The BitConnect scam exposed

in #scam8 years ago

   Since I've joined this site, I've seen multiple posts regarding people investing in or promoting BitConnect. I would like to show them how exactly BitConnect works and save them and other users some money, and to also point out how to generally detect a scam. For those of you that don't know, BitConnect is a cryptocurrency(BCC) and a site that promises its users a return of up to 480%+ in cash(not crypto) per year, and even a guaranteed profit of up to 91.25% a year, depending on how much you invest, with no risk of loss! They claim these money are made with a cryptocurrency trading bot that they created.

   Let's take a look at their official guide on how to "invest" in their business. I have highlighted spelling errors with red(discussed at point 1) and suspicious, scam-like business practices with blue(discussed at point 3, which reveals the scam):

   Let's evaluate a few things on this page:

1. Bad English and why it matters

 First of all, there are many spelling and grammar errors, but I just underlined the most obvious ones that anyone can see. Most legit businesses have at least one employee to spell check everything before putting it on the website, if the developers are not native English speakers. However, it's very common for scam sites to have these kinds of mistakes, because they don't have any employees. Why? Because of two reasons:

  1. The scammers don't want the employees to be able to identify them after they disappear with the money;
  2. They want to reduce the costs as much as possible until they shot down the site.

2. Too good to be true

   Let's take a look at what they are promising you:

   For 10,000$+, they claim that you get a guaranteed 0.25% daily interest, which means 91.25% guaranteed return per year. Not only that, but they claim that you get an extra up to 480% per year. Add to that the referral system, which pays your referral 7% of every investment or reinvestment you make, and his referral gets 3%, and his referral gets 1% and so on, until the 11th referral, adding up to more than 12%. So if you invest the same amount 3 times in a year, they would pay your referrals 36%+ of your initial investment. 

   This all adds up to a guaranteed 127.25%+ guaranteed, risk-free interest per year, not even counting reinvesting your interest. There is no legitimate business on Earth that will be able to pay this interest rate to its customers risk-free, plus another up to 480%. There is also no trading bot that can guarantee profits.

3. Suspicious business practices and how the scam works

   To tie it all up, let's now take a look at how you are supposed to "invest" in their trading bot, and how they can(and will) profit from it:

  1. You send Bitcoin to them. They don't ask for BCC, their own currency, they ask for Bitcoin! Why is that? Because their currency will become worthless as soon as they close down the site, but Bitcoin will still be valuable.
  2. You buy BitConnect with your Bitcoin, straight from the developers of BitConnect! Every time a user buys their currency, its price increases.
  3. You give them the currency you just bought in exchange for the promise of getting back its value in cash after 4 to 10 months, and some daily interest. The interest is paid in Bitcoin, but the amount is calculated in dollars.  Now they have your Bitcoin and you also just gave them back their own currency and increased its price when you bought it. What do you have? A promise.
  4. They also offer a very generous referral program, so many people promote their site on YouTube, Facebook, forums etc. This helps to bring a ton of people to the site. It's a snowball effect: the more users they have, the more users they attract. The funds of new users are used to pay the old users.
  5. When not enough new investments come in to cover  the costs of paying the old users and still make them a profit, they sell all of their ShitCoin BCC, which increased in price by 7000%+ since they released it because of their users buying it and giving it back to them, but almost never selling it. They also have a ton of Bitcoin to sell, but at this point it's worth a lot less than the total amount of BCC they have. They then disappear with all of the money.

   To recap: They attract users by promising amazing returns on their investment. They artificially increase the price of their crypto by tricking users into buying it with Bitcoin and giving it back to them, along with the Bitcoin. They pay back the interest to their users from new investments. When their profit is maximized, they sell all of their artificially inflated currency(7000%+ since release) and Bitcoins and disappear.

   I hope you found this article useful. Upvote it if you enjoyed it and follow me for more quality content.

   If you are interested in legitimate investment opportunities, check out my previous article on the top 3 cryptocurrencies to invest in for the long run:

https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@thegrinder/best-3-cryptos-to-invest-in-for-the-long-run-as-bitcoin-replacements-5-years

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Reply to this so I can upvote your post that way indirectly!

great!

Ok, thanks! :D

Just saw it sorry... That seven day rule is so dump... Please reply again and sorry.

Ok, thanks again! :D You already voted one of my comments, but I wouldn't mind another one! :))

Just saw it :)

Here I am, the person you want to upvote.

hahaha if only those fools listened to your warnings... they wouldn't be sleeping on the streets tonight without any dinner

Good write up and even more relevant now given so much money is being dumped into this scam.

Good write up? LMAO your an idiot he ruined it for everyone who could have jumped in 9 months ago made 100s of thousands if not Millions if you put the right cash in and then simply jumped out today

Wow what a FOOL you are

haha look at it now! Who is the FOOL?!

@btemtd guess who looks like an idiot now. The scam just closed.

hahaha yes!! Exactly!

That was a good article and great call. Reading through comments several agreed with you, meaning on average there are lots of smarts here ;-)

Many opposing views still have 25 reputation means, they only come here to disagree, then they stopped posting.

You should post more often, you have lots to offer.
In another of your 9 months old post you liked DASH/NEM/PIVX. Do you have any changes here, maybe a new favorite?

Honestly, after all the toxicity and insults on this article and people putting their referral links for BCC in the comments, I was very discouraged to post here anymore. I have better stuff to do in life than getting called an idiot by, to put it lightly, less than intelligent people.

Regarding the 3 cryptos, like I said in my original post, PIVX might fall behind because of the lack of dedication from the developers and the fact that DASH had a head start. It looks like this has been the case over the last 9 months, so I would not recommend it at the moment. It did grow since I recommended it, so it was not a loss, but those money could have been better invested elsewhere, but it was a shot worth taking at the time, and I didn't have much invested in it compared to the other 2.
I have lots of other cryptos I'm invested in, but I'm not a financial advisor and some people even shit on those recommendations with completely wrong information, so I don't plan on making any more recommendations. If you want an example, you can read allthatmoney's comment on this post.

Hey I understand and thanks for the answer.

I didn't ask to get trade recco, I'm not trading and investing, for next 12 months I will just try to collect some Steem (powering up) and part I'm sending to Bitshares and converting to BTS and that's it.

As newcomer (latecomer) I'm fascinated with blockchain technology but also overloaded with all the info available and all the new technoligies that are being built on top of blockchain and I'm just looking for directions, where to focus to and what to learn more about, that's why i asked, but I understand you. And the guy you mentioned, well his reputation is not doing too well ;-)

I like the graphene technology so I will definitely try to devote some of my time to try to learn more about it in the coming months.

Closed you said? I checked their site. It is not closed?! :)

The site stopped all investment operations and is permanently closing all activities except being a BCC wallet after 5 days of the announcement. The investors were paid in BCC coins, at a price of over 350 per coin, but the coins are worth $37 now, and it's extremely hard to sell them anywhere because no one wants them.

when i saw this project i had red light right away due to:

  • fake volume, they made coinmarketcap to add their own exchange and thats where vol was
  • fake promises (ponzi style) of crazy % getting back
  • ref program paying extra % on top of this

3 signs of a scam to me.

Hi! bitconnect is working fine for me. there are many redflags but also many (greenflags?).
You can choose to consider either side. Bitconnect, just like many things in crypto is governed by the rule invest what you're willing to lose.

If you're new to BitConnect, consider joining my team to earn 10% of your first investment back and be a part of regular giveaways!

How to earn 10% of your first investment back

  • Use bitcc123 as a sponsor when you sign up
  • Email me at mclee2999@gmail.com your BCC wallet address, your BCC username and how much you invested
  • Follow my Steemit page for regular (once a week) BCC giveaways starting on the 18th of November!
  • If you already have an account, you can add me as your sponsor
  • If you already have another sponsor, consider making a new account

You are a special kind of stupid aren't you? Can't get a real name and peddle your snake oil on the same thread discounting everything you're selling. How about an address and history of EXACTLY who runs this outfit so when they flake off with your money you can hunt them down? Bet that's not in their "About" page now is it. It's a front to take, take, take until they no longer make a profit and then they TAKE a nice long vacation sipping fruity drinks with umbrellas in them while chuckling at stupid jokes on a beach located in a non-extraditable country. When will we start handing out marbles to little kids again so society doesn't keep raising all these idiots that are ripping off the world and flushing our morals down the toilet? /facepalm

How about getting paid for over a year without a hiccup just like they said ?

ofcourse it works.. until they stop having new investors.. then the thing collapses and all you money is gone.

That is true. However, I PERSONALLY feel their collapse is still far away. I mean, as we speak they're hosting their first annual ceremony.

It will probably collapse at a high point like this.. Before any signs so people don't retrieve the money... I hope it makes profits for another 280 days thought.. .

Where did you find out about this fake volume? I like the post man its making me think rethink, check out my experience with it I jus posted this.
https://steemit.com/bitconnect/@nesstopher/has-anyone-received-their-bitconnect-loan-back

United states debt based fiat currency
#fakevolume
#fake promises
#interest on inflation
i would rather trust bitconnect then gamble on usd.
see you at the finish line.

here here, i stuck 1k into the platform and the returns a week later we nuts. i've reinvested everything and am putting in a total of 5k within 60 days. haters be damned xD

So far it has paid out pretty well. I have no referrals and 1/4 my seed loan back already in 2 weeks. I think the way I'm doing it I cannot hurt anyone but myself, so its a risk I was willing to make in the hopes of paying off the 98k in college loans I have to pay :\

Yeah, bitcoin a scam, bitconnect a scam and we daily go and exchange a piece of paper for buying goods and services ... and now a plastic ... with inflation at 3-4 % ... isn't USD the biggest SCAM ? or do we trust govt's printing press more!! I only invested .5 BTC and in 90 days I will make 100% return ... let them run away with my initial investment ... I will still be much better off as compared to keeping it in bank for 1% interest.

Secondly I don't say that it is or isn't a scam ... the thing is that ... there is no story ... video ... coverage of press ... of a single incident where they have stolen someone's money, ran away with it or done something that is against law.

I will post my experience in a month's time ... let's see if it is a scam .. if it is I will atlas have a proof!

Its very true, i want everyone to think about this. We are trusting our savings, our bills, our lives on what....Paper and some metals! Lets diversify and dont knock it till you've tried it! #cryptolife

i have invested 500 dollars and i have taken in 2000.00 bring me more ponzi's like this. i like them.

Know what? Long as u take your initial investment & profits & remove them from bitconnect clutches, I'm sure you'll be A-OK. Play with house $ and you can't lose. It's only the suckers on the tail end that get hosed!

Helluva point you made there. However, the worthless usd will still be floating around long after bitconnect is dead & stinking! Honestly, I can't imagine how they've propped it up this long.

It's most definitely a ponzi scheme, I mean whenever you see GUARANTEED, run for the hills! 10% annually is difficult to believe for sizable investments, let alone a few hundred percent. It's laughable. Unfortunately many will fall for this.

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he has a lot of nerve talking about bad english and misspelling. look at his english, he posted this under the bad english topic, so they are going to shot down the site huh?
also he looks to be a russian most likely from the russian federation, look how he puts his $ sign after the amount. in america we put the $ first then the number. he is most likely promoting another site like bitconnect that is a russian ponzi scheme and bitconnect is in his way.
They want to reduce the costs as much as possible until they shot down the site.

Bye.

those parameters fit with poswallet.com to to a degree, but it is still legit and the devolopers are working their ass off to get a good altcoin wallet. So average joe's don't need to deal with compiling wallets and have all this clients installed on their pc.

I had a couple hundred dollars burning a hole in my posket, so I thought I'd test drive this scam. I did the same thing with PB Mining when it was blazing away full steam ahead. Got my money back because I got in early I guess. Hopefully this will be the same, but we will see. Soon I'm going to post my progress so you all can see. Let's do this together! haha

Please please post about your success :)

I would add that any new business that has more than 1 tier affiliate marketing, looks dodgy at best. Bitconnect are deffinitelly 100% scam

Correct!

Are you saying they OWN coinmarketcap ?

Nah just saying they are criminals!

Just watch this. if you have the courage to get pls do but go in with $200 . it's easy to get your money back and then start making money and you are safe.
Watch the video below, just calm your nerves and listen. you can counter the explanation with facts and equations of your own.

But if you need to register just click on this to register https://bitconnect.co/?ref=elsorncg

Spamming comments is frowned upon by the community.

Continued comment spamming may result in action from the cheetah bot.

The OP completely skips over important points.
-Bitconnect lending is tied into buying into a cryptocoin, artificially inflating its price and then lending THAT coin, not cash.
-Payouts are made in BitconnectCoin and NOT made in cash, this allows it to be able to support payouts because it isn't depended on whether bitconnect has cash to pay out but on whether they have BitconnectCoin to lend, which they have the largest reverse, it is PoS, and when they pay out the value goes down AFTER they give you the BitconnectCoin, which is important.
-If there was no trading bot, which a 1% per day trading bot for an experienced trader, moved into crypto, could EASILY make, they could STILL support what they are offering because of the BitconnectCoin alone.
-The trading bot never offers 1% like many people argue it does and it DOES and HAS for many days in a row offer 0% or near 0% for many days back to back and they make no guarantee that this will never happen forever
-people argue they make a GUARANTEE, They make NO GUARANTEE.

feeling wrong now?

BitPetite is way better. higher returns and less risk because your initial investment is only locked up for 6 or 9 weeks. you can deposit in BTC, LTC or ETH so no need to buy and lend a different coin. i'm earning huge amounts of BTC while alts are struggling
https://bitpetite.com/?aff=tps8068

I tried your link to Bitpetite and it doesn't go anywhere. Can you explain to me how its better?

NOW THAT'S A SCAM - NOT bitconnect

and how about now...(bitconnect)

well its appear on CoinMArketcap
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitconnect/ #9 today

Does today too :) At the proper price!

Pretty funny reading through some of these comments today. There's no telling some people, they have to make their own mistakes.

History repeating itself so many times with these scams!

yes, but interestingly, if you look on average, posters warning have higher reputation, posters liking bit.diss.connect on average have lower reputation. Just sayin... ;-)

A large number of those low rep accounts seem to be made just for the purpose of defending bitgoneekkk, it was an army of shill accounts all over social media. Looking back they did a good job of rallying their victims into attacking the "haters", easy to see them on steemit but more difficult to tell on youtube.

Ah yes, that makes sense, that's why those accounts are still at 25. And like you point out, another advantage of Steemit ;-)

7 month old post... Imagine what money you could have made in that time?

hahahaha TRUE .. THIS Idiot ruined it for all these sheep

It has worked for me. Got my investment back already and now just gambling the house money. Watching my account grow! Haven’t even tried to get any referrals but if anyone is interested https://bitconnect.com/?ref=joriko

Can you give me at least 1 site that has no compounding? 1 site that has no ref bonus? site that is not ponzi. if you can give at least 1, ill give you $1000 plus ill quit bitconnect. It must be related to bitcoin investments and aside from trading.

  • PROVE Volume is fake? its P2P

  • Fake Promises? Not one single thing they have said regarding percentages and payment, they have not done.

  • Ref Program Indeed does and has been doing.

-They publicly had a HUGE meetup in thailand in November, I don't think they are hiding
cause the hosts would be arrested if this was a scam.

  • All I know is Everything they promised paywise has been paid without a HICCUP

  • What Kind of Scam allows you to withdraw profits whenever?

  • Scam? Goto Forex exchanges and then come back and tell me scam, Goto your bank and what they are doing with your money and then tell me scam!!!

8,271,913 max coin count. (I know, no white paper) Mineable. Stake-able. Wallets work great. Fast transactions. Iphone and Android app work great. Coin is now on trading sites as well as their site. Track record so far. I am not so sure. I also think the same rule applies, in crypto, only invest what you can afford to lose. That is my position so putting money into BCC is the same thing. Anyway, I bought a bunch of it at $2 and because of all the FUD, I sold it at $9. It is at $202 today. Oy.

bots are quite normal to run in both the crypto comunity and real world economy. Just think for a second that you own bitconect, you run this trading bot. You give it forexempel 100 btc(100 btc is quit easy to optain for startups) to play with. Then I deside to invest 100 dollar of my money. Thats not much bitcoin comperd to what the bot alreddy have. then 10000 people do the same then the bot get quite rich after a while. And let say you get 1% +50%( of the initial main profit of the bot) from the profit of the deposits to the bot and 10% goes direct to make the bot grow in wealth. Your site grows each day. Customers withdrawels happens mostly in bcc. that they exhanged for the dollar number standing on the page. ore they use your exchange. You get more rich from running the site with a real trading bot then running with the money. Pleas stop spreading stuff that you don't know fore sure. It is a ton of money in trading. So returns are not that out of the world. The Bitconect bot actually have dry weeks. And the ref-program is totaly defendebel that they need alot of trafic to atract people to the bcc token. that one go up in price they have more money then it is posible to pay out to the afliate marketers.
PS:This numbers are totaly made up not based on facts at all. it was to paint a picture of how it could be.

BitConnect is working just fine for me

A ponzi scheme always work fine for the first people that jump in it ! When I see the market cap of BCC and all the buzz on youtube about it, I can guess for sure it will alive during many months (maybe 1 complete year or more if the global market cap about crypto still going up.

BUT

You should understand that the only reason that you receive your daily profit it's because news subscribers jump on the BCC boat and feed it by adding some fresh $ or Bitcoin in their website.

But at the end when no customers will enter or when the market cap of this thing will catch a HUGE amount, it will disappear with all the money !

Bitconnect is just a titanic boat and it's not because the music and lights still going on that it will not diving and dying on the middle term because this boat has never been able to float anyway ! It's base on an unstable and irrealistic model !

djey, completely agree with you but is it wrong to join a a ponzi scheme during the beginning? In all ponzi schemes the first people make there returns ++++++ I mean the early people that actually make a profit can't be blamed for profiting from a scam, they joined under the same pretenses as the people at the end that loose all of there $. Such is the lottery of life in my opinion.

I give back 75% of my referral bonus, whatever the initial amount you invest!

If you are new signup with my referral link https://bitconnect.co/?ref=Astrael If you already registered you can change your sponsor to " Astrael"

After assigning me as a sponsor and Lend money, send me your BCC (Bitconnect Coin) address,user name and the amount in USD that you lend to cryptoastra@gmail.com or in the comments below and I Will transfer your cut.
My referral link https://bitconnect.co/?ref=Astrael

Honestly same for me, I put in $100 with no F***s given to see what happens, if it is a scam then I will go out less 1 night, if it isn't then WOOT. Honestly I know alot of scammer are using it and promoting it so maybe giving it a bad name. But some money already recouped so...... update to be pending.

Cool man this is the spirit ! Let's try ! 100 bucs you spend in a good dinner !

So how is that going?

The numbers are not made up. They are taken straight from their website. Tell me which number you think I made up, and I will provide you with the exact link to the information on the BitConnect website.

Agreed, good post

perfect

But I just watched your videos advocating bitconnect? Hmmm Fishy

??? Craig grant you of all people should defend the platform! What do you mean with perfect?

Perfect balace, every story needs 2 sides

So why not share your side of the story in this post where so many people agree it is a scam? I assume you have an interest in defending your views on bcc. I'm on the fence but you know what they say about something which sounds too good to be true...

If it sounds too good to be true, then you fear, so dont do it

I merely seek the truth and you seem to be in a better position than me to offer it due to your better knowledge of BitConnect.

I'm still not sure whether it's a scam or not...I've done an analysis on the rate of return vs. BTC price volatility, pls check and let me know your thought:

https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@ka82/bitconnect-investment

I read, upvoted and commented on your article @ka82. Nice work!

even graig grant doesn't have any trust in it at all even though he uses it. he sees that his reputation is on the online.

And the "paint pictures" are screenshots from their website.

This token in now 100.00 and I have made a ROI of 9.4% in just eight days. I totally agree with you. With the volatility in BTC it is easy for a bot to be profitable with a 1% return to investors trading BTC. These scam claimers obviously do not trade BTC or are terrible traders...a monkey can earn 10% returns daily trading in this market.

resteemed

Thank you!

I can not believe you are still promoting it and giving out your referral link, on a post that exposes it as a scam, nonetheless!

here is a steemit post about someone who loaned $1500, got it back, and made $842 in profit on the loan. https://steemit.com/bitconnect/@henry-gant/bitconnect-investing-before-i-wised-up-what-you-absolutely-have-to-know-to-gain-on-your-bitconnect-investment

It's the page that prompted me to write this article :) You might want to go through the comments, where the author says he believes it's a scam and is no longer promoting it.

but he still got his $1500 back after 239 days, and made $842 in profit on the loan

that is normal for a ponzi scheme sir.

Actually that same writer added a 12,000 loan. He's still wary but he's testing it.

https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@henry-gant/lets-find-out-bitconnect-lending-by-henry-gant-man-about-town

Unbelievable Craig, big BIG disappointment, and don't keep saying you're on the same boat as everyone else, you're on the boat all those referrals built you, while referrals are swimming behind the boat, and will be the first to drawn...

watching this video in restropect after @craig-grant has made over $100,000 in BCC is quite hilarious. fear and ignorance isn't the best investment...

Reading this after Bitconnect just crashed makes me think you're an idiot.

Oh wow, really? someone took a 10k $ loan to invest in bitconnect??

How will you be able to sleep at night if this turns out to really be a scam, craig? Will you just remove your youtube video and go on about your day?

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Ponzis are scams, even if they pay out at first, because eventually they'll close and a lot of people are scammed out of their money.

that will never happen with bitconnect

Oh really?

Never ever EVER! Except a few days ago.

the risk I took was $100, earned back 25 times more already

Well, good for you, but you have been warned now. I'm assuming most of the income was from referrals. Are you the guy from YouTube?

cryptocurrency is play money, nothing to be warned or worried about

I guess we will agree to disagree about that :P

Play money has real value but if you are putting it into a centralized exchange (Like BitConnect) then you're taking the risk. If BitConnect is a scam aren't all centralized exchanges also scams? Some other exchanges offer the loans too and use bots for liquidity. These are unregulated exchanges so do you suggest they should be regulated?

Maybe we need a BitDISCONNECT meme! Ha ha!

Thanks @thegrinder. I found this when trying to quickly get to the bottom of bitconnect. Would love you to give my article on Token a look over - https://steemit.com/token/@fraserb/token-browser-targeting-2-billion-unbanked-people-through-blockchain-innovation

Must feel good having a lot of people lose money if this indeed turns out to be a scam.

i am in the same boat as everyone else invested, and I am prepared to lose $200, no problem

What about the extra 12.5x of your earnings whike actively promoting a scam? I'm glad I didn't listen to any of these.

I dot think int's scam, and I can wait a few months to know I'm right, if it does turn out to be a scam then I can delete all my videos that talk about or link to Bitconnect. In the past I did the same for Genesis when so many comenters were calling it a scam, I deleted all the videos and restarted promoting it a few months later. I remember when steem was a scam, and when dash was a scam. Time will tell

Alright! only two things to play like trading win or lose nothing to worry that much I am prepared to lose and really appreciate when I won, At least I tried and not just speculating rock in roll to the world oh yeah!

You, yourself not investing much in this. You have invested about $700 but you have earned much more from referrals.
Not all will get this much referrals.
You are not taking any risk of loosing money because you are not investing in it. You just want to earn from their referral program.

And also resteem if you feel like it, to warn others and keep me motivated to write more articles like this one. Thank you for your support!

Definitely resteeming. I've been seeing a lot of hype about Bitconnect. It sure looked like a Ponzi scheme to me. What had me SMH was the number of people getting excited who don't really have the expendable income to risk. A fool and his cryptocurrency are soon parted, but I still hate to see it. Your breakdown of how Bitconnect actually works and the true risk involved could help to take some of the shine off of this scam. Thanks for putting this together.

Thank you for the resteem and the feedback!

Awesome quote! "A fool and his cryptocurrency are soon parted"

Resteemed!

Thank you!

Welcome! I was scammed early on by something like this when I first entered Bitcoin. They took 8 BTC. They had a better looking site then Bitconnect even and eventually went quiet and took off. Scary times!

I'd fully support an article that breaks down Onecoin for the masses. If you have the time at some point.

I know nothing about this coin, sorry.

Yeah, looks like it. Please flag Craig Grant's YouTube referral video from above, he's absolutely shameless! He still claims it's not a scam and giving out his referral link right on this post!

That's Craig.. its like the natural profits from blockchain tech is not enough, he has to keep pushing those with referrals on to people and does it actively on his channel. Poor users who don't know better and follow him blindly...

Wish I could but due to my curation trail I don't flag posts as everyone would have to agree on it and could cause unnecessary drama, will link it to steemit.chat though for others to decide.

Not sure why, but I don't have the resteem option. Would really like to share this.

I have recently came across them myself. Huge scam, stay away! Anything that has your funds locked up for up to 299 days it's a scam. There is no financial instrument that has 40% per month return!!!
If you're looking for a legit lending business check out poloniex and poloniexlendingbot. No referrals, a more humble 30-50% APR (which is still a lot), and they advise you about the risks, minimal in this scenario.
If you have time, can you have a look at my project, vialcoin.com and give me some feedback please?
Much appreciated.
Upvoted and followed none the less.

P.S. This is also listed as a scam on www.badbitcoin.org, a site specialized in detecting cryptocurrency scams.

badbitcoin needs more credit!

Trying to to find the listing on badbitcoin .

Go to http://www.badbitcoin.org/thebadlist/index.htm and go to letter "B" page, search for "BitConnect" with CTRL-F in your browser.

Ouch!

One last thing: notice their payment table, it has these intervals: $100 - $1000, $1010 - $5000, $5010 - $10000, $10010 - $100000. They have $10 gaps at each step, so if you invest $1005, for example, you get nothing.

lol wtf

I know, right? :))

The system is set up to loan in $10 increments therefore not possible to do a loan for $1005 as the system will not allow it. Please get your facts straight before spreading lies. You've proven your incompetence with this example

Yeah, I should have invested to find out this piece of information, like all the "smart" people did. I'm assuming you are one of them.

7 months later BITCONNECT still going and badbitcoin.org is running Bitconnect ads. Fascinating.

That site has nothing of value to say about bitconnect either.
"Bitconnect.co We were watching to see how this played out, and it has played out to be just another ponzi fraud. 6/3/16"
What happened to make them say that? Nothing happened, that's what.... Check out the date on their entry.

Thanks for that link, hadn't heard of the site before.

Hi, I have really enjoyed reading this thread as I have recently made a small investment into Bitconnect. Both sides of this debate have had validility in my opinion.

But when I got to this point I clicked your link and it just shows a paragraph from 2016 stating that bitconnect is a ponzi scam. - Where is the evidence of this please?

I also found it slightly humorous that the same site had an advertisment and link for Bitconnect!
See below....

Untitled.jpg

zero valid points on the side of bitconnect

I saw the same thing today. LOL

Invest in BTC, earnings in USD, withdraw USD must buy BCC, withdraw BCC must be converted to BTC, all in their internal system, along with internal price ... huuffftttt... dunno it is scam or not

WOW,.....so bitconnect are lieing scammers.....and you difinitiy know well enough to title your post stating a slanderous slur as fact.....based entirely on your hunch....lol....nice journalism......can you please advice me more with your solid research
.and strongly backed assumptions

and you should have all the info you need now!

It does not matter if its a Scam or not
why?
Simply
1 invest
2 make your money back
3 play with free money
this is it
and if it is not a scam ?
you be well - very well

After 3 months they are still paying and what's amazing is that it has risen 3-4 times its value in 3 months.

I signed up to take a look around and it appeared to be a thinly concealed HYIP scam to me. I work too hard for my Bitcoin and Crypto Currencies to let greed take over. https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@hilarski/warning-bitcoin-hyip-scams-on-steemit

and you were 100% correct!!

I consolidated all my crypto and put it all into this. Glad I did. My crypto would be worth much less than it was. As it stands, it's worth more now.

Theoretically worth more. Good luck cashing out of this massive musical chair game ;)

I admit I have been recently invested in BitConnect. I have not had any bad experiences yet however this post has ultimately made me withdraw my funds today, for the time being, until I establish the details you have outlined for myself. What you have noted does seems suspicious. The website and internal structure of the platform is very well made and works very well so for it to be a scam it is a very well designed one and a lot of effort has been put into its functionality. I have had no problem moving funds in or out nor have I had a problem with the exchange. I will play a cautious game from here and watch with interest. I appreciate your perspective.

If this article saves just one person some money, I'm glad I wrote it! You should also check the rest of the comments for some more evidence of what I'm saying.

Sure and I agree with the sentiment. However the reality is although you have some very valid points the claims of it being a scam are completely unsubstantiated at this point. Due diligence is required. The market cap on this coin is also significant and is growing everyday so I would hope that you are wrong as many people may get seriously ripped off if you are correct. A few spelling mistakes can be easily overlooked on a website of its size. I admit I missed them initially when making my decision to invest. Interest rates in a new monetary system beyond what we have been delivered by the manipulated fiat banking systems have made us speculate of its possibility. Can we actually earn healthy returns from a platform such as BitConnect and as suggested via trading bots, reinvestment strategies, trading fees and exchange profits? In regard to returns it does seem to be a little too good to be true so I agree tread with caution. Regardless, I have withdrawn my interests and moved it to other investments.

The bots I've tried lose money more than they make it, so I'm not inclined to believe they can "guarantee" any returns at all.

Fair call and I agree to 'guarantee' a return you would think it would need come from something a little more substantiated than an 'auto-bot'. It does not add up I agree. They would have to be investing funds into other areas for this to work in the long term and maybe they have an alternative strategy that they do not disclose. Time will tell.

But it's not just me that thinks it's a scam, you can search google/youtube for plenty of people saying the same thing, even people that used to send referrals there. Then there's the fact that the owner information of the web address "bitconnect.co" is hidden, which adds a huge layer of distrust for a site that provides financial services. All trade sites, like ShapeShift, Poloniex, Bittrex etc. have public owner information. And the only reason they got to the top of the market cap list is mentioned in the article, because almost everybody is buying the currency and almost nobody is selling it. I had a lot more arguments for my case, but nobody would read it if I made it 1 kilometer long. I think you are being a bit subjective about this because you are subconsciously hoping not to get ripped off :P I hope that you will be able to get your investment back before they disappear.

I am not doubting you, nor your intent. I am already out and I have my money safely outside of the platform. :) We will see what transpires and I will no longer be promoting BitConnect although I have been placing banners on my posts and website so will need to retract them for now.

Taking down the ads is very responsible and unselfish thing to do and I commend you for it!

I have added EDIT notes to two of my articles on BitConnect and have taken down all links and banners. Will keep the articles there for now for reference. Lets see how this one pans out.

It should also be noted that the major trade sites do not accept this currency, although it's a top 20 currency. This is a clear sign of distrust.

But it can also have the opposite effect of opportunity cost for people who lost the opportunity to make some money. You didn't offer a viable alternative to BitConnect.

Poloniexlendingbot.com Dana. No refferals, legit business, minimum risk, 30-50 % annual return. Doesn't sound as fab as 40% / month, but that's because one is real and the other a fantasy. ;)

Yeah except the withdrawal I started half an hour ago is still "Pending" on Poloniex's website. First time this has happened, and I'm concerned it might be the last...

Don't be. It can even take hours sometimes, but so far I had hundreds of deposits/withdrawals from poloniex and theu always come through. If you put in the right address you're fine ;)

Took hours but went through. Thanks.

Were you running the bot leading up to the fork? It went crazy with huge returns, lending at 0.4% and more! The "Year, Compounded" was over 200%!

I have a feeling Poloniex did that in order to capture more BTC, as there's the "xdaythreshold" and "xdays" settings... I think it was rather slimy of them.

There is no viable alternative to BitConnect, except other scams. I did provide a link to what cryptocurrencies I do recommend that you invest in, though, at the bottom of the page.

Well, looks like Bitconnect will be no more

Thanks for this article. I just opened an account there because I was curious. I also noticed a $#!tload of errors which raised a red flag. So I decided to research on it. Very fortunate to find someone that noticed the same. Thanks!!!

I put 5 btc in steemit at over $3 and now look at it. This was a pump and dump so is this a scam. People posting get paid by people investing. Is this a scam???

Annddd you would've been better with that steem investment!

People posting are getting paid by newly generated Steem. The site does not ask for you to invest in it. The site does not guarantee a profit if you do invest in it. Just a few subtle differences :)

The price steem would fall to zero without new investors so it's a bit of a ponzi without income generating like advertising. If the claimed trading bot is legit then that is income generating and sustainable without new investors so not a ponzi. I appreciate that the bot trader might not be legit but there is a company registration in England Uk where financial regulation is pretty tight.

The price of BitCoin fell from $1100+ to below $200. Is BitCoin a scam? Are all cryptocurrencies a bunch of scams because they carry this risk? And BitConnect is not registered to any financial institution. Their website information is hidden, and to think that they reside in the UK is laughable, based on the English they use on their website.

Everyone defends their own investments i guess. The readon I'm powering down is that the reward pool at it's current weighting towards bloggers as opposed to investors is not attractive to new investing in the platform. Mining is, IMHO, a better deal. I could be wrong. I have lived through much volatility and to think a trading bot without emotion has an advantage seems possible. I have been wrong before but this crypto space has been good to me over the years and my gut instinct is to reduce my exposure here. I hope this is a success going forward as I will still be somewhat invested. I hope the ROI though does not just rely on capital gain through new investors. I also lost 15 btc on mt gox once so I have experienced a scam before.

I like your use of logic, Most cryptocurrencies...or all of them rely on new interest in them. Especially monetary interests.

They gain value and lose value with the interaction of people, and most value is acquired because people or entities bring other people into the space. In the end All cryptocurrencies require a ponzi type of format.

The auto trading bot that we are talking about sorta has bad days, and good days. for instance some days are almost 0% profit. In the end it isn't that they guarantee 1%, they just average just about 1 percent. In fact currently I think the average for this year is below 1 percent a day. But it is better than I've done lending on poloniex.

I believe the negative feel of bitconnect comes from its referral program, I figure if you take this out of the equation it just makes for an investment focused crypto currency that focused on speed, and staking as opposed to mining (note that you can mine Bitconnect as well).

Currently I have both lost and gained money with crypto, but I haven't found one to be the more legit version, or platform than any other. So ever venture so far has been risky for me. Buying my first miner, Spending my first btc, and so on.

Super informative post!

You hit the nail on the head with this one:
"Bad English and why it matters"
You laid out some really good points. I'm not convinced it is a total scam. I am however, convinced this is a crypto project that will fail.
Long term investors should be wary.
They have 2 separate websites and 2 separate FB pages. It's pretty confusing and not uniform.
https://bitconnectcoin.co/
https://www.facebook.com/bitconnectcoin/
https://bitconnect.co/
https://www.facebook.com/bitconnect.co/

Thank you very much!

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Fantastic Article.

Obligatory: BIIIITCONNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCCCCCTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.

WASA WASA WASA BITCONNEEEEE :Dhqdefault.jpg

Now this is a proper one. Should show it to Tone Vays (he's the guy who keeps bashing Steem as scam on Twitter..)

Thank you!

This article was right on! Thanks for sharing.

I will cover this subject soon. but I am too lazy to work the mathmatics again. will probably do it a day when there is nothing to talk about.
I can prove mathematically that bitconnect is a profitable venture that can pay the promised return for their investors. Even so, if investors discover it, even tough they are having profit, they will leave the platform.
I'll let this fly to see if anyone can execute on the logic of this.and that is part of the lie that envolves their fake services as the trading bot. I shut up now xD

I think of it since the beginning and I completely agree. I know this is and old article,but I hope It can give help for people that doesn't know what just happened.
For those who meet proposals of easy money and promises like that kind, they should already know that easy money are not possible, unless there is something strange underneath, ... poor investors !!! Clearly, I hope that the crash is making understand that this article was more useful than ever .. steem try.pngMy opinion, do not mix again. Bitconnect is trying again with this new Bitconnet X. After all, would you still be willing to invest in it? Be conscientios and
suspicious,mostly in the world of cryptocurrencies. Thanks for the article,it is still useful for a lot of people @thegrinder

Thanks! It's nice to see a positive comment in this sea of... let's call them uninformed comments.

The number of posts from brand new accounts that are defending BCC here is not surprising at all. It seems they went on a rampant online campaign to shut down all the scam talk and were active up until a few days ago squeezing every last drop from it.

I was looking at Bitconnect from all the hype on here, and I'm glad I stopped... Thanks for the post!

u were correct sir . it just shut down

WHATS UP BITCONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET

My 3cents promoted this post.

Just being Frank

Thanks! :D

my comment on one of those BitConnect posts about a week ago...

tread carefully, sounds just like HYIP to me...

A high-yield investment program (HYIP) is a type of Ponzi scheme, an investment scam that promises unsustainably high return on investment by paying previous investors with the money invested by new investors. -- wikipedia

HYIP BitConnect.co "investment stats": http://www.hyip.biz/details/bitconnect.co

BitcoinTalk Thread: So You Want to Invest in an HYIP/Ponzi Program?

I'm really glad you posted this. I saw someone's referral link here a few days ago and was going to check it out because the word "lending" was used, and there are legitimate Bitcoin lending businesses out there. And had I checked it out I would have no doubt reached the same conclusions you did, so thanks for saving me the time. These HYIP sites are a dime a dozen, seriously, they're everywhere. I look for the same characteristics you listed: bad spelling, unheard of (and impossible to sustain) returns on investment, some sort of "secret" knowledge or formula--usually it's trading or mining--and generous referral compensation.

Glad to help! Regarding people not getting scammed, you might want to report Craig Grant's YouTube video in the comments section of this post, where he states he thinks it's not a scam and he provides his referral link in the description, which is shameless.

I went ahead and flagged that video. It looks like it cost you (in terms of voting power) the same to downvote as it does to upvote so that was also interesting info for me.

FYI, I wanted to let you know about a coin that I think legitimately does provide a more passive income stream. I'm not trying to promote it at all, but it might be good for you to know about as a way to compare to these HYIPs you write about.

So the coin is Diamond (DMD). Its website is bit.diamonds. The developers do provide a "cloud mining" option that people can invest in and it works as advertised (I spoke extensively to the operator about it and I've been a small investor in it for more than a year so I know this). However, ignoring that, the coin itself currently mints in a POS wallet at a rate of 25% APY. The wallet is easy and straightforward to set up and once the initial 9 days have passed on the first deposit, it will mint out new coin like clockwork. I personally have a good amount of them, and every month I sell off the minting proceeds and that's the money I play with, invest in other things, etc. Right now I'm putting half of those earnings into Steem, but that is subject to change depending on what I want to do at the time.

Of course the risk is that the value of the coin could drop into oblivion, and that's actually happened with at least two other minting coins I invested in hoping for the same result. Diamond has a decent track record in terms of price and has been around for a few years, so I consider it to be more stable, but still watching the price and other fundamentals just to be sure. Other than that, I control the money, as in I run the DMD wallet on my computer, and I control those funds at all times (unless someone steals my private key or something, which is a risk across the board). The benefit to me is what it is regardless of whether or not other people invest in the coin or not, other than if a lot of people invest in it, that will raise the price. But I have no need for the price of the coin to go up, I just use the proceeds that I get and that's that, so I don't need "referrals."

Anyway, I wanted to throw this out there for you, just so you (and others) know that there are some decent investments that can be had in crypto, even opportunities that can approach giving the investor a passive income stream. It's just that you have to kind of look for them, and then you have to do your due diligence, and those opportunities are kind of limited. For example, I get a certain amount of income stream from minting Diamonds, but it's not huge. The coin couldn't support influxes of investments where people are hoping to get thousands and thousands out of it monthly. That could come in the future with some organic growth, say if the price were to go up to $100 apiece, rather than the current 60c apiece it is now, but since it's in the future, that's an unknown, and not something you can bank on.

My point in sharing all this is that I wish more people would take the time to learn about and experiment with opportunities like this one, rather than these HYIP schemes that, although they are clearly getting more sophisticated and longlasting, are still not sustainable in the long run. To be honest, the investment opportunities that truly do work don't need to be promoted. In fact, investors in those opportunities are more reticent to share because they like reaping the benefits for themselves and know that the gains might dilute if too many people got involved. In fact I'm part of another crypto-investment where the owner is in the process of buying out all the small shareholders for that very reason: it's more trouble to keep track of numerous small accounts than it's worth. It seems to me that those are the investments you want to try to hunt down and join, not the ones that need some infinite number of "investors" that they try to reel in with heavy promotion and overly generous referral reward structures.

I have not gone into the pros and cons of the diamond coin you mention. It’s fair to say small coins can be extremely volatile, and if things work for you, you may make a ton of money. On the other hand, the risk of losing it all is higher.

There are a few alt-coins with extremely good stories, and I am tempted by them, but on the other hand, I feel that bitcoin has the greatest certainty of long term positive return, even if some others look like they will perform better.

Bitcoin is the “Gold” of the crypto world. Some of the other alt-coins are also “precious metals”. Equivalent to silver, platinum or palladium. The majority are not even that. They are like commodities, equivalent to wheat, copper, lead, oil or barley. Some are just equivalent to sand, or sea-water, i.e. of no real value at all.

That about sums it up, with the caveat that I personally have done far better in alts than Bitcoin. You have to choose them carefully, though, and be prepared to sometimes lose.

I agree that most good investment opportunities are not promoted like crazy. I'll check out Diamond.

Where do you see your voting power?

https://steemd.com/@thegrinder

Look down all the stats on the left. You might have to scroll down once. Your voting power is currently at 100% :)

By the way, you are welcome to participate in my little initiative if you want. Details here.

I'm checking it out now.

I'm not sure if I'm going to report it or anything, but I agree with you and would add that Craig Grant is not a voice to be trusted in the Cryptosphere. I got scammed by one of those outfits early on, and I learned. It was one of the first lessons I learned in the Cryptoworld. I've since checked out many of them and they all look the same to me. If you can't recognize these schemes for what they are, then no one should listen to you about anything else related to crypto, or any kind of finances for that matter.

Sorry, not report, I mean flag (on this site, not YouTube). I agree with you on that one.

Oh gotcha! I think I was in too much of a hurry before :)

I will resteem as well. I've seen all these guys pimping this shit on YouTube, but it's OBVIOUSLY a scam. I can't believe so many people still fall for this crap.

Thanks! Yeah, if they know it's a scam and they're still promoting it, that's a very shitty thing to do. I guess some of them don't know, though.

Yeah, I think they want to believe it. Rule of thumb - if it sounds to good to be true, it's a scam.

I'm not sure people are "falling for it" as much as participating it. crypto profit junkies are jumping into this to make money knowing full well that it is a scam but that its the less strategic "investors" (who stay in too long) who will loose. Remember Madoff did make a lot of people money! Before it goes boom. Would a major bitcoin price drop trigger its collapse I wonder?

Regarding people promoting it shamelessly for their own profit, please flag Craig Grant's video above that states he thinks it's not a scam, and still providing his referral link in the video description!

Thanks for this article. I was ready to invest in bitconnect, just waiting for something. Glad I wasn't able to do so.

Glad to help! :)

Resteem and upvoted

Thank you!

i already invested huffft..

How is it going now with bitconnect. I think things will be alright if they can still sustain payouts.

Thank you. Resteemed :-)
And you have a new follower :-)

Thank you!

You are welcome :-)

here is how to enter the 500k bitconnect giveaway. www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9JXjlCwbgs

Thank for useful content @thegrinder!

Follow you!

I perpetually return to this post and send the link to various Facebook friends who are about to fall for the Ponzi scheme. Thanks for the detailed post and step by step analysis, it's balanced and easily comprehensive.

Resteemed
Everyone should know about these scams. If it offers anything over 2% daily I do a lot of research first. There's really only a handful of legitimate sites out there

2% daily is extremely high to begin with. You should probably lower your expectations.

it really concerns me that my favorite youtubers are promoting this scam :(
Already the whois, register city/ country panama is a red flag!!! Stay away!

It is a HUGE SCAM! Please do not get caught on this. To prove you, if you go to the global sites of the bitconnect on the front page. There will be one of the Russian creators of MMM. That guy stole a fortune from people back in 95. People sold their apartments to purchase MMM shares to sell them off in a month and get huge profits. But the story was not long, the firm shut down in 3 months and said bye bye to everyone. It is TERRIBLE!

Your article has spelling and grammar errors. Should we not trust you? Bitconnect may or may not be a scam. It is a risk either way. However there is no proof that they are. They are very good at paying people if they are a scam. A lot of people are already paid back and are in the money, even if they did not yet get their initial seed capital back. It only takes about 111 days to break even, then it is all profit regardless of getting initial capital back.

Can't wait for the feds to shut them down.

People are so funny , when its really good they think its fishy. Its like this idiot of Jamie Dimon saying bitcoin is a fraud, and when it was the beginning of internet they were all crazy and blabla. You guys have to accept the progress of humanity . How is it people are stupid enough not to think that its fairly possible to trade on the ups and down of bitcoin and get a profit out of it every day, even if its a low percentage its still a profit . All people who lost big time in last crash should really think about bitconnect , because your capital is always there and you can invest your profit. Is there anyone who didnt have their money back from bitconnect ? the answer is no. All people that talk shit about bitconnect are the one that didnt test it, nobody in will talk bullshit ; you know why ? because it fn work , funny that guy who post 6 months ago, lollll think how much money you missed ... join and use me referral link if now your getting wise enough https://bitconnect.co/?ref=Jamesdarko

for the rest of those who cant think outside the box , why the f.. are you in crypto and trying to get 50x in 2 months and dont believe in a legit program bringing only average 1% per day ;think about it ..

also i feel sorry for the people who got f. by control finance but command guys this was a real ponzi, wake up nobody can copy bitconnect !!!

Spamming comments is frowned upon by the community.

Continued comment spamming may result in action from the cheetah bot.

you're really trippin about spending $100. I've lost more than $100 in 10 minutes at a casino. How can you go wrong!!

I have seen investments like this before. It is impossible to guarantee interest rates like that in perpetuity. There was one in my home country about a decade ago; an investment club. It ended in tears. Sure the initial people did very well the first couple years as long as you pulled all your money out. My cousin wanted me to get in. He was making 30-60% a month on his investment. It collapsed after 2-3 years. I remember the laughs about missing out. Sure enough the main guy behind it is in US prison now since there were dual citizens who invested in the scheme and they lobbied the US government to go after him since a lot of money form here went into the scheme.

I think BitConnect is a Ponzi Scheme, pushing you to get referrals.

Ponzi is bad for everyone, except the ones at the top.

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