The idea is as simple as enticing: Decentralizing Transportation. Amazing!
Since there are thousends of ICOs out there, there is no time to inspect every single one in detail. So let us make a quick but sound check. As many so proudly self-appointed "ICO Gurus" with blueprints for making millions with ICOs in no time do every day. Yes Ian B., I am looking at you.
So let's use their mighty 'Checkpoint Charlie' template to evaluate:
- First of all, the most important buzzword for every ICO of today - "decentralizing" - is in the title, perfect, check one.
- Second of all, "transportation" as an industry is of course huge, so the potential for disruption is immense - awesome, check two.
- Third, there is an established company since 2015, and it is a german one - very well, check three.
- The ICO homepage looks very nice with lots of content, with a SSL certificate and it's not a cheap WordPress template, check four.
- There is a 28 pages long nicely done whitepaper with all the relevant bullet points - executive summary, company, team, roadmap, technology, architecture, partners, tokens, even a legal notice - awesome, check five.
- The team has 11 members with astonishing biographies and 3 very seriously looking consultants. Well, OK, two seriously looking and one somehow scatchy, but still, check six.
- The roadmap goes from 2015 beyond Q4 2019 including expansion, mergers and acquisitions, wonderful, check seven.
- There are even screenshots of a mobile app right there on the page, so there is an existing product, great, check eight.
- On the list of strategic partners there are companies like Polish Railways, Spanish State Railways, Argetinian Ministry of Transportation, Emirates Transport and Cape Town Transport Authority, just to name a few. This is going to be huge, check nine.
- The upcoming TGE (Token Generation Event) or as they call it "Token Swap" has 4 bonus tiers and 5 days of 100% bonus, with no contribution limit. I'll be rich, baby - check ten.
Here we go. Ten out of ten - 100% on the checklist - let's get my ETH ready!
So it's located in Heidelberg, right? Boy, lucky team - Heidelberg is so beautiful.
I've lived in Germany for some time and I always enjoy looking up the places there, more often than not those are some of the most amazing spots on this planet. If you've never been to Heidelberg and get a chance, don't miss it. You'll love it, I promise.
The company address was, give me a moment, ah - Brisk Pass GmbH, Suite 603, Waldhofer Strasse, Heidelberg. All right. Wait. Suite 603? In Germany? Seriously? I've never seen any such address there in my life. Strange. Google Maps, help!
Mhm. No such place. Strange, the company sits there since 2015. Google you suck!
Nevermind, maybe there is some typo in the address somewhere. Let's look it up in the German Compnay Directory. Here we go.
No such company. Are you kidding me?! Let's try some other directories. Nope. No such entry. Nowhere.
Mhm.
But. There is this star team behind it with 75 years of combined industry experience!
The two brightest stars of the dream Team, Frank Mühlhäuser (CEO) and Marcus Herzig (CTO), both 'molto simpatico' looking, don't like LinkedIn as it seems. Just as the rest of team doesn't. But they do very well have profiles on the german version of LinkedIn - Xing.com.
The catch with Xing is that you need to have a profile yourself to be able to look up someone else. Well, since I am located in Vienna, I do have one. So let's connect with the dream team.
The CEO, Frank Mühlhäuser
According to BriskPass website he has "over 20 years of tech industry experience". And still he only has 17 contacts and one history entry - BriskPass. That's it. And his profile was created on September 10th 2017. Strange.
The CTO, Marcus Herzig
First of all, normally 'Marcus' in the german-speaking countries is spelled 'Markus'. But OK. Well Mr. CTO who "managed and delivered multiple large scale strategic projects" has 15 contacts and exactly 1 entry - BriskPass. And his profile was created on September 10th 2017 as well. I'm getting a somewhat bad feeling here.
Just for a comparison, I have stopped using Xing many years ago and have 170 contacts still and several pages of history entries.
The Lead Backend Developer, Peter Lange
This "computer science expert with 11 years of experience" has 8 contacts, 1 history entry (BriskPass) and you guessed it - his profile was somehow also created on September 10th of 2017.
I know this sardonic grin feeling spreading in my face.
Well, it turns out the profile pages of the entire team look very similar. They have no noteworthy contacts, no experience entries other than BriskPass and all of those profile pages were created between September 9th and September 11th of 2017.
And then there is this one Project Consultant with an actual LinkedIn Profile
So for the team we have 13 times Heidelberg exclusively and then out of nowhere one time Dubai. Mr. "Waleed Yousef", self employed "Exceptionally Enthusiastic Technology Consultant" with a "Higher National Diploma", based in Dubai.
Now it's getting interesting. This profile really does not seem fake. The connection to the Heidelberg-exclusive experts circle though a bit. A self-employed consultant with no relation to transport industry.
Interestingly the same Mr. Waleed has a Xing profile with the same foto but very different from the LinkedIn profile, with no contacts but some 'really noteworthy' entries. And you guessed it - his profile was created on September 8th 2017.
There is also exactly one person on twitter promoting BriskPass - Mr. Waleed Yousef. The same person also writes on Steemit under the nickname CryptoOfFuture.
The same article is promoted on Bitcointalk by a person named "Sal Khoury". Now, his strategy ain't stupid. The article is trying to "warn noobs" not to fall for fake ICOs depicting the sings to watch for and rewards the patient reader in the end with the not yet discovered bulletproof ICO tip - BriskPass.
And here it gets really juicy - look at the responses of several Senior and Hero Members on Bitcointalk to his post promoting BriskPass:
The whitepaper, the mobile app, the partnerships
I ain't gonna waste your time anymore by going further into detail. The whitepaper is a trivial meaningless gibberish about blockchain, future and carbon footprint. The mobile app screenshots make no sense whatsoever. And all the listed partnerships are just a one-way fantasy.
My Appreciation
To whom it may concern.
You did a great job creating BriskPass. You're a scrupulous, reckless and greedy motherfucker in my eyes, but you did a great job. This could easily be used as a template for any Scam ICO.
Finally, the sad conclusion
So here we have an ICO which passed the usual ICO Quick-Checklist just brilliantly. Ten out of ten. And still - there is no such company, no such team, no such product and no such whatsoever. And there is a good chance this scam will actually make it into the token generation event.
Mr. Yousef only needs to create a slack and a telegram group on top of this blunder and there will be enough unexperienced newcomer falling for it and sending their ETH into nirvana.
And you know why is that?
Nobody really reads anything. Nobody does his due diligence. Nobody inspects or verifies anything. Nobody really thinks about stuff. All that everyone will look at is a sort of such quick checklist like I have successfully presented above and the only fact that seems to matter for everyone:
You know what guys?
Money doesn't grow on trees. It never did and it never will. No matter how many fake whitepaper and how many fake dream teams are telling you the opposite. It just won't.
ICO sites mindlessly broadcasting any shit coming their way
And all the sites monetizing the ICO traffic are just happy to be part of it. Look at this list how many ICO rating sites are already promoting this obvious scam. None of them have had even a brief look into the matter. None of them have inspected the team. Or at least the company. Or whitepaper. Anyhting.
They're are just broadcasting any shit coming their way.
https://icotracker.net/project/brisk_pass
https://coinspectator.com/news/83235/brisk-pass
http://www.coin-list.com/crowd_sales/V2DRRvDw
https://www.smithandcrown.com/icos/
https://concisetuts.pro/upcoming-icos/
http://icoinfo.de/30141968/brisk-pass-decentralizing-transportation
http://cryptospecter.com/en/Icos
https://coinspectator.com/news/67034/brisk-pass-decentralizing-transportation
Shame on you!!