I know you can see a lot of articles like this one. Unfortunately, a lot of people are still getting scammed nowadays. Scammers can easily buy templates for their websites as cheap as $6. They can also use someone else images online and pretend as a team member. This article can give you an overview of what I am talking about.
Presenting... drum roll
PumpkinPro! http://pumpkinpro.io/
It's a nicely designed website, right? Well having a good design can really attract a lot of users.
They also have a lot of details like the overview about the project, token info, etc. A whitepaper is also available! Well, having a whitepaper can really make an ICO almost "genuine".
Now, I'll jump to the obvious "fake" section...the team behind this so-called "Pumpkin" project.
When you check the team, you usually check the CEO first (or is it just me who usually does this one). Now, doing a reverse search of the image you can clearly see where the images came from.
Oops, busted!
We can immediately give this ICO a "red flag". It's pretty obvious on why this is a scam. Why would you even use someone else's picture as a CEO?
Here are some direct links from the original source of the pics:
https://www.y3technologies.com/singapore-business-review-interviews-y3-ceo-marc-dragon/ - CEO
https://www.picsofcelebrities.com/celebrity/tom-patricola/pictures/tom-patricola-movies.html - Co-founder
https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/487233253408464390/ - Senior Software Engineer
https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/345440233914196152/ - Marketing Expert
Now we're done with the team, let's talk about the design of the website. I've noticed something common in the design, which is the animation (the circles) on the background. I'm not saying that all ICOs that has an animation in the design are a scam, but these designs are just helpful for us to identify whether they made their own site, hired someone, or it came from a template.
Looking up the template is so easy, you can just search "cryptocurrency website template" and voilà! Lots of results will show up. I picked the first one and it redirected me to the perfect site, Envato Market (ThemeForest).
Boom It looks identical to the website of PumpkinPro.
Here is the shop link: https://themeforest.net/item/cryptocash-ico-cryptocurrency-landing-page-html-template/22101785?s_rank=3
Preview: http://bestwebcreator.com/cryptocash/demo/index-royal-blue-modern.html
Scammers can easily buy the template for $20 and gain maybe thousands or millions from your contributions and identities (KYC documents). Observe and research first before engaging in any activities. Avoid becoming a victim and stay safe in the crypto space.
If ever the website shuts down or changes some contents here is a wayback archive for the site https://web.archive.org/web/20180829131815/https://pumpkinpro.io/
Telegram channel: https://t.me/pumpkinicopro
Bitcointalk thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4973995
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PumpkinPro.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PumpkinIcoPRO
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/PumpkinProject/
Medium: https://medium.com/@PUMPKINprochain
Share this article with your friends, families, or community if you deem it informative. You might save a life ;)
Feel free to comment your opinions and suggestions~