FITROVA — A new Scam in the ICO world ?

This time it’s different ! We didn’t see an Exit Scam directly after the ICO but a slowly cash out (1000 ETH) organized by the founder of the ICO

This is why you should always look at the terms of ICOs

Sum-up : the founder of Fitrova has cash out almost 1 000 ETH from his new well advertised ERC20, a few weeks after the ICO.

This is why it is always important for investor to investigate every projects before starting any investments ! In this story it is just more than a simple ICO that is selling a project that will not exist to the world, no this time it’s different. Fitrova sold 7.5 billions token with a price of more than 1$ at first, advertising for a 50% discount. So It would have been the largest ICO ever done, but what is the underlying technology ?? What is getting so much attention ?

It was a simple ERC20 for the Fitness Industry, but an ERC20 very different from the others. We all know that the ERC20 code is public, this is why everybody can make one in less than 20 minutes. But it appears that for some people it is not that easy to copy-paste a code. After some withdrawing problems in the COSS plateform on this particular ERC20, I took a look at the code of Fitrova and I was surprised :

The missing part of the code in Fitrova ERC20

Due to compatible reason, because of this missing part, the token couldn’t be withdrawn on the COSS exchange plateform.

After looking as this unusual mistake, I said to myself:

“Who is the dev behind that ?”

And here the story begun : It appears that there is no dev in this project, only the CEO of the firm who, according to his background, is not a tech guy.

So the (not) funny story of a guy who wanted to be a billionaire by selling 7 billion token at more than 1$ (with 50% discount) is live ! According to some digging in etherscan, this guy have minimum 1 billion of those ERC20. The “Get rich quick scheme” almost succeed ! Some people of the COSS community started to investigate this ERC20 and the price went down more than 95%.

Fitrova value : 95% lost in a week after some investigation of a potential scam

I didn’t follow all the story but.. it seems that after the ICO, the top address of this ERC20 add link between them, that make clear it is a single person behind them. The investigation in the telegram channel (https://t.me/fitrovascam) manage to show that the biggest address of this ERC20 were linked, at some point, to a single Binance account. According to this telegram group, the founder of this ERC20 token already cash out some of the ERC20 he created and send the result of the sell (ETH) to Binance. After reviewing the address linked to this Binance account it is almost 1 000 ETH that have been moved. This kind of blockchain track on etherscan is really complicated and this information is the result that I saw on the investigation telegram channel.

So, back to our subject of the ICO world, this project called Fitrova is different than others, no exit scam after the ICO but a distribution of token and a slow cash out almost invisible (before the investigation ) of the founder of the project.

How to prevent this story from happening again ?

You have to do your own research and stop believe every words you see on websites, people are paid to advertise and get your money in ! Be smart and do your own research.

So please be careful out there and even if there is no Exit Scam after an ICO it doesn’t mean that your investment is not a part of the growing crypto Scam Industry. Always look at the terms of ICOs and how the token will be distributed. Also look carefully if team members exists and what will be the percentage of token thy will get after the ICO and if this money is gonna be locked for a period of time.

Also, don’t believe Youtubers that are paid to review token they don’t even know about. Those Youtubers usually don’t understand what a blockchain is and how it works, they are not doing extensive research that you should do before investing. Everyone looks great on Youtube talking about the future but please do your own research, it will prevent you to not invest in Scams that are as easy as Fitrova to understand.

Please leave your comment below, this is my first article, I am passionated about ICOs and as a recent Advisor I feel that it is my duty to provide knowledge to potential ICOs investors.

Links to the full investigation found on steemit : https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@creatovert/fitrova-a-not-so-well-hidden-scam