A Crypto Project is Buying Real Pictures to Deceive People

[ContentWriter]

What happened::
I came across a Reddit post where a supposedly crypto project is soliciting for pictures of real people to use instead of a genuine team. I think I should post this here so that we all know that there are many fake project teams out there, even if they look like real people.

Scammers Profile Link: N/A

Reference Link: I won't post the link to avoid promoting the OP's intention. Some folks here may go for the money.

Amount Scammed: N/A

Payment Method: Bitcoins

Proof of Payment: N/A

PM/Chat Logs:

Additional Notes: It's obvious that there are many fake projects with real images of people as team members.

[tabas]

These scammers really have the obvious intention. They're going to buy someone's pictures and probably IDs just for them to be the front runners of their scam project. They knew it that people would obviously look at the teams photos and such and will search them to see if they were legitimate names and photos or not. This is crazy while we see people buying fake identities and using it for their scams, this is not surprising and I hope that no desperate person will adhere and sell themselves to these cons.

[acroman08]

so I looked for it on Reddit to see whether it violated the rule on whichever subreddit they posted it(which it did violate the rules). it looks like the thread has been up for 3 months now, not sure if there are people who already took the offer or not but it would be best to report it to the subreddit's admins in order for it to be deleted.

also, the Reddit account that posted that thread has been suspended, though I am not sure when.

[holydarkness]

They have another thread on reddit, posted by different username, but with same intention. They claimed that their founder is already doxxed. I believe it's a very likely case of a one-manned project who try to oversell themselves as multi-employeed company.

[albon]

$550 does not seem like an attractive offer in light of the legal consequences that may be faced by people who will provide their real photos or any proof of identity or personal information to work as members of this project team, in addition to the damage to their reputation if it turns out to be a fraudulent project.

It is worth noting that requesting professional photos from anyone in exchange for this monetary offer, regardless of his previous experience and qualifications necessary for one of the team positions and link to his LinkedIn profile, only indicates that the job poster intends to run a fake project and uses the images of these innocent people to trap victims without using stock images, as it is easier to uncover the truth and legitimacy of his project through these photos.

[ContentWriter]

$550 does not seem like an attractive offer in light of the legal consequences that may be faced by people who will provide their real photos or any proof of identity or personal information to work as members of this project team, in addition to the damage to their reputation if it turns out to be a fraudulent project.

It is worth noting that requesting professional photos from anyone in exchange for this monetary offer, regardless of his previous experience and qualifications necessary for one of the team positions and link to his LinkedIn profile, only indicates that the job poster intends to run a fake project and uses the images of these innocent people to trap victims without using stock images, as it is easier to uncover the truth and legitimacy of his project through these photos.

You're right there. Someone even replied in the comment that they'd charge 10-15X the amount before they'd consider submitting their photo.

[Rikafip]

$550 does not seem like an attractive offer in light of the legal consequences that may be faced by people who will provide their real photos or any proof of identity or personal information to work as members of this project team, in addition to the damage to their reputation if it turns out to be a fraudulent project.

$550 is maybe not enough for you, but there are loads of people that are willing to do KYC for a shitcoin airdrop worth $100 so make no mistake, many would sell their photo without thinking about consequences.

The thing I don't understand here is why don't they just use stock photos if they want to remain anonymous while still looking abit more professional which makes me think that there might be some more demands beside just providing a photo.

[holydarkness]

$550 does not seem like an attractive offer in light of the legal consequences that may be faced by people who will provide their real photos or any proof of identity or personal information to work as members of this project team, in addition to the damage to their reputation if it turns out to be a fraudulent project.

$550 is maybe not enough for you, but there are loads of people that are willing to do KYC for a shitcoin airdrop worth $100 so make no mistake, many would sell their photo without thinking about consequences.

The thing I don't understand here is why don't they just use stock photos if they want to remain anonymous while still looking abit more professional which makes me think that there might be some more demands beside just providing a photo.

Maybe they're well aware that this forum is guarded by scam busters who sniff around stolen photos and/or stock images. Them using images from stock websites or stealing other photos will expose them immediately. Having someone [a stranger on the internet] to provide professional photos posing as their staff will drastically minimize the chance of the fact [of fake staff] being unearthed.

[ContentWriter]

$550 does not seem like an attractive offer in light of the legal consequences that may be faced by people who will provide their real photos or any proof of identity or personal information to work as members of this project team, in addition to the damage to their reputation if it turns out to be a fraudulent project.

$550 is maybe not enough for you, but there are loads of people that are willing to do KYC for a shitcoin airdrop worth $100 so make no mistake, many would sell their photo without thinking about consequences.

The thing I don't understand here is why don't they just use stock photos if they want to remain anonymous while still looking abit more professional which makes me think that there might be some more demands beside just providing a photo.

Maybe they're well aware that this forum is guarded by scam busters who sniff around stolen photos and/or stock images. Them using images from stock websites or stealing other photos will expose them immediately. Having someone [a stranger on the internet] to provide professional photos posing as their staff will drastically minimize the chance of the fact [of fake staff] being unearthed.

You're correct. Some of the most successful scam projects posed as reputable people. I remember an exit scam the founder stole about $400k of the project fund, The other tem members were reputable individuals and were aghast at the founder's behavior. I remember another crypto exit scam that used the real image of an unpopular actor as founder. Obviously, the actor thought he was merely being an ambassador to a crypto project, not a potential exit scam. I'm sure a lot of people won't mind sending their photos to this project.

[noormcs5]

What happened::
I came across a Reddit post where a supposedly crypto project is soliciting for pictures of real people to use instead of a genuine team. I think I should post this here so that we all know that there are many fake project teams out there, even if they look like real people.

Scammers Profile Link: N/A

This is really interesting because they have a fake project but they want to use the pictures of the individuals as team members and for that purpose they are paying to them so that they can use the picture with their consent. By the way, even if they use pictures from facebook, the people rarely know that their Facebook pictures are used somewhere. Also these days, the projects uses pictures from AI and it is hard to judge if the picture is real human or AI-generated.

[Rikafip]

Maybe they're well aware that this forum is guarded by scam busters who sniff around stolen photos and/or stock images. Them using images from stock websites or stealing other photos will expose them immediately. Having someone [a stranger on the internet] to provide professional photos posing as their staff will drastically minimize the chance of the fact [of fake staff] being unearthed.

Maybe, but if that's the case, isn't it easier to simply avoid promote on bitcointalk rather than going through all this?

I mean, its not 2015 anymore when bitcointalk was actually important place for altcoins advertising. Nowadays, you simply won't find any of the big altcoins creating ANN threa here like they did in the past so that's why it seems unlikely to me.

[holydarkness]

Maybe they're well aware that this forum is guarded by scam busters who sniff around stolen photos and/or stock images. Them using images from stock websites or stealing other photos will expose them immediately. Having someone [a stranger on the internet] to provide professional photos posing as their staff will drastically minimize the chance of the fact [of fake staff] being unearthed.

Maybe, but if that's the case, isn't it easier to simply avoid promote on bitcointalk rather than going through all this?

I mean, its not 2015 anymore when bitcointalk was actually important place for altcoins advertising. Nowadays, you simply won't find any of the big altcoins creating ANN threa here like they did in the past so that's why it seems unlikely to me.

Your argument has its merit, the amount of scam projects on altcoin board has decreased significantly that I rarely ventured to that board anymore and focused on cases against casinos. The latest model adapted by rug-pull projects are now more toward creating a bounty, hiring cheap manager to handle the bounty, without having any account or ANN on this thread.

Perhaps it's made for that purpose? To convince gullible hunters who do their DD, as well as the future [robbed] investors who tried to do background check.

[yahoo62278]

Maybe they're well aware that this forum is guarded by scam busters who sniff around stolen photos and/or stock images. Them using images from stock websites or stealing other photos will expose them immediately. Having someone [a stranger on the internet] to provide professional photos posing as their staff will drastically minimize the chance of the fact [of fake staff] being unearthed.

Maybe, but if that's the case, isn't it easier to simply avoid promote on bitcointalk rather than going through all this?

I mean, its not 2015 anymore when bitcointalk was actually important place for altcoins advertising. Nowadays, you simply won't find any of the big altcoins creating ANN threa here like they did in the past so that's why it seems unlikely to me.

I think the hunters shot themselves in the foot as far as projects promoting here anymore due to the amount of bought followers on social medias such as twitter, facebook, instagram, or anywhere else. Projects quickly learned that paying users tokens/usdt/eth whatever was a waste of money since they got 0 reach.

Had the people of this forum been honest hunters and not scumbags looking for a quick buck, they might have built more organic accounts and had a little reach over time. Either way its a moot point nowadays.

Most of your projects these days are doing exactly as holydarkness says and hiring some lesser known manager who accepts any project, running a bounty, not paying participants, and not having an account on the forum. In the end scamming anyone who had anything to do with the project from investors all the way down to bounty hunters.

[Vod]

There is nothing wrong with this.   Advertising agencies always show false images to promote their product.

[Rikafip]

I think the hunters shot themselves in the foot as far as projects promoting here anymore due to the amount of bought followers on social medias such as twitter, facebook, instagram, or anywhere else. Projects quickly learned that paying users tokens/usdt/eth whatever was a waste of money since they got 0 reach.

That's true, but I don't think that managers did everything they could to control the spam and increase the quality of bounty campaign either. Like for example, not allowing Newbie accounts to join.

Had the people of this forum been honest hunters and not scumbags looking for a quick buck, they might have built more organic accounts and had a little reach over time. Either way its a moot point nowadays.

It probably takes a year or two (and some skills) to build an organic account , and bounty hunters are not especially known for their hard work. 

There is nothing wrong with this.   Advertising agencies always show false images to promote their product.

Its one thing when company hires people for commercial and entirely different thing when they hire some random people to pretend to be a CEO/CTO/CFO etc of the said company.

[robelneo]

Its one thing when company hires people for commercial and entirely different thing when they hire some random people to pretend to be a CEO/CTO/CFO etc of the said company.

It's rampant during the heydays of ICO; they used images they stole from social media, bought on image sharing companies, and bought directly from people. However, they are easily caught because it is easy to trace pictures here in Bitcointalk and match up their credibility and reputation.

These people selling their credentials could be in trouble; people are searching the internet for the reputation of the people they are going to make a deal with; imagine seeing your picture in a scam company, as only scam companies resort to this.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Now is the time of AI, and pay for a real photo of people who are very easy to find on the Internet, thereby showing their real name and life? Very outdated  . The fact that this project uses other people’s photos but does not resort to AI only says that the project is already so simple that it works using old methods. What the OP shows is a new thing that existed for a very long time, and the forum remembers the number of scams that were organized “on the knee,” those who were not welcome here and were immediately exposed.

[Odusko]

This is a known scam method for God's knows how long now, this scam method of buying random pictures to display on the team page is as a result of of the various outcry by crypto investors community that outrider the former way of fake project's not mentioning team members or even a white paper, this lead to the down interest rate within investors which saw to it that many no longer fall victim to invest in project that have faceless forks behind it, since their have been a resultant scam for long now.

So buying pictures online to fill up that space is another weak way that those scammers seek to deceive their victims, but I know that, only the unknowledgeble and inexperienced forks will fall for this at any point in time.