Westland Storage, a clear-as-day Ponzi scheme
When I first read about Westland Storage, I’ve been surprised as to how easily people are willing to get scammed, so I decided to give it a try for the sake of research.
I made an “investment” of 0.3 ETH (the minimum allowed) early April this year. Since then, I’ve been receiving daily accruals of about a dollar and a half. It doesn’t look that bad, isn’t? Well, let me tell you something: it can look promising, but it is just a shell full of smoke.
The first time I’ve seen the strings attached was ten minutes later, when I received an email from some Yahoo account (yes, I’m not making it up) demanding an additional deposit, as I failed to send the exact amount of ETH (they use Coinpayments as a gateway, so, if you don’t send the exact amount up to the last decimal, you’ll receive an error that must be solved manually). I need to put emphasis on the fact that I received an email from a Yahoo account (johngoodmanwest@yahoo.com) and not from their own domain. I know, many people configure the emailer to send incoming emails to a personal account, but can’t you at least configure your email client so you don’t end writing support emails from your web interface?
Later that day I discovered that my investment was locked in jail. According to the old version of this page, I have to wait 45 days since the initial deposit to be able to withdraw it, and then, pay a 25% fine. Yes: you are being punished to withdraw your own money.
Westland Storage claims that they buy real estate with their client’s money. So, if you invest 1 BTC, they will use that money to buy square feet somewhere. You don’t need to worry about it, just sit down and start receiving interest. Sweet, sweet money. Except for the fact that you aren’t going to see that 1 BTC again, ever. And, to obtain your initial investment back, you need to wait at least one year, as you’ll receive 6% per week.
There’s no visible link to any contract, virtual or not, even when they assure you’re signing a contract with them. I’ve put an Internet Archive link here, so you can go to the actual page and compare both versions, for your amusement.
Another story is the WLS token. It doesn’t exist! Go to Coin Market Cap and check by yourself. There’s no register of any WLS tokens outside Westland’s website. You cannot withdraw them, you cannot sell them. But, of course, you can buy them.
I’m trying to contact any of the guys responsible for this project. So long, they didn’t reply to any of my messages.
My advice? Stay away of Westland Storage! If it isn’t a Ponzi scheme, is because it is clearly a scam. One day you’ll wake up and the website will be gone, along with your money.
