QUADRIGA INITIATIVE
CRYPTO WATCHDOG & FRAUD RECOVERY PLATFORM
A COMMUNITY-BASED, NOT-FOR-PROFIT
UNKNOWN
NOVEMBER 2020
GLOBAL
CROWD1
DESCRIPTION OF EVENTS
"Crowd1 was founded by Jonas Erik Wener in mid 2019." "Crowd1 is currently being heavily promoted across Russia, Azerbaijan and Qatar." "Crowd1 provides no information on their website about who owns or runs the business."
"Crowd1 is an established online social community and marketing company registered in Dubai, UAE, that connects people to each other around the world, at the same time as giving them exclusive access to a range of marketable products and services. Crowd1 has been a pioneer of online crowd marketing since 2019 and since then we have seen an exponential expansion of our worldwide community, from zero to almost thirty million people in under three years. We are on every continent but Antarctica, we translate our message into ten languages. We are wholly global, proudly diverse, genuinely inclusive."
"You can join the movement in one of three ways, as a customer, as a member or as an entrepreneur. To avoid any confusion: Crowd1 is not an investment, nor a get rich-quick scheme. It is, however, an opportunity to use great products and to start your own business for anyone wanting to grow both personally and professionally."
"Crowd1 does not sell or offer products of its own. We market the products and services of other companies and we provide passionate and dedicated digital entrepreneurs access to a platform with a library of unbeatable offerings and a worldwide crowd." "Let's kickstart your professional journey with Crowd1 by taking a closer look at our great starter packages. In each package you'll find a business toolkit containing premium education apps, SaaS credits, CRM tools and more."
"Crowd1 is an established crowd marketing company based in the UAE with the mission of giving members all over the world the opportunity to take part in the digital economy, provide quality education, and to contribute to achieving more equal opportunities worldwide. "
"It is completely free to join Crowd1. However, you always need a sponsor's link. With that link you can then go on to browse the C-Store and explore all our great products as a customer. If you would like to get more involved you can recommend the products to others as a Member. You can also decide to grow your own crowd as an entrepreneur. Members and entrepreneurs are called Affiliates of Crowd1. To avoid any confusion, Crowd1 is not an investment scheme in any shape or form."
"Crowd1 has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market Crowd1 affiliate membership itself."
"Supposedly, Crowd1 generates revenue through online gambling." "Currently the most profitable industry is the gaming industry." " "Crowd1 shall introduce our customer base to this industry in a way that will create substantial recurring revenue for Crowd1 members without being a gaming company and without arranging any payments to a gaming company." "Naturally no information about any of the supposed gaming partners Crowd1 has is provided. Yet despite that, the company simultaneously touts accumulated returns of 450%."
"As it stands the only verifiable source of revenue entering Crowd1 is new investment." "Using new investment to pay owner rights share returns to existing affiliates would make Crowd1 a Ponzi scheme."
"BBC Africa Eye has premiered a documentary exposing Crowd1 as a failed Ponzi scheme."
"To date regulators from no less than fourteen jurisdictions have taken action against Crowd1." "Russia is the sixteenth jurisdiction to take regulatory action against Crowd1." "Other countries to issue Crowd1 fraud notices include Peru, New Zealand, Mauritius, South Africa, the Philippines, Norway, Namibia, Paraguay, Gabon, Vietnam, Cote d’Ivoire, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic."
Crowd1 promotes itself as not being an investment, and yet the only thing available for purchase appears to be expensive membership plans. They have no product or external revenue. While the site still appears to be online at the moment, their business model is not sustainable and has already been flagged by multiple regulators.
HOW COULD THIS HAVE BEEN PREVENTED?
Experienced cryptocurrency users can typically tell what's fraudulent, however this takes practice, so it's always best for new participants to err on the side of caution, and avoid investing in most services.
To prevent such ponzi schemes, our framework provides that 2 industry reviews should be conducted of each proposed new service, by knowledgeable organizations. Regular reviews should also be conducted to ensure that all customer assets are fully backed, which prevents ponzi schemes since the key component is that funds are no longer backed.
Crypto Scam Websites Attracted Millions of Indians Last Year, Chainalysis Says – Featured Bitcoin News (Feb 18)
https://crowd1.com/ (Feb 23)
https://ca.trustpilot.com/review/crowd1.com (Feb 23)
https://crowd1.com/packages (Feb 23)
Crowd1 restricts withdrawals through "Bonus Security System" (Feb 23)
Crowd1 pyramid scheme warning from Russia (Feb 23)
Crowd1 securities fraud warning issued in Czech Republic (Feb 23)
Crowd1 Review: "Owner rights" virtual shares investment fraud (Feb 23)
https://crowd1.com/about (Feb 23)
Crowd1 pyramid & Ponzi failings exposed by BBC Africa Eye (Feb 23)