Igor Karavaev - ICOBench Expert - Impersonator - Resolved

[Bowtiesarecool]

I'm currently working with MiracleTele as their SMM and recently got a message via Facebook from Igor Karavaev proposing a "paid-for" rating on ICOBench which I promptly turned down only for him to threaten that he and his colleagues "will significantly lower your ICOBench account" if we do not pay 0.5 BTC to his account. Not even remotely scared about the blackmail threat or even been reviewed bombed since Miracletele already has a working Sim card product and services in 160+ countries, just stunned that the stories about how scammy ICOBench has gotten are true. Below are the screens:

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[hacker1001101001]

ICObench has become a very highly manipulated crypto review site. Any ICO with no vision, no real team, no potential also some scams could take a place on the site with high ratings in front of there names. You could find many examples of already decalred scam projects on Bitcointalk being listed on the ICObench website with good investors ratings. ICObench is totally a place were any project could get a decent rating if they could invest funds in websites marketing packages.

They just attract newbie crypto users and investors, people who are in crypto and ICOs from decent time now should already know they are faked and none of their ratings are legitimate as per the investment perspective.
This is an interesting articles about how do they manipulate the Ratings:

1. https://medium.com/alethena/this-is-how-easy-it-is-to-buy-ico-ratings-an-investigation-13d07e987394
2.https://cryptocurrencyhub.io/ico-bench-is-asking-payment-for-expert-status-817daecc14e0

One Bitcointalk ICObench is already proved as a misleading website and the account operating under the website is red-tagged.

Profile link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1139440
Accusation: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5110530.0

[xtraelv]

It isn't "proof" that he is the actual scammer. It could be someone impersonating him.

Tell him to "get f@cked" and see if your rating is affected. If your rating is affected then you know it is probably the real him & then complain to ICO bench.

They have removed "experts" before when faced with public humiliation when they turn out to be frauds or corrupt.

Scammers are great at making threats and not following through with them.

ICO Bench is a scammy website anyway.

Looks like the payment address has never been used: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1DywC5QBwzRRBJ8D1HqZdthotwYkL5ex8

ICO bench has been caught with their pants down numerous times like VERIFYING FAKE PEOPLE from SCAM ICOs

   
Pornx scam. Website domain suspended. Twitter suspended. Fake team.

[Bowtiesarecool]

It isn't "proof" that he is the actual scammer. It could be someone impersonating him.

Tell him to "get f@cked" and see if your rating is affected. If your rating is affected then you know it is probably the real him & then complain to ICO bench.

They have removed "experts" before when faced with public humiliation when they turn out to be frauds or corrupt.

Scammers are great at making threats and not following through with them.

ICO Bench is a scammy website anyway.

Looks like the payment address has never been used: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1DywC5QBwzRRBJ8D1HqZdthotwYkL5ex8

I am pretty sure it's him. This is his Facebook profile link that sent the message: https://www.facebook.com/igor.karavaev.9803
And as you can see from the screenshots, his first message was in January which was not responded to. I got onboard as SMM last week and started responding to all messages including his. Then, he replied with the ransom demand today. If it's someone impersonating him, that means they've been sitting on this impersonating account for close to 3 months doing nothing? I doubt it. An impersonator would have reached out to other ICOs and most likely would have been outted.

[Bowtiesarecool]

ICObench has become a very highly manipulated crypto review site. Any ICO with no vision, no real team, no potential also some scams could take a place on the site with high ratings in front of there names. You could find many examples of already decalred scam projects on Bitcointalk being listed on the ICObench website with good investors ratings. ICObench is totally a place were any project could get a decent rating if they could invest funds in websites marketing packages.

They just attract newbie crypto users and investors, people who are in crypto and ICOs from decent time now should already know they are faked and none of their ratings are legitimate as per the investment perspective.
This is an interesting articles about how do they manipulate the Ratings:

1. https://medium.com/alethena/this-is-how-easy-it-is-to-buy-ico-ratings-an-investigation-13d07e987394
2.https://cryptocurrencyhub.io/ico-bench-is-asking-payment-for-expert-status-817daecc14e0

One Bitcointalk ICObench is already proved as a misleading website and the account operating under the website is red-tagged.

Profile link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1139440
Accusation: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5110530.0

MiracleTele reviews by these "experts" on ICOBench has been nothing sort of a joke with most review based on the need to have more "advisors" and implying that they are the sort of advisors needed. I've also have the "honor" of working alongside some of these experts/advisors and their input is nothing but adding points to site and getting paid for plastering their mugshot on the ICO website. Most don't even read the WP!

[xtraelv]

It isn't "proof" that he is the actual scammer. It could be someone impersonating him.

Tell him to "get f@cked" and see if your rating is affected. If your rating is affected then you know it is probably the real him & then complain to ICO bench.

They have removed "experts" before when faced with public humiliation when they turn out to be frauds or corrupt.

Scammers are great at making threats and not following through with them.

ICO Bench is a scammy website anyway.

Looks like the payment address has never been used: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1DywC5QBwzRRBJ8D1HqZdthotwYkL5ex8

I am pretty sure it's him. This is his Facebook profile link that sent the message: https://www.facebook.com/igor.karavaev.9803
And as you can see from the screenshots, his first message was in January which was not responded to. I got onboard as SMM last week and started responding to all messages including his. Then, he replied with the ransom demand today. If it's someone impersonating him, that means they've been sitting on this impersonating account for close to 3 months doing nothing? I doubt it. An impersonator would have reached out to other ICOs and most likely would have been outted.

I'm pretty sure it is an impersonator.  It is an identical copy of another identical facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/iggikv

In fact neither profile gives me much confidence at all. Neither profile show much history of this persons existence . The the profile that wrote to you only cam into existance on 30 January this year while this profile  https://www.facebook.com/igor.karavaev.9803 dates back to 2016.

[Bowtiesarecool]

It isn't "proof" that he is the actual scammer. It could be someone impersonating him.

Tell him to "get f@cked" and see if your rating is affected. If your rating is affected then you know it is probably the real him & then complain to ICO bench.

They have removed "experts" before when faced with public humiliation when they turn out to be frauds or corrupt.

Scammers are great at making threats and not following through with them.

ICO Bench is a scammy website anyway.

Looks like the payment address has never been used: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1DywC5QBwzRRBJ8D1HqZdthotwYkL5ex8

I am pretty sure it's him. This is his Facebook profile link that sent the message: https://www.facebook.com/igor.karavaev.9803
And as you can see from the screenshots, his first message was in January which was not responded to. I got onboard as SMM last week and started responding to all messages including his. Then, he replied with the ransom demand today. If it's someone impersonating him, that means they've been sitting on this impersonating account for close to 3 months doing nothing? I doubt it. An impersonator would have reached out to other ICOs and most likely would have been outted.

I'm pretty sure it is an impersonator.  It is an identical copy of another identical facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/iggikv

In fact neither profile gives me much confidence at all. Neither profile show much history of this persons existence . The the profile that wrote to you only cam into existance on 30 January this year while this profile  https://www.facebook.com/igor.karavaev.9803 dates back to 2016.

Stands to reason that the one that dates back to 2016 is the real one. And that account happens to be the same one that contacted us: https://www.facebook.com/igor.karavaev.9803

[Theb]

I am pretty sure it's him. This is his Facebook profile link that sent the message: https://www.facebook.com/igor.karavaev.9803
And as you can see from the screenshots, his first message was in January which was not responded to. I got onboard as SMM last week and started responding to all messages including his. Then, he replied with the ransom demand today. If it's someone impersonating him, that means they've been sitting on this impersonating account for close to 3 months doing nothing? I doubt it. An impersonator would have reached out to other ICOs and most likely would have been outted.

The Facebook account is already either deactivated or removed which only means that the person trying to extort you is already in the wind. Even if ICOBench is a shady website I doubt that the real Igor Karavaev will be messaging one by one ICO devs to be extorted by him, usually it's the either way around in which scammy ICOs will be the one contacting ICOBench to inflate up the ratings since they do have what they call "premium listings" in their website in exchange for BTC. The most probable thing that happened is an impersonator tried to scam you and thought that you will bite his scam. 

[Bowtiesarecool]

I am pretty sure it's him. This is his Facebook profile link that sent the message: https://www.facebook.com/igor.karavaev.9803
And as you can see from the screenshots, his first message was in January which was not responded to. I got onboard as SMM last week and started responding to all messages including his. Then, he replied with the ransom demand today. If it's someone impersonating him, that means they've been sitting on this impersonating account for close to 3 months doing nothing? I doubt it. An impersonator would have reached out to other ICOs and most likely would have been outted.

The Facebook account is already either deactivated or removed which only means that the person trying to extort you is already in the wind. Even if ICOBench is a shady website I doubt that the real Igor Karavaev will be messaging one by one ICO devs to be extorted by him, usually it's the either way around in which scammy ICOs will be the one contacting ICOBench to inflate up the ratings since they do have what they call "premium listings" in their website in exchange for BTC. The most probable thing that happened is an impersonator tried to scam you and thought that you will bite his scam. 

Nope. Profile is certainly not deleted. Tried another browser and it's still there. However, when I tried a third browser that is not signed into facebook, it said profile/link not found. Seems like you can only see it if you're signed in

[coinlocket$]

The Facebook account is already either deactivated or removed

Actually this profile seems to be online but with nothing on timeline

https://www.facebook.com/igor.karavaev.9803

[TalkStar]

ICO listing sites rating issue has already been so common to everyone and most of us know that how they manipulate their website rating system. But for this case I think someone is trying to act like a team member of ICOBench and trying to get the fund.

Its nothing but a scammers trick where he is trying to steal money from ICO projects. Maybe he is targetting all ICO projects who already listed on ICOBench and sending them same messages for their rating improvement offer.
 

[Theb]

~snip~

Actually this profile seems to be online but with nothing on timeline

https://www.facebook.com/igor.karavaev.9803

I may now know the problem, it seems like if you aren't logged in to your Facebook account you have no way to see if the account exist. At first I though that it was one of my browsers not working but after I logged in to FB I was able to view the account. But after visiting his profile my point still stands that this is an impersonator and he just tried to scam the OP. His FB  profile literally has no track whatsoever of him working in ICOBench, no posts in his timeline, no friends to show, and all of his pictures are uploaded from the same day which only means that this account is just newly created.

[shitcoinoffering]

Well... We mentioned Igor Karavaev as scammer a year ago in our articles.

https://shitcoinoffering.com/no-country-for-shit-advisers-part-1/
https://shitcoinoffering.com/datecoin-fuck-the-investor/

The mystery of the century is what happened to the team members listed on LinkedIn. Who knows who is to blame: the Langoliers? Aliens? Trump? Who knows. It is not certain what happened to the project advisors either. Currently, Chinese lawyer Simon Choi is shown as the only one. A white lie was required to learn more about the relationship between DateCoin and their former advisor Igor Karavayev.

[Harlot]

Well... We mentioned Igor Karavaev as scammer a year ago in our articles.

https://shitcoinoffering.com/no-country-for-shit-advisers-part-1/
https://shitcoinoffering.com/datecoin-fuck-the-investor/

But the problem here is we don't even have any proof that is Igor Karavaev's fb account. Chances are he is just talking to a impersonator trying to scam him. And point being is the accoun is recently created and has used Karavaev's exiting photos online. I know that Karavaev has a bad reputation already but I don't think that he will be extorting anyone in this way. So the OP might just be talking to a scammer who is trying to impersonate a scammer.

[wahran]

you should have asked him for his linkedin or osmething taht prove that he own that ico bench account to make sure its him and not someone else pretend its him (as he can say that now even its him) , i trusted icobench a lot i didnt know its just a shity manipulated ico rating i would thanks you for thread anyway  cuz i learned a new thing *dont trust ico review

[Avirunes]

you should have asked him for his linkedin or osmething taht prove that he own that ico bench account to make sure its him and not someone else pretend its him (as he can say that now even its him) , i trusted icobench a lot i didnt know its just a shity manipulated ico rating i would thanks you for thread anyway  cuz i learned a new thing *dont trust ico review

Even if he is real Ivan, would you trust his analysis right away and make an investment? I would never and others (as investors) should also as well. Advisors only post their views and analysis about the project and why they think it would be a good project to make an investment into. Your job is to do a proper research before making an investment where you could also take help of their views and reports.

People should know that they are trusting some other's view and it might lead to loss.

[xtraelv]

Even if he is real Ivan, would you trust his analysis right away and make an investment? I would never and others (as investors) should also as well. Advisors only post their views and analysis about the project and why they think it would be a good project to make an investment into. Your job is to do a proper research before making an investment where you could also take help of their views and reports.

People should know that they are trusting some other's view and it might lead to loss.

You only have to look at the huge volume of rip-off ICOs to know that the majority are outright scams or will result in losses.

Advisors are salesmen. They don't act for the buyer - even though they might pretend they are "on your side".

They may not be detrimental to your purchase decision but they benefit from the sales and work for the seller.

[Bowtiesarecool]

ICOBench finally reached out to inform us that we were approached by an impersonator and the real Igor has had the account taken down after reaching out to Facebook. Would like to thank the community for supporting us and providing us with valuable insight. There's still a lot of good folks to be found on this reverend forum. Thanks guys!