The SEC posted a dummy website that offers a similar presentation to many ICO offerings in an effort to bring awareness to the scams and poor investments on the market.

The only problem is that the website mocks many real ICO's with substance that offer real investment opportunity and utility. This because the fraudulent websites mimic the real ones and now the SEC is mocking them all.

Despite their good intentions, this may not have been the greatest idea to have ever been thought up, however, the mock-up is not without it's useful points.

Let's take a look at HoweyCoins (likely a derivative of the Howey test) and make notes of the red flags.

HoweyCoins

At first glance, like any other ICO be that real or fraudulent, HowerCoins looks authentic. 


There's the standard countdown of getting a "great deal" with 15% cheaper tokens if you join the pre-sale (pre-ICO sale).

Complete with a nifty logo and nice background imagine wrapped up in a responsive web experience a single page in length would lead any investor looking for ICO's to take a closer look.

There's even mug shots of the "team" and a fancy whitepaper. What could possibly go wrong.

Everything.

Breaking it Down

We play a game called "peek the onion" for most scam sites, but we'll just call this "breaking it down" since this is a fictitious website.

1. Contact information, or lack thereof

There is no contact information available outside of email. This is an immediate RED FLAG. There's no phone number or at least an 800 number, no support desk, no company listed, etc...

Any reputable company will have contact information and a way to get a hold of them. For instance look at Coinbase.com, right on the front page you have an 800 number and support email in plain sight.


Here's KWHCoin.com, an ICO that went public earlier this year. 


Just about every method of communication available and their offices are listed. 

2. Big returns

Anytime any ICO, or anyone for that matter, claims high rates of returns, it's a scam. Plain and simple.

"We anticipate OVER 1% daily returns, with DOUBLE 2% returns on Tier 1 investors in pre-ICO stage secured purchases. The average registered coin return over a two month period in 2017 was an amazing 72%. Based on market conditions, including record-setting prospects in both the digital asset and travel industries, we expect surpassing that BEFORE the Tier 2 offering closes."
3. Pump and dump

This is a classic scheme dating back years to the early days of Altcoins (ICO's) back when blockchain meant bitcoin before the block-colored software, IBM's cloudware, and just about anything resembling a database claimed to be a blockchain.

Coins are artificially pumped causing a buy frenzy then dumped by those who caused it.
"Our past two pumps have doubled value for the period immediately after the pump for returns of over 225%."
4. Testimonials 

Let's face it. What reputable organization ever has "testimonials". Don't see these on Gemini, Bitstamp doesn't list a slue of these, and I don't recall Ethereum or ZCash ever promoting ICO's with testimonials.

Here's a tip. If it's an "ICO" it typically means nothing it done yet, there's just an idea. If there's just an idea then what are these testimonials providing testimony for? They wouldn't know their head from their ass any more than you would as to the validity of the concept.

Testimonials is a big fat RED FLAG.

4. Whitepaper

Nothing is more telling than the one thing that makes the entire offering the most believable. The existence of a whitepaper.

We've said this in the past and here it goes again. You need to review the whitepaper and see what the offering is all about.

Allot of people open the whitepaper but they don't actually READ them.

At a glance this whitepaper looks authentic. Until you actually read the document and see that it says a while lot about a bunch of absolutely nothing backed with no statistics from bogus sources.

... and ... no math.

Mathematics explain the concept behind the technology that the offering is promoting, without this universal explanation there's no realistic concept behind the face of the theory, or in this case, the shit they're shoveling.

There's certainly some things to learn from the mock site, but it's nothing many people haven't stated before. The unfortunate thing is that this also mimic's legitimate offerings and the SEC's intentions may not be purely "consumer protection" whereas government agencies tend to operate in a "blanket destruction" methodology.

Why take out the illegal shit when you can take out the pain in the ass at the same time?

Regardless, they do have a point. There are entirely too many ICO offerings that are nothing more than hot air.


[accordion] [item title="Author and Credits"] Article by dinbits
Image Credits: Banner Image by dinbits.com staff
[/item] [item title="Disclaimer"]The opinions expressed by authors of articles linked, referenced, or published on dinbits.com do not necessarily express, nor are endorsed by, the opinions the of dinbits.com or its affiliates. Please review the Terms of Use for more information.[/item] [/accordion]







Post a Comment

  1. HOW I GOT MY BITCOIN BALANCE INCREASED AM SO LUCKY....
    Hello everyone! i want to publicly appreciate the effort of [email protected] for helping me increase my bitcoin balance, he his very legit and he is fast and highly reliable…He would be willing to help you….or call +1 315 355 0337 you can contact us on instagram @privatespyhacker

    ReplyDelete
  2. Many binary operations are rippers. I invested about $20,000 then i decided to withdraw after several week but the withdrawal wasn’t successful, then I tried to contact the binary operation email and phone number, but got no response from them that was when everything started looking weird. Some weeks later I got a mail from them insisting I should invest more money if I want to withdraw my money which I rejected, and I never hear from them again that was when I knew I had been scammed. I was really devastated at those moment and felt so bad that my hard earn money is gone. After some month I came across a lot of testimonies on many bitcoin site how (cyberghost475@gmail dot com) had helped many people recovered there stolen, scammed or duped money on bitcoin or any other form on digital currency. I contact them and they promised to help me get my money back, asked me some personal details of the scammer which I provided. The result was amazing I recovered all my stolen money back within 72 hours I was so happy as I never believe I could get my money back. Thanks Digital Currency you restore Joy into my life after several pain I’m so indebted!!!
    he also help me to recovered all my bitcoin through those called fake bitcoin miner that scammed a lot of btc he hacked through their bitcoin wallet address am very happy now please help me to thank this hacker called cyberghost
    contact via whatsapp +19293593547

    ReplyDelete
  3. The only cryptocurrency in my opinion, that can work well is the dodge coin because of Tesla, Elon Musk is the person that creates a huge impact in its success & everyone follows him in terms of technology. I have invested a great amount of time for knowing this when I was looking for the public finance homework help & I am about to buy some coins for myself too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. *==*FULLZ & TOOLZ STORE*==*

    **Contact 24/7**
    Telegram > @leadsupplier
    ICQ > 752822040
    Skype > Peeterhacks
    Wicker me > peeterhacks

    **HIGH CREDIT SCORES SSN FULLZ AVAILABLE**

    >For tax filling/return
    >SSN DOB DL all info included
    >For SBA & PUA
    >Fresh spammed & Fresh database

    **TOOLS & TUTORIALS AVAILABLE FOR HACKING SPAMMING
    CARDING CASHOUT CLONING SCRIPTING**

    Fullz info included
    NAME+SSN+DOB+DL+DL-STATE+ADDRESS
    Employee & Bank details included
    High credit fullz with DL 700+
    (bulk order preferable)
    **Payment in all crypto currencies will be accepted**

    ->You can buy few for testing
    ->Invalid or wrong info will be replaced
    ->Serious buyers contact me for long term business & excellent profit
    ->Genuine & Verified stuff

    TOOLS & TUTORIALS AVAILABLE:

    "SPAMMING" "HACKING" "CARDING" "CASH OUT"
    "KALI LINUX" "BLOCKCHAIN BLUE PRINTS" "SCRIPTING"

    **TOOLS & TUTORIALS LIST**

    =>US CC Fullz
    =>Ethical Hacking Tools & Tutorials
    =>Bitcoin Hacking
    =>Kali Linux
    =>Keylogger & Keystroke Logger
    =>Bulk SMS Sender
    =>Facebook & Google Hacking
    =>Bitcoin Flasher
    =>SQL Injector
    =>Logins Premium (PayPal/Amazon/Coinbase/Netflix/FedEx/Banks)
    =>Bitcoin Cracker
    =>SMTP Linux Root
    =>Shell Scripting
    =>DUMPS with pins track 1 and 2 with & without pin
    =>SMTP's, Safe Socks, Rdp's brute
    =>PHP mailer
    =>SMS Sender & Email Blaster
    =>Cpanel
    =>Server I.P's & Proxies
    =>Viruses & VPN's
    =>HQ Email Combo (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, AOL, etc.)

    ==>Contact 24/7<==
    Telegram> @leadsupplier
    ICQ> 752822040
    Skype> Peeterhacks
    Wicker me > peeterhacks

    *Serious buyers are always welcome
    *Big Discount in bulk order
    *Offer gives monthly, quarterly, half yearly & yearly
    *Hope we do a great business together

    **You should try at least once**

    ReplyDelete
  5. Am here to testify the handwork of A Great Wizard Group of Hackers Who helped me recover my lost funds from the hands of scammers who rip me off my money and made me helpless and I could not afford to pay my bills, a friend of my help me out by given me their email: Morris gray 830 @ gmail . com contacted him and chat him up on (+1- /607-69 )8-0239 ) he will help you recover your lost funds If you have been a victim of any binary/ cryptocurrency or online scam, Mobile spy, Mobile Hack contact Wizard Brixton Group of Hacker they're highly recommendable and were efficient in getting my lost funds I initially lost 11btc refunded with their help the are Best in Hacking job MORRIS GRAY 830 AT) GMAIL (DOT) COM.

    ReplyDelete

Powered by Blogger.