February 19,2022
Have you ever been scammed in your life?
Scammers are truly rampant nowadays and it seems like playing dirty is their way of living as they could easily get some bucks from it. The world is full of deceit and clever people would use their knowledge and skills to manipulate innocent, ignorant, and naive ones. Well, sometimes even the clever ones couldn't escape from falling into their black hands as well.
So what we could do is to be aware of their existence and don't easily trust anyone, especially in the online world. However, even if we tried to act cautiously, they would trick us smartly. And it is undeniable that we have been scammed in this crypto world multiple times. The DeFi word is where most scammers are lurking around and waiting for the perfect time to dive in. They are like performing magic and as they swing their wands, quick bucks would appear instantly in just one snap. And even the whales are caught as well.
I got scammed one big time, not in the crypto world but the real world.
In 2015, I eloped from home due to misunderstandings with my father. I tried to live on my own and luckily got a job instantly in the second field of expertise I have chosen.
One day while surfing on Facebook, I got hooked by a post of someone flexing her payouts from a certain MLM (Multi-Maketing) company. As a runaway girl who wanted to save more money, I ventured out into that world after confirming its legitimacy and seeing a lot of proof of payouts online from different members. The company was even featured in a certain newspaper and one of the shows of a big TV network.
To Filipinos, you probably have heard about Success200 International Marketing Company that was too famous in 2015. It's a company selling pharmaceutical-grade medical products, health and wellness food supplements, even apparel, computer peripherals, and gadgets.
Members claimed that they're able to turn their Php1,800 ($35) initial investment to Php 10,000 ($195) in just a few days or weeks through the company's table of orders system. Some leaders even built their own houses and buy new cars by selling supplements and recruiting people to invest in the company. The system was truly attractive and different Proof of Payments posted online were convincing.
The registration fee was Php1800 with a bottle of food supplements and other products of your choice which you could sell for up to Php1800. The same price as the initial investment. Thus, taking the investment back once you sell the product. But then I opted to use the supplement since it's BFAD Approved and good for health.
And here comes the table of orders system or what they called "matrix system". The new recruit would start at level 1 with 8 slots. Then once the table was filled, the one on top would exit with Php10,000 and the ones below would move up, having new 8 slots at the bottom that are needed to fill up so the one on top could move up and exit to get the reward. And the process would continue to the next table with different rewards and all members that exit from the 1st table would go there. And so on and forth.
Due to my eagerness to exit immediately, I bought multiple slots using the pieces of gold jewelry I pawned just to purchase multiple packages. I thought it would be easier, but then I got stuck in level 3.
I wasn't aware of Pyramiding or Ponzi Scheme by that time, a noob and naive at its finest! Until one day when I posted about it on my FB feed to recruit my friends, an anonymous user commented and warned me about the Pyramiding Scheme. That's the time when I researched about it and how it works. I just screwed myself when I sensed something wrong with the company I have invested in.
In July 2015, the company was put on the investigation due to failure to prove some legalities. Then, in the end, the company, people working on it, as well as partners and agents were ordered to cease their business transactions and operations, and it only lasted for a month or so.
And that's the start of my downfall. I got nothing from them, not even a single penny, and worse, I had pawned jewelry that I needed to redeem before their due date and all worth more or less Php17,000. My hope fell and stopped investing in easy quick buck platforms as it wasn't the only one that scammed me. Over two years, I was paying the interest of my pawned pieces of jewelry using my salary from working as a Caregiver, then successfully redeemed them all just last 2017 when I was already working here abroad. That's a shame to share. But reality truly hurts.
It wasn't a big amount compared to other victims, but the feeling of being scammed was hurtful. Additionally, I was struggling living alone by that time when it happened. It was such a big lesson to learn.
These memories came to mind when someone from the Pegaxy discord channel tried to scam me yesterday.
A PRETTY LITTLE REMINDER PEGA RACERS!!
I had issues withdrawing my VIS for two days now, and so I opted to drop a message on its official discord channel yesterday. After submitting a complaint on the Pegaxy discord general server, a Support Team bot messaged me and stated that it can help me withdraw my pending VIS. Then after reading "withdraw manually," I know it's not legit.
It was then followed by a friend request of someone named EJ | PEGAXY who acted as a member of the support team. By that time, I already sensed something suspicious so I checked the Pegaxy channel and looked for avoid scam channel and read how to check the legit ID of Pegaxy officials. But it didn't help at all.
I opted to reply to one of the comments of the server coordinator to ask for help and inform her about the fake bot. And that's when I proved that the Support Team bot and EJ were fake.
Besides, the phrase "Pegaxy will never DM you" on the coordinators' name was obvious so I didn't reply to that man called EJ. Later on, I found out that EJ is one of the coordinators of the PH Pegaxy server, so someone just used his profile to scam people.
When I replied to EJ and asked him how to withdraw just to go along with him, he didn't reply anymore. Perhaps, he already read my comments on the general server, lol. It was too late for me to think about playing with him, tsk.
By the way, when I checked the support team bot again, its name was changed, lol.
So guys...
Do not trust anyone who'll DM you and offer to help you solve the issue or anything about investments.
Do not click the links that those suspicious people would give you as it would compromise your account and might rob your funds from your wallet.
There was also one day when I visited the Pegaxy server. A Filipino asked anyone who could teach him to invest in Pegaxy. I know that he'll gonna be the target of scammers. Then I replied to his comment and told him to buy on Pegaxy Marketplace and never engage with anyone who'll help him do the thing, and beware of scammers. The man DMed me and I just said the same thing.
So always remember: Better safe than sorry, so play smartly!
After a few days of trying to withdraw my VIS, I finally able to withdraw it just this afternoon using another RPC. Phew!
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Sobra nga pong daming scammers ngayon mapa-online man po o real world. Kaya kahit minsan anong iwas mo po ay hindi tumatalab pero ngayon sa tingin ko ay kaya naman na pong maiwasan yung scam basta mag research lang po talaga tayo bago magtiwala. Dati po talaga laganap yung scammer kasi hindi pa rin po marunong magsearch yung mga tao kung legit ba yung pinag iinvestan nila, pero pati ngayon pa rin naman po laganap pa rin talaga mga scammers buti nalang po marurunong na po yung iba.