DonationChain Scam ICO Case Study: The Fake Team Maneuver

One of the more recent projects to attempt this now commonplace trick is DonationChain — a scam project claiming to simplify the process of charitable donations by vague means, such as supposedly allowing funds to be sent anywhere on earth in just a single click. Rather than misrepresenting the identities of well-known figures in the industry and fraudulently inheriting their credibility, DonationChain decided to go the more unconventional route of simply producing what appears to be a completely random (but still fake) team. Unlike many scam ICOs which scour through Facebook or LinkedIn for individuals with a suitable name and appearance, DonationChain instead took the lazy route and uses stock images. As it turns out, the four team members listed on site — Albert Tabera, Paul H. Johnson, Shannon D. McNeil, and Jan W. Smith — are all entirely fabricated, with their profile photos being taken from none other than Unsplash and Pexels, two websites offering royalty free stock images. Suspecting that simple names and faces would be insufficient to convince more lucid investors to part with their hard earned cash, DonationChain went the extra mile and created a single LinkedIn account to back up the identity of its CEO. According to the profile, “Albert Tabera” has only one connection, has made just two posts, and liked them both himself. Besides its clearly faked team, DonationChain also features a complete shambles of a whitepaper, which includes several painfully obvious statements that highlight the true nature of the project, including:

We will give a 10% reference bonus if your referral donates their funds to me

And, just in case the scamming founder needs money for groceries:

Funds will be kept in reserve to cope with any emergency or unexpected situations.

Unfortunately, it appears the fraudulent ICO is having some success, with numerous transfers being made to and from its off-the-shelf smart-contract being made in the last 24 hours. It remains unclear exactly how much has been stolen. As always, we at BeInCrypto recommend performing extensive due diligence on any ICO project you intend to invest into. The number of projects with fraudulent intentions has seen a drastic increase as the market becomes increasingly hostile towards ICOs. Have you ever been scammed by a fraudulent ICO? Or have you seen any new suspicious projects launched lately? Let us know in the comments below!

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Image courtesy of LinkedIn.