Goxtrade a small scale bitcoin (BTC) exchange has recently been outed as a scam. The bitcoin exchange is accused of taking photos of unaffiliated people from social media sites and adding them to make its online staff gallery.
Goxtrade Listed Admins Are Fake
Some of the names listed by the exchange has been found to belong to some real people with connections to the crypto industry. An example is that of Amber Baldet, co-founder of blockchain startup Clovyr. Her name and the picture was listed on the featured on Goxtrade’s staff roster.
She has however made sure to separate herself from the roster. She said:
“Fraud alert: I am not a developer at Goxtrade and probably their entire business is a lie.”
The company is reportedly not registered at the address it claimed to be at in its advertisement and cannot be found in the United Kingdom’s registry of companies and businesses. Also, some of the startup’s contact information cannot be traced to known entities. For instance, the phone number listed in the advertisement leads to a dead clothing company in Birmingham and its email address can be traced to a Russian Internet company, Yandex.
Another Exchange Scam
In other news, blockchain exchanges, JoyToken and RepuX carried out a joint initial coin offering (ICO) exit fraud and absconded with about $8 million in investment funds after they refused to pay promoters who helped in the marketing of their ICOs during March and April of 2018. The two companies are now walking away with $4.7 million and $3.3 million respectively.
“RepuX claimed that it was trying to build what it called a ‘blockchain-powered data marketplace,’ while JoyToken was trying to create a decentralized gambling platform, powered by its own JOY token.”
Moreover, the two companies had initially secured community management from the same crypto-centric marketing solutions website, AmaZix. They were however removed from the platform when they refused to pay their promoters amount agreed upon.