So, you know all those shady message requests you get on Instagram? I usually accept them.😅

I get curious about what kind of weird scams and cons people are running these days! But November 13th was the first time I ever received a crypto-related spam message, and I thought I would share.

The Message

The easiest way to see if an account is part of something shady is to wait a few weeks. Initially, when I received this message request, there was a profile image and a fake name attached that have now mysteriously vanished.

Now, spam messages are usually pretty vague. For example, I once got a message from someone asking if I wanted to invest in 'woman investments,' whatever that means. But this message was different.

It starts with the usual passive-aggressive.

You're here???

And goes on to describe a pump and dump scheme and how I can get my 450-950% cut by messaging their main account.

Good day, our team regularly raise the prices of coins into space using PUMPS, we agree with the community to buy one of the coins(tokens), as soon as everyone buys - the coin starts to grow and arouses interest from the entire Crypto community, after its growth at the peak of its price, we sell it and get our own profit (approximately 450-950%).

If you are interested in joining our team, write to the direct organizer Peter, his page is attached above 🤘🤘🤘.

Click 2 times on the nickname 👉 @mainaccount

Basic spam IG stuff. But I decided to do some digging.

The Main Account

Now, ordinarily, main accounts that use bot spam are a year or two old with a ridiculous number of followers for the number of posts they have on their feed. But, considering the questionable nature of pump-and-dump schemes, I was not expecting to find an established three-year-old account with a ton of comment spam. (Well, the comment spam isn't that surprising).

And neither are the gratuitous pictures of flashy cars and luxury vacation destinations.

However, the account isn't shy about explaining exactly what it is and how it works. The first Instagram story maps out how this Crypto 'community' works and even highlights a suspect endorsement by a 'verified' Jason Derulo account as social proof.

So, how do you join this incredible community of extremely profitable pump and dumpers?

The Buy In

By joining their Telegram community, of course! The link is featured prominently in their bio, and several IG story highlights if you are struggling to find it. However, after previewing the Telegram channel, I see potential problems with this model.

Every time there is about to be a new pump, a detailed explanation of the rules and how to purchase specific tokens for specific wallets and exchanges are laid out in detail, like complete detailed tutorials in perfect English.

Here's the problem.

Even if this community is precisely what it claims to be, trading is a zero-sum game. For some people to win, somebody else has to lose. And nobody involved in this 'community' is immune to that risk.

Participants are asked to pre-buy specific assets for trading pairs that will be announced when the pump officially begins. So they seem to be sticking to the same exchange. However, it makes me wonder how much it must suck if you're late to the trading floor when competing with other 'subscribers' in this scheme.

Because these pumps aim for a specific number, the 'buy' period can last anywhere from 2-7 hours before the 'sell' order is called, which means prospective dumpers can be busy doing other things and miss their opportunity.

This would leave them stuck with untradable fake tokens worth thousands.

Although the instructions say to only sell when the signal is given, I'd also be curious to see how many people sell early and contribute to fucking over whoever is last in this gruelling race to the bottom. Although, with so many people in the pool, I'm sure it can keep going strong as long as it keeps drawing in new prey to take the bait.

(Probably why I received the initial spam message).

About the Payout

Now suppose you're willing to risk jail time, and being the guy left holding the bag, can you make money on a scam like this?

If you're running the scam, It'd be simple to sell your shares before giving the 'signal,' ensuring you get the biggest payout. But what about everybody else? I was curious and decided to look at the last couple of pairs they pumped to see how much money is being made off an operation like this.

Every couple of days, they poll the Telegram channel asking members how much they made on the last pump. 

Because there isn't an option to track if anybody lost money, I'm a little unsure how accurate this will be, but it's the best I've got.

As far as I can tell, an average of 3.5k subscribers participate or follow each pump as it happens, and of the 4.3k who reported making money in the last three surveys, the results are...well, less than I'd be expecting for something that could get me jail time.

I'm going to assume the removed poll responses are from people who lost money during the pump. (You can tell some reactions have been removed because a few polls add up to odd numbers like 68% and 96% instead of 100%).

So, out of 4.3k self reporters;

• At least 516 people lost money
• Approximately 731 people made 'up to $1000.'
• About 356 people made anywhere from $1000 - $2000
• About 400 people made anywhere from $2000 - $4000
• About 928 people made anywhere from $3000 - $8000
• And at the very top, we have about 559 people who made more than $8000

These are rough estimates from the last three polls (a pretty small data set), so take this info with a grain of salt. Across the board, it seems to be increments of 20% of the participants that make up each earning bracket per dump.

And an unknown number of participants do not self-report their earnings.

Final Thoughts

To be CLEAR. I am not endorsing the idea that you should join a pump-and-dump scheme. I've mentioned tons of red flags in this post that suggests there is more going on behind the scenes than I can identify with a quick preview of the Telegram channel.

This post is purely for educational purposes and to point out inconsistencies between what is being promised and what you are most likely getting.

Pump and dump schemes put their participants at risk of jail time, federal charges, and extreme financial loss, but they are also terrible for the trading community.

Pump and Dump operations manipulate trading patterns for legitimate tokens and exchanges and the odd shit coin. Unfortunately, this makes them detrimental when supporting projects traders are passionate about.

These schemes rob new traders of capital they could be investing in something innovative. And the pattern of pumping a token over a couple of hours only to collapse the price again serves only the benefit of the con artists at the expense of good companies and projects.

And for what? A couple thousand bucks.