Hello. I have been a longtime lurker, but I have to quickly warn the community. This is to alert all would-be STRATIS investors of a new, elaborated scam I may have fallen victim to, as per Poloniex' latest answer to me on the issue. I had written STRATIS about it at
info@stratisplatform.net, but didn't get any answer as of now(edit: even the site Poloniex thought was real, is a fake, which explains the silence). It uses the STRATIS jumpstart offer as a bait. THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK ON STRATIS. Just a warning that someone is using their platform(and Poloniex' name)as a bait. This is the email I received on Thursday, with the subject "Quick profit for 2017":
Hello,
This e-mail is sent to all STRAT jumpstart promotion token holders.
YOUR JUMPSTART TOKEN IS: X14JUAB6
Stratis Jumpstart is a low risk, high reward short term trading investment scheme insured by the Stratis Platform and targeted at Poloniex crypto-currency trading. Withdrawals are processed on the 1st of January.
If you do not wish to take part in the jumpstart round, you are permitted to give your token to a friend - but it can only be used once and all deposits need to confirm before the 29th of December 2016.
To take part in Stratis Jumpstart and make 50%+ profit on your deposit, enter your token here:
https://stratis-platform.net/jumpstart/X14JUAB6STRAT was listed on Poloniex recently. Find more information on our Twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/Poloniex/status/810703765955289088Sincerely,
The Poloniex Team and Stratis
Obviously, I checked on Google and all to see if it wasn't a scam, and could see that the jumpstart offer was legit and there was no result showing a scam related to STRATIS. Furthermore, the email was sent to me and me only, unlike the usual scammer trick of sending to different addresses in a single email, which further enhanced my confidence. Nobody knows I am a registered Poloniex user except Poloniex staff. The scammer also sent it close to Christmas to make people hasty and any staff answer delayed by the holidays. So, despite wanting to 1st contact Poloniex, I went ahead and attempted to register, depositing some money. Here is what happened, as I told Poloniex(and STRATIS at
info@stratisplatform.net):
Hello. I received your mail about the Stratis Jumpstart offer. My token is X14JUAB6. I followed the link, then followed the procedure, sending 0.22323319 BTC to address 15bxXiKRzHd5ahE9P8fHB5GbMrZXtRv3AC thru transaction ID a16cd401bc37dc5ee3eb71298cff9fd32e32d947ade6e336a557776ee12d3a71. For the past hour, it has been stuck at 0 confirmations out of 3 on the Jumpstart page(step 3), while it has been confirmed 8 times on the blockchain in the same timeframe. I didn't refresh the page during that time, as I thought that something might finally happen, to no avail. I'd like you to fix this ASAP and confirm my entry into the Stratis Jumpstart scheme, or refund my BTC to address3EMpcLaWx7JdiyoKPargZNFjPDpCdES8Nh, as I sent the money directly from my BitStamp online wallet. I have attached all the relevant pictures.Thank you.
To which they answered, 2 days later:
Thank you for getting in touch.
I am sorry but there appears to be some confusion -- which email are you referring to? Was this from Poloniex? As far as I know we have not taken part in any affiliation or crowdsales for Stratis. Can you please let us know the details your received and from whom they originated?
Best regards,
Kevin
Poloniex Support
To which I replied with the particulars of the original email. This was their answer, today:
I am very sorry, but it appears that you have fallen victim to a scam website. We never sent this email and are not affiliated with STRATIS past the point of having it listed on our platform.
The website link you provided goes to
https://stratis-platform.net/jumpstart/ -- this is not the official website for STRATIS, which is actually
https://stratisplatform.net. You will see that if you click the link to main page at top of the page your provided me with, it loads the original site in a windowed box, portraying this 'scam' website to be part of it.
I am very sorry but if you have sent BTC to this site I am afraid it may be lost.
Best regards,
Kevin
Poloniex Support
Now, I wonder how the scammer knew the way to target me that specifically, knowing I was a Poloniex member and all that. I asked Poloniex if there wasn't any database breach on their side. The website looks perfectly identical, and even links to the original. So, I got scammed out of 0.22 BTC, but I want to make sure it's all that thief gets for his "quick profit for 2017" on the back of STRATIS, and nobody else falls for it, at least those who can read it here and spread the word. Thank you.