[2019-06-29] CNBC-shilled cryptocurrency exchange Bitsane pulls exit scam

[bbc.reporter]

I know the title is clickbait. I did not want to include that Bitsane was shilled on CNBC in my summary, however, this is cryptospace comedy, this needs to be shared hehehe.

I am sorry to the people who lost their coins, however. There were some users based in America who already reported this to the FBI, according to the article.



Irish cryptocurrency exchange Bitsane has pulled an exit scam and disappeared with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency belonging to its users, reports Forbes.

Bitsane’s website, which reportedly boasted 246,000 registered users, has been offline since (at least) June 17, when its Facebook and Twitter accounts were noted to be offline. LinkedIn accounts for key employees have also been scrubbed.

Sadly, Bitsane got its big break during 2017’s “crypto-mania.” When mainstream media outlet CNBC infamously “educated” readers on how to buy Ripple as its price approached all-time-high, it actually advised investors to purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum on Coinbase and exchange them for XRP using Bitsane.

Three of the five users Forbes spoke to heard about Bitsane through CNBC‘s article. The exchange was also reportedly featured on Ripple‘s website until recently.

Read in full https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2019/06/28/cnbc-shilled-cryptocurrency-exchange-bitsane-pulls-exit-scam-on-246k-users/

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[hatshepsut93]

Conventional wisdom says that if you are getting something for free, then you are the product, and this is especially true for investment advice - why would anyone give it for free if they can keep it to themselves and make more money? People often advice newbies to do their own research, but we see that many people are thinking that "making their research" means reading crappy news sites like CNBC, so maybe we should also tell newbies to be aware of shills that promote scams, and that even high-profile sites can be shills too.

[davis196]

Conventional wisdom says that if you are getting something for free, then you are the product, and this is especially true for investment advice - why would anyone give it for free if they can keep it to themselves and make more money? People often advice newbies to do their own research, but we see that many people are thinking that "making their research" means reading crappy news sites like CNBC, so maybe we should also tell newbies to be aware of shills that promote scams, and that even high-profile sites can be shills too.

Such "investment advice" isn't real investment advice.It's a hidden advertisement.That's why the people get it for free.I feel sorry for the Bitsane users.It's really easy to fall into a scam,if the scam was promoted by an "authoritative" media,that you actually trust.

[buwaytress]

You know what else I know was super shilled at a time on CNBC? Bcash. To be fair, they probably didn't as a network realise it. Not sure anything these days on any network really represents anything. Just random personalities pieced together.

Will I be surprised if that one (Bcash) exit scams (and if anyone actually thinks it's so decentralized it's impossible to exit scam, then wow)? Nope =p

And yes of course, it's never in good taste to make light of other people's misery. But agree, gotta see the funny side sometimes.

[cr1776]

It has been said thousands of times over the last 9 years, but if you don't own the private keys, you don't own the coins.  You only own an IOU for the coins.

The lesson (which won't be heeded no doubt) is:  don't keep your coins on an exchange unless you are going to immediately sell them.  And don't use fly-by-night exchanges.

Or better:  use bitcoin for purchases and stay in the ecosystem.  Forget cashing out to fiat.  Anyone who has avoided cashing out since the July 2010 slashdot article has done extremely well if they mined or purchased any coins.

[hatshepsut93]

It has been said thousands of times over the last 9 years, but if you don't own the private keys, you don't own the coins.  You only own an IOU for the coins.

The lesson (which won't be heeded no doubt) is:  don't keep your coins on an exchange unless you are going to immediately sell them.  And don't use fly-by-night exchanges.

Or better:  use bitcoin for purchases and stay in the ecosystem.  Forget cashing out to fiat.  Anyone who has avoided cashing out since the July 2010 slashdot article has done extremely well if they mined or purchased any coins.

Daytraders have to keep their coins on exchanges, because they keep coins in orders. If we for a moment imagine that everyone pulled their coins out of exchanges, Bitcoin's trading volume would drop significantly, as only mid and long term traders would be left, and this would negatively affect price discovery. People generally should stick to the most reputed exchanges available, but sometimes it's not possible, due to country restrictions or because they don't have all the trading pairs that a trader might want. I don't think that at this point a lot of people are using exchanges simply as their wallets.

[BitHodler]

CNBC also shilled Bcash back when it forked off and purposely invited Roger Ver the scammer to show up in their show. It's sad to see that such a large entity in the media world isn't doing anything against the CNBC fast money squad.

After that they shilled XRP for a while, then realized that they can't dethrone Bitcoin and finally started to stop this obvious coin shilling. These people need to be prosecuted for large scale manipulation.

In these cases it would be a good thing to have a firm regulatory framework set up to combat these obvious forms of manipulation. It's frustrating how they will probably continue doing this because there are no consequences.

[akamit]

Such "investment advice" isn't real investment advice.It's a hidden advertisement.

I agree here... CNBC must have got paid for the news.

That's why the people get it for free.I feel sorry for the Bitsane users.It's really easy to fall into a scam,if the scam was promoted by an "authoritative" media,that you actually trust.

I can bet that CNBC would have not shilled Bitsane if they knew the future, a large entity will never harm their own rep for pennies.

[1Referee]

You know what else I know was super shilled at a time on CNBC? Bcash. To be fair, they probably didn't as a network realise it. Not sure anything these days on any network really represents anything. Just random personalities pieced together.

That was super odd. At first they praised it because it (according to them) did everything better than Bitcoin. Not too long after that they for whatever reason (my guess is that they sold their coins) started referring to it as BCash. How ironic is that? It really surprises me that these hosts are given that much freedom.

CNBC is also very much anti Tesla for whatever reason. They don't let an opportunity go by without trashing it. What a bunch of creeps.

The exchange was also reportedly featured on Ripple‘s website until recently.

No XRP shill army bots were harmed during the collapse of the Bitsane exchange.

[carlfebz2]

It has been said thousands of times over the last 9 years, but if you don't own the private keys, you don't own the coins.  You only own an IOU for the coins.

The lesson (which won't be heeded no doubt) is:  don't keep your coins on an exchange unless you are going to immediately sell them.  And don't use fly-by-night exchanges.

Or better:  use bitcoin for purchases and stay in the ecosystem.  Forget cashing out to fiat.  Anyone who has avoided cashing out since the July 2010 slashdot article has done extremely well if they mined or purchased any coins.

Even how many times those lines being recommended or being advised on,people doesn't listen and the only thing they can do is to regret.Im not really surprised with these kind of news like exchange hacks or exit scams because if the market is rising up tendency of greed of its owners would be there.Chances for money to be ran away or do decide to continue the business but this one goes into the other side.

[bbc.reporter]

Conventional wisdom says that if you are getting something for free, then you are the product, and this is especially true for investment advice - why would anyone give it for free if they can keep it to themselves and make more money? People often advice newbies to do their own research, but we see that many people are thinking that "making their research" means reading crappy news sites like CNBC, so maybe we should also tell newbies to be aware of shills that promote scams, and that even high-profile sites can be shills too.

Agreed. However, who was the newbie? The viewers who had coins in Bitsane because they listened to CNBC or CNBC who recommended Bitsane hehehe?

I reckon CNBC would never promote Bitsane if the people behind their cryptospace news shows were competent.

[BitHodler]

However, who was the newbie? The viewers who had coins in Bitsane because they listened to CNBC or CNBC who recommended Bitsane hehehe?

People are always wrong because no one forced them to use that exchange, and secondly, no one forced them to leave their coins on that exchange. This however doesn't make it less of an unfortunate situation.

Nocoiners usually pay attention to what news outlets come up with because they assume that everything they report about is backed by unbiased research. We know that's pure nonsense but these nocoiners don't.

I'm sure that those who are affected don't even think about CNBC. All they do is blame the exchange and potentially crypto itself as being a scam. I'm also sure that people still won't store their coins themselves after this.

[gentlemand]

Agreed. However, who was the newbie? The viewers who had coins in Bitsane because they listened to CNBC or CNBC who recommended Bitsane hehehe?

I reckon CNBC would never promote Bitsane if the people behind their cryptospace news shows were competent.

Incredibly stupid for any long established entity to be recommending anywhere in such a fucked up space. If they want to hype they can still do it without naming names.

If money did change hands, and I can't imagine any other reason why they'd nominate such a nothing fuckhole, then someone should be ending the day with a smacked botty.

[cr1776]

It has been said thousands of times over the last 9 years, but if you don't own the private keys, you don't own the coins.  You only own an IOU for the coins.

The lesson (which won't be heeded no doubt) is:  don't keep your coins on an exchange unless you are going to immediately sell them.  And don't use fly-by-night exchanges.

Or better:  use bitcoin for purchases and stay in the ecosystem.  Forget cashing out to fiat.  Anyone who has avoided cashing out since the July 2010 slashdot article has done extremely well if they mined or purchased any coins.

Daytraders have to keep their coins on exchanges, because they keep coins in orders. If we for a moment imagine that everyone pulled their coins out of exchanges, Bitcoin's trading volume would drop significantly, as only mid and long term traders would be left, and this would negatively affect price discovery. People generally should stick to the most reputed exchanges available, but sometimes it's not possible, due to country restrictions or because they don't have all the trading pairs that a trader might want. I don't think that at this point a lot of people are using exchanges simply as their wallets.

Of course day traders have to do that, but they should be ones who know better in terms of evaluating an exchange for honesty and reliability.   Any day trader who can't even find a reputable exchange and has to rely on CNBC for that information probably shouldn't be day trading.

[Theb]

Worrying about the money their users are reportedly loss is one thing thinking what they will do to their users KYC is another. Bitsane pulling an exit scam did not just take their user's money out from them they also have taken their precious KYC information for "AML" purposes as well. So something must be done quickly by the authorities to catch them and I think they have a good chance of doing so. Bitsane is a registered company in U.K. and tracking them down won't be hard as it seems compared to tracking online scams without any digital footprints leaving behind.

[bbc.reporter]

Agreed. However, who was the newbie? The viewers who had coins in Bitsane because they listened to CNBC or CNBC who recommended Bitsane hehehe?

I reckon CNBC would never promote Bitsane if the people behind their cryptospace news shows were competent.

Incredibly stupid for any long established entity to be recommending anywhere in such a fucked up space. If they want to hype they can still do it without naming names.

If money did change hands, and I can't imagine any other reason why they'd nominate such a nothing fuckhole, then someone should be ending the day with a smacked botty.

However, it cannot be done without naming names hehehe. I suspect that there are some corrupt people behind them that accept payments to shill.

No one should trust mainstream news media.

[bbc.reporter]

There are some very rare exceptions, however.

In any case, this is another CNBC shilling of another cryptocoin exchange with complete instructions. Coinbase! They might be targetting Americans this time hehehe.



It's easy to buy bitcoin if you want to see what owning it is like. And if the price sounds too steep, you don't need to buy an entire bitcoin just to participate in the market. You can purchase just a small fraction of one bitcoin.

This is not an endorsement to own bitcoin, and you should talk to a financial adviser if you want to make a big investment, but if you decide to participate in conversations about it or just want to understand a little more about how buying bitcoin works, check out the guide below.

Coinbase is one of the most popular options for buying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, so we'll start there.

Read in full https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/06/27/how-to-buy-bitcoin.html

[Sithara007]

It has been said thousands of times over the last 9 years, but if you don't own the private keys, you don't own the coins.  You only own an IOU for the coins.

The lesson (which won't be heeded no doubt) is:  don't keep your coins on an exchange unless you are going to immediately sell them.  And don't use fly-by-night exchanges.

Or better:  use bitcoin for purchases and stay in the ecosystem.  Forget cashing out to fiat.  Anyone who has avoided cashing out since the July 2010 slashdot article has done extremely well if they mined or purchased any coins.

Most probably it was the margin traders who lost their coins. But there may be a few ordinary investors who kept their coins in the exchange wallets, despite the repeated warnings. Exchanges getting hacked and pulling off exit scams have become very frequent news now. So far this year, we had at least half a dozen. Can't trust any of the cryptocurrency exchanges.

[MOLON LABE]

Who is responsible criminally in this Bitsane Scam?  I traded some Bitcoin in for XRP like 2 years ago on their site as a long term play since it was so cheap.  I only lost like $200.  I'm just curious about who the targets are for this scam.  What if anything is being done about it and by who?

It is also disgusting how the main stream media promoted this blindly.  I am perceptive when it comes to financial scams but didnt see any red flags initially with Bitsane.  Anyone have any feedback on things I should of spotted initially?  Were there any flags?

[Slow death]

Who is responsible criminally in this Bitsane Scam?

this guy:

Aidas Rupsys ( CEO  )

according to what I read on this site:

Crypto exchange Bitsane has launched an internal investigation after its services went dark

Aidas Rupsys hired Baltesco, a law firm to investigate the case

strange that in google I can not find this law firm

I only lost like $200.

$200 it's not little money