Hi everyone. This is a "hard to write post", but a necessary one.

Disclaimer: I do not wish at all to arm any identities associated with bellow photos and/or real identities. So if you were injured or offended during my comments below, show me proof of your identity and I will remove any validated offence by the community. I am also not directing any of bellow to offend, prejudice or damage any companies. My intention is to only reveal a HUGE problem that is probably affecting many innocent people and not being visible by the community.

Let's begin!

As many of you might know, I have a validated identity across many social networks. One of that many is a dear one (valuable) to me 👦, Linkedin. Still... I am posting on Steemit... =) Why? Because I have more control and can see more, of course.

Unfortunately, these kinds of "catches", are very time sensitive and hard to prolong, making it hard to "wait" and call for help. Usually, that means it's probably too late and as consequence, many people might lose privacy or a lot of money in the process! In my best interest, I have attempted connecting to the right people via Linkedin, but that takes time and also, in some cases like this one, reporting does not really help much, because the "intruders" will just create another account and slowly start over again. So, for these reasons, I had to opt-into different methods and use my creativity!

Being an enthusiast on the blockchain technology is not an easy peasy task, I would say. Especially if you want to dedicate time to multiple fronts! And it's TOO DAMN HARD to lead too... still, I love it. 😜 THANK YOU, FAMILY!

Maybe with a team, I would be able to make more good...who knows! =) Teasing anyone interested, I guess, LOL.

What's the current problem?

Not that is simple to explain but I will try my best!

Linkedin has a structure of companies where anyone can "themselves" claim to work at some place and therefore, not needing any sort of validation on the short term... (only if you get reported, they will force you through a process) and then if you manage to dodge/trick the "time factors" of society, you will be able to pass through, impersonating someone, unnoticed. And many will even just "help" you in the process, because it's of everyone interest to grow their communities, gathering more followers, etc. A big problem in fact... but to later further discuss.

In this sense (of the identity problem), is where I love to play and have great fun! A promising example is networks like EOS, where Identity is being taken seriously and targeted as one of the main areas to solve identity problems related to the blockchain technology.

Some advice

Scammers will use all sorts of intel from you, to understand how to convince you.

The trick? Wait! and wait... and wait! The best filter of scams is "time" in fact. And there is no magic number here ok? Just make due diligence and validate all sources before deciding anything... ask lots of questions and if you are still indecisive, and can't get help from anyone. Wait! And wait, ask more questions, and maybe then you will have more info to deliberate on to. Scammers are mostly impatient, so you will be able to detect some of them pretty easy.

I will not exactly translate how, but they are going to try a strategy via where they are comfortable or defined as "possible". If you make them uncomfortable, you will see a "reaction" from them... which usually alerts you that something is not right. Being able to identify "these" situations, requires some experience and its something very hard to teach. But ultimately, the best defence is to not fall (aka believe 100%) just because it sounds "logical".

The Hack!

This is one of the most brilliant hacks I ever witnessed on Linkedin. Using accounts that impersonate employees on companies which, not necessarily validate all employees, is where it all starts. They might have 1 or more accounts to create the necessary structure and impersonate a "real" Identity alike situation.

Then, they use these accounts to interact on behalf of "real" people, making you believe that certain actions they are doing, are legit. Which that in a situation where you feel tempted to believe that the person you are chatting about, is a real one, makes it hard not to trust. Although, it's when you defy these conditions and relations to "trust" that things become weird (non humanised). How to spot? There are several ways, but I am going to resume some of the most important ones.

Key points to detect?

Usually, the language is the best skill here. People commit to lots of mistakes when trying to repeat themselves. So if you are looking for a "good" clue, make them think you are a "machine" friend and make them understand that everything they ask, you will do (but you will not). Then, at the last minute, say no because you can't, for some obvious reason, you can find.

At this point, if they are a real scammer, they will keep going back to you, day after day... this is NOT normal! You can at this stage, choose to block the conversation or keep extracting more information in the attempt to really help (after you report) or hide the clues of anything you might have said or written, that you don't want to be harmful to you. This is usually an "I want to get out, clean" situation (to avoid them following back to you because you know too much about them). And it's usually hard to achieve.

If you are a stalker of trouble because you want to help the less prepared ones, you will want to find as soon as possible the "I want to get out, clean" situation. Create or have already another email, and turn the conversation back via an anonymous identity (unfortunately this is the only way to help and try to extract more information from the scammer). But beware, this is not something I advise people to do... it's potentially dangerous and it can affect your personal life.

Some simple truth about scams...

These apply to almost every single situation. And it is not intended to be a lawfull script, but might help/guide your mind. Ask these to yourself when you have been offered ANYTHING until you are comfortable that there is nothing that can go wrong! - even then, I usually don't trust 100%.

1. Are they offering more than 10% profit? Do you know many things that offer that same profit? Can you name like 10? Stocks, etc, etc..?? NO right? Then might be a scam...
2. If you wait, every day, do they come back to you? Do they usually write the same type of sentences? Do they come always at around the same time? Do they sound like there's never a problem? Are they able to respond to ALL of your questions, or are they avoiding the answer? Are they able to say NO to you and stop the conversation (never coming back)... if not, then they are a scammer!
3. Are they refusing temporary situations that later (next day) they seem not to have any problem with? Are they not willing to let you go if you say NO? (for example, they come on the next day with another slightly different proposal)

And there are probably a lot, but usually, it gets to specific, depending on the situations.

Make them wait!

I keep stressing, that the most important detector of scams, is time! For a reason. Unfortunately when you are an explorer you often can get scammed, I have been a couple of times, and that allowed me to learn quite a lot. Fortunately, I have never created a situation where the scam made my life very poor. I have used enough discardable assets to protect myself, and I find it's not a bad idea at all. Thanks to actually have some "if I lose it does not bother me" things in life, you are sometimes able to make poor decisions without any consequences, even if you think you knew enough but you are not really sure about them.

Answer once a day and then only respond the next day. Do this until you are tired enought to either understand its a scam or to give up because you are not interested anymore.

The case!

Finally to the point that made me write all of this... the company, Blockchain.com! And yes, they are a real company based in LUXEMBOURG (but most employers are from UK as far I could see). Although, either because they don't have enough skills or due unforeseen consequences, they have a flaw in their system that allows attackers to take advantage of an amazing way to steal money from you, and in a difficult way to track the real bad side (that you can't prove it was not you at least).

How they do it?

First, they will try to make the usual pep talk that you can be rich winning tons of % of profits, etc... And at some point after you sort of agree, they will try to influence you to send crypto to a wallet. This is when their smart brain think it's going to fool you. They ask you for an email address and send you a link, which I validated to be legit. On that link, you can basically confirm that your email is controlled by you. Which at this point told me nothing.

But then you try to log in via the password they have "set" for you (🚩 RED FLAG!!!). If someone is setting a password for you, already something is Very WRONG!

Then you log in, and they ask you to change the password... looks safe right? But all it is, it's an already very wrong situation, and you will see soon why.

PLEASE DO NOT IMPORT ANY PRIV KEYS OR USE ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION ON THESE LOGINS!

...you then change the password, activate all the features, like 2FA and IP restriction, etc... it's all looking very secure right?

Its NOT!

The bug is often where you can't find unless you try to do the exact same thing they are trying to do to you.

So, I have done exactly that, and I have then found, that if you create a seed 12-word phrase, that is supposed to recover your account, it allows you to completely recover your account private keys, under a completely different account (username). Basically, they give you an account they are able to control already.

Then you transfer 💸 crytpo... and you lose all of it when you see it being moved without your permission! And, for the company blockchain.com, this is YOU, not the scammer, moving the crypto.

These are the two profiles on Linkedin that I will eventually report... but I am trying to get as much info as I can. If you choose to report them, be my guest. Although the idea here is to gather as much as info as possible.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/xavier-williams-12b98016a/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jian-hui-8b689b16b/

I have photos of their profiles and logs of their conversations to prove what I claim here. Just in case the accounts get deleted. =)

Don't get SCAMMED!

It's important to be careful these days, especially with crypto. Although this can happen everywhere, and crypto just opened the possibilities even more, because most of the companies don't really know what they are doing.

Please warn others, and be safe. I have taken almost a week to collect enough information to post this. But this is not yet finished! I am still trying to nail the scammers off... and maybe pinpoint them... with enough information to stop this at least! Many in the loop will have to change, Linkedin, blockchain.com and the community using and influencing crypto.

I have also thought about anyone sharing this across other places... and I will be absent of comments here. But they should be busy enough for me to still be able to play around a bit more with them. If they really change strategy because of this post, then even worse for them in terms of proof that incriminate them, he or she.

Once I understand I can share more information, I will.