ICOBench Adviser Douglas Lyons:asking 3 ETH for fake rating.

[Patatas]

This is getting really interesting. So a random account with their name just pops-up in this thread and you'll take it seriously? I mean what's the guarantee they are the rightful account holders?

ICOBench has received all the evidence that Douglas Lyons takes money for his reviews (including  1 ETH transfer record to his account ) and that he extorts money from ICO projects that he has put on a low rating. But ICOOBench ignores this. And Douglas Lyons continues his very profitable and very dirty business.

As I stated, they're part of this. They're going to continue doing this. That's how they make money.

.
I mean, who the fuck are these people anyway?

Self-proclaimed crypto-experts aka scum of the crypto world.

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[olegraran]

This is getting really interesting. So a random account with their name just pops-up in this thread and you'll take it seriously? I mean what's the guarantee they are the rightful account holders?

ICOBench has received all the evidence that Douglas Lyons takes money for his reviews (including  1 ETH transfer record to his account ) and that he extorts money from ICO projects that he has put on a low rating. But ICOOBench ignores this. And Douglas Lyons continues his very profitable and very dirty business.

As I stated, they're part of this. They're going to continue doing this. That's how they make money.

.
I mean, who the fuck are these people anyway?

Self-proclaimed crypto-experts aka scum of the crypto world.

100% TRUE

[FIEX]

Hello! We welcome any reports and always consider them when they are sent to us! We follow our rules, but we need direct evidence to take any action!

I was an advisor for few ICO's and we have messaged ICO Bench multiple times regarding their experts asking for money in exchange for higher ratings.

Never get any reply and all experts are still working on the site and further ask for bribes in return for a good review.

This goes even further and some of them will leave a bad rating full of accusations if one refuses to pay.

They will make a legit project looks scammy because not paid and write a super review with 5 stars for obvious scam ICO for few ETH coins.

I just stopped to use ICO Bench service because of this. It's a shame because ICO Bench was a great tool and I just don't understand why they haven't been pickier when it goes to experts, they are working with.

If there is any signal that such an expert is not trustworthy should be banned immediately and taken into a deep review. Only like this, You can maybe recover the lost trust ICO Bench.

ICO Bench, indeed was a great tool.
We all used this website to check new project. After the ICO hype, I dont look at that website anymore and just do my own research. Reading all these accusations dont suprise me. It's not only ICO Bench who want $$$ but those scammers of so called 'expert', they think they know it all but eventually just doing nothing.

BUT there are some good onces between them.
ICO Bench should start doing a cleanup! Aren't they on this forum?

[marlboroza]

I looked at some Douglas's ratings and something is wrong here:


https://icobench.com/ico/bizavest-analytics-platform


https://icobench.com/ico/worldwifi

It looks like he is the one reporting ICO's offering to pay money for ratings, not the one who is asking money.
OP if you don't mind telling us why are you hiding behind brand new account? Post from your real account.

[olegraran]

Check this:
Rating before payment
https://plus.google.com/u/2/photos/photo/106995061118247758998/6624893308083243938
Rating after payment
https://plus.google.com/u/2/photos/photo/106995061118247758998/6624893557632189522

[olegraran]

Dozens of companies reported to ICObench that they were extorted money shortly before Douglas Lyons publish rating and / or immediately after that.
Dozen of companies reported to ICOBench that Douglas Lyons does not writing reviews, but copy / paste them.
No reaction.

[wwzsocki]

What kind dirty business are you talking about? what other articles that you are referring that was deleted? We never delete anything that we post.

I think olegraran misread my post somehow and actually refers to Douglas Lyons, not you.

If I had to guess some butthurt friends of yours kept reporting articles.

When you receive an official reply from Medium please share here, I'm really interested to know which policies you have breached that have led to the suspension of your account.

Apparently posting anything about a scam is against their rules. SO, basically MEDIUM allows scammers to promote their scam on their platform, but no one can call them a scammer.
Which to us make MEDIUM a scam promoting platform.

1st message



OUR response



Their final message

This is just hard to believe but I think there is something going on in Medium because my account was suspended too. I was Medium user from start and don't think I violated rules. Especially spam rule to which they applied in my case. I was getting paid each month from them and after so many years they shut down my account because of spam and provide no explanation what so ever. Even never replied to my, multiple emails which I leave with no comment.

[ICOEthics]

Please read this entire article and find out more about the other corrupted experts inside ICOBench such as Vladimir Nikitin, Phillip Nunn, etc..
ALso, there are more details about their corrupted rating/listing systems.

https://www.cointelligence.com/content/ico-expert-corruption/

[cabron]

Please read this entire article and find out more about the other corrupted experts inside ICOBench such as Vladimir Nikitin, Phillip Nunn, etc..
ALso, there are more details about their corrupted rating/listing systems.

https://www.cointelligence.com/content/ico-expert-corruption/

Shame on these guys.  I never really think of someone who passed KYC on ICObench, their profiles are known to people who view them and they still have the guts to ask from teams trying to get themselves on this media.  Do they really passed KYC? People always gets corrupted when the greed for money come.

[olegraran]

Please read this entire article and find out more about the other corrupted experts inside ICOBench such as Vladimir Nikitin, Phillip Nunn, etc..
ALso, there are more details about their corrupted rating/listing systems.

https://www.cointelligence.com/content/ico-expert-corruption/

Correct Vladimir Nikitin, Phillip Nunn, Douglas Lyouns is one big scam ICOBench advisors team.
After getting money they are rating the same projects or entering their advisory boards :
https://icobench.com/ico/ez-exchange
https://icobench.com/ico/axt
https://icobench.com/ico/skychain
https://icobench.com/ico/vestarin
https://icobench.com/ico/safecrypt
https://icobench.com/ico/flogmall
https://icobench.com/ico/timebox
https://icobench.com/ico/cryptopus
and so on
everywhere the same names.

[FIEX]

Please read this entire article and find out more about the other corrupted experts inside ICOBench such as Vladimir Nikitin, Phillip Nunn, etc..
ALso, there are more details about their corrupted rating/listing systems.

https://www.cointelligence.com/content/ico-expert-corruption/

Great article. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Those ICO rating website should all stop and projects should stop posting their ratings on their thread/website/... the more you post the futher I walk away. Really hope they soon shutdown ICOBench.

[marlboroza]

Really hope they soon shutdown ICOBench.

I don't because their KYC test helps at some point to see if team is real or not, especially when you can't find pictures and names of team members anywhere and especially when they fail that test. They could improve their site and conduct KYC for every project and actually do KYC and video conversation at the same time.
It is just they need to weed out bad eggs.

[FIEX]

Really hope they soon shutdown ICOBench.

I don't because their KYC test helps at some point to see if team is real or not, especially when you can't find pictures and names of team members anywhere and especially when they fail that test. They could improve their site and conduct KYC for every project and actually do KYC and video conversation at the same time.
It is just they need to weed out bad eggs.

Correct (KYC + Video conversation = bulletproof)
This will get those scam project out ICOBench but what about those 'experts'? They give a good rating if you pay them enough money.

They need to get that sorted.
But I'm afraid their name is already damaged if I look at LinkedIn, Reddit, ...

Like the one mentioned in the article ICOEthics posted:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6416966802420699136/

[marlboroza]

This will get those scam project out ICOBench but what about those 'experts'? They give a good rating if you pay them enough money.

As I said, they need to remove them from their site as soon as possible. They have more than 350 experts and as far as I know everyone can apply to become one. It is not like someone can control them all but they can "fire" them.
We already went off topic with this so I will stop here.

[mallorcagold]

Yeah I agree, all those supposed 'experts' and ICO advisors just are part of a new way of scamming people.

I once spoke with a person that was launching some kind of eco friendly mining ICO. He hired a handful advisors after they reviewed the idea. They told they were going to invest themselves and bring in lots of investors from their huge amount of followers.

the team paid the advisory team 3ETH each (700$/eth t that time). After that they just posted on their linkdin they were involved in that project but beside that they never did any effort to publicly support the project, nor to invest themselves or bring in investors funds from their network of followers.

So clearly becoming an ICO advisor these days is a new way of becoming a scammer

[olegraran]

Yeah I agree, all those supposed 'experts' and ICO advisors just are part of a new way of scamming people.

I once spoke with a person that was launching some kind of eco friendly mining ICO. He hired a handful advisors after they reviewed the idea. They told they were going to invest themselves and bring in lots of investors from their huge amount of followers.

the team paid the advisory team 3ETH each (700$/eth t that time). After that they just posted on their linkdin they were involved in that project but beside that they never did any effort to publicly support the project, nor to invest themselves or bring in investors funds from their network of followers.

So clearly becoming an ICO advisor these days is a new way of becoming a scammer

It is true that today's advisors are scammers extorting money and not doing anything for ICO projects. Today, in order to become an "advosor" in ICOBench, nothing is needed except personal identification.

[xtraelv]

Interestingly I came across this guy when doing some research on a scam.



He claims to have a track record of high performance but when I looked at that "track record"...



It appears that the only ICO that actually got listed that he is an advisor on was a massive flop and is subject to scam accusations.

The other projects that he assisted in raising millions of dollars for - skychain and vestarin - is also subject to scam accusations here and here.









Datarius raised $1,662,752.00 of a target market cap of $51 Million and it plummeted in just a few months to $69,100.00





They claim to have $1.5 million 24hour sales for a $69K marketcap coin. That means the entire market cap got sold 22x.

[olegraran]

There was a big article on the web, discribing Douglas Lyons helped Datarius to collect money. He  gave an interview, convinced that this was the future of the world economy, and then the money simply disappeared. (All articles in medium, reddit and other resources where people write about him - Douglas Lyons deletes.)

[xtraelv]

EDIT: ICO Bench advised me that Douglas Lyons is no longer one of their experts.

There was a big article on the web, discribing Douglas Lyons helped Datarius to collect money. He  gave an interview, convinced that this was the future of the world economy, and then the money simply disappeared. (All articles in medium, reddit and other resources where people write about him - Douglas Lyons deletes.)

https://archive.fo/3CFrl
https://archive.fo/OpW8V

This interview looks suspicious:
https://archive.fo/drPpz
Rather than an article it is more of an infomercial.

The interview is by Simon Cocking


But the entire interview is in first person and the contact details are provided at the bottom as

Connect with me on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-lyons-72608442/
Check me out on ICObench
https://icobench.com/u/doug-lyons

[olegraran]

EDIT: ICO Bench advised me that Douglas Lyons is no longer one of their experts.

Good news!