So a bitcoin scam has been getting a lot of publicity in the Philippines lately

[mk4]

And we need your help.

These scammers have been spreading fake news about certain big names from the Philippines saying that these people are endorsing these "trading bots" to earn money. The scam has gained too much publicity that one of these big names has to publicly announce on television(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFtbT1j4WnQ) that he doesn't endorse this scam.

Screenshot courtesy of plvbob0070: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5219968.0

Yes, I know, it's a typical scam right? Why overreact? But unfortunately, a good number(or dare I say most) of filipinos are completely unaware on what ponzi schemes and other scams are, so the best thing we could possibly do is to possibly get these sites off the web to hopefully significantly decrease the potential damage that it can do to the masses.

Sites of this scam we've found:

Code:

https://the-bitcoinrevolution.com/
https://bitcoinrevolution.cloud/
https://securelyriches.com/bitcoin-revolutuion
https://thesecuredoffer.org/bitcoinrevolution-autopass/
https://secured4u.net/bitcoinrevolution-auto/
https://bitcoin-revolution.site/
https://revolutsrevo.com/

Even just reporting these sites to Google just to get the warning message when people open these scam sites could be a big help and could hopefully make people think twice: https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_general/

Some places to report if you have the time:

• https://www.econsumer.gov/#crnt
• a quick email to acg@pnp.gov.ph
• https://www.doj.gov.ph/contact.html
• http://www.sec.gov.ph/message-us-4/
• http://nbi.gov.ph/transparency-seal/nbi-divisions/#investigationsrvcs

Thanks!

[Bttzed03]

haha da f*ck! So this is what the post in our local board is all about. I didn't bother reading the "statement of _____ about crypto" because I wasn't interested in crypto + celebrity topics.

Scammers using celebrities or other famous personalities is old school yet many people fall for this marketing trick. If people would only think, how on earth would a guy who has been in showbiz for so long suddenly starts trading? To add to that, why would he let others do the promotion on his behalf?

On a positive note, you know that the market is doing well when more and more scams are popping out of nowhere 

[kryptqnick]

Thank you for doing an important job of helping to protect people from scams. I opened the first website, and it used my geolocation without asking me and showed me some names in my local language of people who have just 'earned money' here. It's very sad that some people lack education regarding these things and fall for them, while others are exploiting this to rob people of their last savings. I reported the websites like you advise to do. I hope that the scammers will face the law for their actions, and the robbed will get their money back.

[1Referee]

It's always good to point out scams, regardless of how obvious they look. Something that's an obvious scam to me might be seen as an actual opportunity by others because they have no clue about anything.

After two decades of massive growth of the internet, there are still thousands upon thousands of people every year falling for scams where they send their bank card with PIN number to an address they believe is from their bank. Result is that their bank accounts get emptied and people end up broke and have to beg the bank for a refund (which nowadays isn't as easy as it was back in the days).

I'll report the domains listed. The more people do so the sooner action will be taken.

[mk4]

It's always good to point out scams, regardless of how obvious they look. Something that's an obvious scam to me might be seen as an actual opportunity by others because they have no clue about anything.

True. I leave the posting about the obvious scams to the other people here on Bitcointalk, but I felt that this one was a huge exception. Once I realized how blown out and how much publicity it was gaining, I just had to do my part hence this topic.

I'll report the domains listed. The more people do so the sooner action will be taken.

Thanks!

[Insanerman]

Its funny that I am also fooled that he is actually advertising cryptocurrency autotrading platform if you will refer to my post in our Local Section. But then, I think it is still has a positive impact to let people to be curious on how cryptocurrencies work and how it can affect their financial capacity in life. In contrary, the downside is that people are prone in believing fake news and much worse attracted when there is an get rich quick scheme opportunity where they can dive in.

In fact these potential victimization of money laundering or scamming can be exploited if people are hungry to educate themselves and be able to minimize the risk of being illiterate in the internet.

Well, I think I have spammed the google report link with these fraudulent websites!!

[Baby Dragon]

It's one of the reason why Filipinos are in doubt on trusting and believing bitcoin, it's reputation was ruined by people who deceives their fellowmen just to get the benefits they wanted. They don't realize how their actions can affect the perspective of other people but what can we expect? scammers will always look for an opportunity to trick those people who doesn't have enough understanding when it comes to bitcoin. It's the reason why people never change their mindsets, they just keep on looking on bitcoin's negative side because it is what people are trying to make them see. Filipinos must be aware that not everything they see on the internet is trustworthy and legit, for that reason they have to be careful especially when it looks too good to be true.

[mk4]

It's one of the reason why Filipinos are in doubt on trusting and believing bitcoin, it's reputation was ruined by people who deceives their fellowmen just to get the benefits they wanted.

Pretty much, but it applies to almost every single country not only to the filipinos. Unfortunately this is one of the things we really can't expect to stop anytime, or ever. The only thing that's going to prevent people from getting scammed is knowledge. Scams will exist as long as humanity itself exists.

[FlightyPouch]

This is so true. My mother really gave me a beating whe she knew that I am in a scam, which is really not a scam. She just thought that I am one of those people but I said that I am not. Filipinos are so eager to get rich that they can easily be scammed, that is just so sad to say. Did you know that in 2015 1 million Filipinos lost 25B pesos in investment scams?

[carlisle1]

after Senator Manny Villar now it is Boy Abunda?these are Popular Celebrity and may attract investors if the one has no idea about what is Crypto Ponzi scheme.

Filipino is just starting to learn more about crypto and these scammers are not helping,instead they are ruining the reputation Crypto people are Building.

but on the other hand?this helps crypto for Publicity because Good or bad is still Publicity,hope sooner people may learn about all of this scammers way so there will be no other Victims again.

[LogitechMouse]

Yes, I know, it's a typical scam right? Why overreact? But unfortunately, a good number(or dare I say most) of filipinos are completely unaware on what ponzi schemes and other scams are, so the best thing we could possibly do is to possibly get these sites off the web to hopefully significantly decrease the potential damage that it can do to the masses.

That is why I considered schools as a scam. Why? Because they don't teach their students anything about financial literacy.

If people in our country have some knowledge regarding financial things and things like this scams and schemes then there will be lesser people that are got scammed. Unfortunately, we can't prevent them being scammed until they will not experience it.

Taking down these sites can decrease it but creating a site right now is very easy. They can just buy a domain and then use it for scamming again. The best thing to do right now is to spread information regarding these things.

[buwaytress]

Áctually, there's a huge, huge story here waiting for some journalist to properly uncover. For the past 25 years, the same gangs in Southeast Asia have been operating HYIPs. Used to be quite simple too, not much coding involved, but things really picked up when digital money hit the net in the late 90s.

Saw it myself, the rise of 15% a day for 15 days, etc etc. Modus operandi always the same, and in Southeast Asia like Malaysia and PH they use all these influencers (fake or not) to build up these huge pyramids for months.

Used to be with beenz, then paypal, then e-gold, and now bitcoin.

It's not the currency, it's the game.

[airdnasxela]

In general, there's a lot of scammer in the Philippines. Filipinos are taking advantage of the weakness of other Filipinos as well. Filipinos easily believe on what they are seeing without doing further research that's why there's a lot of fake news spreading in my country. And one of that is this kind of scam. When it comes to earning money, they believe almost everything. And it's the reason why they are using famous names to make it more believable for others.

[mk4]

In general, there's a lot of scammer in the Philippines. Filipinos are taking advantage of the weakness of other Filipinos as well. Filipinos easily believe on what they are seeing without doing further research that's why there's a lot of fake news spreading in my country. And one of that is this kind of scam. When it comes to earning money, they believe almost everything. And it's the reason why they are using famous names to make it more believable for others.

There's a lot of scams worldwide in general, not only in the Philippines. It's just that most filipinos are easily deceived(compared to most other demographics) due to reasons like poverty(hence greed), lack of financial and investing knowledge, lack of research(and reading comprehension), and a few others. It's the same reasons why the Philippines is one of the breeding grounds of MLM schemes.

[Ryker1]

Well, it's hard to believe that people are still being victimized by these schemes. I find it really disappointing since the people who would have heard about cryptocurrencies are the new era people who are using the internet well. They should have found out that these are scams they must avoid. But my expectations are wrong. In the Philippines, they have the impression of the Bitcoin as total scam since stupid people used Bitcoin for their Ponzi schemes. Bitcoin was publicly famous with this scheme's I mentioned, --and Filipinos believe in media. And this is unstoppable. The only thing to avoid this is not to become of the victim. Indeed, perhaps this makes sense, start within ourselves and then the people will follow.

[posi]

Thanks for the information and i hope the newbies will be wise enough to listen to this warning. Nevertheless, I'm not surprised about this kind of scam because crypto scammer always use miscellaneous of strategy to scam crypto enthusiast when bitcoin halving is moving toward.

[kaya11]

And we need your help.

These scammers have been spreading fake news about certain big names from the Philippines saying that these people are endorsing these "trading bots" to earn money. The scam has gained too much publicity that one of these big names has to publicly announce on television(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFtbT1j4WnQ) that he doesn't endorse this scam.

Screenshot courtesy of plvbob0070: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5219968.0

Yes, I know, it's a typical scam right? Why overreact? But unfortunately, a good number(or dare I say most) of filipinos are completely unaware on what ponzi schemes and other scams are, so the best thing we could possibly do is to possibly get these sites off the web to hopefully significantly decrease the potential damage that it can do to the masses.

Sites of this scam I've found:

Code:

https://the-bitcoinrevolution.com/
https://bitcoinrevolution.cloud/
https://securelyriches.com/bitcoin-revolutuion
https://thesecuredoffer.org/bitcoinrevolution-autopass/
https://secured4u.net/bitcoinrevolution-auto/
https://bitcoin-revolution.site/

Even just reporting these sites to Google just to get the warning message when people open these scam sites could be a big help and could hopefully make people think twice: https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_general/

Some places to report if you have the time:

• https://www.econsumer.gov/#crnt
• a quick email to acg@pnp.gov.ph
• https://www.doj.gov.ph/contact.html
• http://www.sec.gov.ph/message-us-4/
• http://nbi.gov.ph/transparency-seal/nbi-divisions/#investigationsrvcs

Thanks!

That is why the first thing to have aside from money when investing is knowledge. People don't learn anymore, they want to take risk without knowing what they engaging into. Filipinos are like this, easy to be scammed over and over again. They easily believe sugar coated words especially when there are celebrity involved, but not knowing if it was legit or not.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

That is why I considered schools as a scam. Why? Because they don't teach their students anything about financial literacy.

I would definitely not go that far--schools shouldn't and can't teach common sense that everyone should have, nor can they teach people not to be greedy or fearful, and those are the emotions that scammers play upon.

Used to be with beenz, then paypal, then e-gold, and now bitcoin.

Lol.  I'm sure a lot of people here won't know what the hell you're talking about, but I remember beenz.  And Flooz with Whoopee Goldberg endorsing it, which is what I thought bitcoin like was at first before I realized it's decentralized.

[panganib999]

Thanks for the information and i hope the newbies will be wise enough to listen to this warning. Nevertheless, I'm not surprised about this kind of scam because crypto scammer always use miscellaneous of strategy to scam crypto enthusiast when bitcoin halving is moving toward.

We should not always believe on what we read and what we see on our social media accounts. It is the way of scammers to fool people and persuade them, they use some false information that the artists are using cryptocurrency. That's an example, but we're thankful because he cleared it out that he is not involved in any cryptocurrency. At least we know the truth about those accusations and misinformation because it is not helpful in the crypto world to use a certain popular people. Scammers should stop because beginners are the one whose always a victim of this people, scamming is one of the most common problem in cryptocurrency. We are the one who can handle and avoid it, but before that, we should be mindful of the surroundings, most especially in our social media accounts. Don't trust easily and we should improve the security of our accounts.

[Docnaster]

This is just an adaptation of the common [insert country name] method, such as the Canada Method, Brit Method etc, all promising some kind of automatic profit solution.

These almost always target those that are very new to the space and have limited experience with risk/reward, hence have no idea how likely such a thing is. There isn't really much you can do about it, even spreading awareness probably won't dent it.

Almost everyone on Bitcointalk has some basic to moderate understanding of scams, so there's little point warning us... Spread it to the luddites instead.