An Incredibly Toxic Series Of HYIP Swindles — Everything From Bitcoin-Themed Scams To Purported Real-Estate Ventures That Claim To Aid Victims Of Terrorism
FundComing.com says it is a real-estate venture that pays 5,000 percent after three days and had helped victims of terrorism in Syria, one of the homes of ISIS,
Bitcoinest.net, a site that covers cryptocurrency news, reported today that “DoubleCloud.pw Is Another Bitcoin HYIP Ponzi Scheme.”
The “pw” extension stands for Palau, an island country in the Western Pacific. But the extension has been rebranded as “Professional Web,” according to Wikipedia. The user-created encyclopedia says Symantec, the security company, reported in 2013 a lot of “pw” spam.
The PP Blog today visited the DoubleCloud.pw website and observed an offer that advertises a “350% profit after 48 hours.” The Blog further visited the “Rules” page at the domain, which may be operating from Russia.
While at the domain, we copied this “rules” passage — “is not available to the general public and is opened only to the qualified members” — and pasted it into Google. Turns out the phrase appears on many, many sites, meaning it is part of a script in which the operators simply swap in the name of their particular swindle.
Bernard Madoff became infamous as a Ponzi schemer who tried to instill a sense of exclusivity in his investors. These HYIP scams are doing the same thing.
Perhaps of particular concern is that the phrase is on many sites that do not have a Bitcoin theme, meaning the kit is being used by scammers across the HYIP sphere.
One of them is known as FundComing.com, a purported real-estate venture that promises 5,000 percent after three days.
A note on the site clams as such (italics added):
“Today, we received a letter of thanks from investors [sic]. The investor comes from Syria, a 7 years [sic] old boy whose husband [sic] died from a terrorist attack. After the consent of her consent [sic], we put the letter of gratitude, the mood to share to you.”
Syria, of course, is one of the strongholds of ISIS. Based on the purported testimonial, the FundComing “real estate” website appears to be positioning itself as a safe venture for families shattered by terrorists. Meanwhile, it is using the same “rules” as DoubleCloud.pw, the purported Bitcoin earnings “program.”
Separately, a site styled Bond-dot.com is using the same “rules.” It says it is involved in both cryptocurrency and Forex from a purported base in “London (England).” It appears to be soliciting sums from $10 to $5,000, making it both a micro- and a macroscam.
Other sites with virtually the same “rules” — and this is just the tip of the iceberg:
- RazInvest.com
- NextPayMoney.com
- NanoIncomes.com
- HYIPFirst.com
- NextHourPay.com
From the second page of Google search results for “is not available to the general public and is opened only to the qualified members.”
Patrick, all these HYIP sites are using the same Goldcoders HYIP script (which been used for decades). That is under $100 price tag, assuming they really paid to goldcoders and did not just download a pirated version (which seems like a case).
As of the russian link, that might be just because the original developer of GC script is Belorussian.