Somehow I never thought of asking how much exactly do those "marketing agencies" charge when few admitted of hiring them, but there is one source that can give us some ballpark figure.

Some time ago @nutildah identified probably the biggest bumping service on the forum, Vitor Services. In that thread you can see that they offer various packages, from 390 USD per month up to 1490 USD per month. In that cheapest package you get: 500 telegram members, 150 comments in telegram group and 100+ ANN thread comments. If they charge let's say half of that for only ANN thread comments, that's still decent amount of money for such a crappy job they are doing. 100 posts per month would make an average of approximately 3 posts per day, and from my experience frequency of those posts is much higher, so more expensive packages are probably more popular.

I called them probably the biggest group as I think that they are responsible for at least 50% of all bumping spam on the forum, and that is conservative estimate. If you dig deep enough you can connect their accounts to almost every newly added ANN on the list. They also like to use old newbie accounts made years ago, that's one of their "trademarks".

It's been a shitty year overall and I won't remember it for good, but if I have to find something positive, it's two things:

• I reaffirmed my hodling beliefs. Few years ago I though that I will sell at least half of my bitcoin stash when we reach previous ATH, but as time was passing, so was my plan. New ATH came and passed and my stash is almost intact (if anything it got increased).
• 2020 was my first full year on forum during which I learned quite a lot from many knowledgeable and helpful people here. That process still goes on and will hopefully continue in the same manner during 2021.

Merry Christmas everyone, stay safe and healthy!

What happened: Imining is yet another cloud mining scheme that promises unrealistically high return. They even claim that they are "making mining predictable" but as we all know, mining is everything but that as it profit constantly changes and what you get today with your mining rig doesn't mean it will be the same tomorrow. But Imining magic rigs equipped with "neural technology" offer constant profit no matter how much mining difficulty changes.

Flag Type 1 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=2542

ANN https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5288514.msg55570022#msg55570022
Archive https://archive.fo/lToQ1

Website https://imining.pro
Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20201224113747/https://imining.pro/price



According to their calculation, if you invest 1000 USD, in one year you will get 7920 USD, making it 692% ROI. With these type of return we are entering ponzi territory as no one legit would offer you something like that simply because it is not feasible and profitable.





To further lure people into investing, every few seconds you will see popup in the bottom right corner about investors who successfully withdrew their earnings




Beside  unrealistically high return, there are several other red flags like claim of having 15,000+ users and paying out more than 2.2 million USD and all that in five months since their site is launched. Certificate of incorporation is yet another red flag often used in similar schemes.

Having 50,000 members means little nowadays as those are mostly bots that you can buy in bulk for pennies and rest consists of airdrop and bounty hunters, with very few genuine users that are actually investing in this (I would say less then 1 %). Out of curiosity I just checked their telegram group and as expected it  is mostly dead, with occasional questions like "when bounty tokens distribution" and similar irrelevant stuff. I do hope that's the sign that their scheme is not working well and people are not falling for it.

Problem with an average whitepaper we see here is not that few terms here and there are copied, but whole sentences, paragraphs and sometimes even pages are copied word for word from someone else, and for that there is no excuse. But even if they just copied few sentences, how hard is to include reference? For example, it can be done in an unobtrusive way, like in Bitcoin whitepaper.

I simply do not trust those that are not capable of writing their own whitepaper without proper referencing. In best case scenario they are just ignorant and negligent, while in reality they are deceitful and dishonest. Neither is good and will most likely cause people loose money.
 
By the way, do you have some specific case in mind when you are talking about percentages, as I know that you are creating ANN threads for various projects?


Well, for your work to be as clean as possible, plagiarism rate should be at 0%, and that means that you cited every source used, and you made clear distinction between your own words and what you took from the others. So just verbatim copying something and sharing links at the end isn't proper way either.

Similarity index is another story, and there we can talk about percentages and what is good and what is not.

Good catch, as always!

I just wanted to add that's not the only problematic thing with their whitepaper. On the page 11, under "Rewards and Awards" they mention various rewards for their most active users, ranging from smartphones and laptops all the way to cars and luxury apartments. From my experience, only scams will offer something like that as an incentive to drag more people into this. Can someone really believe that they will actually give people luxury apartments and send cars all over the world?

Everything is good you say? I beg to disagree!

Solomon CEO "Simon Polman" ( if that's his real name) decided to use stock photo instead of his own. He didn't do it just on the website, he used the same photo for his LinkedIn account as well. This is a huge red flag, as why would anyone with legit and honest intentions use someone else's photo instead of his own? I personally don't see any valid explanation for something like that. My advice for everyone thinking about investing in Solomon ICO: stay away from this!

I provided evidence in the link below which @OP can use to address the issue
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5302802.0

Po meni je ovakav pristup CryptoVikinga u biti fer i korektan. Covjek ocito nema vremena za forum vec neko vrijeme (sjecam se da je do prije mjesec-dva bio jako aktivan te je brzo napredovao na forumu) a ne zeli shitpostat i forsirati da pokupi tih 35 USD tjedno. Stalno govorimo kako na forumu nema normalnih razgovora, pogotovo na engleskom dijelu, a to je upravo zbog toga jer se uglavnom pise na silu samo da se odrlja tjedna kvota tako da cak treba pozdraviti ovakve odluke.

Istina je da je grehota ne pokupiti BTC kad se moze jer ce skupljanje ici puno teze jednom kad BTC ode na 100k+, ali jebiga, za forum treba vremena, ako se zeli kvalitetno pisati, a on ocito nema tih par sati dnevno. Ne znam za ostale, ali meni za napisati 4-5 postova treba minimalno 2 sata vremena ( u biti na forum potrosim i dosta vise). Dok ja nadjem temu di imam sta za reci, pa dok nesto napisem, pa se cesto predomislim i obrisem post i uopce ga ne objavim etc. Nekad blejim po forumu sat i pol i ne mogu naci temu bez da ne mlatim  praznu slamu i ponavljam nesto sto je vec receno 5 puta prije mene u istoj temi i na kraju samo odem off. Shitpostat nije problem, mogu napisati 10 genericnih postova u sat vremena  bez beda, ali to mi je bezveze, a cini mi se da i viking ima isti pogled na "problematiku.

Dobar primjer je ekipa iz CM. Dosta njih napise samo par postova tjedno i u biti propusta jebenu lovu mjerenu u par tisuca USD mjesecno ali ocito ne zele forsirati i pisati samo da odrljaju tih 50 postova ako nemaju vremena ili im se jednostavno neda, a manager to tolerira jer mu je cilj zadrzati kvalitetu. Kao sto sam ranije spominjao, bilo bi super kad bi i ostali manageri prihvatili taj koncept, ukinuli  taj minimalan broj postova i jednostavno placati po svakom postu. I onda manager fino odluci da li mu recimo 5 napisanih postova tjedno od jako kvalitetnog clana koji trenutno nema previse vremena vrijedi vise od 20 shitpostova nekog spammera.

---

Da ovo je vec fakat brutalna lova. Bas me zanima da li ce CM prilagoditi isplate kad se BTC stabilizira na tim razinama preko 20k. Jel mozda netko zna da li je CM ikad prilagodjavao isplate, ili je oduvijek jedna te ista cifra? @marlboroza mozda ti znas?

What happened: Solomon Cash used stock image photo for their CEO "Simon Polman". We all know the answer why would CEO of company hide his real identity.

ANN https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5302772.0
Archive https://loyce.club/archive/topics/530/5302772.html

Website http://solomon.cash/
Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20201223103339/http://solomon.cash/

Whitepaper https://web.archive.org/web/20201223104800/http://solomon.cash/one_page/SOLOMON_Whitepaper.pdf


This is a picture of  Solomon Cash CEO Simon Polman from their website.




And this is what you get when you check the source of the picture. They just cut out part where person is holding mobile phone taking selfie, and that's about it. I must admit that using photo with a mask is a nice touch, due current covid19 situation. Same photo is used for Simon Polman LinkedIn account, so that can't be just a mistake from web developer, or whatever standard excuse they come up with.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-polman-86532a1a8/

The address used by @Ombakbanyu (0x6a21b6868b3c8cf8ea15511077a8bd5afc4fd9a2) has also been used by Del VT21, who was recently tagged by @lovesmayfamilis for exactly the same thing, using someone else's data to register in bounties so that's just another proof that Zugezt and Ombakbanyu are controlled by the same person as M.O. is the same.



I will tag those accounts and best thing you can do is to contact bounty managers of those campaigns so they get removed.

That is the question I often ask myself, don't they realize how bad it looks when you see bunch of newbie accounts writing mostly one liners and why would anyone pay for something like that when it won't even push the thread at the top of the board like it used to.

Kudos to "marketing agencies" that still manage to sell that, I would really like to hear the tactic. My guess is that they count on ignorance of those that are hiring them, as majority of them never visited bitcontalk before so they don't really know how things are done here, and how hiring shill service is perceived. They probably tell them "everyone is doing that" or "there is so much traffic on bitcointalk that this is the only way to stand out from others", or something along those lines.

Another thing they might use to sell this service is the fact that at least 2 ICO trackers that I know of are giving ratings based on bitcointalk ANN activities (ICObench and Foundico). Again, everyone that is long enough in crypto knows that those ICO tracking sites and ratings there are irrelevant, but I guess newbies don't know that, so yet again they count on ignorance.


I would be surprised if that is not already happening, but maybe in a more discrete way. If something can be abused and monetized, most likely it will.

That's true, nothing is impenetrable, and chances are that something similar will happen to Trezor and the others when they become big/interesting  nough.

I fully understand that Ledger was most attractive to scammers as they are market leaders, but still they should focus more on the safety, and maybe not keep customer database if it's not required by some law. Why not just keeping email and that's it? Considering what they are selling, they should be  fully aware of the repercussions if something goes wrong, like it happened now. I feel kinda stupid that I thought it will be safer to buy Ledger directly from them and not buying from local shop, but guess I was wrong. Lesson learned. Who knows, maybe they start doing their job properly when market share start decreasing.


It is not directly connected to this hack, but few months ago @dkbit98 made an interesting analysis how much two most popular hardware wallets websites are tracking us. Results were kinda disappointing, to say the least. One would think that they care a little bit more about customers privacy.

To be honest, I would be surprised if that didn't happen, dodgy characters checking list and trying to find people from their cities/neighbourhoods etc. Their line of thinking could be something like this "If he bought hardware wallet, that means he has decent amount of crypto, as why else would he invest in one if he has few hundreds of dollars worth of crypto". Add on that current bitcoin price, so you don't need to have 10 or 20 BTC in order for someone to try something stupid.

It's been never easier to track someone, with all those social media platforms where people share every aspect of their lives. Where they work, where they drink, where they eat etc..

@btcltcdigger shared the list in our local board, so no need to download anything.

---

Luckily I am not among those with personal details leaked, and I am sure it isn't fun at all seeing your name, address and even phone number. My email is leaked though, but no spam as of yet.

Don't worry guys, Ledger has it sorted. Here it is, special Ledger Christmas Pack! To protect yourself from all future database leaks and conseqeuent $5 wrench attacks, with every purchased Ledger Nano X you get Glock for free! Perfect Christmas present if you ask me!

---

Joke aside, what to say about all this that haven't been said before.. It is a shame that they are still market leaders and I am seriously considering getting something else, simply out of principle.

What happened: Omniunit is just another cloud mining scam that is promising unrealistically high return (110 ROI in in 90 days). To further confuse the poeple and make it more belieavble to those that don;t know much about trading or cryptocurrencies in general, they are using bs phrases such "Our algorithms are highly effective because they combine the use of neural networks and machine learning" and similar buzzwords while in reality they probably don't use anything. Cherry on cake is boasting with Certificate of Incorporation, classic red flag and one of the favorite scammers tools.

Flag Type 1 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=2537


ANN https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5302420.0
Archive https://archive.fo/MSyMJ

Website https://www.omniunit.info/
Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20201222075156/https://www.omniunit.info/



As in all similar cloud mining schemes, they have various "packages" from which you can choose from. Here is an example of their most profitable one, "Platinum" plan,  offering 110% ROI in only 90 days, but for that privilege you have to invest at least 1000 USD. Not that you won't get 110% profit back, but you won't see your initial investment either after they are done with you.

You might wanna read first post again, as OP didn't compare 2017 and 2020, he is trying to find some similarities between 2017 and 2021 which are more appropriate years to be compared.

It is true that this bull run is different from the previous one and growth looks healthier and more "organic", but there are some similarities between 2016 and 2020, years that should be compared. In both of those years bitcoin halvening happened, and approximately 6 months later bitcoin started pumping, followed by sharp correction. As you can see, once again we see bitcoin pumping, again approximately 6 months after halvening. Since all these things are playing out like in 2016, that makes people think that 2021 will mimic 2017 so you have all those 100k-300k predictions, but whether will history repeat itself we are yet to see.

What we know though is that future is bright and it's been easier than ever to be a hodler.

Upload the screenshots via imgur and share links here.

By the way, when you said that he took money from you against your will, how exactly he managed to do that? Did you two met in real life and he physically forced you to give him your money? Or he simply tricked you into sending him the money?

What I don't understand is why did you deal with that person at all, since you could see that all three of his accounts were tagged by @YOSHIE, explicitly saying that he is a scammer. I feel sorry that you got scammed but seriously, start checking trust feedback of the people you plan to deal with. Trust feedback is there for exactly that reason.

What you can do now is raise Flag Type 2 which is a bit more visible than negative feedback so it might save someone else from getting scammed.

I was a bit confused with that as well, at first I thought I had 6/22 but @icopress cleared that out via bitcointalk discord group (using this opportunity to invite other members to join us). So all good, we all had 20 questions.

---

I agree, t-shirt designs look great, but I am not sure I would be comfortable wearing it, considering the one I won . I have to ponder for a while before I make decision on the matter. Might be a nice souvenir though.