It is well known by now that scams often plague the ICO industry. But it appears that some criminals have changed their attention from possible investors to ICO organizers. It’s a very odd trend, as a lot of work is involved to actually doupe people.

A Different Kind of ICO Scam

Instead of the classic methods like hacking a website, sending phishing email, or concocting a pure scam, this new method applies a whole different strategy.

In one instance a certain scammer tried to deceive an ICO team. The scammer tried to swindle the ICO’s owner by claiming that he provided advertising services. Even though that is a novel tactic, it proves how dedicated people are nowadays in trying to defraud ICO organizers these days.

The individual known as Kelvin claimed that he was part of a marketing team. This comes as no surprise, as the cryptoverse is saturated with self-professed marketing sages. Kelvin’s team allegedly dealt with on future ICOs, and that they even provided review services of every initial coin offering to offer it an air of legitimacy – supposing it is legitimate from the start.

The “company” also claimed it provided special packages for interviews, which could cost as much as $2,500. While the prices are negotiable, it is obvious that no one should actually trust this offer. After all, they had no official website linked, and they provided only a Bitcoin wallet address to which people can send money.

ICO owner targeted by Kelvin quickly spotted the red flags and eventually started making fun of him. This situation serves as a warning for ICO projects out there, as scammers get very inventive and come up with the strangest of schemes these days. Considering that most projects seek immediate legitimacy to increase their chances of raising a lot of money, it is only natural that some people may be tricked by this specific approach.

It is obvious that the scammer has zero knowledge about how Bitcoin works, though. Bad grammar and spelling, not knowing what a Trezor is – believing it was a person – and not even detecting the hidden message in the fake transaction ID, make him one of the worst scammers that graced the online environment. But be certain that this is not the last we have seen of these attempts, as ICOs will keep attracting all sorts of people.