- Admins, staffs, teams, etc will never ask you to send coins to any address.
- They will never ask for your login details and your other private information.
- They will never private message you first. Contact through their support page is the safest place.
- These scammers may threaten you to suspend your account, take your assets, report you, etc, if you don't follow their demands. Realistically, you may be convinced that they are real admins. If this happens, hurry up, withdraw, and secure all your assets. After that, verify these demands and threats to the support page, other admins, and the forum.
Now let's get started with the story.
0.Background
I'm a cryptocurrency enthusiast, I diversified, and decided to the hold digital coins for a long time because not only that I believe the value of cryptocurrency will skyrocket, I liked the background, concept, story, and technology behind them. I really hope in the future that cryptocurrency will be used for daily transactions, not only to be traded on the market. When I decided to hold for a very long, I found a better option. If I'm going to hold them for years anyway, why not time deposit or stake them.
As I tried staking my diversified coins in many different platforms and wallets, I came uppon Cobo Wallet (optional referral: 089ZY6) which is a mobile wallet that provides proof of stake services and I if I'm not wrong, mutual fund services on various digital coins. At first, I staked Vechain and joined Ripple mutual fund program. I successfully deposit them from Indodax Exchange to Cobo Wallet. Without hesitation, I proceeded to the next coin which I want to put into mutual fund which is EOS.
It is here I encountered my first ever problem in depositing a coin. The withdrawal of 8.3428 EOS shows success on Indodax Exchange but Cobo Wallet (Address: cobowalletio Memo: 618116b4) haven't received.
This is also the first time that I contact support page and especially because of money. The response from Indodax Exchange is that the transfer from their side succeeded and asked me to give TX ID 00197eedb5e2465281bfa243f3ba180557f580a3fe18833bdc58fe70be1cb49 to Cobo Wallet team.
I submitted a ticket to Cobo Wallet's support team and also left an offline chat. Then I look around for other places to contact them and this is where the tragedy began.
!!!UPDATE!!!
I sent to tickets, one is to the chat who told me to give the TX ID to cobo wallet's team and the other is through email to specialists of coin deposit and withdraw at Indodax. The specialist replied that he will take a look at the problem and finally he managed to recover my EOS from the failed TX ID.
Then I tried sending EOS to cobo wallet again and succeeded and proceeded in placing it in mutual fund.
1.The Trigger
It started out when I found Cobo Wallet's Telegram group. The trigger was the message I send into their group asking the status of my request regarding my EOS transfer. This is where I made myself vulnerable.
What I should have done was wait for their reply through email before texting to their group and even safer is to discuss this matter only through their support page. Also, I should have the read text history, there are many scam warnings. Anyway, an admin name Floris-Jan replied that what I did was sufficient and I should wait.
Finally, the scam started. Coincidencely, a few a minutes after an email arrived from support team only saying that the EOS wallet is functioning again after maintenance but my EOS balance was never updated, the scammer impersonating as Floris-Jan private message. Since Floris-Jan was the one who replied to my message in the group, so I thought that it was actually him and because the private message arrived shortly after I received the email. I checked only a glance at their profiles and looked identical but if I looked into more detail, I could've realized. An excuse, I was in a very tired situation back then.
2.The Scam
- The first thing I should have realized is that the scammer asked for my email address in the private message. How could Floris-Jane have not known my email if the support team already sent me an email?
- I gave the scammer the same email address and afterwards, he sent me an email where the address is identical to cobo wallet support address. The contents said that my IP address cannot receive all of the information etc. Therefore, I have to send 1 ETH to 0x4c7390a87c7edba4e792b4fa2360cfab203474fd so that reverse frequency funds of EOS wallet error algorithm can be activated.
- Also, the scammer said to never reply to the email and discuss directly through telegram which is the opposite of any admin standard of operation where only through support email and page should the matter be discussed.
3.My Stupidity
I never heard of such algorithm and since I'm not an expert in the block chain technology, I just believed. That was a very stupid decision. No matter how amateur you are, you have to search, study, and verify the algorithm, or at least discuss with other admins. I sent the scammer 1 ETH.
I also gave him access to my accounts, gave him usernames, passwords, google authenticator, sms verification messages, anyway I let him explore all of my accounts. Why I did this, is explained on the next section.
Although my stupidity, I was lucky that my accounts were unscathed because I give him credentials but those were temporary passwords and pins that I quickly changed, and I always stayed logged in to my account so that I don't lose access to it. Also thanks to the heavy security of the accounts where you cannot remove sms authentication, also google authenticator which helps to secure my account.
4.How Evil The Scammer Is
- Why I stupidly gave him my account credentials? Because he hit me where it was hard. If not I only would have lost 1 ETH. The email below shows how evil the scammer is.
The scammer made me the perpetrator, told me that I was a lier, and convinced me that I damaged the system that could potentially lead to great loss. Furthermore, I had funds in my cloud cobo wallet, that I thought if I anger an admin, I may lose my funds. I was also tired and in my humble state at that time, that made feel very bad and responsible. I stopped recording the video because I panicked.
I misunderstood the scammer's procedure and sent 1 ETH from the exchange instead from my cobo wallet etherium address because it took a very long time to receive etherium on my cobo wallet. HE TOOK ADVANTAGE OF MY MISUNDERSTANDING AND MADE ME GIVE HIM CREDENTIALS AND AFTERWARDS ASKED FOR 1 MORE ETHERIUM FROM MY COBO WALLET WHICH WAS VERY LATE IN RECEIVING. HOW EVIL IS THAT? At this point, I lost 2 ETH and some fees.
5.My Realization
I was very down and took all of my energy and then the scammer asked me to convert all of my assets to ETH and sent to the address. This devastated me, my assets are a year worth of savings. Giving all of that assets means reducing all my hard work of one year to nothing. This is something that I really cannot do, and I'd rather lose my 2 ETH and all of my asset in cobo wallet rather than complying to the scammer's demand. I checked the group over and over, read about scam notices, tried matching with the real admin and sadly found that these two are different people. So I gathered my courage and message the real admin and the telegram group to verify. Finally, my worst fear came true.
6.My Lost
I lost 2 ETH with some transfer fees all around ~ $500.
- For my class, it's 2-3 month worth of salary in Indonesia.
- I'm in japan now and equal to almost my month worth of savings where I remembered I often eat only rice egg and vegetables, drink only tap water, and sometimes I eat once a day, no air conditioner and heater, cold water shower. How hurt it feels to have my savings after conserving so hard to be stolen just like that.
- I could have donate it and fed many hungry people in the world.
- In Japan it's 3 month worth of rent, 2 month worth of delicious meals, in my country Indonesia, don't ask, you live very long with that money.
- My sole purpose to conserve and get that 2 ETH was to invest, and it's gone just like that. It made pessimist thinking came often that my dream will never come true if these things keep on happening. My dream of being financially independent.
7.My Valuable Experience
This maybe just an excuse but this is my first time experiencing problems on my cryptocurrency transaction which was my first time contacting supports and interact with a forum. At most I just join a forum and only remain quite as an observer. Even in social media I rarely comment, only nowadays I started.
I never heard of scams, rarely read any stories of scams, and this is my first time ever being scammed. Therefore, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for providing me with this harsh experience so that I can be more resistant and avoid bigger scams in the future.
I can tell, write, and share my experience with others so that they may not experience this unfortunate event like me. I'd also like to think that I can gain something from this lost. Other than experience, I hope that I can attract networkings by sharing this experience, opening opportunities, and bluntly my this post become viral that not only will profit me but lots of people.
8.Join The Move
Please share this post and video with as many people as possible to make people more aware of scams. This is the only thing that I humbly request.
Like this post, subscribe, and comment your prayers, hopes, and wishes so that no more scams happen in the future.
9.My Grief and Regret
!!!Warning Disturbing Contents!!! Read at your own risk!
Although I have to thank you for giving me this experience, but the actions of scammers like you is always unjust and may you never find peace unless you return all that you stole and repent.
The scammer is very evil. The scammer words "please calm down", "we will never tamper with your fund", "all your assets will be refunded after it's complete", "do you trust us", etc. And how stupid I was replying "I trust you" and "I believe in you".
Not only that you stole my 2 ETH but you ruined my reputation. Anyone who knew this will probably look down on me and see me as a very stupid and weak person. Who knows, even the readers may not sympathize with me but blame me instead as if it's my fault for being stupid to begin with. They may comment me that I'm stupid, downgrade this post, or even report this post.
Lastly, if you are reading this, know that you have created a monster from this humble guy. I became hard to trust people now and I feel like destroying anything that dares to stand in my path. I'd rather forfeit my life than not fighting. Know that it's because of people like you that if one day I have become strong and start destroying everything around me. Don't blame me if you lose your life and even worst all your family members and everything you care for.
Everyday, I prayed that you will be severely punished with everlasting torment until the day you return what you stoled from me and repent. I ask everything in this world, the seen and the unseen to disturb this scammer. From myself with all my available will power, I curse you and may the curse becomes heavier as time passes.
If you are really tormented and want to be relieved, return my 2 ETH:
from: 0x4c7390a87c7edba4e792b4fa2360cfab203474fd
to: 0xa9764a13cb16323468820f827a2d86e4bed70a22
