CONFIDO

DESCRIPTION OF EVENTS

"Confido billed itself as a company that is developing “smart contracts” to act as an escrow between a buyer and seller during a transaction of some sort."

"Confido works by using smart contracts with a unique shipment tracking feature. When a new transaction is made by a user, Confido will generate a smart contract using a secure smart contract template and the data entered by the user. That smart contract will act as the escrow between buyer and seller. Once the funds have been received by the smart contract the seller is prompted to submit a shipment tracking code to the smart contract (which is all done inside the app). Our smart contract will continuously track the delivery status of the package and will release the funds 24 hours after the package has been delivered. In case of a wrong or faulty product the buyer can put the transaction on hold."

"Traditional escrows would be held by a third party. But smart contracts are supposed to be fulfilled when both sides meet certain conditions, removing the need for that third party."

"Confido is a payment solution developed to be used by both businesses and individuals. It provides secure escrow payments using smart contracts, without relying on a third party to control the money. The unique thing about Confido is its shipment tracking feature. Confido will track a package up to the point that it gets delivered, and will only then release the funds. This is all done in a trustless and decentralised fashion using smart contracts on the Ethereum & RSK blockchain combined with Chainlink."

"Confido takes away the trust barrier in exchanges involving cryptocurrencies, while also staying decentralised and trustless. For example, when a person (the buyer) wants to buy a keyboard from someone (the seller) with cryptocurrency he’ll have to trust the seller. The seller can run away with the funds and never send anything, there are no identities attached to a Bitcoin or Ethereum address. Confido takes away this trust barrier by providing a secure escrow payment solution without a third party or mediator involved."

"The ICO took place earlier this month through a platform called TokenLot, which facilitates the fundraising. Nearly $375,000 was raised. Investors were given “contract for differences” tokens."

"We think the current ICO space is messed up; companies are raising millions without a fully working product or existing customers. We have talked with financial analysts and we simply don’t need more than $400,000 to develop and market our project. ICO’s are a great opportunity to get funding for a project, but we don’t want to abuse this opportunity," said the project's website.

Some prospective buyers were skeptical. “confido.io is not as good as 4chan thinks it is,” one forum poster wrote in October. Despite Confido only having 558 Twitter followers, the company regularly racked up hundreds of retweets, with no likes or comments: an indication that the company many have been buying retweets from bots, the writer speculated. “Because there is a shadow of a doubt, i cannot recommend joining their ico. you’ve been warned.”

"It was reportedly authored by Joost van Doorn, CEO of Confido, but there is no trace of him online. A description of van Doorn on the cached version of Confido’s website says that he has a master’s degree in international business and has worked at firms such as eBay, PepsiCo and Zalando."

"On Confido’s website, which has also been deleted, a man called Joost van Doorn is named as the CEO. His biography said that he previously worked at eBay, PepsiCo and Zalando." "After being contacted by CNBC, a PepsiCo spokesperson said that its human resources department could not find him. And German online retailer Zalando said that his name could not be found on any employees or freelancer list."

"Confido’s cofounder and chief technology officer, Max Kruger, has no social media and no résumé, despite allegedly being a talented young German developer. (His name might be based on a different Max Kruger, a tech developer in Berlin.)"

"The company’s full stack developer, Liam Bellum, has an active LinkedIn page, where he claims to have worked for McKinsey and Company. McKinsey has no record of him ever working there, they told The Daily Beast. The only available picture of him is an image of a man at an event hosted by the Association of Network Marketing professionals—an American group whose events would be a strange destination for a man who claims to be based in Berlin."

"The company’s fourth employee, web developer Nick Spatz, claims to be a current Zalando employee, but Zalando says they’ve never heard of Spatz, either."

“There is a potential for a 10x growth in token value after alpha launch. They have a good team,” one cryptocurrency blogger wrote a week after the launch. “Well worth a 6 month investment in my opinion.” "That considerable demand led to a significant price rise once it was listed on exchanges, with the token rising to a market cap of as high as $10 million, giving its investors a return of 20x or more."

"The team collected 1235 ETH -- worth around $375,000 at ICO time -- and shortly after the CFD tokens became tradable their value skyrocketed." "These tokens traded as much as $1.20 on Nov. 14, but plunged following the disappearance of the Confido team to around 2 cents, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com." "[T]he market cap of the cryptocurrency fell from about $6 million to $70,000 within a week."

"That news came a few months after Confido, the startup that raised $374,477 in an ICO, reportedly disappeared with investors’ money. According to a news report from The Next Web, Confido, which said it was developing a trustless payment network for online shopping, has taken down its website, and its value declined 90 percent after letting investors know that a legal issue will stop development of its project for good."

"The alleged founder and president, Joost van Doorn, posted a message to the company’s Reddit feed saying:"

“We are in a tight spot, as we are having legal trouble caused by a contract we signed. We signed the contract with assurance from our legal advisor that there was minimal risk and it would not be an issue. I can’t and won’t go into details, but he was wrong. It is a problem.”

"That announcement has now vanished with the Confido subreddit turned into private." "The firm’s website, Twitter account and Facebook page were erased." "Their twitter is deleted, so too the linkedin profile of the founder, with their reddit closed and the website down. The project, in effect, has suddenly vanished."

"Investors wouldn’t get any more details of the alleged “legal trouble.” Hours after it went up, the post vanished from the internet, along with Confido’s website and all its social media accounts. All that was left of the company was a Reddit account, apparently belonging to a frazzled Confido support staffer named Chris."

“Look I have absolutely no idea what has happened here,” Chris posted to Reddit on Tuesday, when Confido buyers started demanding what had happened to the company and their $374,000. “I have been in contact with Joost for a number of weeks and this is completely out of character for him. Last I spoke to him he was extremely distressed, and was doing his best to rectify the situation. Today he was supposedly meeting with Max (The CTO) to discuss the situation at length.”

"Confido’s business partners also seem stumped on their legal options. TokenLot, a third-party site that sells Confido and other cryptocurrencies, says it’s contacted the FBI over Confido’s scheme, but that it’s just as confused as buyers."

“This morning we awoke to the unfortunate news that the team behind Confido has seemingly pulled an exit scam,” TokenLot wrote in a Monday statement. “ Unfortunately, we do not have much more information regarding the situation, outside of what has already been made public.”

"[I]t does appear the Confido ICO investors will get refunded." A new letter on the site "claims there is a concern over the “rumors” regarding this project. Moreover, they claim the project is not feasible within the scope of the results of the ICO."

"Our client sincerely regrets the rumours concerning Confido that appeared in the news last week. Our client emphasizes that Confido is not a scam and they there were never any intentions to disadvantage any investors. However, the project - despite the dreams of the developers - is not feasible within the scope of the results of the ICO. Therefore, our client decided to stop the development of Confido."

"Due to serious threats against his life, our client decided to take down the website confido.io and delete all social network accounts linked to Confido." "Our client ensures that the majority of the investments are still unspent. These assets are currently deposited in a trust fund until further notice."

"In the upcoming days, our client will make preparations for refunds." "Starting December 23rd at 13:00 (GMT + 1, Amsterdam) the trade in CFD/ETH will be opened on Kucoin exchange. Also, starting that same date and time, Confido will place a buy order to buy back all Confido tokens for a nominal fee." "Owners of Confido tokens will thus be given the opportunity to sell all their tokens for a fixed price per token on Kucoin exchange." "The nominal fee is based on the total assets of Confido (880,41 ETH, approximated value $721,626.79 at the moment of writing) divided by the total amount of Confido tokens issued (9 million)."

Confido promised to develop a new crypto service which actually appeared quite promising, and would serve as an escrow for application for shipments. However, the team was completely fake. After disappearing completely, they reappeared and made a decision to run a refund through the Kucoin exchange. As far as can be told, all funds were returned.

HOW COULD THIS HAVE BEEN PREVENTED?

A basic level of diligence would have revealed that the team was fake, and could have easily been provided. Our framework recommends 2 expert reviews, which would heave revealed that and likely also done some checking on any legal limitations of the service considered. If there was intent to deliver the service, and merely legal challenges, having an official process and a team that didn't disappear would have run much more smoothly.

Check Our Framework For Safe Secure Exchange Platforms

https://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2018/modern-tech-vietnam-ico-exit-scam/ (Jan 17)
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/21/confido-ico-exit-scam-founders-run-away-with-375k.html (Jan 19)
Confido.io – Confido is a payment solution developed to be used by both businesses and individuals. It provides secure escrow payments using smart contracts, without relying on a third party to control the money. (Jan 19)
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/23/confido-ceo-who-allegedly-pulled-375k-scam-lied-about-employment.html (Jan 19)
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/confido/ (Jan 19)
What is the Confido crypto scam? - Quora (Jan 19)
What's a Cryptocurrency Exit Scam? How Do You Spot One? (Jan 19)
Confido ICO Vanishes Days After Raising Nearly Half a Million Dollars – Trustnodes (Jan 19)
https://www.linkedin.com/company/confido-io (Jan 19)
Cryptocurrency startup Confido pulls exit scam after raising $375K in ICO (Jan 19)
logo (Jan 19)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cryptocurrency-company-that-scammed-investors-was-run-by-fake-people (Jan 19)
https://steemit.com/confido/@johnnyrevolver/is-confido-still-undervalued (Jan 19)
Confido (CFD) price today, chart, market cap & news | CoinGecko (Jan 19)
Confido may Refund ICO Investors After all, According to Dubious law Firm Letter (Jan 19)
https://i.redd.it/ngmbk7wot4001.jpg (Jan 19)
Confido's founders vanish after raising $375,000 in an ICO (Jan 19)
Confido just deleted everything proving their existence : CryptoCurrency (Jan 19)
Confido.io – Confido is a payment solution developed to be used by both businesses and individuals. It provides secure escrow payments using smart contracts, without relying on a third party to control the money. (Jan 19)
'Dutch' man behind ICO scandal wants to refund investors: Amsterdam law firm | NL Times (Jan 19)
Confido (Jan 19)
CONFIDO ICO - EXIT SCAM ALERT | JustCryptoNews (Jan 19)
https://icodrops.com/confido/ (Jan 19)
Confido (Apr 4)

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