[POTENTIAL SCAM] Invech - Licensed Crypto Exchange & Blockchain Smart City

[nutildah]

Project ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5052844.0
ANN creator: invech.group
Flag warning: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=298

About the project:

Invech Group is a company licensed by the government of Timor Leste to regulate and operate – blockchain and cryptocurrency related businesses. It is a partnership put together by an extensive group of business and experts from Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Timor Leste. Our aim is to develop Timor Leste into a cryptocurrency haven and bring in development and foreign investments into Timor Leste to revitalize the economy of this new post-war country. Invech Group have been awarded a total of 9 business licenses in Timor Leste.

Why its possibly a scam:

This project's white paper is heavily plagiarized from the Binance whitepaper:







I posted a warning in their thread about this and this was their response:

This kind of accusation is very detrimental to us. We find many projects that are exactly the same as the same whitepaper. They are successful with the program. But we are a different Crypto project.

So, if they're a different project, why didn't they write their own white paper?

Another thing odd about this project is their use of a bumping service which has written hundreds of 1 or 2 line comments in its thread. Some accounts linked to this service have been used to bump scams in the past, which leads me to believe their presence is another indicator that this project might be a scam. Bumper service accounts include:

Code:

Rustamm
Zhenka
kolnides
A7373
DmitFomin
Bugatti73
Umkar
jusertvaz
DoubleShow
ytaevv
Voevodin
Artem57
Lyshkd

In the Invech thread, there are dozens of pages of these accounts just mindlessly talking to each other, asking questions and then answering themselves, in order to create the illusion of community interest in the project (to me this is a deceitful practice). I'm pretty sure they are all operated by the same person as they ALL have the same obscure Iceland Local Time and the exact same writing style... Just 1 or 2 lines of basic English over and over and over and over....

Just for fun, here's an example of a bumper account talking to itself, who forgot to log in to the next account before responding to the same account:



Regardless of the aforementioned, if somebody from the Invech team can respond here saying that they will update their white paper to include their own verbiage (instead of Binance's), and then replace their old WP with it, then I will withdrawal my warning flag for their project.

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[witcher_sense]

I'm not sure that Binance would be successful copying other people's white papers. Of course, that many exchanges are lazy enough, and do not write their own documentation by own hands. Just copy, because it's easy.  And we also know that in most cases this is a sign of fraudulent projects. I would not advise dealing with such guys if they look unreliable at the very beginning of their careers.

[nutildah]

I'm not sure that Binance would be successful copying other people's white papers. Of course, that many exchanges are lazy enough, and do not write their own documentation by own hands. Just copy, because it's easy.  And we also know that in most cases this is a sign of fraudulent projects. I would not advise dealing with such guys if they look unreliable at the very beginning of their careers.

I think in general 2 tiers of criteria to determine the likelihood that a project is going to be a scam.

Top-tier criteria are bright red flags which put the project in a 90%+ likelihood of being a scam. These include:

- Ponzi-esque features (huge ROIs)
- fake team (actually using somebody else's picture and passing it off as your own)
- malware in wallet client (duh)

Lower-tier criteria are yellow to dark orangish flags that put the project in a 50-89% likelihood of being a scam. These include:

- plagiarized white paper
- no team or anonymous team
- uses bumping service to bump thread

Logical inconsistencies in the project design can be either lower or top depending on what they are... There's probably a few other things I forgot to mention that can be squeezed in one category or the other.

Anyway, because this project only has 2 of the lower-tier 3, I can't say for sure its a scam, however, there's a strong chance that it is.

[witcher_sense]

~

You have pretty solid classification of criteria, which i mostly agree with. I want to ask the project team a simple question. Why should I use their services if it is safer for me to go to the original source of their white paper and use their services instead?

[YD Sign Centre]

Project ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5052844.0
ANN creator: invech.group
Flag warning: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=298

About the project:

Invech Group is a company licensed by the government of Timor Leste to regulate and operate – blockchain and cryptocurrency related businesses. It is a partnership put together by an extensive group of business and experts from Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Timor Leste. Our aim is to develop Timor Leste into a cryptocurrency haven and bring in development and foreign investments into Timor Leste to revitalize the economy of this new post-war country. Invech Group have been awarded a total of 9 business licenses in Timor Leste.

Why its possibly a scam:

This project's white paper is heavily plagiarized from the Binance whitepaper:







I posted a warning in their thread about this and this was their response:

This kind of accusation is very detrimental to us. We find many projects that are exactly the same as the same whitepaper. They are successful with the program. But we are a different Crypto project.

So, if they're a different project, why didn't they write their own white paper?

Another thing odd about this project is their use of a bumping service which has written hundreds of 1 or 2 line comments in its thread. Some accounts linked to this service have been used to bump scams in the past, which leads me to believe their presence is another indicator that this project might be a scam. Bumper service accounts include:

Code:

Rustamm
Zhenka
kolnides
A7373
DmitFomin
Bugatti73
Umkar
jusertvaz
DoubleShow
ytaevv
Voevodin
Artem57
Lyshkd

In the Invech thread, there are dozens of pages of these accounts just mindlessly talking to each other, asking questions and then answering themselves, in order to create the illusion of community interest in the project (to me this is a deceitful practice). I'm pretty sure they are all operated by the same person as they ALL have the same obscure Iceland Local Time and the exact same writing style... Just 1 or 2 lines of basic English over and over and over and over....

Just for fun, here's an example of a bumper account talking to itself, who forgot to log in to the next account before responding to the same account:



Regardless of the aforementioned, if somebody from the Invech team can respond here saying that they will update their white paper to include their own verbiage (instead of Binance's), and then replace their old WP with it, then I will withdrawal my warning flag for their project.

Hi, Nutildah. The exchange is not our only business. We are not here to recreate the wheel. Rather, to put in place a whole new ecosystem which is government licenced and approved.

Besides the crypto exchange, we also have projects related to hotel and gambling tourism, agriculture and fisheries, construction, logistics, and etc. All of these are with the gov of Timor Leste.

I will tell the CEO and our team whether they still have time to renew the current Whitepaper. Thank you for your positive post

[nutildah]

I will tell the CEO and our team whether they still have time to renew the current Whitepaper. Thank you for your positive post

Right well, they probably should if they want to be seen as a legitimate enterprise. You're welcome.

You have pretty solid classification of criteria, which i mostly agree with. I want to ask the project team a simple question. Why should I use their services if it is safer for me to go to the original source of their white paper and use their services instead?

I like your avatar by the way. You're like a slavic ninja.

[logfiles]

I see these people have not even bother to resolve this accusation of potential scam
Another full member account, masfaii made a bounty thread for them https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5158357.0

I don't know if he is part of them or not as there is no disclaimer of not being part of the project owners

[Coin-1]

I see these people have not even bother to resolve this accusation of potential scam
Another full member account, masfaii made a bounty thread for them https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5158357.0

I don't know if he is part of them or not as there is no disclaimer of not being part of the project owners

As far as I remember, the first user who managed this bounty campaign has claimed that the project has already sold about 36% of tokens, but now I can't find these posts. In any case, they have recently "paused" their bounty campaign:

Report Form
Week 1 (June 7-13)
Week 2 (June 14-20)
Week 3 (June 21-27)
Week 4 (June 28- July 04)
Week 5 (July 05- July 11)
Week 6 (July 12- July 18)
Week 7 (July 19 - July 25)
Week 8 (July 26 - August 01)
Week 9 (PAUSE)

....

Archived: http://archive.fo/hrkYZ


Members who participated in these campaigns have complained in the bounty thread:

week 9 pause? How come ? What is going on ? Is there a problem? can you give a little explanation so that the campaign participants don't worry, and give us an answer until when is the bounty paused?

Please mr bounty manager, could you narrate this process of pausing the bounty program very well to us so that we could understand how is the bounty running or do we stop the work or continue?

I also don't know whether the second user who managed this bounty campaign is part of the project owners or not.

[nutildah]

As far as I remember, the first user who managed this bounty campaign has claimed that the project has already sold about 36% of tokens, but now I can't find these posts. In any case, they have recently "paused" their bounty campaign:

Good catch. I'm thinking the entire thing was a scam from the get go. They milked as many token sales as they believed they could from it, and are now closing up shop. I would be surprised if anybody gets anything.