How do crooks try to blackmail ICO projects? A real-life example.
ccording to the publications calendar, we planned to publish the 4th and final part of the research on advertising opportunities in instant messengers, today. However, due to external pressure, we have changed the publishing date..
In this article, we want to show our community and all crypto market participants, the fraudulent and illegal situations that ICO projects often face. We will also tell how light-fingered members of the crypto community try to blackmail ICO projects with deliberately false information.
On July 26, 2018 members of the UMC team received Skype requests to add “Scam UMC” to the user’s contacts (screenshot here).
After accepting the request, the team members received a WEB-link (screenshot here), which led to the temporary publication service.
The text of the article, which was revealed upon opening the link, contained:
information allegedly exposing Sergei Petrik, the co-founder of the UMC project;
accusation that the UMC project is a scam;
threats to publish the aforementioned information in a few hours on all possible Internet resources, and complain to all possible institutions;
the requirement to pay 1 BTC for non-disclosure of the aforementioned information, if paid instantly, or 10 BTC for the removal of published information.
We took screenshots of this page, since the culprits can easily change it. I think you will find it useful to read, please see here.
Honestly, after reading the article, most of us were slightly frightened, others were perplexed, but, having studied the article, we realised that the situation is ridiculous. Let’s turn to the original source. We think that this article will also make you smile.
I. Kairos
The article states that Sergey Petrik was the co-founder of the Kairos project, which was based on the network model. After its successful development the project has embezzled money and disappeared for more than a year. There are links on the internet of tens of thousands (!!!) of complaints and hundreds of thousands (!!!) of deceived participants, however these are fake.
…
To authors of the article, are you serious? Have you checked your facts?
It is important for the crypto community to understand a few things:
The Kairos project did exist.
Yes, this project turned out to be a scam.
But!
Sergey Petrik has never been a founder or a team member of this project. He did not have access to the project accounts and he did not make any decisions about the further development or closure of Kairos. Sergey was “Founder Executive” in Kairos, which was one of the positions in the network structure.
Kairos was managed by other people (real founders and project staff). The official information is available and easily verifiable.
Sergey Petrik participated in the project as a network distributor. He was one of many people who believed in this project; he put his heart and soul into its development. And like many other people he suffered losses after its closure.
Regarding the claim that Sergey did not appear in public for more than a year. Together with most of the current UMC team, Sergei worked on the foundation of the project, which is now undergoing the ICO stage. Information about this period of the team’s life will soon be publically available as a series of video interviews, which we conducted during our trip to Alanya in early June (!!!) in 2018, long before the idea to blackmail our project appeared in the culprits’ head.
II. UMC
All the information about UMC in the article is a classic “fruit of the poisoned tree” situation. There is a confusion of facts, bootstrapping, and attempts to play on the reader’s lack of knowledge.
The company’s offshore zone registration.
Yes, UMC is officially registered in the British Virgin Islands. Do you know why? First of all, the British Virgin Islands is one of the few countries, which is loyal to the crypto business, and secondly, because it is easy to register a company there.
No, it has nothing to do with deceiving depositors, it is rather due to the fact that it is more convenient to work with the legislators there. It is more flexible and easy to conduct business there, when it is not necessary to give “fire” to firemen, sanitation, tax and other “inspectors” every week.
By the way, we hope that we are not divulging a big secret by letting you know that Telegram is also registered as a company from an offshore zone …
2. The founders of the UMC project and their relationship with the founders of the Kairos project.
There is no relationship at all. Sergey Petrik is not the founder of Kairos. Read above.
Moreover, most of the team had nothing to do with Kairos or business networking. However, yes, our team members worked in a corporate environment.
3. Inaccuracies in the facts describing the project
I do not even want to comment here. It seems that the description of scammers did not come from our project. If in brief:
it is not our budget
the scammers did not even read the road map, because if they read it, they would know that the budget is calculated by 2021;
Our product is fully developed and it is currently in a closed beta testing stage.
In addition, if the blackmailers were a little more attentive and meticulous, they would know that Irina Heber, the adviser of our project, is the official representative of SEC for the Arab world. So the SEC is more than just aware of our project — its representative is a part our team! If the blackmailers had a bit more patience, they would wait for the update of our website and White paper of the project. The new members of our team have a huge credibility in the crypto-currency world and would never spoil their reputation, which is more valuable to them than money.
The article about Jeff Bullas has already been published: Why Forbes and Entrepreneur wrote about Jeff Bullas, a new UMC team member?
In general, if you are really interested in reliable information about our project, check our website — umccoin.io or any of our authorized public resources, which are listed here — umccoin.io. The other information on the internet is nonsense!
III. What will we do in this situation?
It’s simple.
We will not transfer any money to the blackmailers, because we do not negotiate with criminals and we are not going to support this “business”.
We will wait for the publication of this information in the media and turn to law enforcement agencies. If the scammers believe that cryptoplaces can secure them from punishment, they are deeply mistaken.
We want and will do everything possible to clean this “infection” from the crypto industry!
Dear crypto community!
Please do not give in to such provocations. Learn the information and facts yourself. Do not be reckless in making decisions. The UMC team hopes that we managed to show you the situation as it really is. We are open and honest with everyone. We are creating a product that can change the world! Join us! And THANKS for your support!
P.S. If you have faced such blackmail problems, write to us! Let us help each other to expose the scammers and make the industry cleaner and more decent!
