BIGGEST Chinese Ponzi - Plus Token - Exposed

Boxmining

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Description

Plus Token is the Biggest ponzi scheme in China, with over 70,000 BTC ($700,000 Million USD). After missing payments on June 30th of this year, masterminds of this scheme out it out like bandits. We l...

Plus Token is the Biggest ponzi scheme in China, with over 70,000 BTC ($700,000 Million USD). After missing payments on June 30th of this year, masterminds of this scheme out it out like bandits. We look how how this PlusToken grew, who was involved and where the funds are now. #Cryptocurrency #Scam #Exposed Full Writeup & Research: https://boxmining.com/plus-token-ponzi-exit-scams/ Special thanks to Matthew Graham for providing the videos and research, and Dovey Wan for exposing this to the public. 👍🏻Subscribe to Boxmining for Cryptocurrency Insight and News: https://www.youtube.com/c/boxmining 🔒Hardware Wallet: http://boxmining.co/ledger 👍🏻Brave Browser: http://boxmining.co/brave 📲Enjin Wallet: http://boxmining.co/enjin 👍🏻Unstoppable Domain: http://boxmining.co/unstoppable 📲Binance Exchange : http://boxmining.co/binance #Bitcoin #Ethereum #Cryptocurrency ●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬● Telegram groups (Discuss Crypto with us!) Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/boxminingChannel Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/boxminingChannel ●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬● ♨️Social (Add me on Social Media!) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boxmining/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/boxmining Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boxmining Steemit: https://steemit.com/@boxmining ●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬● I'm not a professional financial adviser and you should always do your own research. I may hold the cryptocurrencies talked about in the video. ●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●

AI Analysis

Plus Token, a colossal cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme originating from China, vanished with an astonishing 70,000 Bitcoin, valued at around $700 million USD at the time. This elaborate scam successfully preyed on unsuspecting individuals, primarily in China and Korea, by promising unrealistic returns through a fake crypto wallet, ultimately leaving countless victims devastated. The alarming part is that these massive hoards of stolen funds are now slowly making their way into various cryptocurrency exchanges.

Here’s a deeper dive into how this massive Ponzi scheme operated and what happened after its inevitable collapse:

* The Sheer Scale of the Scam: Plus Token stands as the largest Ponzi scheme unearthed in China, responsible for absconding with over 70,000 Bitcoin, equivalent to an astounding $700 million USD. The sheer volume of stolen funds initially made it hard to believe, but concrete evidence, including footage from large-scale offline events and conferences, confirmed the scam's immense reach and sophisticated operation. It's a genuinely frightening situation, especially as these enormous sums are now being moved onto cryptocurrency exchanges.

* Targeting the Unsuspecting: The scam primarily targeted individuals in Korea and China who weren't particularly tech-savvy or familiar with cryptocurrencies. Often older and possessing significant wealth, these victims represented a dangerous combination of financial means and a lack of technical understanding. The masterminds behind Plus Token meticulously planned their exit, even setting up a "pay-to-script-hash multi-signature wallet." This technical detail meant that even if one of them was caught, the police couldn't easily seize the entire amount of funds, highlighting the premeditated nature of the crime.

* Building the Pyramid: The scam began with a small group of masterminds soliciting potential victims on popular messaging apps like WeChat and Line. They intentionally kept initial groups small, around a hundred people, to foster a sense of one-on-one interaction and maintain strict control over the narrative. These early recruits were patiently taught how to buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and transfer them into the Plus Token wallet. The bait? Promises of extremely high, guaranteed returns – think 5% to 10% per month – which tapped directly into people's greed. To legitimize the scheme, they cooked up ludicrous claims, like Plus Token becoming a major STO (Security Token Offering) platform or being adopted in supermarkets, often supported by obviously fake videos. Despite the flimsy evidence, many believed the hype.

* The Ponzi Mechanics: Once the initial investors were hooked and understood the basic process, they were encouraged to become "group leaders" themselves, forming new groups and inviting even more people into the scheme. This created a classic pyramid structure. An interesting tactic was keeping these different groups isolated from each other. This prevented widespread communication if problems arose or if anyone started questioning the legitimacy of the scheme, allowing the masterminds to quickly dismiss any doubts as "FUD" (fear, uncertainty, and doubt). As is typical with Ponzi schemes, the money from new investors was directly used to pay off earlier investors, creating the illusion of profitability until the supply of new recruits inevitably dried up.

* The Inevitable Collapse and Aftermath: The house of cards began to crumble when payments abruptly stopped on June 30th. Withdrawals that normally took minutes suddenly dragged on for over 30 hours, triggering alarm bells. Victims began complaining en masse on Chinese social media platforms like Weibo. Initially, the scammers tried to brush off the delays by blaming "mining rewards" or insufficient transaction fees, but no payments ever resumed. In a bizarre twist, many victims continue to hold onto the belief that Plus Token payments will eventually restart, a testament to the power of false hope. A clear confession of the exit scam came in the form of a comment left on a known Plus Token transaction, simply stating, "Sorry, we have run." Luckily, six of the original scammers were apprehended while attempting to flee to Vanuatu and were subsequently extradited back to China for trial. However, the movement of funds continues, indicating that some of the primary orchestrators are still at large, with analytical firms like PEC Shield and Token analysis actively tracking the illicit movements.

* The Fund Trail and Market Impact: The enormous trove of stolen funds is currently being fragmented and moved from large accounts (some holding over 5,000 Bitcoin) into smaller, more numerous accounts. The goal is to funnel these funds subtly into various cryptocurrency exchanges without causing too much suspicion. While initial reports sparked fears of a catastrophic $3 billion market dump, a more realistic assessment suggests around $1 billion in tracked Bitcoin, Ethereum, and EOS. A sudden, massive dump is highly improbable because it would immediately flag authorities and exchanges, leading to rapid arrests. The masterminds are likely taking their time, preferring a slow, stealthy liquidation. This drawn-out process means that while an immediate market crash isn't likely, the persistent cashing out will continue to cast a negative light on the cryptocurrency space, giving it a bad name over the long term.

* Crucial Lessons and Takeaways: The most vital lesson from the Plus Token debacle is the absolute necessity of conducting thorough, independent research. Many victims fell prey to the scheme because they uncritically believed the fake marketing and exaggerated promises without verifying anything themselves. This reinforces a core tenet of Bitcoin and decentralization: "verify, not trust." It’s disheartening to witness such large-scale scams, and even more so to know that direct copies of Plus Token are already surfacing in China. The community is encouraged to share their experiences and knowledge about these types of scams to help prevent future incidents and strengthen collective awareness.

Transcript

Hello ladies and gentlemen, PLUS token will be right back. PLUS token, newbie, newbie, newbie! Oh man, this is brutal. Today we're going to take a look at the biggest Ponzi scheme in China, which is PLUS token. It left with more than 70,000 Bitcoin. Not $70,000, 70,000 Bitcoin, which is around $700 million US dollars worth of Bitcoin just taken by these guys. And now the scary part is that's entering some cryptocurrency exchanges. Initially, I didn't really believe this. I was like, how can the...

Hello ladies and gentlemen, PLUS token will be right back. PLUS token, newbie, newbie, newbie! Oh man, this is brutal. Today we're going to take a look at the biggest Ponzi scheme in China, which is PLUS token. It left with more than 70,000 Bitcoin. Not $70,000, 70,000 Bitcoin, which is around $700 million US dollars worth of Bitcoin just taken by these guys. And now the scary part is that's entering some cryptocurrency exchanges. Initially, I didn't really believe this. I was like, how can they scam this much money? We really started piecing together the evidence and we have evidence and footage from offline events, these big conferences held by PLUS token, PLUS token influencers. We have shots of people teaching each other how to use the PLUS token wallet and enter the scheme. It got crazier and crazier. So I really want to explore this topic with you guys here. We really want to take a look at how did PLUS token operate? How did it scam so many people, so much money whilst remaining mostly under the radar? And then also what is happening to the people now? Are there arrests? What's happening to the funds? If you guys want to find out more about PLUS token, I have an article about all the addresses so you can track it for yourself and see what's happening. And then I also have the details of who's arrested and whatnot on my website, boxmining.com. I'll put a link that down below. And also if you guys like more videos exposing these scams and what's really happening in the China scene, make sure you subscribe to this channel because I'm going to keep you guys up to date. So what you saw there, that's the Korean meetup and that should give you an idea of the audience that this type of scam targets. Generally, they're not very crypto savvy and maybe a little bit older, but they have a lot of money, which is really important because that is a dangerous combination. Lots of money, but no idea what's really going on. We're going to take a look at how they managed to pull this off. The strategies used and how they kind of got away with a lot of what they're doing under the radar. So typically something like this starts off with a group of masterminds. I'm going to draw them as an angry devil face here. I know my draw is terrible, but bear with me. So these guys, they know exactly what's going on. They also, I mean, they even planned out a pay to script hash multi signature wallet. So in a case that's one of them gets caught. Well, the police can't seize the entire amount of funds. That's how planned premeditated. This is now. Now. To plus token. I always think about this like Apple and Microsoft. Okay. Because car plus token is similar to Steve job, right? This group typically what they do is they start soliciting outside and generally to an audience that's not very well versed in crypto. And it starts off in Korea slash China. So probably both sides. They contributed to making this happen. Now. The initial group won't be too large. So this will be on WeChat. It will be on line. The two main communication groups and typically maybe they'll have groups of a hundred or so people. That's a strategy here. They don't want too big. They want to have very much a one to one interaction. They want to control the environment and they'll teach these people that, oh, how to buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and how to send it to the wallet. And I'll start telling them, hey, you know what? Just invest in this. You'll get X amount, maybe 5% per month, 10% per month. If you invest more. And that's when greed overtakes people and they jump in. So they give a bunch of reasons for why this works. Like, oh, there's an STO platform soon. This is going to be the biggest STO platform. There's also going to be a lot of adoption. You can look at this video here. There's a guy saying that this is going to be a, the plus token is going to be adopted in supermarkets. I mean, obviously it's fake. And this guy probably just bought a placard filmed it. But the problem is that some people do believe this despite how fake looking it is. Now this group of people, they themselves, they're going to start. Once they know how to do things, they start becoming group leaders. They're going to start their own groups and invite other people on. So this is how this whole pyramid actually works because more and more people gets invited and they get part of the world. And they get part, become part of these small groups. Now, something interesting is that they typically keep these groups away from each other. So that way, the communication, if there's actual problems, if there's dissent in the group, if there's people saying this is a scam, they can squash that caught claim. It's FUD and squash that quickly without too many people discovering the truth. But that's how this works. You got layer one, then this works here. Then you got layer two inviting even more people. And what happens is that when more people invited, they always invest. And that investment goes to the people above them. Now we're getting to the people. Now we're getting to the people. We're getting to the people. So that's why it's a very typical Ponzi scheme. The people who do get invited, the people who invest, they feel like that they're investing something amazing, that they're going to change the world. But actually that money is just being fed up and up and up to tears until you have these giant Bitcoin accounts with 5,000 Bitcoin. And you guys know this can't last forever. Eventually you'll run out of people and you can't pay the top layers anymore. And the whole Ponzi scheme collapses. Everything is good and I'm getting here to celebrate my mom's birthday with all my family. My partner Kai told me that in China, we have a lot of rumors about our project about the plus token. But let me tell you clearly, our project, the plus token, this is a decentralized digital currency plus. And we focus on making great content for our users. We focus on technical research and development. And we focus on making a great product. This guy just feels like the Carlos Matos of this. Just throw a bunch of words like decentralization, building. So in terms of payments, payments stopped on June the 30th of this year. So all of a sudden, people started realizing, oh my God, withdrawals took more than 30 hours. Usually it took a lot less than that. And people started complaining on Chinese social media like Weibo and groups started getting formed. Now, initially they kind of posed something shady. They're just blamed mining rewards like, oh, we didn't pay enough transaction fees. So there's a delay. And unfortunately, of course, people never really got payments after that. Now, the funny thing, the crazy thing is there are still a lot of people who are believing that payments will resume. Hi, I'm Ziye, Thai B girl. I trust Plus Token team. I believe Plus Token will come back. Plus Token number one. Come on. Hello ladies and gentlemen. Plus Token will be right back. Plus Token newbie, newbie, newbie. Now, if you really take a look at this, I saw this as like, this is crazy, but on one of the transactions from Plus Token, known Plus Token addresses was a comment. So someone added a comment on a transaction and said, sorry, we have run. So that's pretty clear that these guys, the original perpetrators, they're making a break for it and they're running. Luckily for us, though, it's not all sad because six of the original scammers, they tried to flee to Renato, but they were arrested by police, extradited and sent back to China for trial. But unfortunately, even after these arrests, funds were still moving. And if you look at this, there's actually two groups that are tracking for this right now. So PEC Shield and Token analysis, they're tracking movements of these funds and they're still moving. So that shows that some of the original perpetrators, the original really high ups are still at large. So overall, what's happening now is that funds are still at large. You can see this list and I made a list here on the website and track the large accounts that have more than 5000 Bitcoin. So that's already quite crazy. Now, these large accounts, they're being kind of scattered. So what these guys are trying to do is send it to smaller and smaller accounts. That way they can start funneling them into exchanges. So I also want to dispel some of the fear that's spreading around this. Some of the initial reports reported up to $3 billion with the potential of all being dumped onto exchanges immediately, which I don't think is actually going to happen. So first of all, I think realistically from what I saw in terms of the tracked accounts, then we have around 70,000 Bitcoin around quite a huge chunk of Ethereum and EOS addresses here. So let's say realistically, maybe $1 billion. Now, this fund is not going to immediately go into exchanges. Now that everyone is watching, they're going to be very stealthy. That's how these kind of mines work. They're not going to be in a hurry because if they're in a hurry, they're all going to get caught like all their kind of lower associates. These masterminds, unfortunately, they're probably going to keep a lot of that for a while. So this will add up to a bit more long term damage in the cryptocurrency community overall as these hackers try to catch out and give crypto a bad name. But I really don't see that immediate dump happening because right now, if they tried, that's a one way ticket to the nearest jail. So if you want to read up more about it, I have plenty of sources. And I want to give a special thanks to Matthew Graham for giving a lot of these video posts and also this Chinese media coverage about what's really happening here. Overall, the lesson here, I really think, is we got to do our in-depth research. So a lot of the reasons why these plus token victims fell to this scheme, this Ponzi scheme, was because they really believed that the media that was being put up with plus token was real, that this was life changing, that this was going to be an STO platform or some crazy other spin on what's popular in crypto right now. What we really need to do is really research in-depth, independently by ourselves, and that's the only real way we can verify. And that's the core, isn't it? I mean, one of the models of Bitcoin is to verify, not trust. And guys, thank you so much for watching this video. I hope this shined a lot of light into plus token. When I was researching this, it was kind of a little bit sad to see this stuff going on. And the worst part is, is that there are more scams that are direct copies of this happening in China. I also really want to hear what you guys think about plus token as well. So did you ever fall victim to this, something like this in the past? Have you ever heard of it? Do you know anyone associated that fell into this? I really want to know a little bit more and I hope you can share some knowledge to help a whole community grow. Thank you guys so much for watching. Remember to click that subscribe button down below right here. And also click that notification bell. It really helps you get notified of what's happening and helps my channel grow as well. Thank you guys so much for watching. See you next time.