ForkLog editor Konstantin Viktorov, the developer of software from Russia, for whom the usual offer on hiring has turned to the real detective turned.
According to Viktorov, against his will, he was "appointed" by the founder of the WAB Network, a blockbuster start-up with unidentified jurisdiction. After conducting his own investigation, Viktorov argues that the proposal to cooperate with him was nothing more than a set-up from a scam-project with an unjustified capitalization in an attempt to cover up traces.
Proposal for cooperation
Being a software developer, in my free time I work on freelance exchanges. Dimensional life was on its way, until June 18, I was not contacted by the customer with a proposal to hire me as a Senior Blockchain Engineer and project adviser.
I agreed to think over the proposal, since I'm interested in this dynamically developing area of programming. The very next day, June 19, one of the members of the WAB Network project team, Steve Austin, contacted me via Skype.
From him, I received a rather vague proposal to hold consultations for developers for $ 400 a month, followed by a salary increase of up to $ 1000 and joining the team.
When I was asked to send photos and information about myself, I asked the interlocutor to take all the necessary information from my profile on the website for freelancers.
First Strangenesses
Then came a lull, which was interrupted by an unexpected transaction for me. Before that, I did not receive any tasks and should not have received any rewards.
However, then it did not bother me much, because good customers often list their fees in advance and I hoped that I would soon receive a list of tasks.
Then silence followed, and I even forgot about this project, but one of the contacts at Linkedin sent me a strange message that in South Korea I became famous than the founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin.
I smiled at the bizarre comparison, I remembered about the project and that I was there just a nominal $ 400 advisor, because I did not get any tasks.
Suspicions began to arise at me at a time when a certain J michael from New York contacted me through a Facebook-messenger and asked how I was going to reach the throughput of 100 million transactions per second.
I thought: Oh, I'm just an adviser, I have nothing to advise these guys, because I understand that even speeds of 1 million transactions per second can be achieved only in theory.
However, WAB Network promises to users 100 million transactions per second, which is ten times the theoretical limit for the hypothetical network Telegram Open Network (TON), developed by Pavel Durov.
Below is a comparative table of current decisions on the speed of transactions in various networks:
But most of all I was alarmed by the fact that J michael called me the founder of the project. Then I remembered the message in which I was already compared with Vitalik Buterin, and decided to check the information on the project, where I participate in the role of a nominal adviser, although until now I have not solved any issues.
Sudden "boost"
Finding their site in the search engine, I was surprised that in the "Team" I stand in the first place among other people I do not know.
Immediately I thought that the guys are doing something wrong and, most likely, specifically. I looked at their website and found the WAB token code , there I was mentioned as an author among all the same founders I did not know.
In the token's code, I found interesting lines :
According to the code, the owner of the smart contract can freeze the tokens of any holder, even if he already bought them. Here it is important to distinguish that there is no prohibition on moving all tokens, as in a normal smart contract, but only "freezing" all the funds of one holder.
Next, I decided to look at blocking and transactions for the token.
At the moment when I first saw the evaluation of all the released tokens, I sat down on a chair: the air around the project cost $ 7 million. However, I quickly got used to it, because as of August 12 the WAB project was already estimated at $ 31 million
Initially, I certainly thought it was very cool, and all that. But since I do not know who is behind this, in case something goes wrong, everyone will come to me, thinking that I am the founder.
Before disclosing the whole situation, I, of course, decided to turn to the person who made me such a magnificent "proposal".
From his answer in Skype, I realized that the project proves the correctness of my actions in relation to my reputation by the fact that their token has already been listed on several exchanges.
I asked to connect me with the real team to get more information. However, before that, the representative of the project invited me to advertise WAB Network in Moscow, promising to pay $ 300 for each performance.
I once again insisted that I want to know the real plans of these founders.
Finally, a person from Skype agreed to introduce me to a real team and appointed a videoconference.
I calmed down a little. At the same time, I continued to search for strings, in order to understand more clearly what the real founders are turning, using my good name.
First Hooks
I started with a block on which they released tokens. The contract itself was deployed from the address 0x95590920b0a6207a6490f40a5b48b8b3e861ceb6 , which was transferred on June 17, 2018 to 3.8 ETH c of the Bittrex exchange. When viewing the comments, there was a small clue:
I could not find such an account anywhere, but the avatar coincided with one profile on Facebook .
After collecting some information before the meeting, I woke up at 6 am on Sunday, August 12, to record a video conference with a key team and make a complete picture of what was happening. But the result was predictable: the person in Skype referred to the fact that the team had a day off, although he himself set the date and time of the call.
That is, they initially knew that there would be no videoconference, and they were wasting time. I thought about this development of events, because, most likely, they wanted to go on two more exchanges, but obviously did not have time. After that, the mention of my name as the "founder" from the WAB Network site disappeared.
That is, according to the "core team", which does not want to show itself and owns a "project" valued at $ 31 million, they can use my reputation in their dark affairs without any responsibility.
I was also alerted by the UTC + 6 time zone for choosing the time of the videoconference.
Since there was a connection between the address from which the smart contract was deployed and the Indian girl in the amount that the three other members of the team listed on the site are from India, I began to believe that the key team is based there. Only one thing did not agree: in India there is no ban on crypto-activity, and this was the main argument why real founders do not want to show up.
I began to look through the whole chain of interaction and - bingo! - a man from LinkedIn, who thought that I was more famous than Vitalik Butterin, was from South Korea, more and more comments in the Korean language began appearing in the Telegram channel. This was noticed by a person from Skype.
I began to view all my contacts on the freelance exchange and found a link to the order for a whitepaper translation from English to Korean from one person with whom I chatted.
I checked the update of their website and saw a whitepaper translation into Korean.
Although the customer did not mention the WAB Network project anywhere, the connection became obvious. On the right are the statistics and location of the customer:
The freelance exchange does not show all the customer data. But now I knew it was Keith Adams from Bartlett, Tennessee, USA.
The first place where I started looking was Facebook, but there were a lot of people with that name , and the knowledge of the location specified in the profile did not narrow the search.
But then I remembered that the real founder asked to specify a link to LinkedIn, and all profile views are logged there. Access to information about people who viewed the profile can be purchased for about $ 60, but, fortunately, the social network offers free monthly access for this function. I took advantage of this to see people who came to me during the last two months, but came to a deadlock, as 324 users took advantage of the "private way of viewing", and there was no suspicious resemblance.
Still there are some profiles that directly communicated with the real founder:
So, some Arvydas M. did the video for the project;
one more person was engaged in development of whitepaper WAB Network, for which he received $ 500 from the real founder of the project:
I wrote three more same fictitious "founders", like me. Two of them have confirmed to me about fraud on the part of the project: Takir Hassan and Zeeshan Jan .
Growing Scum-bubble
Meanwhile, the cost of the WAB Network continues to grow, and perhaps the founders are already dropping their tokens to fix profits and leave the solution of further problems to the same "pseudo-founders" like me.
What the real founders have already achieved, demonstrates the schedule :
Not a bad bubble, is it? But the analysis of the consequences, after he was blown away, somehow wanted to be shifted to my shoulders. I hope the global community will support me and clean up my reputation from dirt.
I disclose all information not only for my own protection, but also for protecting the funds of investors who would like to invest in WAB Network.
After everyone knew where the legs of this innovative project come from, I would like to shift responsibility to Kit Adams from Barletta, from which it all began. Maybe he is not the last customer in this chain, but for me all this dirt started from him. I will not judge or give additional guesses. The investigation should be conducted in the jurisdiction where the real founder lives together with the SEC, and I will only try to assist in the investigation as I can. By the way, now Keith Adams is prudently located in Vietnam.
As of August 13, the project estimate for Etherscan is already $ 38 million (a 23% increase after exposure). Images of fictitious "founders" are still hanging on the site.
