We’ll share all the details of how they did it, and how best to avoid it happening to you.

Ready the Story about The YouTube Influencer Scam that’s Targeting Crypto Community

Kingdom Token was the victim of a scam recently. We’re going to blow the whistle for the good of the community. We’ll share every naive mistake we made and let you in on all the embarrassing details. During the story we will most importantly highlight every red flag so that you can avoid similar mistakes.

My name is David Haynes, I’m the Founder of Kingdom Token. Kingdom Token is a digital collectable built on Ethereum using the ERC721 Standard (the same as Cryptokitties). The unique feature of Kingdom Token is that each unique collectable token represents an endangered species. The scarcity is mapped to how endangered that species is in the real world. These tokens/animals can be collected and traded on the open market potentially for profit.

The driving force behind this project is that I will be giving away 25% of initial sales and 7.5% of every subsequent sale to wildlife conservation charities.

David Haynes - Founder of Kingdom Token

There’s a fantastic feeling around the project. We’ve received wonderful support and the hype has been building. Our focus on the past few weeks has been to get the word out there, to share our mission and purpose.

As it’s 2019 we understand the importance of social media. A social media presence is an essential component in the marketing strategy of any digital product. To accelerate growth and get the message out many start-ups look to partner with content creators. We say partner with but what we actually mean pay them to promote a particular brand. But hey, that’s marketing in 2019 and it’s very effective when done well.

I personally researched, and took the time to compile a list of suitable YouTubers that would be a good fit for Kingdom Token. I was familiar with a few names and was excited for them to potentially endorse Kingdom Token. Most of the big names didn’t respond. Typical. Regardless, I had a long list of suitable content creators to reach out to!

Replies started to flood in. It was exciting time.

That excitement soon dissipated when I got to the quote section…

The first asked for $1,300.

The second $495 for a short segment.

The third 0.2 BTC ($1,700).

and so on…

One channel that stood out to me was Crypto Complex, the videos were detailed project reviews, solid production, with a well spoken, likable guy called Jack. (Screen recordings only, you only heard Jack). Crypto Complex had 217k subscribers!

I got a swift reply from Crypto Complex, unsurprisingly asking me for a fee worthy of their subscriber count.

0.3 BTC ($2,500).

Email reply from Crypto Complex

Five emails later I managed to negotiate the ‘Crypto Complex Team’ down from 0.3 BTC for a 10–16 minute video to a mere $75 worth of ETH for a short introduction video. Even though it was just an introduction, I was delighted!

The agreement was made. They gave an ETH address. I sent them $75.00 worth of ETH. I was immensely satisfied about how smoothly this had gone and was looking forward to the content.

One week passed and I didn’t chase. Then a second week passed by. I was busy working on different parts of the Kingdom Token project and thought little of it. In fact, I appreciate the hard work that goes into making a video and I know it can take time. Then the third week passed and I decided to check in on the Crypto Complex Team.

No reply.

Within the contact section of YouTube there was a Telegram account. Excellent, perhaps I’ll be able to reach them there.

I sent a polite message.

Still nothing.

They had been online multiple times and the messages were eventually marked as read. I was still being ignored.

A few days later, out of the blue I received an email stating only ‘Check telegram please’

I had hope that perhaps I hadn't been scammed, perhaps they have just been very busy all along.

This is what they had to say:

Firstly, there now seems to be some sort of elaborate structure to their team and my point of contact appears to be a mere affiliate or sales bod.

Moreover believe it or not, the team was now asking me for a further $125.00 before they would complete my video and publish it.

Enough red flags, by now all I could see was red. I was both angry and embarrassed that I had been taken for a fool. I knew that something was amiss with this whole saga and ‘Option B’ was the only option worth taking.

Despite the option, I knew my ETH had long vanished and that it will never be returned. Nonetheless, I patiently waited the 14 days.

I chased on the 15th day asking how the refund was coming along.

To my surprised I received a reply stating:

‘just 21 more days. finance is super busy right now’

That, frankly, is just hilarious. I’m not going to patronize you with more red flags on this one.

The next day the Telegram account was deleted or I was blocked.

That ended my contact with them however here is the most fascinating twist to the entire story; the YouTube account was re-branded and is now:

The re-branded Crypto Compex Channel

The channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC12quLagSQ0pnd7Afkq1uQg

I had taken some screenshots of the comment section before the account was re-branded and the crypto related videos removed. This is an easy red flag to spot, I can’t quite believe that I didn’t from the start however I want to ensure that nobody else makes the same mistakes going forward.

Screenshot of the comments section on one of Crypto Complex’s videos.

Rather fascinatingly, there seems to be another account called Crypto Complex lurking on YouTube. Interestingly it also has Southern Asian content. Given the channel has the exact same name it is highly likely they are related. My advice, AVOID.

Another channel called Crypto Complex…

This channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGpgbcXBdlsxEzamAbsrhVA

There are other YouTube Channels out there that I have my doubts about. I will not list them in case I am wrong, however if you ever have any contact with anyone across any social media platform then ensure you do the utmost due diligence before parting with any money.

I won’t be taking any further action against these scammers. Mostly due to the fact that I was lucky to only lose $75.00 (it could have been much, much worse). It happened, it sucks, but let’s move on ay?

This whole saga reminds me of a lyric in the song Float On by Modest Mouse. It goes as follows:

‘A fake Jamaican took every last dime with that scam

It was worth it just to learn some sleight of hand

… Well, we’ll float on, good news is on the way”

I will see the positive in this situation, as with any. I am privileged to share this story with you and hopefully it will serve to educate those against some of the shadier characters that live in the wild, wild west of cryptoville.

The best way to fight these bastards is through awareness. Share this story.

If you have found this useful, please do take a look at Kingdom Token, it’s a revolutionary take on collectables that will have a huge positive impact on the world. Make an investment, make a difference with Kingdom Token.

Our Tokens are available to buy now on OpenSea.