BetterCallRaul.it Domain Scam confirmed

[hugeblack]

None of this makes sense:

• If it's hacked, I'd expect the hacker to replace deposit addresses to steal funds.
• If it's seized, I'd expect the DNS entry to be changed. I wouldn't expect to recycle CM's logo, and I wouldn't expect the exact same list of government organisations to be involved.
• If it's an exit scam, it makes no sense to pretend to be seized while they could still be collecting deposits. And nobody so far said they've been scammed.
• If they just quit because it's not profitable, they could have just said so.

This happened exactly 3 months after the domain name was registered.

Personally, I think it's scam, but the reason they used ChipMixer is because many  would be afraid to announce that he was scammed. A lot of people who used Chipmixer did not report any scam because they are afraid of the legal issue, so this little trick will scare a lot of people.

Inevitably, someone will appear and say that he lost a large sum and announcing that the site has been sized will make him a little afraid or avoid using legal methods.

[1714150837]

1714150837

[1714150837]

1714150837

[coin-investor]

Hopefully they login to talk to the campaign manager and clear everything up because this is getting out of hand.

I hope he does, Royse is doing a high-standard campaign he doesn't deserve this kind of treatment from developers, this is one of the many risks of being a campaign manager, you have an obligation to the project you are managing and to your participants as well but from the looks of it its a rug pull it is very obvious, it's a fake and photoshopped script and there's no announcement of being seized even though he logs in to his account.
The developer thought that we will not catch him pulling the plug with his fake script many members are good in analyzing what happen.

[ultrloa]

None of this makes sense:

• If it's hacked, I'd expect the hacker to replace deposit addresses to steal funds.
• If it's seized, I'd expect the DNS entry to be changed. I wouldn't expect to recycle CM's logo, and I wouldn't expect the exact same list of government organisations to be involved.
• If it's an exit scam, it makes no sense to pretend to be seized while they could still be collecting deposits. And nobody so far said they've been scammed.
• If they just quit because it's not profitable, they could have just said so.

This happened exactly 3 months after the domain name was registered.

Personally, I think it's scam, but the reason they used ChipMixer is because many  would be afraid to announce that he was scammed. A lot of people who used Chipmixer did not report any scam because they are afraid of the legal issue, so this little trick will scare a lot of people.

Inevitably, someone will appear and say that he lost a large sum and announcing that the site has been sized will make him a little afraid or avoid using legal methods.

The name of the site is suspicious since it doesn't really sound like a serious platform that's why I also suspect that this is exit scam so that they will get a supposed to be valid reason not to compensate their existing clients. This is bad excuse since maybe there will be more platform will follow and used this seized word as reason to do their glamorous exit.

Crazy things happen and maybe this is planned exit and hopefully this one didn't create big damage financially to large group of people here.

[AB de Royse777]

It's confirmed BetterCallRaul.it rug pulled and scammed us 0.05836495 BTC which they were supposed to spend in their signature campaign. I was considering, it's just a normal delay from them being busy (like sometimes it happen with many projects that are marketing their brand from few weeks and paying regularly, but eventually they pay) but it seems it was planned from them not to spend anymore but to take the chance of free advertising and close the business. I am glad that I paused the campaign as fast as I could or the scammed amount could be more.

A type 3 flag has been created: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=3168
Please support it.

A negative feedback from me on the process with the reference of this post.

As a campaign manager it's hard to make quick decision and conclude a brand that you are working, has rug pulled and scammed. If the manager is wrong then it will effect dangerously to the brand image which could be an unforgivable mistake for the profession we are in. However, a regular forum member can do it very easily. If it turns out a mistake from them then they don't have to answer anyone or not liable to answer anyone. But for a campaign managers point of view, it needs concrete evidence before standing against a brand that they are paid to increase the brand value. It takes time to collect evidences and be 100% sure from all possible sources we have before concluding a case. I hope it clears some doubt of why I did not act quickly to call it a scam. But now, there are no hesitation to declare that it's a scam.

It's a shame, and highly low value moral from whoever behind the BetterCallRaul.it project.

I created this separate thread to discuss all investigation here so that other people know their scam and learn lesson from this case.

Can you update the main thread with the link of the flag please?
Keep it at the beginning of all contents. Something like

Type 3 flag: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=3168
Please support it.
Scammer Profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3543440
ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5446315.0
Amount scammed: 0.05836495 BTC ( Reference )

~snip~

[joker_josue]

It's a shame, and highly low value moral from whoever behind the BetterCallRaul.it project.

It really is to be regretted, the fact that the idea clearly remained that they did this in a premeditated way. 

This ends up hurting everyone's work! But this is only the fault of the project team.

[LoyceV]

The name of the site is suspicious since it doesn't really sound like a serious platform that's why I also suspect that this is exit scam

You can't judge a book by it's cover. Some people prefer a funny name, while some scammers use "very serious names" and scam nonetheless.

[Aikidoka]

It's a shame, and highly low value moral from whoever behind the BetterCallRaul.it project.

As I was expecting they did not pay the scammed amount of BTC that was supposed to be paid for the signature campaign. I'm really sorry for this incident and it's truly shameful behavior from the people behind the BettercallRaul.it Project and its owner. In the future it's important to be careful of shady and insure projects that willing to be promoted on bitcointalk.

To prevent such situations like this from happening again make sure to secure funds for several weeks before launching a campaign, and don't go for more weeks only when you have funds secured from the project.

[SamReomo]

It's confirmed BetterCallRaul.it rug pulled and scammed us 0.05836495 BTC which they were supposed to spend in their signature campaign.

Shame on those people who did that to someone like Royse and the participants of the signature campaign. It wasn't fault of Royse to trust those people because honest people like him always trust those people who later on take advantage of such honest people. I don't know that how can those scammer sleep by doing such acts with honest people. However, what they have done is not your fault and you should not be sad for their act.

Now that I'm sure that the BetterCallRaul hasn't sent any funds to Royse for the campaign. I request Royse to not send me the payment from his pocket, I truly appreciate your efforts as a best campaign manager and I'm okay without the payment. In such times we all should support Royse sir, instead of filling our pockets from his pocket.

It's my humble request to the participants of the BetterCallRaul to understand the situation and support the manager who has done his job in the best way possible. I hope that many of the participants will understand the situation and will not take any payments from Royse's pocket.

[dkbit98]

It's confirmed BetterCallRaul.it rug pulled and scammed us 0.05836495 BTC which they were supposed to spend in their signature campaign. I was considering, it's just a normal delay from them being busy

Flag supported.
I think it's better to ask for payments in advance whenever you are working with some new crypto company, that way you will save yourself a lot of trouble down the road.
There was something fishy last time I asked few questions BetterCallRaul, but I can't remember what exactly was that.
I think they probably received larger amount of coins from someone to exchange and they decided to keep it for themselves 

It's a shame, and highly low value moral from whoever behind the BetterCallRaul.it project.

Scammers don't live by moral codes, but photoshopping CM seized image was a real circus show.

[dansus021]

flag supported

the idea of joker josue is good

I think it's good that you protect yourself against this type of fraud. Because you are harmed, as well as all campaign participants.

One suggestion is that you use the @bitmover API to always indicate what balance the escrow has, visible as soon as you enter the topic.

That would be this api. The balance is always up to date.

Code:

[img]https://bitcoindata.science/api/addressbalance.php?address=bc1qq7p0es3dv5hcynjjf40f2xjjr6qp5py47d2f6n847vduuq9gvnyq7y9ecd[/img]

I think Royse or other signature manager should do this API on every signature thread so the user can be aware too if advertiser has topped up the balance

[hugeblack]

A type 3 flag has been created: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=3168
Please support it.

flag supported
Can you add more information that might lead to their identification? They don't seem to be professionals, and with a little tracking, we will find that their deposits have ended up on a KYC centralized platform.
Does anyone know the exact date the site was taken down, it may have occurred some time before OmegaStarScream's response

[Trofo]

It's confirmed BetterCallRaul.it rug pulled and scammed us 0.05836495 BTC which they were supposed to spend in their signature campaign. I was considering, it's just a normal delay from them being busy

Flag supported.
I think it's better to ask for payments in advance whenever you are working with some new crypto company, that way you will save yourself a lot of trouble down the road.
There was something fishy last time I asked few questions BetterCallRaul, but I can't remember what exactly was that.
I think they probably received larger amount of coins from someone to exchange and they decided to keep it for themselves 

Payment up front is something we (Cro 2) insist on when running any sort of campaign or competition on forum. We don't work with companies that aren't serius and feel like few months worth of escrowed funds are necessary to show commitment and atrract good members.

Anyway realy unfortunate situation but sort of expected, a lot of mixers rushed to fill CM void and while some are trying to make money trough quality of their service it was inevitable that some would simply scam their way to profits.

[dkbit98]

Can you add more information that might lead to their identification? They don't seem to be professionals, and with a little tracking, we will find that their deposits have ended up on a KYC centralized platform.
Does anyone know the exact date the site was taken down, it may have occurred some time before OmegaStarScream's response

They probably used some centralized exchanges, but if I remember correctly they had other privacy coins on their website, so it's not that hard to mask transaction paths.

Payment up front is something we (Cro 2) insist on when running any sort of campaign or competition on forum. We don't work with companies that aren't serius and feel like few months worth of escrowed funds are necessary to show commitment and atrract good members.

I don't know how other campaign managers are doing their work, but if I was working as one I would be very strict and ask for that extra bit of security.
Then again, I would probably be a bad manager and mess something else in the process, because I suspect that anything can be a scam until proven differently

[Eternad]

Flag supported. It’s just that they already spend a lot on their marketing but still commit a rug pull instead of maintaining the brand.

I think Royse or other signature manager should do this API on every signature thread so the user can be aware too if advertiser has topped up the balance

The way I understand Royse objective now on running the campaign. He wants to limit the information about the bounty to the participants only that’s why escrow address and spreadsheet are hidden on some of his campaign. Using this API will make it visible to all participants. Besides escrow address can be view on block explorer.

This API is very good tool for all the campaigns that disclosed the escrow address of the campaign to the public.

[LoyceV]

Can you add more information that might lead to their identification? They don't seem to be professionals

Unlikely. Look at their profile: Location:    TOR. You don't create a Monero exchange to be tracked.

[OmegaStarScream]

After @Bitcoin_Arena said they were a ripoff of eXch's site. I went to exch to find the following:

1. eXch's profile in Bits.media (you can find it in their contact page) here we can see that Bettercallraul is the latest visitor of that profile:



2. After checking eXch's site further, I realized that the "reserves" looked kind of the same (depending on the period) as to what Bettercallraul was showing in their site (the maximum amount that can go through their ASM). See @LoyceV post here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5446315.msg61984378#msg61984378

3. I reached out to eXch and they confirmed that Bettercallraul was indeed using their API so maybe...:

- Bettercallraul didn't hold any funds to start with, and they were processing transactions through eXch.

The API allows you to use a referrer ID so it's possible they were generating their revenue from the affiliate program: https://exch.cx/affiliation

Now for the dumped tokens, I found this on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/SkyWalker64007/status/1661582293553631234
https://twitter.com/GamblingWhale/status/1661092609849212955

Also looks like the person behind the project is doxxed completely:

https://twitter.com/SkyWalker64007/status/1660735328330854400

But why would someone dump the tokens then send everything to someone else (not sure what its connection with the project is) and a dead wallet

[cryptofrka]

Flag supported, sorry to see this type of behavior.

As Trofo said - escrowed funds in advance are a good protection against these things.
We hope it will become a standard for sig campaigns - it's in nobody's interest to see campaign managers in such situations.

[dkbit98]

After @Bitcoin_Arena said they were a ripoff of eXch's site. I went to exch to find the following

People should also be very careful and not blindly trusting websites like kycnot.me, but checking their changelog is a good idea.
Apparently Bettercallraul was also listed there and few days ago they got delisted.
Maybe they got inspiration for eXch plagiarism on that website.

Bettercallraul.it - Website seems to have been (fakely) seized: https://archive.is/6p3rq. Also some reports of exit scam have been received.

https://kycnot.me/changelog

Also looks like the person behind the project is doxxed completely:

I can't believe that he is that stupid.
He probably purchased some fake identity and registered with that on yahoo finance.

[T3PR00T]

Also looks like the person behind the project is doxxed completely:

I can't believe that he is that stupid.
He probably purchased some fake identity and registered with that on yahoo finance.

Most likely. I am waiting to see investors are coming here and asking for refunds.

Is there any number found available how much he scammed from the token sale?

Someone who used their real id will be too brave to fake the authority before anything else. He must be reported to Europol.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

Payment up front is something we (Cro 2) insist on when running any sort of campaign or competition on forum. We don't work with companies that aren't serius and feel like few months worth of escrowed funds are necessary to show commitment and atrract good members.

Better to always go for an upfront payment incase of uncertainties like this should occur, they may even be the ones loosing instead of putting their campaign participants on a dashed hope on nothing, but there's a level of how one could have built a rapport with these same employers/organizations without them paying up front and then you trust their reputation and representative as well, but in this case, it's risky to take and those managers that engage doing such already have their own personal money as backup in case of uncertainties.
 

Anyway realy unfortunate situation but sort of expected, a lot of mixers rushed to fill CM void and while some are trying to make money trough quality of their service it was inevitable that some would simply scam their way to profits.

You're right, after the incident with the CM, there's a notice on sudden boom on how these mixers were appearing and operating, yet i want to believe most of them have been this good intentions to make a good reputation in quality service delivery for their users.