OneCoin seize Ponzi points from investors (again)
According to the OneCoin website, the company pitches its transparency as a major selling point.
We are open and honest in our dealings.
OneCoin wants to make cryptocurrency transparent, and part of our financial culture and everyday life. By working proactively with governments and policymakers, OneCoin will help the industry achieve better regulation.
As more and more top investors are realizing however, OneCoin’s depiction of its own transparency is far from the truth.
Imran Shah describes himself as a former “lover of OneCoin”. Based out of the UK, Shah has previously hosted three company events with OneCoin executives.
The “top leader” in the company had built a sizeable downline and presumably a matching OneCoin points balance.
In a video uploaded to YouTube, Shah explains how his problems with OneCoin began.
[0:44] Something opened up to me. There were some reservations and I was not very happy about it.
Rather than making a scene about it, I have separated myself from OneCoin.
Because if you are not clear about something… why should you be promoting this kind of opportunity?
Shah doesn’t go into his problems with OneCoin, but does state that he was “tired and sick” of the company’s system.
This appears to have something to do with cross-promoting.
[3:09] So I was looking for (another) opportunity. I came across a company and saw their system was good.
I never made any ID (with the company) at that time. I think I made an ID later on after six days or so.
But at that time I was just looking into things.
So my upline who was in OneCoin, I invited him and he saw this opportunity as well.
He said to me “this is an amazing opportunity and if you’re not happy you can go ahead with it.
Shah’s upline went on to join the opportunity and “created three (affiliate) IDs” within the company.
Shah claims this motivated him to further promote his new opportunity within his OneCoin downline.
[3:59] I spoke (about) it with a few friends of mine. They’re Indians, living in the UK and they liked this business opportunity too.
This is when Shah’s problems with OneCoin “leadership” began.
[4:18] Later on I was surprised to see that OneCoin leadership in (the) United Kingdom, the people who I used to work with … they wrote a letter, six or eight people, they have signed this paper that requested OneCoin cancel or freeze our (affiliate) IDs … to make us a negative or bad example.
OneCoin complied and froze the accounts of Shah and three other OneCoin affiliates.
The account freeze put a stop to recruitment commissions, as well as OneCoin seizing the OneCoin point balance Shah and his downline had invested in.
[5:03] I think that was totally, in my opinion, unfair.
This is the second known instance of OneCoin seizing affiliate accounts and OneCoin balances. Last year the company seized a OneCoin point balance representing $195,836, after an affiliate asked why they hadn’t been paid for a month.
Shah goes on to express frustration at being singled out, claiming that
[5:29] there are so many people in (the) United Kingdom, in London especially, they are part of other cryptocurrencies – and their IDs (have) not been cancelled.
They are part of other revenue-shares and their IDs (have) not been cancelled.
So why (have) myself and three other people … why have our IDs been cancelled by OneCoin.
This is the biggest question, which I want to ask OneCoin, its leadership and management.
Shah reasons that if OneCoin have listened to other affiliates (those that contacted OneCoin about Shah), then they should listen to him as well.
[6:07] They should also consult us from our side.
However they never consulted (with us) and they have frozen our IDs, which I think is absolutely disgusting.
OneCoin froze Shah’s account roughly two months ago.
[6:56] Later on I tried to resolve this issue with talks … I am not interested in OneCoin (any) more.
However I said if they can resolve this issue, unfreeze my ID, along with the other three people, and also … buy our coins.
There is an investment of a Tycoon package from my side. The other people they’ve got over 25,000 (EUR) investment in the system.
So give them back (their money).
And those coins (OneCoin) claim are (worth) over six or seven euros right now, just give us 2 EUR on each coin which are in the system.
I think that’s fair.
Shah’s predicament highlights a fundamental difference between OneCoin and legitimate cryptocurrencies.
[8:08] When we tried to contact (OneCoin) support … (they) were not answering back, or their answer was not very satisfactory for us.
And then we wrote to them saying “we are giving you 72 hours”, and they have said to us to contact our upline, which is in London.
So now we contacted out upline in London … they never answer our phone calls … we have made several attempts to contact them.
[9:47] Then I went to another (OneCoin) leader … and he has a table talk with me.
He was a bit sensible but he made another fake promise that he’s gunna resolve this issue by himself. But he never, never resolved this issue.
In the last meeting he was trying to bribe me. He was giving me a Diamond group, like a membership or something, a rank. And he said, “You can start with me and I can cover your finances”…
But look bro, it’s not a banana republic, this is the United Kingdom and I will fight for my rights.
In a legitimate cryptocurrency, funds are exchanged for the currency and stored in a wallet.
The only person who has access to the funds is the holder of the wallet. There is no central authority that is able to access funds stored in the wallet.
OneCoin on the other hand is touted as a legitimate cryptocurrency however, as Shah has learnt the hard way, the company can confiscate OneCoins for any reason at any time.
This confirms OneCoin have absolute control over OneCoin wallets held by their affiliates, differentiating itself from a legitimate cryptocurrency.
Despite this fundamental difference, OneCoin are currently claiming their ‘goal is to reach 10 million people and 1 million merchants within the next 2 years‘.
If you were a merchant running an independent business, would you accept OneCoin knowing that the company could seize your funds for any reason at any time?
Of course not. Because that’s not how a legitimate financial environment works – and in the business world anything less is not an option.
[12:40] If they cancel my investment and other people’s investment, what can in future they not do with you? (sic)
They can do any single thing with you.
On the MLM side of things, Shah may have very well breached his OneCoin affiliate agreement. OneCoin as an MLM company would be well within their rights to terminate his affiliate account.
That would put a stop to Shah’s recruitment commissions and sever him from his OneCoin downline, however his OneCoin cryptocurrency balance would remain his to do with as he sees fit.
That OneCoin attach an affiliate’s OneCoin balance to their OneCoin affiliate account only confirms our conclusion that OneCoin sell Ponzi points.
OneCoin and its affiliates maintain and continue to market the scheme as a legitimate cryptocurrency.
OneCoin could pay out Imran Shah his initial investment but what happens to his actual OneCoin point balance?
What happens to the coins? Where do they go? Who are they transferred to? Do OneCoin break into Shah’s wallet to transfer the coins? How is this rectified on OneCoin’s supposedly audited blockchain?
These unanswered questions drive home the fallacy of OneCoin’s purported transparency. Simultaneously they also reaffirm OneCoin is selling unregistered securities in a Ponzi points scheme they are able to wholly manipulate at whim.
Imran Shah claims OneCoin affiliates have been threatened with account closure if they talk to him.
[11:56] I have stories of how you guys are robbing other people.
I’ve got stories of how you guys are doing wrongdoings, how you guys are doing everything … because I lived among you, I saw you and that disgusted me.
[15:05] If something happens to me, or something happens to my team … like a life-threat or anything, or any problem (that) comes up in the future, they people (OneCoin) are responsible.
I’m telling you live in the camera, not only the OneCoin international leaders, but also those people who are in London.
I will tell you in this video to hold them accountable for it.
Imran Shah is currently promoting CoinSpace, another centrally-controlled Ponzi points MLM business. Promotional material the Traffic Monsoon Ponzi scheme also appears on his YouTube channel.
Shah maintains he is a “law-abiding citizen of the United Kingdom”.
I wonder if any of the other 3 have German citizenship, if you catch my drift?
He did say they were Indians in the video. I assume that means they’re from the UK too.
One Coin is very popular among Pakistanis and Muslim Indians in the UK, with training sessions being held in Urdu. Just for my own interest’s sake, I’m putting together an analysis of this which I’ll share when I’m satisfied with it.
It’s noteworthy that amongst UK based One Coin followers are some with self accredited “religious” CV’s.
Fraud is a big no-no in Islam, hand cutting off territory to some, a typical teaching being
The classic guidance about working with “kuffaars” is clear, and the type of personality cult promoted by One Coin is definitely haram (forbidden).
islamqa.info/en/67610
This is a great opportunity to bring in Actionfraud in the UK. They need specific cases where people have been exposed to fraud.
A case like this could get things rolling in the UK and then later the rest of EU.
actionfraud.police.uk
@tmfp
Excuse me but who are you that you think that you can say something about the Islam?
According to the way you write & the weak and unreliable source you took, I assume that you are no scholar or even a Muslim.
You definitely should leave religion to those who are educated & open-minded 😉
BTW … We don’t live in the middle-ages anymore (even if it seems to be like it sometimes)!
Religion and open mindedness…. Please correct my weak and unreliably sourced references.
Or is your point that Islam has no problem with conspiracy to steal and lie for a living?
never going to happen as shah is a scammer himself. He’s not about to have them poking around seeing what he is really doing while claiming to be an innocent victim.
@tmfp
There is no such a thing as the Islam. There are Sunnis and Shiites (the two major faith communities). Both believe in the Holy Qur’an as the book of revelation.
For Sunnis, the so called Sunnah (Teaches, Deeds & Sayings etc. of the Prophet Muhammad) and the Hadith (Words, Actions and Habits of the Prophet Muhammad) are the most essential sources when it comes to Islamic-Law (Shariah); the Qur’an is the very basic instrument of course.
Note:
1. There are five different Law-Schools regarding the Sunni Islam.
2. Islamic Schoolars differentiate between a verified or backed Hadith and the opposite of course (Good Scholars – open-minded and educated ones – only use the verified ones).
3. Islamic Law is much based or influenced by ancient Roman Law
Sure, all of these Law-Schools are having a problem with “conspiracy”, “stealing” and “dishonesty” but there is hardly any country that lives up to these “ancient” law system anymore (except Saudi-Arabia & Iran).
Furthermore, the word “kuffa” relates to people who are not part of the 3 great faith-communities (Jews & Christians are no “kuffas” – there are even a few more faith communities who are not considered to be “kuffas” but that only because of the Islamic Expansion in the middle-ages). So, doing business with Jews and Christians is definitely a normal thing and totally allowed (See: Dhimma).
A “Fatwah” is not the Law of God. Most are and were made by the famous Al-Azhar University (Sunni-University) in Egypt. Once they came up with good and reliable “Fatwahs” – but due to a more and more political influence – they are not that reliable and good anymore.
A personality cult is nothing unethical in Islam (See: The First Four Caliphs in Islam during the reign of the House of the Umayyads) – or the worshipping of Imam Ali (See: Shiites Islam).
Last but not least, most Muslims are used to live in a secular world and therefore they don’t rely on Islamic-Courts and Laws (except a few values of course).
Thanks for that run down, AR.
My thoughts were based on the romantic hope that at least one of the major religions might give clear direction on the actions of individuals who claim its allegiance, but apparently moral relativism rules everywhere.
A minor question re “kuffas”, where do amoral, belief-free materialists fit in? Or are non Muslims categorized simply according to the nominal faith of their society, irrespective of their personal moral bankruptcy?
My intention was not to drag faith into this, and I naively assumed that scammers invoking G-d to assist their scamming would grind a Muslim’s gears as much as e.g. Jimmy Swaggart does for a Christian.
I intended no slight on your beliefs and if you accept my contrition, I think Oz might like us to leave the religious aspect of this situation here.
In this video, CONVICTED FELLON, Tom McMurrain directly contradicts the laws of Supply and Demand by stating that despite increasing the current 2.1 billion quantity cap on OC that the additional 117,900,000,000 new coins to be produced “will not affect the price.”
youtube.com/watch?v=bhK19W3568s
As some of you recall, I spoke with Tom for over an hour on the phone, some months back, and even “gave him some credit (naively, at that time)” because he came across as “sincere,” and told me that he too had many of the same “Concerns” I did about how Ruja was pitching Onecoin; and that he would address them with her personally.
Tom McMurrain has no excuse. HE is one of the infinitesimal FEW people in OC that even has a clue about cryptocurrency and has a fair understanding of blockchain technology. As such, and having had conversation with him, THIS DUDE IS A BONIFIDE CON-ARTIST, AND NOTHING LESS.
LET THIS BE A LESSON TO ANYONE NEW TO PONZI EDUCATION:
THESE PEOPLE ARE PROFESSIONAL AND CHRONIC CON-ARTISTS AND LIARS! THEY SMILE AT YOU WHEN SHAKING YOUR RIGHT HAND, WHILE REMOVING YOUR WALLET FROM YOUR BACK POCKET WITH THEIR LEFT.
Char, Oz and several others called it from the start, but this is my first MLM Ponzi rodeo.
The last several videos from McMurrain have pimped this ponzi every way possible. I just hope that these most recent ones will be used against him (again) in a Court of Law, because he is 100% aware of the fraud he is complicit in. THAT is a FACT!!
@tmfp
You should read books of:
Ignaz Goldziher
Eliyahu Ashtor
Claude Cahen
Richard Fletcher
Shlomo Dov Goitein
Gustav Edmund von Grunebaum
David Levering Lewis
Norman Stillman
Edward Said
Maria Rosa Menocal
Vivian Mann
Thomas Glick
Jerrilynn Dodds
These people wrote the most prominent books concerning “our” topic. Every author I mentioned above is highly reliable and they are the most quoted when it comes to scientific work (History, Islamic Science etc.) …
Please, forget that stupid “kuffa” term. Nobody (except fundamentalists) are using it. Knowing something about the Islam means to know something about Arabian history. (Again – See: Dhimma, Dhimmis – contracts and state of the “People of the Book” and others etc.) Read a few books from these authors and you might be a little more educated afterwards.
By the way … All of the major three religions (especially Jews and Muslims) have laws against fraud but since we are living in a secular world we are used to rely on secular jurisdictions and courts (except Saudi-Arabia & Iran).
@AR
Thank you for the reading list, I look forward to my education.
In the context of a Muslim affiliate selling schemes such as OneCoin to members of the Muslim community, would you say there would be any sense of duty of care based on shared faith, or are they simply seen as a ready made Rolodex of potential downlines?
Depends on how “devout” they are, and how much do they weigh the words of their imam or local leader.
Look up the following terms:
riba al-fadl (exchange of goods of same type but different qty)
riba al-nasi’ah (deferred payment of larger amount at later time)
gharar (ambiguous transaction)
Fatwa 42579 by Standing Committee of Islam of Saudi Arabia
If you combine them, they prohibit Muslims from participating ANY sort of network marketing, much less their illegal cousins like OneCoin.
this video of Kari makes it so obvious that OneCoin is a Ponzi scheme….
facebook.com/100003566896970/videos/777052202423669/
Basic theme, “don’t sell your coins, but buy more. Don’t sell to people who want to sell quickly. Don’t talk to people who ask questions. ”
@tmfp
A good Muslim – someone who is not a fanatic – should not participate in things like OC because it’s a highly questionable business model that obviously smells like fraud. A devout Muslim should also warn his or her friends as well.
For me, OC is like gambling and that’s something that you shouldn’t do as a Muslim (it’s not directly forbidden but the Holy Book warns you to gamble, because of the negative consequences that it can have).
Furthermore, benefitting from other affiliates money could be seen as a kind of an interest business and that’s really something that’s forbidden in Islam.
@ K. Chang
You are almost right but leave out the Fatwah thing because it doesn’t concern most Muslims anymore (especially the ones out of Saudi Arabia).
Saudi Arabia are Wahabite Muslims. Sunni Muslims from Palestine, Syria, Libanon, Jordan & Egypt follow different law schools and therefore they rely only on what comes out from the Al-Azhar University.
at 02:18 in the video McMurrain states that because of the Queen’s Birthday 6,000 Chinese did not get their visas approved … WTF?
legally speaking imi shah is on very shaky ground, as the onecoin/onelife, IMA [independent marketing associate] agreement pretty much ties him up and dumps him in the deep sea.
regarding refund of his ‘initial investment’, that’s impossible, as onecoin/onelife sold him an ‘educational package’ which he accessed on his computer. so bye bye money.
refund on ‘educational packages’ are allowed only for 15 days, if an IMA withdraws his application and has not accessed the products:
regarding commissions and onecoins still in the IMA account:
not only is imi shah not eligible for a refund, due to cancellation of his IMA agreement [by the company in a disciplinary action] as he has accessed the product, he stands to lose all the ‘benefits’ and ‘payments’ he has received.
‘payments’ would mean commissions earned via recruitment. it is not clear whether imi shah only forgoes commissions lying in his onecoin/onelife account, or whether the company expects him to repay all commission he has received.
though it is not expressly mentioned i think ‘benefits’ will include the FREE tokens imi shah received with his ‘education package’.
rujamama gave him free tokens, and provided him free mining services, and let him use her private coin exchange so that he could practice cryptocurrency trading for free, and convert his free coins to hard cash! such is her love for him!
and imi shah took advantage of this fat little mama and thought he could ‘benefit’ for free at her expense! if he’s leaving, he better well leave all these free ‘benefits’ behind.
rujamama’s crypotocurrency is her own private ownership. if you give her money for ‘educational packages’ she will lend some tokens/coins to you to play with. if you bring her lots of money by recruiting, she will let you fake trade some coins on her exchange for cash, to make you ‘feel good’ and run around recruiting more.
but, if you go against her, you lose everything!
what else did imi shah expect from a centrally controlled FAKE cryptocurrency and its fraudster owner? what is he crying for?
imi shah is a fraudster himself, joining one pyramid/ponzi scam after the other, and he deserves what he’s getting from his partner in crime ruja.
when recruitment starts slowing in one pyramid/ponzi scam, these imi shah types quickly migrate to another scam to suck up money from suckers again.
the only good thing about imi shah’s video is that other onecoiners may start dissenting and leaving, and give ruja and her scam some bad publicity from within.
If that ponzi pimp want the real justice, he should prepare for jail.
Apparently this OneTablet thing can be purchased from OneCoin using OneCoins.
If you’re logged in as a OneCoin affiliate and add it to your cart, OneLife give you the option of paying with 1160 OneCoins. I haven’t seen a screenshot yet though so I can’t 100% confirm.
$620 in real money or $8178 in OneCoin’s monopoly money, for a pretty ordinary looking no-name brand tablet.
Yeah no I’m sure third-party merchants can’t wait to sign up…
Until I see the specs I can’t tell you what it’s REALLY worth. Anybody?
onelife.eu/en/onetablet
so, ruja doesn’t believe in the arbitrary value she has given to her onecoin herself!
drat.
at the current onecoin rate of approx 6.25$, onecoiners should be paying with only approx 100 coins. instead they have to part with approx 1300 onecoins!
and, these poor onecoiners are falling over themselves in glee, because they believe their coins have become approx 12 times more in value since its launch. what a bunch of idiots!
Petteri Järvinen, of finland, is an M.Sc in computer science and familiar with cryptocurrencies. he has been reporting on the onecoin scam quite regularly.
he has posted a new article raising questions about the authenticity of onecoin as a cryptocurrency, following the june 11 glam event in london.
i am posting a few points he has raised here, and the rest of the article can be read in the link below:
pjarvinen.blogspot.in/2016/06/onecoin-open-questions.html
instead of running around singing ‘we love our mummy ruja! we love her onecoin!’, onecoiners should calm down and answer such queries from the crypto world.
120 billion coins mined in 3 years
How many is that per day.
So I guess in 2 years she will double or triple the max amount of coins to be mined.
in a state of the nation call published yesterday, ruja said that on oct 1, 2016, when the member coins are doubled, she expects the ‘value’ of the coin to remain the same, as with the opening of the merchant platform, the ‘potential’ of the coin will become very high, thus maintaining the price.
so merely the promise of a merchant program is enough to double the ‘value’ of her onecoin, without being either publicly traded or having a single merchant on board! this is cryptocurrency gobbledy gook at its weirdest!
as a commentator on onecoins official facebook page has succinctly pointed out:
good one dan!
strangely, the new websites onelife.eu and oneacademy.eu do not mention the ‘free tokens’ [for mining/trading onecoins at onecoin.eu], at all.
wonder what legal ‘technical’ trickery rujamama is up to, with this purposeful avoidance of the mention of ‘free tokens’ which are attached to the ‘educational packages’!!
The logic is that affiliates are pushing the tokens hard enough that OneCoin itself doesn’t need to mention it anymore.
Notice the affiliate packages have been removed from the OneCoin website too.
Markus Panomies Persson, a onecoin critic, has posted some interesting points about the value and demand of onecoins, following the announcements of the june 11, 2016 event in london:
c’mon onecoiners! with all the cryptocurrency ‘education’ you have received from rujamama’s oneacademy, you should take a shot at these questions. prove your ‘education’!
@Oz
it’s 1160 Onecoins for the tablet:
hpics.li/847d275
lol
Taking in consideration each Onecoin “value” is hpics.li/b0c77cf
Tablet costs: 7236€
Thanks for that uniteam, much appreciated!
Can’t say they were not warned. People read things and think. This can’t happen to me. This isn’t true ..lol .. They were told this happened last year.
Another example to support the allegation.
We are all familiar with OneCoin fake whistleblower Angelina Lazar who has dubbed herself “Inspector Lazar”.
In the link I’m providing, you will find her congratulating Imi Shah and referring to Coinspace as a ‘real cryptocurrency’.
murobbs.muropaketti.com/posts/1717118889/
Post #8082
I guess Lazar didn’t learn her lesson, or is just a con artist like the others. The latter seems more fitting given her recruitment history and reports of scamming found on the Internet.
Coinspace is Shah’s new ponzi per Oz article and Shah’s recent promotional videos etc..
Welcome to the world of MLM Tim. I think you got it figured out in your quote. They are, without a doubt, one big gang of thieves.
More ACCOUNTS SEIZED! MORE PROOF “CRYPTOCURRENCY ASSETS” CAN BE STOLEN AT ANY TIME!
facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153539111902282&set=pcb.10153539119312282&type=3&theater
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facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153539115552282&set=pcb.10153539119312282&type=3&theater
J Ryan Connely reached out to Ken Labine with questions:
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Dear Editor,
I reject your comment ‘Imran Shah is currently promoting CoinSpace, another centrally-controlled Ponzi points MLM business.’
COINSPACE LTD, IS A (Ozedit: a Ponzi scheme. Take your spam and fuck right off.)
@Leo
Feel free to explain how using newly invested funds to pay off existing investors isn’t a Ponzi scheme.
Otherwise don’t even think about trying to market your garbage on here again.