keeping it short but important info here.
so, I buy and sell crypto as a side gig, and I’m sure this dude is trying to push fake usdt on the solana network.
how do I know? well, someone tried pulling this on me a few months back, but I caught it thanks to a heads-up from a customer.
now I see the fake usdt isn’t showing up in the real balance; it’s just adding a new line.
I’m convinced it’s the same scam because this guy messaged me just like the last one: "hi, selling 10000 usdt on sol network." did some checking and found out he’s also from India and the same crappy city as the previous scammer. definitely a group operation. I asked to see a wallet with a little usdt, and he couldn’t show it.
just an empty wallet! then I explained how to swap usdt on sol to usdt eth, and he started making excuses about why he couldn’t do it. at this point, I’m completely certain it’s the same scam again.
I’m thinking about setting him up to get busted during the deal or teaching him a lesson myself if that’s not an option.
for all the people who’ve had their savings ripped off by these scumbags, I can’t just let this slide. any ideas?
Don't trade with trade partners who have too good to be true offers.
Don't interact with tokens that are in grey icons (not in colorful icons). You can realize that in your case, the icon is in grey color, it's the first thing. Another thing is such grey icons are taken from the blockchain icons. It can be grey icons of ETH, BNB, Solana, the native blockchains on which such scam tokens were deployed.
It's honey pot scam tokens.
Honeypot Crypto Scam Techniques Explained: A Comprehensive Guide.
Demystifying Honeypot Crypto Scam: How to Spot It?
Check token address with this https://honeypot.is/ethereum
For example
https://honeypot.is/ethereum?address=0x875f716ae6d8cb584776718cb6c6ecc63781312c
i didnt explain it good enough i think, i know its a scam and how to spot fake coins dont worry, and im going to the meeting on purpose to either get him arrested or to teach him a lesson myself and also open his
smartphone to see how much victims he made so far and contact them so hopefully they can get their money back
but thanks still for showing me the site for ethereum honeypot detection cause i tought they only make fake coins on solana
Unfortunately, I don't think you can do much about it from halfway around the world, apart from spreading awareness to your community, to your friends and family and those who are around you, especially all the grannies.
Also, just block and report this filthy scammer, and be done with him. If you have the free time, you can troll him, waste his time, which I sometimes do with the telegram scammers. But that's just it.
I have been following Scammer Payback for a long time, and watching their content regularly. There, you'll see how these scammers trap the elderly and steal their life's saving. pierogi, the owner, who exposes these scammers, tried his best to contact the local authorities and shut their operations down, but it's never been that effective.
So even if you do get your meeting and possibly get his identity/contacts, there is a high chance he'll still get away with that.
So even if you do get your meeting and possibly get his identity/contacts, there is a high chance he'll still get away with that.
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he wont get away with that im telling you i called the police station of his city and they sayd they are very interested in my idea of setting him up at the meeting to catch him there, i have to call back tomorow
when the chief is there to talk about it further , cause legally its a bit tricky they do those types of intervention ussualy when you are going to a meeting buying back your stolen item from marketplace
but doing that type of thing for fake crypto is not going to be easy to get their hierarchy to approve doing it cause they dont even understand crypto enough but i will try my best.
and if that doesnt work then i will just go myself and teach him a lesson that he wont forget and record it like the youtubers that you mentionned
It seems like, you have a keen eye for spotting fake USDT like this, and I think your actions are important for people to pay attention to, so they can avoid fake tokens or scams like the case the OP mentioned.
The fraudsters who create fake stablecoins, or other fake tokens are still using their tricks, even though such cases have happened frequently (already known to many people), it seems they are hoping for negligence or ignorance from their potential victims. So, we must be vigilant, because similar cases could happen to us, whether through fake stablecoins or other cryptocurrencies. A few days ago, I also saw a similar case in one of my crypto wallets. I saw a token that had come from nowhere suddenly appear in my wallet. Strangely, the token had a value (a fake value). Out of curiosity, I checked the token smart contract using a free service from a website, and it turned out to contain numerous problematic contracts.
Here it is:
In essence, we need to be careful before making crypto transactions, there are many scams lurking, especially cases like this. As I recall, one of the largest crypto exchanges in my country also encountered fake USDT, and I heard about it on a podcast on YouTube.
These fraudsters do not choose which potential victims they will target, they are aggressive in carrying out attacks that seem trivial (because it is not direct, and requires confirmation from us), but have the potential to be very detrimental if someone falls into their trap. So, don't take these attacks lightly, and stay alert to anything in crypto, so that you don't become the next victim (I hope no one will be).
By the way, I once made a topic or thread about checking smart contracts, I hope this will be useful for you to make checking easier, and several networks are also supported, including the solana network. Here : Several Platforms to Make It Easier to Check SmartContracts
There's some ways you can deal with such a person without putting yourself in harms way and it may be as simple as wasting their time, report such a person to the Solana wallet providers or best is to blacklist them and report such a person to other users on or off the network just as you have done here for vigilance.
You should also deny this person, the exit liquidity needed by him, because he has already faulted on providing the wallet balance request, with meaningless excuses.
Thanks for bringing this up, it's an eye opener to others to be careful about trading, because scammers and hackers and fraudsters never sleep and could catch any unsuspecting trader off guard at anytime.
If you decided to go and meet this scammer in person, make sure that you are not alone. Have at least one person with you as backup in case the guy tries something unexpected. After all, you don't want to get hurt. I seriously doubt you will get the authorities and police to support you in your action. No crime has been conducted that they know of, and they are not going to go around and be bodyguards and crime stoppers on request.
There are millions of scammers like this person, who is going to teach them a lesson? It won't make any difference, my advice is to avoid them completely.
If you need USDT you know where to find them, there is no point buying such from someone you don't know, everyone should get their coins on exchanges, do not buy from people or third party platforms that no one knows.
Do not go pass crypto exchanges and dexs that are very popular, this automatically decreases your chances of getting scammed.
Well, let's see what happens. Keep us updated then.
But again, I have my doubts. You see the guy (pierogi) and his team I was referring to? They are very popular at catching and exposing these scammers. Even the scammers themselves watch their videos.
They are a team of professional guys, with a bunch of hackers, who are able to pinpoint the exact location of these scammers and destroy their entire system, as well as contact the police multiple times.
Yet, they could never get rid of them entirely. They would just change their office building, buy cheap devices, start with the scamming again. Just watch some of the videos, and you'll be surprised to see how much they are scamming each day. Man, the amounts are just insane.
Don't approach the scammers without security cover, remember you said he belongs to a network of scammers which means he will be around multiple forks that can resist your personal effort to arrest him and even overpower you in the end.
Involving the place is the best thing to do in this case since you have a clue of where the scammers can be traced to, aside from that we are good with the awareness you have created so far with this thread.
Although such scam is very popular and we know about them, just to be clarified do you have a close location with the scammers because you are confident to find him despite dealing online.
Don't approach the scammers without security cover, remember you said he belongs to a network of scammers which means he will be around multiple forks that can resist your personal effort to arrest him and even overpower you in the end.
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last time the guy was alone and its just some indian, theyre not violent just sneaky scammers
for the location he wants to meet in a starbucks in a busy area so it makes it really hard to do anything there.
but we will see how it goes im going still
If you go there by yourself to teach him a lesson like you said and him too is planning something against you with his gang of friend, then you are not safe because you might be alone while he is with gangs, they could even attack you and steal from you, I don't advise you taking such risk, it's better you call police as backup, they could handle things better. I also don't know the kind of lesson that you have in mind to teach this person but you also do not have to take laws into your hands.
If you're looking for tips on catching such scammers publicly, let's hope it works.
First, is your trading account linked to this forum account, or did they even find you here as an OTC trader? If they (the scammer) are reading this thread, they're laughing at you behind the scenes.
Second, it's very rare for scammers to want to transact face-to-face. I think the guy you're trying to catch is either a victim of a scammer who isn't your intended target, oor he could have come up with an excuse like this to get away with it.
It would be best for you to avoid it because they, too, are planning a similar thing against you, and you do not know where they might get you, so it is best to avoid it so you do not have any issues, as they are hackers who always have their ways from any slight mistake of their victims.
The biggest mistake you already made about this plan was to publish this on the Internet for everyone to see, next to their Address. Not because they would not deserve a consequence but because you are trying to meet him physically. And considering his plan to Scam you out of this much Money, he may not mind doing way worse things than this.
Do not meet him up alone and do not think you will just meet him and be the 'savior'. If they see this Topic with their Address on it, they may be out planning you already.
Just my opinion however. I would not do this with out the authorities involved. And I do not even know if I had a Trust that authorities would solve any thing, because as you say your self, they may not even possess the necessary knowledge to realize what is actually wrong. To an 'untrained' eye, it looks like Tether, it has the same name, it requires some effort to learn what went wrong.
It's good that you want to teach the scammer a lesson that he will never forget but you should also think about some risk as they might target you one day. Anyway, if the police is interested on your idea then you can try it if you want but the only thing I can say is that you should also be careful as I have explained that you might get targeted by them if they are a group of scammers for revenge. We don't know that they might be thinking about that after they are being set up by you.
I would say try to find some information on him online like profiles names etc and try to damage his reputation especially in online marketplaces.
Try to get this info by making him he has something to gain by providing them to you.
Like say you have the money but it needs to be sent in a bank account so you get a name or something like this.
Good luck if you're going to bring yourself with some police and authorities to have him arrested for the attempted scam that he's trying to do to you. But it should be backed with enough evidence and if that guy has been doing that for a while now, he knows how to reason and get out of it when you have him try to get arrested unless he's just a trying hard and desperate guy thinking that you're one easy victim for him.
While others might not want to encourage you I will, if there is any possible way that you can get this person arrested then do it, make sure you don't go after him without proper security or just let the cop do their jobs.
Safety first, don't forget this, there are dangerous criminals out there who are also trying to make a living and they don't care about who stands in their way, they are always ready to crush anyone, coming from what I have seen in the past here in my own country.
Enough Evidence as the second, I don't know where you are from but in my country evidence is the only way to confuse the cops here.
Many people have become a victim of these useless people, that have ruined alot of lives by scamming for a living, I would do the same of I am in your shoe.