ICObench PLATFORM WARNING

[JynErso]

ICOBENCH

The Blockchain and Crypto Review Mafia

ICObench Website: www.icobench.com
Status: Site Disappeared and then Renewed???

ICObench Telegram News: https://t.me/icobench
Status: not active

ICObench Official Telegram: https://t.me/icobench_official_chat
Status: Official DELETED with Bitcointalk link???

ICObench Twitter: https://twitter.com/icobench
Status: not active

Owner/s: Nikolay Shkilev (TG: ) and Vladimir Nikitin (TG: @VNNVO)

COMMUNITY WARNING to all crypto newcomers that are especially trusting of any ICO rating platforms.

ICObench FREE at a price!
It looks like another ICO ratings platform with reports of pocketing money using so-called KYC'd "experts" for favorable reviews has finally gone down. There has been STRONG suspicion circulating for some time now that the "expert" ratings they provide are in no way independent, but can be purchased. So it really hasn't been the so-called "free" ICO rating platform that it's supposed to be in the blockchain community.

The community has had enough!
Dig a little deeper and you'll find after searching online many telltale signs and RED flags that they are not be being upfront. Check it out ... the ICObench wesbite is down, facebook not active, the owners are in hiding, the "experts" or "advisors" are nothing special and the chat group admins are deflecting complaints or not even answering about stolen payments. Meanwhile to top it off there are rumours floating around that ICObench is currently under SEC investigation! - section 17b violation!  Enough is enough ... you all have failed to be responsible and some honest with the blockchain and the crypto community!

Do your own research and report which of these "experts" or "advisors" are taking money for ratings and/or abusing their so-called claimed status.

THIS NEEDS TO STOP!

If anybody has the website cached drop all the team and details here so everybody can do their own due diligence for themselves.

Here are some of the information sources that can be found after a little online digging.

Sources:
1. Orginal Bitcointalk Forum WARNING - ICO Bench Shady Workings
Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5258384.msg54690987

2. ICObench Facebook Comment - Stolen Crypto
Link: https://www.facebook.com/ICObench/posts/2645461265696807?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARB4MMHV7WF6lp6YPSZYJB84Ba7FhsRDyN1P_4wX8_S3v8T15FgcVF14xIyHY144FXX_tdfthPCHNtwjgOfKYmtsLk97cri-3IEPlxOqr5UCUEGVyxWtqw9h8znHEUpgduvcc8YbPm6JCuTGbynKnmdP6N79fNaXOQpcVj7hvwnAf8-eHEY5-S0uXftARTczBvlwv792iWmjd6XtBpXtaXIKO7BSEChyHFfRIG-UBFgRdlOOoiEQ1Y5jCUv2c6xh_oyDkKul75ItU4WVU9tSp-AmEKLY68t6Hy8TkIH8H4BGFLs2BaM-q15oesmOIfBJJ16RBlpq3f0WpjiN3HhLWtaR&__tn__=-R

3. Corrupt ICO Advisors, Experts, and Listing Sites
Link: https://www.cointelligence.com/content/ico-expert-corruption/

4. Experts providings hiding kickbacks for Reviews
Link: https://www.coindesk.com/sec-settles-with-ico-service-over-undisclosed-payments-for-positive-reviews

5. A story of GREEDY ICObench Advisors and Experts
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/icobench-greedy-advisors-hosam-mazawi

6. Exposing the underbelly of ICObench Team of Experts
Link: https://hackernoon.com/ico-bench-exposed-7d99335a63b3

7. Exposing the whos who behind the ICObench Review Mafia
Link: https://hackernoon.com/who-is-behind-ico-bench-1fb7afb8e7e7

[btcltcdigger]

ICObench has been known as a scammy shill site ever since the ICO rage in 2017.
Most of their "verified" experts are scam accounts, extorting projects money for a positive review.
And in some cases, even outright giving negative review and then asking money to remove it.

[bL4nkcode]

This ico rating site is well followed by ico investors earlier on 2017 when ICO booms but after that this site become shit, manipulated, and too bias and become too shit/scam like other ico rating websites.
Their experts accounts can be bought whether a positive and negative rating.

[abdul33302]

They're unprofessional, and basically, thieves.

Our company paid them almost 2BTC for various services inc KYC, Marketing etc.

There has been no response in months, and they continuously deflect, turning you round in circles, I have captured coms which were immediately deleted by their main guy, a Dr Rex Yeap based in Singapore according to his bio.

https://ibb.co/FbtR6n8

https://ibb.co/yP14KV2

https://ibb.co/PTfC0Tg

https://ibb.co/N6Cxpjz

https://ibb.co/Pg7HkH4

https://ibb.co/yP14KV2

They are running a deceitful racket, utilising professional titles to give them credibility, then banning people when they question where the funds have gone, straight-up fraud.

[bL4nkcode]

They're unprofessional, and basically, thieves.

Our company paid them almost 2BTC for various services inc KYC, Marketing etc.

There has been no response in months, and they continuously deflect, turning you round in circles, I have captured coms which were immediately deleted by their main guy, a Dr Rex Yeap based in Singapore according to his bio.

They are nowhere to find since their website is down, I see no updates on their social media accounts as well.

If you have all your proof and if there are lots of victims of this scam, I would suggest to take this to a legal action but there are things you should consider.

[Kupid002]

Long time ago its marked as paid review so one is believing  in any ratings they give for project until now, I don't know if there are persons who still believe of the ratings they give today.
Way back 2017 there are many people following that website to check every possible good project that they can invest that will also give them good return. But after too many scam ICO that they list there with  a good ratings many investors has lost the  trust in that website.

There are conversation that the higher you pay them the higher the ratings they will also give to your project.

[tupperware30]

Well, to be honest, it is easy enough to find information on some of them, an example being the Dr Rex Yeap mentioned above, he is in Singapore according to his Bio, you can simply request information from the Government sites or Commercial sites within a few minutes, it may go someway to tracking the individuals down to recover the missing/stolen funds.

It gets really interesting looking at these people, reported Experts, based on the information above, and the TG handle supplied in the original post I ran a query, this guy appears to have made millions through leveraging ICOBench.

In this one asset holding alone, he took a 99yr mortgage on the leased property back in 2016, directly after the ICOBoom in which he was an 'ICOBench Expert', the apparent chief team member, he was able to pay it off in cash, in full.

Purchase (Mortgage) in 2016: https://ibb.co/HDcLR9L https://ibb.co/HDcLR9L *Take down request*
https://cdn1.bbcode0.com/uploads/2020/7/15/5bf34bba1528f74c23fd15572832346a-full.png image hosting free
https://cdn1.bbcode0.com/uploads/2020/7/15/d12fd9f0aa594ce49258aded42e2bb6f-full.png image upload
https://cdn1.bbcode0.com/uploads/2020/7/15/7a280e1c4c5cdf507aedb45e1646c7fa-full.png image hosting
Discharged Mortgage in full 2019: https://ibb.co/y0c9HFY https://ibb.co/y0c9HFY
Property Price Range: https://ibb.co/WkLRkjr https://ibb.co/WkLRkjr
Property: https://ibb.co/QdQm0cn https://ibb.co/QdQm0cn

I thought this was lucrative, but that is eye-watering.

[Lanatsa]

All of ICO rating sites that do listed out on this site link https://hackernoon.com/ico-review-sites-ico-listing-sites-top-100-ico-rating-sites-reviewed-bc8fc1b69888 are all shits.

Naming a few on the list.

https://topicolist.com/
https://icodrops.com/
https://icorating.com/
https://icomarks.com/

ICObench is dead already and so others would be considered as dead too.

[btcltcdigger]

I can't help but think that somehow all crypto community is kinda responsible for this. Now hear me out.
At some point, their rating has became some sort of a "legitimacy" standard, and as such, projects were paying top dollar to get it as close to 5 as possible.
This doesn't excuse them tho, i'm just saying, if we didn't put such a merit into it, it wouldn't have been that sucessful

[coupable]

I can't help but think that somehow all crypto community is kinda responsible for this. Now hear me out.
At some point, their rating has became some sort of a "legitimacy" standard, and as such, projects were paying top dollar to get it as close to 5 as possible.

Following the same logic, crypto community is responsible for all the projects confirmed as scam, like Yobit for instance which still have a large number of active users.
I don't think we can blame all the crypto community for ICObench accusation, knowing that ICObench provide a lot of what we can call a "help hand" for investors to find the suitable project to invest in. Crypto community wasn't expected a well known rating platform to turn into a scam when they decided to use.

[Jating]

I can't help but think that somehow all crypto community is kinda responsible for this. Now hear me out.
At some point, their rating has became some sort of a "legitimacy" standard, and as such, projects were paying top dollar to get it as close to 5 as possible.
This doesn't excuse them tho, i'm just saying, if we didn't put such a merit into it, it wouldn't have been that sucessful

It's because they are one of the earliest who provided this kind of services, and as prime movers, they have gain this "legitimacy" standard as you have said. That's why they are the go to services specially during the ICO hype and madness and every is pouring top dollars and the people behind are making tons of money.

So I will say that crypto community is not responsible, it's just the circumstance that time. Or I can say that we don't have a choice but to go to ICOBench.

The domain has expired already and it will be interesting if they are going to renew it or not. Or if someone are willing to buy the domain name with bad reputation from crypto community. Or they can reinvent themselves again, so we will see.

[joniboini]

an example being the Dr Rex Yeap mentioned above, he is in Singapore according to his Bio, you can simply request information from the Government sites or Commercial sites within a few minutes, it may go someway to tracking the individuals down to recover the missing/stolen funds.

I don't think it will be that easy. Even if the government somehow gives you some details, tracking will take some time. I bet those said experts know that they fucked up at one point and will fly away from their country to go MIA. I bet it is not that difficult for them to do so since they've made millions from giving arbitrary ratings to ICO projects.

[arblove]

It has been ongoing for years 

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5065117
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5258372

[Renampun]

...

I like the list you provided, very complete...
trust in ICO ranking at this time will only make bad luck, back to the past 2 years, where almost all ICO recommended by all ICO ranking ended scam, investors have lost confidence because of it.

[Lanatsa]

...

I like the list you provided, very complete...
trust in ICO ranking at this time will only make bad luck, back to the past 2 years, where almost all ICO recommended by all ICO ranking ended scam, investors have lost confidence because of it.

I can say that ICO in year 2016-2017 is really that worthy to risk on but after those years then they do become shit and so as with things that are related to it.

Yes, the list provided is indeed complete and some of it are already down or dead which do basically means on what happened into this industry.

ICO is dead but there are still who do continue to make one in spite into its current reputation.

[Anonylz]

I just check the website and it is opening fine, I guess at that moment the op tried it the website was a temporary down, between this sites are no longer popular and are hardly used by crypto communities any more, since it was stated that most of their reviews are biased and probably influenced, I guess they already lose their value in the eyes of many,
Although it is good to warn members about this but I just wonder what harm can they really cause at this stage! It is not as if there money involved.

[abel1337]

I remembered the year 2016 when they are still loud in the market and there are active followers but seeing them falling after the year 2017 gives a bad impression to all ICO reviews site out there since they didn't provide useful and helpful data anymore, Manipulated data and Paid review makes their visitors lose their trust.

It's just better to make a self-research to projects than to rely in these kinds of websites, the shilling is too much that the data showed is so obvious fake if you make a little research.

[dunfida]

I remembered the year 2016 when they are still loud in the market and there are active followers but seeing them falling after the year 2017 gives a bad impression to all ICO reviews site out there since they didn't provide useful and helpful data anymore, Manipulated data and Paid review makes their visitors lose their trust.

It's just better to make a self-research to projects than to rely in these kinds of websites, the shilling is too much that the data showed is so obvious fake if you make a little research.

Yeah, they were hot topic on that time when ICO is still popular where people do commonly look up suggestions or reviews into this place until they had been known with some issues.
There were lots of similar review sites that do pop out like mushrooms when they do saw that theres a particular demand on ico review sites but sadly it hadnt last that much
when the entire market crashes it do drag along the entire ICO space including review sites etc.When im still dealing with ico investment then i didnt or never intend to look up or
do base up my investment decisions on reading up other platforms reviews and it would be much better if you do research up and verify everything on your own.

[smyslov]

Are there still people using or visiting ICOBENCH rating site, if that so then they are not well informed, they are out of the business, people do not trust their rating anymore and so are those other rating sites as long as they still posting a paid rating and reviews, they are just helping dubious and scam projects to look good in the eyes of investors, they should be out of business for good.

[Darker45]

Are there still people using or visiting ICOBENCH rating site, if that so then they are not well informed, they are out of the business, people do not trust their rating anymore and so are those other rating sites as long as they still posting a paid rating and reviews, they are just helping dubious and scam projects to look good in the eyes of investors, they should be out of business for good.

That is why this warning comes too late.

The question really is: are there still people falling for ICO? That is a thing of the past and a thing which has burned so much money. The lesson learned is way bigger than the realization that ICObench and other ICO rating or review sites are useless. The bigger lesson is that ICO, too, is sort of useless. And that lesson was learned a few years ago. And that is why ICO is dead.

So there is actually no way this platform could avoid an inevitable death.