Exposing the BIGGEST SCAM in cryptocurrency: Trevon James and BitConnect

in #steemit7 years ago

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Meet Trevon James, a liar and a scammer

If you spend a lot of time on Steemit or YouTube going through cryptocurrency content, you've probably come across this face before.

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So who is this guy?

Well, despite not knowing much about how cryptocurrency works (he has admitted this MANY times), this guy, Trevon James, feels that he still has enough knowledge in his head, to convince his subscribers on Steemit and YouTube to buy into one of the biggest scams of the 21st century: BitConnect.

Ok, but why is he a scammer?

Let me explain a bit about BitConnect. If you know Trevon and watch his videos, your probably already know what it is. BitConnect is a multi-level marketing program (scam / ponzi scheme / pyramid scheme, call it what you will) which basically offers "payouts" to those who invest in it. So, you invest some money into BitConnect, and then you get paid back a small portion of that money every day. After a certain period of time, you would have supposedly earned your capital investment back, plus interest. That's the claim anyways.

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But how does BitConnect make money?

THE LIE - BitConnect say that these "payouts" are earned by a "trading bot", which they have coded. This bot supposedly executes trades with the money that you have invested, and that's where your payout comes from.

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THE TRUTH - Like most Multi level marketing operations, BitConnect actually makes its money via a referral program. Basically, the site pays you every time you recruit a new member and they deposit money. You get a small percentage of that money. The trading bot BitConnect claims to have has never been seen, nor has the coding for it. This is just too obvious.
So Trevon makes all this money, that people think is coming from him being invested in BitConnect, when in actual fact, the money he gets is from roping more people into the scam!

It's a pyramid

So let's say Trevon recruits you, and you use his referral code when you sign up at BitConnect and deposit some money. Trevon gets a cut. So let's say you recruit some friends under you, and they recruit more people under them. Pretty soon, this is what the situation looks like:

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Yep, it's a pyramid. And guess what, you're at the bottom. Trevon is at the top, making huge stacks of money, and fooling people into thinking you'll be rich like him if you invest in BitConnect. WRONG. Trevon will be richer if you invest in BitConnect. You will only be richer from it if you go and recruit some people under you. Now those people are the suckers, and remain so until the recruit people under them. And so the cycle goes on, and the pyramid grows.

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The problem

Unfortunately, a guy like Trevon seems to have NO morals, and doesn't care about anyone but himself. Why do I say this? Because this guy OPENLY advertises this shit, and tries to get his YouTube subscribers and Steemit followers to buy into this nonsense, further enriching him.

He even does a "coin count" where he shows his viewers his earnings for the day, and basically shows off what he has. This way, viewers see he has money, and think "Oh if I do what he's doing, I'll be rich too!" False. Trevon money is made by getting you to invest YOUR money.

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So at the end of the day, when he does his coin count, I hope all his subs and followers realize that the money Trevon has, is off of your stupidity. He is rich, because he convinced a bunch of people that he'd make them rich.

Conclusion

People like @trevonjb are people that the crypto community doesn't need.

This guy is going to give cryptocurrency as a whole a bad name, because there are gonna be plenty of unhappy people that will complain to financial regulators, once Trevon and his band of scammers disappear into the sunset, after convincing everyone to dump their money into a scam.

Beware shit like this. As the pic above says: If it's too good to be true, it probably is

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I have to say that I’ve been using Bitconnect for over a year... and if you do not count my referrals (which are a total of 4 people), I have quadrupled my money... so that’s that...
Also there seems to be a trend to bad mouth Bitconnect because it gets a lot of attention. Therefore you can build your followers from fear which is bred in us from birth. (Just try and deny that). So in actual fact you’re the SCAMMER. Just like KENN BOSAK who was the most outspoken person about Bitconnect... but we all know what happened to him. And if you don’t he was caught saying he loves Bitconnect... but hating is his format, it works people engage with this topic because of more fear. So people get paid to spread F.U.D. It’s a business... ask Dimon from chase he spread F.U.D. Made the price of BTC drop then bought up as much bitcoin as he could. And to top it off Kenn Bosak was offered bitcoin to stop... so now everyone thinks they can black male Bitconnect to stop their unfounded scam claims. I don’t have to defend Bitconnect. It works, I’m just pointing out that people are shady it’s a diversion tactic so stall you out whilst they get money. Take a closer look at your life when someone said not to do something and later on you realize you should have. And the person who told you not to do it is in the same place in life... not stretching nor learning just playing safe... people like you disgust me... and people are so easily manipulated... again I’ve made all my money back BCC is over $1bil market cap. And your post is just a diversion. @trevonjb has made me a very wealthy man. So big him the fuck up and I would place the bet that he taught you a thing or two and has made you money. I would bet all my crypto that you’re full of bottom juice and lots of it. Fuck it if you say the world is flat I guess it has to be... good luck karma got Kenn and it’s coming for you too... and I just took a look at your blog... it’s full of referral links... so your doing exactly what @trevonjb did and your just trying to get your referral game attention... you’re so full of waste matter discharged from the bowels; feces, that your new name is PAMPERS... “wassup Pampers” fuckin scrub...

Uh oh is right, lmao

"your new name is PAMPERS" made me laugh given what's happened so far.

As the saying goes, "A fool and his money are soon parted."

Hows that working out for you now???????????

How do you feel about these comments now? Obviously this is an old post but I just wonder how your perspective is now after learning Bitconnect really was just a scam and how many people lost a lot of money. You were one of the lucky ones which is great for you but many others weren't so lucky.

I'm curious, since you've quadrupled your money being in it for one year - surely if you love it so much you still had active loans/ money tied up in it last night. Even if they released the loan back to you in BCC at a rate for $360 unless you withdrew a minute after their press release (which was published with immediate effect) you would have lost absolutely everything you have on this platform. Given that BCC is down $95 percent today. Can you please explain how you managed to save yourself - cos I know people crying right now, cos they lost huge amounts of money and some people obviously even put their entire lives savings into this. Please explain, so that we can help others get their cash. Maybe Trevon James will reimburse them? lol

Trevon James is nothing but a loser who will now have to deal with his Karma. Look for him on the street corner in a year or 2, because dumb ass bitches like him can never be successful long term.

THANKS ALOT FOR THE INFO I WOULD LOVE TO 4X MY MONEY I HAVE 500 IN WISH ME LUCK

Hmm, you made 4 times in a year? Let's see, if you had invested your $ in Bitcoin directly over the same period you would have made approximately 8X so perhaps it's not such a good deal?

Here's the problem, Trevon himself describes bitconnect is totally related to bitcoin and he doesn't understand it. As long as BTC goes up the ponzi will not fail. Unfortunately when / if it goes down for any sustained period it will surely collapse.

Cloud mining (which I did a $1000 test on) is similar. You can't possibly make money in real BTC terms. By that I mean, I have made money with Genesis in approx 3 months which is great! But the same amount invested directly in BTC would have made me 3X so actually not that great.

In summary, beware. Just because you got in early and "made" money does not mean those investing now will not lose it all. Equally, bitconnect is relying on people reinvesting. Remember, as with stock investing, until you have the real cash in your hand it's all paper profit. (I know, I'm such a novice referring to fiat as real money!) :-)

got something to say now? hahaha

BCC UP 91% TODAY LMAO...you sold and lost, simple...BCC may never be 400, but if you didn't sell at $20... $10..i seen as low as $4...then you haveny lost lol....BCC will be ok, it was just the exchange and lending yo...

True, but who was lucky enough to do that? Who didn't panic when they saw the price plummet to 20.00?

I didn't panic. I have 1.02 BCC that may be worth more eventually. I'd rather a chance at recouping than accepting a 95% loss. I recruited 1 friend and made $5, maybe 7% of my total earnings on BCC. Maybe it was a scam, but people who believed in it weren't necessarily scammers.

Trevon James said that he will delete every negative post or comment from his Facebook Bitconnect group or under his videos so whether he thinks it is scam or not, he surely manipulated with people

True. not all were meaning to scam people, never said that was the case. This was about one of the leading proponents of the Bitconnect.

Apparently many people. Just not the gamblers, i suppose...i had nothing to do with bitconnect, it scared the hell out of me...even after extensive research...reading FUD mostly, but shit, people made some money lol...DON'T TAKE FINANCIAL ADVICE FROM PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY SAY.."IM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR" LMAO... people who didn't do enough research deserved to lose money, i feel bad for the people who put money in they couldn't afford to lose, but again...dont risk more than you can afford. WHO AND WHY would people put there houses up for BTC... Get greedy, you get Got

bitco... who ?!

lmao well to be honest I do feel a little bad for all of you that lost money with Bitconnect but in the other hand that is exactly what happens when you make your investment decision out of trends or by following some scammers on youtube. It is well known that this guys Trevon James, Craig Grant (Who doesn't even know what a private key is) Tai lopez, etc are scammers and there are tons of proof just by looking at their videos. If any of you upvote any of these guys' post you are contributing to their profits taking advantage of the community. I will most likely make a post regarding scammers in the next couple of days. Cheers!

Lol..the other 2 i have no idea...Tre never steered me wrong...for those of you who dont know, he has been doing videos on bootube for a while now...ABOUT ALL KINDS OF SHIT. You guys seen the profits, and ran to it...why blame Tre...hes not a financial advisor, blame the greedy government and the FUD spreaders on the interwebs, not some dude doing videos on bootube 😂😂😂😂

that is very true! I doubled my money before bitconnect shut down! I still have the tokens now too which I am holding

you only quadroupled your money because the price of bitcoin went up x6 and the bitconnect token went up to ya but if you didnt create loans and only held the token you would of went up to just because all the people getting roped in

This comment didn't age well.....

You know the term is "blackmail" not "black male"

This did not age well... I hope you learned your lesson and didn't loose too much money.

FCkin theafs you al gonna pay for what you are do people karma exists

Hahahaha you stupid fucking faggot. Learn the difference between basic facts and FUD you dumbass motherfucker.

"I have quadrupled my money... so that’s that..." . Lol, think he doen't get it... you made money, yes, money that other people lost who went in after you. you are a scammer, you just don't know it ;)

completely agree with you !! i also used to invest in bitconnect and davor and had quite a good profit from it !! what i always tell people about trevon and all the other people that tried to get profits from that platform is "noone is obliging you to invest there...if you do it it is because you feel the gamble is fair and you take your own risks" P.S. i love the new nickname PAMPERS lmao

So, how much did you lose on bitconnect?

We all knew it was going to 0 but delusional people like you keep believing in it. Do you still think it is not a scam?

happy to see you lose all your money

Ironically SteemIt is a ponzi too. You made all that effort to make this post and so far made 1 cent. How long did it take you? 1 hour? in 1 second I'll just upvote myself and make more.

Steemit is not a Ponzi, where's the referral program or need for initial investment?

The initial investment is the time and the 'shameless plug' factor are the curreny you pay into steemit. You have to 'shamelessly plug' your posts to everyone everywhere in hope of onboardng more upvotes. Also I'm seeing it feeds into a culture of people generating accounts to earn (rightfully so) but not necessarily putting in the efforts to put good content out there that is distincive and objectively adds value through newly curated content.

Of course you need to invest time, that is the least you can do, can't get something out of nothing. If I didn't have to invest time and got money for free then I'd think it's a scam of sorts and might even be afraid to cash out. I'm sorry if you feel like you're not getting enough votes but you don't have to promote yourself in any way to get votes, doing so may help you but that's not a requirement. There are accounts that are not here to get any votes but just curate. I came here with no friends and haven't really tried to make any.

I want to onboard users because this is a great platform and I want to see everyone do well, because I think the more people get involved the more control we have over the future of this space, because I think humanity needs to have a place for uncensored dialogue.

Usually the people who think this is a scam are the people who had expectations about how much they would earn. They tend to compare themselves to others and since they feel like they are doing a better job and the other is making more money then Steemit must be unfair and a scam.

Тhese people just want to be in their place, but they can not. Мaybe jealous.

Hope this blog post makes sense. Exposing the truth!
https://steemit.com/crypto/@cryptofinancial/bad-people-in-crypto

Agreed. You actually told me this not too long ago. Steemit is the same shit, dominated bu guys at the top, who rope idiots like you and I into it. You were 100% right, and thank fuck I didn't invest a cent into this. Also, the earnings are low on this post because @trevonjb and his lil fanboys probably flagged it, they don't want less profits I guess

I'm going to have to disagree with you about SteemIt. BitConnect is controlled by one man, one private individual or someone closely in relation to Craig-Grant, who soaks up the lions share of the profits.

SteemIt has 50 Witnesses who maintain the blockchain. These Witnesses rotate daily, depending upon how many Steemians vote for them and whether or not their network is able to do the computational work to maintain the blockchain, and be consistent about it. So, the decision-making power is not AS concentrated. A lot of the voting power has been made linear - meaning that your stake (actual money & time put into it) can be increased in relation to the Whales and, over time, you CAN actually become a whale. I started at 10 Steem. I spent 2 months and $25 and now I have over 75 Steem. My upvotes are worth more now. It's really small, but anyone who sticks with this for a couple of years can increase their Steem Power, too. I expect to be over 2,000 at some point in the future. Past that, who knows? But, if you truly understand the nature of blockchain, then you know that SteemIt is very, very transparent. BitConnect - not so much. In fact, Craig-Grant makes deliberately makes false claims to "sell" his ponzi-scheme, in order to enrich himself.

Also, MAJOR difference here: SteemIt gives everyone a part in the social media platform. We come here to learn about whatever we want, share what we want, talk about what we want, do what we want, make friends with who we want. BitConnect is supposedly based on a "trading bot" that even Craig-Grant personally admits does not exist - it was a lie. It was a scam. No way you can compare the two things - unless you're stupid.

I mean, have you seen, prophet0 ? Some 15-year-old computer nerd who's made thousands of dollars off of being a Witness for Steem-It. Anyone who has some real skills and produces the best content can make some money. If they work at it, over time they will get better, and then they'll make more money. That's life. That's how Steem-It works. Some people are just disappointed that they are not "getting rich quick." Believe me, anyone on here who is making big money is only doing so because they have developed a particular skill-set that others are finding to be valuable.

Maybe you need to work on your skill-set just a little bit harder, and spend less time whining about how much more money other people have than you do. You do not generally gain a large following and a lot of upvotes on accident.

PS I didn't write this post for cash. I'm actually so irritated by seeing his stupid face and I'm shocked at how many people he's been able to swindle. So fuck my earnings, fuck my rep, all I care about is letting people know about this guy and his scam, and I won't stop.

Get over it bro. You're assuming so much shit in your post I can't even take you seriously. Bitconnect works a lot like the insurance industry. Everyone pays monthly so that they can cash out big when something bad happens. The insurance company is working with professional traders to trade the money we pay them. That's their business model. You give them money. They trade it to gain money. Then they give you a slice when you need it. Bitconnect is similar. So what?

Bitconnect structure's share many similarities to other businesses. With your logic every single fucking business is a scam! Seriously. You're wasting your time. Look up any single business in any industry and investigate it. Try to find out how it's a huge scam. I guarantee you. Every business is a scam. You can't fight it. Join the system and profit. Or spend your whole life a a broke paranoid hater.

@seektruth You are right bro. this callumcampbell is posting or doing review where he did not actually research well. Very simple put your money callumcampbell says $100. I will beat you put your $100 in bitconnect and I challenge you after about 100 days if you did not get back your capital then I will return to you $1K and that's the time you make your reviews well as long as you did not put yourself to the test of water your reviews is hearsays and you have no right to review callumcampbell. Second, Ask yourself because the mark of a scammer if they are no paying the question to you is bitconnect paying or not ask million of members is there any persons did not received their payout? 3rd point: Is bitconnect really change many people lives interview all the members because for me after 100 days joined bitconnect I earned more than $8,000 which HYIP had scammed me before of these amount and when i joined bitconnect i fully recovered all these amounts? Do your interviewed especially your friend who joined bitconnect for more than a year? 4th Bitconnect is publicly traded coin with market capitalization of $2.50 Billions USD (check here https://www.worldcoinindex.com/ because you are no doing your homework buddy? because you become idiot and ignorance if you posting something which you did not fully understand. Pyramming Scheme and Ponzi always collapsed less than a year but Bitconnect is already more than two years.

A ponzi lasts as long as it attracts new investors.
If people keep throwing money at it, it will keep running.
Unfortunately people didn't see the warning signs. :/

is about the information, not the money, in a normal blog/forum (reddit) people dont even get paid 10 cents, still you do it to inform and help people. You must be like James also, selfish and all about the money

Do you know what a Ponzi Scheme is?

Steemit is not a Ponzi Scheme. There are some very obvious reasons for that. Ponzis require that you put money into it, in order that it is "Invested" in some high yielding opportunity. Which is really just a slight of hand with other people's investment of money. You fake a growth percentage to entice more people to get involved and get more financially exposed with your plot, then you take their money. It's so unwise to just throw around accusations using words which you are not familiar with the definitions of. It's important to speak precisely.

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I was so close to dropping in on this due to these guys marketing, but I realized after a lil bit they don't give a whit for me or mine. Thanks for further clarification on the bitscam!

Pleasure, glad i could help someone

Ditto man on Hatchi's comment... Thanks for the share care bear...

I was about to follow the "dude", and I still as yet don't know how to follow someone, so I did a search in the search bar (top right) to find "HIM" and found your post strait up....

That is how I got to here and read your post (above), and now I am NOT FOLLOWING that dude, thanks to you.... cheerings Glenn.S

I'm not even on Bitconnect or watch Trevon James, but why would you follow callum blindly? He's a nobody and his post is BS.

I followed him because he appears to be more than a casual commenter and he stated his reasons for his opinions. That makes him more than nobody to me.

Straight to the point. When people look up to you and you scam them for a few bucks, you are a peice of shit.. Crypto does not need him or craigs scamming ass. Check craigs older videos, he has been scamming

Do you know who Clif High is? According to him, BitConnect is not a ponzi, and he said that it will survive the hyperinflation period, which is a big deal. We will see what happens at the end, but I don't think you are right on what you are saying.

Herbalife is also a ponzi that has done very well. Just because it's a ponzi, doesn't mean it will fail. The issue I have with it, is that it's a ponzi and therefore a scam. Also, it's illegal, and because of this, has been dressed up to misrepresent "investing".

If you understood how the markets and exchanges worked you would come to the possible conclusion that bitconnect not only has a volatility trader it also probably provides liquidity to exchanges such as coinbase at a price.

well guess you where wrong Bitconnect is a ponzi lol

Funny how much people still thought bitconnect is legit even if there was a lot of proof that it's a ponzi scheme. You don't have to be a genius to see that. A lot of wishful thinking i guess. People want to be rich so bad they believe everything you tell them.

Im with you @onlyonesp this is supposed to be an open platform yet some whales and some peeps around here think they can do what they want to place censorship on us. I think they have lost the plot of why steemit was really build.

Upvoted this post today.....well done my man! Scam all along!

Can't imagine this guy is still promoting ponzis(Lend Connect, Davor Coin, Falcon Coin) again. 95% of all crypto youtubers are either scammers or complete noobs with a couple months of "experience" that got lucky and now think they are some kind of pro investors, its pathetic.