Blockchain scam alert!
Professional scammers pretending to be an Investment firm and pulling out money from your business.
Recently one of the cleanest scam tactics has taken place in the blockchain industry. let’s read about a case and teach a lesson to our fellow businessmen
Case:
A guy named James Ortega reaches out to a blockchain project on Telegram from the username @ortega2689 and introduces himself as a representative of Sterling Capital with the sweet quote
“ Hello sir, Nice to meet you
I have a proposal I am working for a company in assets management my client is looking to become a shareholder of the company, Or if that is not possible then can invest in equity or token share for a min amount is 100K CHF
Best regards
James Ortega ”
and requests to set up a group between his client and the project. considering his request project team joins the Telegram chat with Sterling Capital team member @klv1mpr2022 and their client Jonathan Mikati (@mikati777jonathan) claiming to be an asset manager of Fincom holding.
Virtual meeting :
Jonathan Mikati introduces Fincom holding as an investment firm based in Switzerland and real estate as their main business with the support of Switzerland’s popular banker Nadim Kassar. Later begins with a sad story of their first crypto investment coming out to be a scam therefore they would like to meet in a person to close the deal with an investment of more than five million dollars.
After some online research by the project team, they find no red flags to back off from this deal and give up on this opportunity.
Offline meeting :
Josef Sprecher ( CEO of Fincom holding ) invites the project’s two officials to Barcelona, Spain for a deal discussion to make an investment in the project.
After completing some documental formalities project team flies to Barcelona, Spain but due to some unavoidable business plan change from the Fincom holding team, they make the project team fly again to Paris and meet Josef Sprecher ( CEO of Fincom holding ) at the hotel.
Several days later Fincom holding says the projects team to prepare $1.2M funds in the hot wallet as company capital and transfer it to a cold wallet in front of them to insure the project is capable of receiving the $10M investment. after some negotiation project team decided to prepare $300k in funds.
Scam :
About two weeks later Project officer walked into a meeting and transferred the $300k from the Hot wallet to Ledger (Cold wallet). after a successful transfer, Two lady assistants from Fincom holding showed up on him and an old lady named Sophia created a distraction, and another young lady named Sarah took the Ledger turned her back, swapped it with an empty ledger, and sealed it.
After a few days project team found out that the wallet has been swapped and they have been scammed for $300k.
Be safe from this kind of fraudulent activity and plan your business journey carefully!
