[SCAM] MASS.NETWORK

[Tribute]

See link below for evidence. Now all project staff have disappeared.

For those that arent aware:

1. mass.network ICO has completed but failed miserably to hit its target yet someone has retained all 320 BTC of investment.
2. the official site lists a team of people who are not working on the project. Some are mycelium staff unaware of mass.network. Some have never been involved with mass.network or mycelium (check social media profiles). https://mass.network/team.html
3. Original developers refused to publish escrow address, and escrow was controlled by CEO of mass.network.
4. There are no lines of communications with the project. No slack, facebook, twitter, or bitcointalk activity. The only email address provided isn't even a manned account as there is no reply to any emails.
5. A prototype was released in October but nothing has happened since. There is no updated roadmap, only the original now out-of-date whitepaper plan based on ico hitting 1000BTC.
6. The ICO rewards and bounties were never honored.
7. It would seem all the ico funds have been taken and are clearly not used for any development or marketing activities. Check github -Prototype done in October, minor comments added a few weeks ago.No other development. No marketing or social media presence. What are the funds being used for?
8. Nobody from mycelium or the original mass.network team will respond to any requests for information.

This looks like a scam, in which $200k of BTC has not been returned to investors and there is no clear intention to develop this project in any meaningful manner. Likely the project will be allowed to die slowly with the bulk of the ICO funds unspent. These projects are bad for crypto and are almost fraudulent in their behaviour.

[Fortify]

It might have been better if you posted the actual scam accusation in here, instead of just linking to it. That said, it is stunning how much effort they have put into it and judging by the timeline at the bottom: Feb 2017 = Business software release and Mar 2017 = Mass browser release, it looks like when they need to show an original product it's all collapsed. Even so, it seems like an almost inevitability with altcoins that it all ends in tears.

[aioc]

I have lost one month effort in signature campaign now I have over 200 million Mass Token sleeping in Colu,it's a useless token ,I don't know where we are heading now and what will be the action of investors but I would like to participate in any action that this group or the group that we are going to form .

[Cent21]

I have lost one month effort in signature campaign now I have over 200 million Mass Token sleeping in Colu,it's a useless token ,I don't know where we are heading now and what will be the action of investors but I would like to participate in any action that this group or the group that we are going to form .

I'm in the same situation.

I don't understand why the did all that colu wallet thing, if they are simply gone away with ico funds?

This situation is very sad.

[Joel_Jantsen]

I have lost one month effort in signature campaign now I have over 200 million Mass Token sleeping in Colu,it's a useless token ,I don't know where we are heading now and what will be the action of investors but I would like to participate in any action that this group or the group that we are going to form .

What role did you play in their team ? If you are not getting any response from the project managers/lead developers,you should open a scam accusation while you still have time.Try to archive as much information about your previous chats,links,etc as they would help in finding out the scammers if the decide to run away.

[Know-ledger]

Hi, Mass Investors!


Here's my experience that I feel I need to contribute to the community since this doubt has arisen.

0) Neither me personally, nor my company (www.knowledger.consulting) have any affiliation with Mass Network or any of its founders/employees. I was just a contractor to Mass writing the white & blue papers and advising on general matters. Neither me, nor my company has ever received or managed in any way any funds directly from the crowdsale discussed.

1) I was first engaged in the project in early August of 2016 when I met Alexander Pankov (nick “pianist”) in Riga, Latvia, EU, in person. I assume, I was quite an obvious guy to get invited since I combine the knowledge of blockchain tech and ad-blocking as you can see in my blog (https://medium.com/@Knowledger).

2) Alexander Pankov has made an impression of having some deep knowledge of the subject, although I was unpleasantly amazed by him humiliating his wife more than twice publicly during an hour-long meeting. I should have probably withdrawn myself from there right away which I didn't, unfortunately.

3) Alexander Pankov initiated the crowdsale of Mass Network tokens by starting the ANN thread on Bitcointalk. I spent about 40 days communicating with Mass Network representatives while ~90% of messaging happened directly with Alexander Pankov / pianist.

4) I created the white and blue papers of the projects with Michael Malley being my proof-reader and Sam Cheng Hung being the webmaster. Those were the only contacts I had within Mass, besides Alexander Pankov (a lot) and Alexander Kuzmin, occasionally, on general topics. By that time, I assumed that Alexander Pankov has hired all the dev team members by himself.

5) Along the way, Alexander Pankov began to fill my inbox with tons of messages that were self-contradictory, controversial, and not making sense at all. I expressed doubt he could manage his way, in polite terms.

6) In mid-September 2016 I was kicked off the project by Alexander Pankov with the extremely rude wording "I don't need you in the project, being impertinent to me is your life-lesson". I can prove that to any entity and will insist that in any court should that take place.

7) Later, along the project development, Alexander Kuzmin accurately calculated my participation and let me off, fulfilling all obligations to me, after his purchase of the entire thing, with no objections from my side whatsoever. I also had relations with him in the Mycelium Card project (https://card.mycelium.com) years before, where he also behave himself as a gentleman. I have no grounds to suspect him in any wrongdoings. He was indeed an escrow of the funds, according to his own words. I have zero knowledge on how funds received during the crowdsale were used, though.

I have to mention that Alexander Kuzmin has received a number of suggestions from me that he has ignored. Specifically I have advised him to withdraw from specific partnerships that he has announced on the Mass Network website. Him not doing so does not lead me to the assumption he meant any harm to Mass Network investors, rather I suppose I have limited knowledge of the matter.

Alexander Pankov has "left the project" in December 2016, according to his own words. That happened RIGHT AFTER all the crowdfunding money were collected. We only have his word for that event, as a matter of fact.

9) In February 2017, Alexander Pankov (nicknamed "pianist") names me as a project "founder" while he well knows I am not and was not. That’s a blatant lie. It seems he is trying to blame me.

10) I have no grounds to suspect the project has let its investors down and stopped development. I don’t know why they have let this escalate or generate such a suspicious feeling in the community, I just felt I need to honestly express my view and what I know for sure.
______





Regards,

Alex
Knowledger.consulting

[memalley]

copying from the original ANN thread and my post there https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1598276.msg17935505#msg17935505. I do not wish to be implicated or have my reputation tarnished. I do not know if that ANN thread will be deleted/closed.


I just heard about this thanks to a Chinese wechat user who added me to ask what was going on after seeing my LinkedIn profile thanks to the slanderous post, implicating me as a "professional scammer", from tokyopotato. His wanton accusation of me are as incorrect as they are inflammatory. It is obvious from his post who he really meant to target.

Now for my relationship with mass.

I stopped working for Alexander Kuzmin and Mycelium in November of 2016 and have had zero communication since then.

I was Product Manager of another Mycelium team. I later quit Mycelium because our offices were moved to Moscow...I was asked to relocate, said no thanks, and quit.  

In August or Sept of 2016, Kuzmin asked me to help edit the website for MASS since I was the only native ENG speaker at his disposal at the time. I did that and only that. At no point was equity or profit sharing EVER discussed with me. I acted under orders from my boss at the time to edit some copy for the site and blog and setup some social media accounts. that is all. He asked to put my pic and name on the website and said I should have a title since I was technically "part of the team"... Seemed like free publicity for me, why not? That was my only mistake in this issue. For that I am sorry.

I do not stand to gain anything from the MASS ICO and never did...
I am not a scammer, never have been and never will be.

I have made MANY MANY requests to have my name removed from the site... to no avail. Kuzmin has ignored my requests.

Since I found out about this issue, which I have not paid attention to since leaving, I have since deleted MASS from my LinkedIn, since you all seem to think it is a scam and I do not want to be associated with it if it is. It was never a full-time job for me and I was never even paid to work on it!

But let me be clear: I do not stand to profit IN ANY WAY FROM MASS or its ICO... Please contact Mr. Kuzmin

I have ZERO relations with Mycelium or Mr. Kuzmin or MASS since November 2016. However, their "pm,community manager, accountant" contacted me in Jan of this year. Maybe he can answer your questions.

http://imgur.com/a/soYDb
Never heard from him again.


I am sorry for anyone who feels they have been harmed but I am not able to help you. I wish that I could. All I did was edit and write some copy for the website and various social media.

I hope this helps clear up my relationship with Kuzmin and Mass. I hope tokyopotato can remove the slanderous post about me and my current employer, thank you.

https://i.imgur.com/aUdGdt8.png

[ged00u]

I think we should clear this case out and we need many experts in the investigation so that they can help us to catch the theft. Although Pianist has left the MASS NETWORK since december, I want to accuse him of not warning the people stay away from this project. If he showed up sooner, there would not be many investors around. Damn.

[Fortify]

4) I created the white and blue papers of the projects with Michael Malley being my proof-reader and Sam Cheng Hung being the webmaster. Those were the only contacts I had within Mass, besides Alexander Pankov (a lot) and Alexander Kuzmin, occasionally, on general topics. By that time, I assumed that Alexander Pankov has hired all the dev team members by himself.

Who could be more involved than the person that wrote the whitepaper which is the whole basis for the project? Surely the white paper would be written by someone intimately familiar with the end result and the strategy used to get there. By your own admission, you have been compensated for the work and have not been affected by the collapse of the project, other than becoming one of the fall guys. If it is true the project was based in Russia, it is unlikely anyone will see their "investment" again.

[Know-ledger]

4) I created the white and blue papers of the projects with Michael Malley being my proof-reader and Sam Cheng Hung being the webmaster. Those were the only contacts I had within Mass, besides Alexander Pankov (a lot) and Alexander Kuzmin, occasionally, on general topics. By that time, I assumed that Alexander Pankov has hired all the dev team members by himself.

Who could be more involved than the person that wrote the whitepaper which is the whole basis for the project? Surely the white paper would be written by someone intimately familiar with the end result and the strategy used to get there. By your own admission, you have been compensated for the work and have not been affected by the collapse of the project, other than becoming one of the fall guys. If it is true the project was based in Russia, it is unlikely anyone will see their "investment" again.

The issues you point out are worthy attention and I will do my best to help ease any fears that I am responsible for an abuse or fraud.

1)
Whitepaper creation being the responsibility.
First of all, I am proud of my work. Now, as I moved along researching the matter and a few months have passed, I would probably put some things in a different light, but generally, I still think that as long as programmatic ads are still there, ad-blocking will be growing, meaning that the ad industry will need to find ways around it.

2)
Intellectual involvement meaning ability to affect implementation.
I have to disagree with you here. There were no means for me to actually affect the implementation. As I have already mentioned, the core of my conflict with Mass CTO, Pankov, was that he was not making sense to me. At least I could not understand how exactly is he going to merge the service into the RTB framework. I mean who will pay who for what by what means. I have asked that question many times, with no answer. I still think Mass is a promising project with unique positioning. There’s just no reason for you to blame me as I have never envisioned or planned any pre-programmed failure.

3)
Russian issue.
Here I would agree with you. Russia has been a controversial place and international legal entity for decades, but in 2014, after invading Ukraine, it became illegitimate. As a matter of fact, it became illegitimate even earlier, with faked parliament and presidential elections, as it is obvious to anyone who believes Carl Friedrich Gauss more than Putin:
(http://politika.eizvestia.com/vybory-2012/full/matematicheskoe-dokazatelstvo-falsifikacij-na-vyborah-grafika
http://trv-science.ru/2011/12/20/matematika-vyborov-2011/
[Suspicious link removed]/@nikolayistomin/378008
…
…
there are tons of more evidence).

I am proud to say that I have officially left Russia and asked for EU residence right after the Crimean events, for that exact reason not to be associated with the massive crime. So you probably should at least consider the fact that I have to deal with my native state already being occupied by criminals, while you are only facing mere threat from occasional outside guests. And I support the point of view asking anyone with potentially legit intentions “what the hell are doing in Russia?”. That is exactly what I meant in my item #7 concerning giving to the Mass management.

[drays]

@Know-ledger: thanks for sharing your side of story.

I have few questions to you, which whould tremendously help understanding the pucture:

1. What is your name, first of all? Are you Alex Kontegna, or Alexey Oschepkov, or both?

2. Are you the one who was posting under the "massnetwork" account on Bitcointalk? If not, then who that was?

[Tribute]

@Know-ledger: thanks for sharing your side of story.

I have few questions to you, which whould tremendously help understanding the pucture:

1. What is your name, first of all? Are you Alex Kontegna, or Alexey Oschepkov, or both?

2. Are you the one who was posting under the "massnetwork" account on Bitcointalk? If not, then who that was?

Drays open your eyes, they are both involved in this. See my post below.

[Tribute]

Know-ledger stop trying to distract us with Russian talk. Nobody has suggested a crime has taken place because of the nationality of the founders.

1) you say you know nothing of the mass strategy or ICO funds. Yet you are a long term partner of Alex Kuzmin and have attempted several schemes since mass. See point

2) Your statement that this Knowledger project has nothing to do with Mass or Swish coin is another lie. Look at the knowledger website. It clearly advetises a blockchain based ad revenue generator (sounds like mass)  and a food payment solution for restaurants (sounds like swishcoin to me).

You have a clear partnership with Kuzmin and if you haven't once asked where all these ICO funds go, then you're either stupid or already aware.

And finally the big question which you failed to answer is where did the mass ico funds go?

[Know-ledger]

Know-ledger stop trying to distract us with Russian talk. Nobody has suggested a crime has taken place because of the nationality of the founders.

1) you say you know nothing of the mass strategy or ICO funds. Yet you are a long term partner of Alex Kuzmin and have attempted several schemes since mass. See point

2) Your statement that this Knowledger project has nothing to do with Mass or Swish coin is another lie. Look at the knowledger website. It clearly advetises a blockchain based ad revenue generator (sounds like mass)  and a food payment solution for restaurants (sounds like swishcoin to me).

You have a clear partnership with Kuzmin and if you haven't once asked where all these ICO funds go, then you're either stupid or already aware.

And finally the big question which you failed to answer is where did the mass ico funds go?

My site simply shows the docs that are (1) written by me and (b) if clients that have bought the content don't mind. Mass bought one of the docs shown. Swish — another. I might link docs to the projects that used them or I might not depending on whether I wish to promote someone else's brands on my resources. Swish management, as a matter of fact, decided not to implement the essence of the doc, at least for now, as far as I know. I suggested them to move from being restaurant-centric. Regarding swish, I dealt with Mr. Alongi, not Kuzmin, if anyone cares.

I am not a partner with Kuzmin, he is my client. Two different things. Yes, I have a doc proving that. And I know nothing indeed of his or his enterprise's state of finance. I did let Kuzmin know that people express worry here. I'm pretty sure he will assign someone to deal with it.

Mass is not a "scheme", it's a reasonable project with functioning software. I don't know how many downloads are there for now but it's too early to make judgments—it might gain traction pretty fast. Coin price depends directly on how many people use the app. It doesn't really depend on how well a company or dev team does at a particular point in time.

[drays]

My site simply shows the docs that are (1) written by me and (b) if clients that have bought the content don't mind. Mass bought one of the docs shown. Swish — another. I might link docs to the projects that used them or I might not depending on whether I wish to promote someone else's brands on my resources. Swish management, as a matter of fact, decided not to implement the essence of the doc, at least for now, as far as I know. I suggested them to move from being restaurant-centric. Regarding swish, I dealt with Mr. Alongi, not Kuzmin, if anyone cares.

I am not a partner with Kuzmin, he is my client. Two different things. Yes, I have a doc proving that. And I know nothing indeed of his or his enterprise's state of finance. I did let Kuzmin know that people express worry here. I'm pretty sure he will assign someone to deal with it.

Mass is not a "scheme", it's a reasonable project with functioning software. I don't know how many downloads are there for now but it's too early to make judgments—it might gain traction pretty fast. Coin price depends directly on how many people use the app. It doesn't really depend on how well a company or dev team does at a particular point in time.

Know-ledger, I asked you two questions above in this thread. Could you please answer them. If your actions on the project are/were legit, and are telling the truth here, I think it should be very easy for you to address them.
By avoiding them though, you just prove you have something to hide.

They are very simple, and here they are again, for your convenience:

1. You never presented yourself here. What is your (sur-)name? Are you Alex Kontegna, or Alexey Oschepkov, or both?

2. Are you the one who was posting under the "massnetwork" account on Bitcointalk? If not, then who it was then?


Please note there is a reason I ask those questions, its not just my idle curiousity.

[Tribute]

Know-ledger stop trying to distract us with Russian talk. Nobody has suggested a crime has taken place because of the nationality of the founders.

1) you say you know nothing of the mass strategy or ICO funds. Yet you are a long term partner of Alex Kuzmin and have attempted several schemes since mass. See point

2) Your statement that this Knowledger project has nothing to do with Mass or Swish coin is another lie. Look at the knowledger website. It clearly advetises a blockchain based ad revenue generator (sounds like mass)  and a food payment solution for restaurants (sounds like swishcoin to me).

You have a clear partnership with Kuzmin and if you haven't once asked where all these ICO funds go, then you're either stupid or already aware.

And finally the big question which you failed to answer is where did the mass ico funds go?

My site simply shows the docs that are (1) written by me and (b) if clients that have bought the content don't mind. Mass bought one of the docs shown. Swish — another. I might link docs to the projects that used them or I might not depending on whether I wish to promote someone else's brands on my resources. Swish management, as a matter of fact, decided not to implement the essence of the doc, at least for now, as far as I know. I suggested them to move from being restaurant-centric. Regarding swish, I dealt with Mr. Alongi, not Kuzmin, if anyone cares.

I am not a partner with Kuzmin, he is my client. Two different things. Yes, I have a doc proving that. And I know nothing indeed of his or his enterprise's state of finance. I did let Kuzmin know that people express worry here. I'm pretty sure he will assign someone to deal with it.

Mass is not a "scheme", it's a reasonable project with functioning software. I don't know how many downloads are there for now but it's too early to make judgments—it might gain traction pretty fast. Coin price depends directly on how many people use the app. It doesn't really depend on how well a company or dev team does at a particular point in time.

How can mass.network be a Project when there is no team behind it? Not a single dev. It is a scam.

[drays]

Still no reaction from "Know-ledger". It looks like I have to answer my own questions myself. I will do that soon, if the person called "Know-ledger" continue to play hide'n'seek. The answers are not that complex, but they are going to reveal some lies.

[drays]

Ok, so here we come. I am answering below my own questions, which were deliberately ignored by Alexey "Knowledger" Oshchepkov. Ignored - just because if he answers them, it will be clear he is a lier.

Answer number 1: Alex Kontegna is a pseudonym used by Alexey Oschepkov aka "Know-ledger" aka "Swishcoin" aka "massnetwork".
The company of Oshchepkov is called "Kontegna" too, and is registered in Lithuania (though he personally claims to be in Sweden): http://rekvizitai.vz.lt/en/company/kontegna/

Answer number 2: as "pianist" (Alexander Pankov) mentioned here in November (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1598276.msg17029656#msg17029656), the "massnetwork" account (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=891090) is opened and owned by Alexey Oschepkov. As we all can see, the posts from that account have started coming on Aug 23 2016, when he opened the first (later abandoned) thread for MASS Network, and go all the way to end of November 2016.
I have made a copies of all the posts of "massnetwork" account, just in case if Oschepkov comes here to delete them.

What does that mean?

It means Alexey Oschepkov is a lier and post probably, a scammer too.

See here:

6) In mid-September 2016 I was kicked off the project by Alexander Pankov with the extremely rude wording "I don't need you in the project, being impertinent to me is your life-lesson". I can prove that to any entity and will insist that in any court should that take place.

7) Later, along the project development, Alexander Kuzmin accurately calculated my participation and let me off, fulfilling all obligations to me, after his purchase of the entire thing, with no objections from my side whatsoever. I also had relations with him in the Mycelium Card project (https://card.mycelium.com) years before, where he also behave himself as a gentleman. I have no grounds to suspect him in any wrongdoings. He was indeed an escrow of the funds, according to his own words. I have zero knowledge on how funds received during the crowdsale were used, though.

Here Oschepkov-Contegna suggests he was not participating in the project since September 2016, as after Kuzmin has aquired MASS (that was in early October 2016), Oschepkov got his money and completely left the project.

That is a blatant lie, because

1. "massnetwork"=Oschepkov was posting on Bitcointalk a lot in November, and he was the one who introduced the notorious scam-like late investor bonus of 55-65%, and was actively defending that highly illegitimate action. The history of that account can be viewed here, or if it is deleted, I will publish the copies saved at "archive.is".

2. Articles mentioning Oshchepkov as "Chief Operating Officer" (!!!) are published in Nov 6 2016:
http://coinalert.eu/20161113112729-Blockchain+Advertising+Platform+Sees+Micro-Payments+Made+Possible+By+Bitcoin.html
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/mass-network-believes-micro-payments-made-possibly-bitcoin/
http://www.missfq.com/blockchain/blockchain-advertising-platform/
http://www.wanbizu.com/news/201611088061.html

This proves Alexey Oschepkov was actively working for MASS Network in a chief executive position, till the very end of crowdfunding.

Then he got his part of ICO money from Kuzmin (there is a reason to think it was 20% of the whole fund, but that is not verified), and run away to scam people with his new "projects".


Folks, if we don't get clear answers, and will still be fed with bullshit, we need to spread the word. Those scammers have real names, and they have some reputation in Crypto world, which helped them to organise several money grabs. They either need to start telling truth and deliver on their promises, or be stamped as scammers, with that reputation being ruined, and hopefully with some legal implications.

[robelneo]

Now that pianist is involve here,we should stop posting in the announcement thread,and focus here,he could delete all important details about the whole network because he is the thread starter and it is moderated,Pianist maybe knew that this could happen so he set it to moderated thread,scam coins are like that.

[pianist]

Ok, guys, I can go to this thread if you think that I can delete something important.

I have chosen "moderated" thread there just to have ability to remove spam posts, nothing more.

Most of you would be happy to get a job offer from Mycelium 6-7 month ago: well-known brand, interesting project. Moreover, I was told that Bitfury will provide payment solution based on Lightning Network, that's what I liked and I accepted Kuzmin's offer.

Yes, my mistake was to accept an offer. I did not know Kuzmin/Oschepkov before. Moreover, it was a mistake to start new thread on BCT. But as CTO I had to tell technical details about implementation.

I could not imagine that Mass could be a scam project! Charlie Shrem, Sasha Ivanov (Waves), Colu team, Bitfury... I talked with these guys about Mass, we discussed a lot of questions, why should I think something bad?