrace mentioned in their recent report that the PlusTooken scheme was the largest single incidnet of loss in 2019.

The image in this article shows the movement of money from addresses which is pretty crazy. Movements of 50-100 BTC batches appear to move into exchanges.

This is so disappointing imo another scheme and a big one at that

https://cointelegraph.com/news/3b-ponzi-scheme-is-now-allegedly-dumping-bitcoin-by-the-hundreds

That's too much, and that might be the reason why we are falling this time. Its not good to hear a scam news like this, I feel sorry to those who  trust that shit project. Didn't hear any news about that one but for me its really a big money. Hundreds of people are losing their faith with cryptos again, this is bad.

it is funny that nobody does a simple calculation to realize how fake these numbers that have been spreading by the news sites are.
here is what they are basically saying: "$3 billion dollar worth of bitcoin was sold and price only went down about 5% and came back up in less than 12 hours". so either bitcoin market grew ridiculously big overnight and we missed it that it could absorb this many coins sold without moving at all or the number was a big lie!

Imagine if the $3 billion worth of bitcoins was really Warren Buffett's wallet. Oh no, they found my secret storage of rat poison squared hehehehe.

Did anyone hear about the PlusToken scam? 10 million investors scammed of $3 billion seems like a massive number! Ciphertrace mentioned in their recent report that the PlusTooken scheme was the largest single incidnet of loss in 2019.

The image in this article shows the movement of money from addresses which is pretty crazy. Movements of 50-100 BTC batches appear to move into exchanges.

This is so disappointing imo another scheme and a big one at that

https://cointelegraph.com/news/3b-ponzi-scheme-is-now-allegedly-dumping-bitcoin-by-the-hundreds

This is sad that every now and then we hear people becoming victim of these Ponzi schemes and these scammers getting more and more rich each day.

What is more scary here is what these scammers will do with this money. They can re-invest little portion of this scam money to come up with another big scam project. They have the funds to market their scam as legal and again make people lose money. There is no stoppage to these scams.  >:(

Would be funny if that old fart was holding >21000btc and had been lying all the time  8)
Waiting for it to go to a million and then selling for 21 billion dollars.

I strongly agree with this.

The country which the reside should definitely strict when it comes to even just thousand of dollars companies.
Permits. There should one group that should be checking this and not let run any garage type of company. There should be traces on where a large amount of money is getting in and out.
That will be clue to pinpoint this kind of evil deeds.
It should be stopped before they could even spend it.

This is a week old story, so I don't know why you consider this news still the reason of the current decline. This kind of negative news only has a short impact on the price and on the market. Losing their faith on bitcoin? I would say that they are still going crazy about it.

It might be a week old story but the effect could be gradually because pulling such amount of money out of the market is not going to be a sudden thing due to all these kyc that has been out in place and it would be easy to detect the fund and probably block it, so they will be moving it little by little as op said they have been doing, so don’t doubt that it would still be having effect on the market, mate we are not talking of millions hear, we are talking of billions of dollars which is quite huge amount of money.

Do you know the time it will also take them to sell that amount because I doubt if there is even any local exchange that will be able to buy such btc at once, so they will have to be taking it slowly out of the market till they empty their wallet and I hope that before they get the chance to do so, they might probably have been caught.

What if Craigh Wright ran this ponzi scheme.