While browsing Netflix to kill some time, I stumbled across ‘Bitconned’, and I immediately knew that I needed to watch this documentary because I am a big fan of Bitcoin and the crypto world.
The story
“Bitconned” takes audiences on a fascinating journey into the Centra Tech scam and is narrated by Ray Trapani, a self-proclaimed criminal with a desire for money and a luxurious lifestyle.
Trapani, lived in Florida and had criminal inclinations even before the Centra scam. When he was young he was dealing Oxy and right from the start I could see that like most criminals he was very charismatic and his charm will pull you into his criminal endeavors straight away. His tale is one of ambition, drive, betrayal and the lure of the crypto world.
Before entering the crypto space, Trapani accumulated his wealth through legitimate business (a luxury car rental company called Miami Exotics). I think this is when he experienced a luxury lifestyle. To start this business he even convinced his grandfather (who loved him very much) to invest money but when things turned to the worse and this venture failed Trapani had to find another solution to maintain his opulent way of living and the answer was the booming world of cryptocurrencies (CENTRA).
This was back in 2017, during the ICO mania (Initial Coin Offering or ICO is a fundraising method commonly used in the cryptocurrency space to launch a new cryptocurrency or blockchain projects)
ICOs: What is a COIN LAUNCH?
To better understand how Trapani managed to scam investors we need to better understand how an ICO works. For example let’s say that a company or project issues a new digital token or cryptocurrency so the idea is that the ICO is used to sell a portion of it to investors in exchange for funding. Investors hope that the value of the tokens will increase over time so Trapani and his accomplice, Sam Sharma (“Sorbee”), created their million dolar plan to offer a fake debit card for spending crypto directly.
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This plan worked very good because they exploited the hype around blockchain tech and that people neeed a way to spend their cryptocurrencies and what better option to have than a special debit card that would work with crypto. A very good business model right?
So they devised a scheme to mimic another company which was offering the same service/product TenX (i will be covering this company in a brand new article) under their new brand Centra Tech. To make the company credible in the eyes of investors they fabricated resumes, created fake LinkedIn profiles, and lastly photoshopped the image of a fake/non-existent Centra card with the Visa logo.
After everything was put in place investors started to fall victim to the scam, driven by the illusion of quick gains. When Clif High inadvertently promoted Centra Tech due to a misunderstanding, this lead to celebrity endorsements from DJ Khaled and Floyd Mayweather who Trapani not only convience to promote this scam but also paid him only 20% using money and the remaining 80% in centra coins, a very good deal for Trapani right?
As “Bitconned” continues, we learn that Trapani and his team managed to fool everybody and make millions along the way with only a web-site and empty promises and that even the well-informed can be deceived.
Also, the documentary underlines the dangers of celebrity endorsements and the susceptibility of investors who fail to conduct due diligence in the rush for money.
I see Trapani as an opportunist who saw a gap in the market and used that not to develop a product but to scam and make quick money.
Undertake the following precautions before committing funds to any venture:
To conclude, if you are looking to invest you should always:
-research and due diligence;
-be skeptical of high returns;
-make sure you fully understand the investment;
-verify if the investment or company is registered with the appropriate regulatory bodies;
stay Informed;
-remember that there is no guaranteed, risk-free investment, and any opportunity that claims otherwise should be approached with skepticism;
-if something is too good to be true it probably isn’t;
-consult with financial advisors or professionals from reputable institutions;
What if?
In this case, imagine if investors had reached out to Visa to verify the legitimacy of the Centra product before investing, they would have discovered the absence of any business relationship between Visa and Centra. Taking this simple step could have spared them from potential losses.
There are a lot of scams out there and many more to come so take this article as a reminder for anyone tempted by the promises of quick wealth in this volatile landscape of digital currencies.
Till the next piece,
Thanks for reading and stay safe in the crypto space!
Posted Using InLeo Alpha