- Joined
- Jun 3, 2018
Note: There's a ton of new info that's currently unfolding with this situation, and I myself am unfamiliar with the world of cryptocurrencies and such, so sorry if any of the condensed info here ends up being misleading or incorrect. I'm mainly trying to gather whatever info is readily available to get a thread started, as I intend to make this into a Trashfire thread for Internet Famous (or at the very least, a separate Off-Topic thread in The Bidness).
Credit to @Stasi, @albert chan, and anyone else who brought up the topic earlier in this thread.
A Brief Intro for Dummies
If you're already well familiar with our culture's current fixation for investing in cryptocurrencies, then skip over this introduction. For anyone else outside of the loop, think of this modern craze like that of the California Gold Rush: Thousands upon thousands of people rushing head-first into "mining mania" with the sole prospect of striking it rich. While today, there are those who succeeded through pure knowledge and expertise (or through sheer dumb luck), there are also those who, like in the 1800's, have made it their business to intentionally scam others through lies and deception.
Many of these modern day charlatans come to us in the form of influencers — Popular models, entertainers, and e-celebs that get paid to promote products to their massive online followings. What's notable about these professional shills is how lately, many have been involved in shilling cryptocurrencies that end up swindling their followers. These "pump and dump" schemes are quite simple: The influencer hypes up a new crypto coin, and fans blindly invest with the hopes of doubling the money they put down. The influencers and/or creators behind the coin knowingly use the hype to artificially inflate the coin's value, only to then cash out before the coin's value falls and becomes worthless. Due to the popularity of crypto massively exploding within the past couple years and governments being far too slow to implement regulations, these coin scams have been able to flourish far more frequently without the law stepping in.
Now normally, this is where the topic should end: Another scam comes and goes, the influencers make off with the dough, and all the suckers reap what they sow. There are numerous examples out there, including the likes of Kim Kardashian promoting "EthereumMax", Logan Paul promoting "Dink Donk", and some douche named Adin Ross promoting "Milf Token." Adin in particular would brag about how he was paid to promote an obvious crypto scam and later laughed at his followers for being dumb enough to buy into it. So that should give you an idea of the caliber of these influencers.
Based on the aforementioned examples, you would assume that this thread's subject isn't all that unique. However, upon a bit of investigating, this scam has been revealed to be far more egregious with just how low influencers will go to make some extra cash on the side.
FaZe Clan Saves the Kids™
FaZe Clan, a professional esports team representing popular gamers and entertainers, had a handful of its members promoting a new crypto coin called "Save the Kids." The pitch was simple: Fans invest in the coin with portions of the funds going to an unspecified charity organization that helps out children... somehow?
Here, why don't we have the boys themselves tell you all about this wonderful new opportunity:
Immediately, one of the first red flags you may notice is that none other than Bryan Quang Le, aka Ricegum, makes an appearance. For those unaware, this was the same guy who promoted an incredibly shady gambling website to his child fanbase where you would pay small sums of money for the 0.0001% chance to receive a random luxury good worth thousands of dollars. When called out, the coward resorted to snitching on other influencers for having also promoted the scam. Surprisingly, Ricegum would not end up as the worst member to come out of this soon-to-be scandal, though sadly, this won't be the last time you hear him get mentioned.
The video above, along with numerous promotional tweets from the FaZe Clan members and the coin's own website, would suddenly be deleted after some time had passed. As expected, this came after the pump and dump scheme ran its course, and the people behind the scenes attempted to cover their tracks. However, the group had not anticipated that a pair of amateur detectives would end up being right on their tale to uncover the truth behind this scheme.
Most of the surviving info comes to us from a guy known as Coffeezilla on YouTube, who covers stories involving phony gurus, deceptive businesses, and of course, crypto scammers. Here was his initial video where he first talked about the FaZe members' involvement in this obvious pump and dump scheme:
Along with a video from Mutahar, aka SomeOrdinaryGamers, who also shed some light on the situation:
Once the story was out there, many of the FaZe members involved would try and go into total damage control mode. FaZe Kay in particular claimed that he was in fact very naive to have promoted this amazing investment opportunity to his fanbase, and is very, very sorry for being a big dummy that betrayed his fans' trust:
archive.ph
While some of these poor fools blindly lapped up his excuses, thankfully, the majority of people saw right through his complete and utter bullshit. Coffeezilla himself called Kay out on this, proving that Kay (and others) had intentionally mislead fans based on the transactions found within his crypto wallet:
archive.ph
This proof came in the form of a subsequent video from Coffee, which took a deep-dive into the Save the Kids rabbit hole to figure out just who was behind this scam:
I recommend watching the video in its entirety, but for those who want a short summary:
Compared to the initial video on the subject, the second video went viral instantaneously. The story spread like wildfire, and it wouldn't be long before the situation would further escalate beyond everyone's expectations.
The Subsequent Fallout
After the video was posted, FaZe Clan would put out a public statement on July 1st in regards to the scandal. Rather than stand by their members and try to back them up, the company instead suspended three of them*, while FaZe Kay would be completely removed from the organization. Supposedly, FaZe Clan was not involved nor fully aware of these coins being shilled, as this was a side hustle being performed by the individual members outside of the organization.
Fuck off fatty
*It's worth noting that both Mutahar and Coffee believe FaZe Teeqo may be innocent, as upon further digging, they uncovered that he did not sell off his Save the Kid tokens like the other members hastily sold off theirs.
archive.ph
The link to Teeqo's wallet:
https://bscscan.com/token/0x7acf499...?a=0x04Bf063811D68944DB8ABA0083ba8928076e58FB / https://archive.ph/fGXaI
Around the time FaZe Clan made their announcement, Bryan would comment on a livestream about how he was close with the members involved in the scandal, and that he knows a thing or two about scamming:
Bryan also gloated about how he had 0 involvement in the scandal beyond his initial tweet, and that his lawyer advised him to "watch more 6ix9ine videos" in order to shift blame onto the other members involved:
The yellow-bellied coward takes pride in snitching just to save his own skin.
About a week later, Kay would put out a two minute """apology""" video to address the scandal. Rather than own up to his mistakes, or even attempt to say sorry once, he instead opts to portray himself as both the victim and the hero who would unmask the true Machiavellian mastermind behind this scheme! What an upstanding guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_o77pHsGiM / https://archive.ph/tz2Rb
Mutahar, like Coffee, would put out his own deep-dive follow up video on the situation with some further developments:
Some notable takeaways involved him interviewing a few FaZe Clan members who weren't involved in the scandal, yet were involved in other types of crypto dealings; how Sam Pepper of all people (a former prankster who was widely denounced for his infamous 'Killing My Best Friend' prank) is currently an influential figure tied to many of these new coins popping up; how promoters for these pump and dump schemes gave away free crypto, only for said winners of these giveaways to all be connected based off their wallet transaction history overlapping; and arguably worst of all, how the token itself had been modeled after an actual humanitarian charity known as "Save the Children" (Archive), in a clear effort to deceive unsuspecting investors regarding the token's legitimacy.
^The one with hearts is the knockoff
FaZe Clan is currently looking to have Coffee and Muta, or at least another third party, perform an audit to prove that the organization had no affiliation with the scam. They're ultimately trying to distance themselves from all of the members involved in Save the Kids, as its helped to tarnish the brand's reputation.
Finally, as far as where we're currently left in this situation, remember how I mentioned that Ricegum somehow wasn't the worst person involved? For those of you paying attention, Kay ended up being the scummiest and most suspicious member involved after sending Coffee a cease and desist letter, demanding that Coffee takes down the defamatory videos or else he'll sue him in court:
archive.ph
It's unlikely that a lolsuit will ever come from this, though we'll have to keep watching as Kay continues to dig his own grave. Only time will tell if the members involved face any actual repercussions, or if the mysterious individuals behind these scams ever gets revealed.
UPDATE (7/27/21):
Coffee put out a new video, alleging that Sam Pepper and Kay were both behind Save the Kids Token. Both of them are trying to throw each other under the bus in order to avoid all responsibility, with Sam supposedly fleeing the country to go back to the UK.
Credit to @Stasi, @albert chan, and anyone else who brought up the topic earlier in this thread.
A Brief Intro for Dummies
If you're already well familiar with our culture's current fixation for investing in cryptocurrencies, then skip over this introduction. For anyone else outside of the loop, think of this modern craze like that of the California Gold Rush: Thousands upon thousands of people rushing head-first into "mining mania" with the sole prospect of striking it rich. While today, there are those who succeeded through pure knowledge and expertise (or through sheer dumb luck), there are also those who, like in the 1800's, have made it their business to intentionally scam others through lies and deception.
Many of these modern day charlatans come to us in the form of influencers — Popular models, entertainers, and e-celebs that get paid to promote products to their massive online followings. What's notable about these professional shills is how lately, many have been involved in shilling cryptocurrencies that end up swindling their followers. These "pump and dump" schemes are quite simple: The influencer hypes up a new crypto coin, and fans blindly invest with the hopes of doubling the money they put down. The influencers and/or creators behind the coin knowingly use the hype to artificially inflate the coin's value, only to then cash out before the coin's value falls and becomes worthless. Due to the popularity of crypto massively exploding within the past couple years and governments being far too slow to implement regulations, these coin scams have been able to flourish far more frequently without the law stepping in.
Now normally, this is where the topic should end: Another scam comes and goes, the influencers make off with the dough, and all the suckers reap what they sow. There are numerous examples out there, including the likes of Kim Kardashian promoting "EthereumMax", Logan Paul promoting "Dink Donk", and some douche named Adin Ross promoting "Milf Token." Adin in particular would brag about how he was paid to promote an obvious crypto scam and later laughed at his followers for being dumb enough to buy into it. So that should give you an idea of the caliber of these influencers.
Based on the aforementioned examples, you would assume that this thread's subject isn't all that unique. However, upon a bit of investigating, this scam has been revealed to be far more egregious with just how low influencers will go to make some extra cash on the side.
FaZe Clan Saves the Kids™
FaZe Clan, a professional esports team representing popular gamers and entertainers, had a handful of its members promoting a new crypto coin called "Save the Kids." The pitch was simple: Fans invest in the coin with portions of the funds going to an unspecified charity organization that helps out children... somehow?
Here, why don't we have the boys themselves tell you all about this wonderful new opportunity:
Immediately, one of the first red flags you may notice is that none other than Bryan Quang Le, aka Ricegum, makes an appearance. For those unaware, this was the same guy who promoted an incredibly shady gambling website to his child fanbase where you would pay small sums of money for the 0.0001% chance to receive a random luxury good worth thousands of dollars. When called out, the coward resorted to snitching on other influencers for having also promoted the scam. Surprisingly, Ricegum would not end up as the worst member to come out of this soon-to-be scandal, though sadly, this won't be the last time you hear him get mentioned.
The video above, along with numerous promotional tweets from the FaZe Clan members and the coin's own website, would suddenly be deleted after some time had passed. As expected, this came after the pump and dump scheme ran its course, and the people behind the scenes attempted to cover their tracks. However, the group had not anticipated that a pair of amateur detectives would end up being right on their tale to uncover the truth behind this scheme.
Most of the surviving info comes to us from a guy known as Coffeezilla on YouTube, who covers stories involving phony gurus, deceptive businesses, and of course, crypto scammers. Here was his initial video where he first talked about the FaZe members' involvement in this obvious pump and dump scheme:
Along with a video from Mutahar, aka SomeOrdinaryGamers, who also shed some light on the situation:
Once the story was out there, many of the FaZe members involved would try and go into total damage control mode. FaZe Kay in particular claimed that he was in fact very naive to have promoted this amazing investment opportunity to his fanbase, and is very, very sorry for being a big dummy that betrayed his fans' trust:
Kay on Twitter: "I want you all to know that I had no ill intent prom…
archived 14 Jul 2021 02:52:44 UTC
While some of these poor fools blindly lapped up his excuses, thankfully, the majority of people saw right through his complete and utter bullshit. Coffeezilla himself called Kay out on this, proving that Kay (and others) had intentionally mislead fans based on the transactions found within his crypto wallet:
Coffeezilla on Twitter: "I found Faze Kay's crypto wallet, and this i…
archived 14 Jul 2021 06:06:12 UTC
This proof came in the form of a subsequent video from Coffee, which took a deep-dive into the Save the Kids rabbit hole to figure out just who was behind this scam:
I recommend watching the video in its entirety, but for those who want a short summary:
He interviews a guy who claimed to be some random coder that got asked to work on the project. The guy he interviews gives him some pretty misleading info, so Coffee begins to question if the guy has more involvement than he's letting on. A pseudonym is thrown around, with claims that said individual had ties to FaZe and was responsible for setting up the token, though members of FaZe claim to have no idea who this individual is. While there may not be a clear perpetrator to identify right away, Coffee does reveal how members like FaZe Kay knowingly sold off their Save the Kids coins prior to its value becoming worthless, which ran completely contrary to his excuse of being a naive fool who got suckered into this mess. And to make matters even worse, the guys had done this exact pump and dump scheme with many other coins as well.
Compared to the initial video on the subject, the second video went viral instantaneously. The story spread like wildfire, and it wouldn't be long before the situation would further escalate beyond everyone's expectations.
The Subsequent Fallout
After the video was posted, FaZe Clan would put out a public statement on July 1st in regards to the scandal. Rather than stand by their members and try to back them up, the company instead suspended three of them*, while FaZe Kay would be completely removed from the organization. Supposedly, FaZe Clan was not involved nor fully aware of these coins being shilled, as this was a side hustle being performed by the individual members outside of the organization.
Fuck off fatty
*It's worth noting that both Mutahar and Coffee believe FaZe Teeqo may be innocent, as upon further digging, they uncovered that he did not sell off his Save the Kid tokens like the other members hastily sold off theirs.
Coffeezilla on Twitter: "About to release a massive follow-up to #Sav…
archived 14 Jul 2021 06:16:52 UTC
The link to Teeqo's wallet:
https://bscscan.com/token/0x7acf499...?a=0x04Bf063811D68944DB8ABA0083ba8928076e58FB / https://archive.ph/fGXaI
Around the time FaZe Clan made their announcement, Bryan would comment on a livestream about how he was close with the members involved in the scandal, and that he knows a thing or two about scamming:
Bryan also gloated about how he had 0 involvement in the scandal beyond his initial tweet, and that his lawyer advised him to "watch more 6ix9ine videos" in order to shift blame onto the other members involved:
The yellow-bellied coward takes pride in snitching just to save his own skin.
About a week later, Kay would put out a two minute """apology""" video to address the scandal. Rather than own up to his mistakes, or even attempt to say sorry once, he instead opts to portray himself as both the victim and the hero who would unmask the true Machiavellian mastermind behind this scheme! What an upstanding guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_o77pHsGiM / https://archive.ph/tz2Rb
Mutahar, like Coffee, would put out his own deep-dive follow up video on the situation with some further developments:
Some notable takeaways involved him interviewing a few FaZe Clan members who weren't involved in the scandal, yet were involved in other types of crypto dealings; how Sam Pepper of all people (a former prankster who was widely denounced for his infamous 'Killing My Best Friend' prank) is currently an influential figure tied to many of these new coins popping up; how promoters for these pump and dump schemes gave away free crypto, only for said winners of these giveaways to all be connected based off their wallet transaction history overlapping; and arguably worst of all, how the token itself had been modeled after an actual humanitarian charity known as "Save the Children" (Archive), in a clear effort to deceive unsuspecting investors regarding the token's legitimacy.
^The one with hearts is the knockoff
FaZe Clan is currently looking to have Coffee and Muta, or at least another third party, perform an audit to prove that the organization had no affiliation with the scam. They're ultimately trying to distance themselves from all of the members involved in Save the Kids, as its helped to tarnish the brand's reputation.
Finally, as far as where we're currently left in this situation, remember how I mentioned that Ricegum somehow wasn't the worst person involved? For those of you paying attention, Kay ended up being the scummiest and most suspicious member involved after sending Coffee a cease and desist letter, demanding that Coffee takes down the defamatory videos or else he'll sue him in court:
Coffeezilla on Twitter: "BREAKING: @FrazierKay sent me a cease and de…
archived 14 Jul 2021 02:40:39 UTC
It's unlikely that a lolsuit will ever come from this, though we'll have to keep watching as Kay continues to dig his own grave. Only time will tell if the members involved face any actual repercussions, or if the mysterious individuals behind these scams ever gets revealed.
UPDATE (7/27/21):
Coffee put out a new video, alleging that Sam Pepper and Kay were both behind Save the Kids Token. Both of them are trying to throw each other under the bus in order to avoid all responsibility, with Sam supposedly fleeing the country to go back to the UK.
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