Snowfall Protocol scam
I’ve been scammed out of US$100 thanks to unsuccessfully punting on the Snowfall Protocol crypto pre-release.
It was just a punt and I’m not really worried about the money, but the scam itself is disturbing.
I will correct this article if I’m proved wrong in the next few days, but as things currently stand, Snowfall (SNW) is definitely a scam.
I forget how I found them, but unluckily I stumbled across their website and started doing some basic research.
That involved reading their website, searching on Google and checking “news” stories. Admittedly I should have done a lot more research, including a deep dive into the crappy whitepaper.
Their premise is attractive: “At Snowfall we believe in a multi-chain future and want to simplify the process for communication between blockchains. Our aim is to remove technical barriers and allow every user the same ability to engage within their favourite projects.”
I sent them $100 to purchase 500 tokens at 20 cents each. The appeal of the pre-release was a bonus doubling of the initial buy, giving me 1000 overall. Snowfall Protocol was tipped to launch on the market at 22 cents.
An easy $120 upfront, right?
Wrong. Last I checked, Snowfall Protocol was trading at $0.0005230.
Okay, I’m red-faced and out of pocket, but I suspect more than 5000 others are much worse off.
The sophistication of the scam includes:
- Professional-looking and functional websites
- Individuals named as being associated with the project (probably made up or stolen identities)
- Twitter accounts offering “support” that are much older than the project itself and unrelated, probably created for a previous scam.
Crypto has its place in the modern economy but it’s like the wild west right now and there needs to be greater regulation.
The other point I want to make is that Google aids and abets criminal activity by allowing fake news to run rife.
A Google News search for Snowfall Protocol brings up dozens of so-called “news” stories from disreputable, dodgy-looking sites that appear designed to hype shitcoins.
The article shown here has a disclaimer that it’s sponsored content, which should be a red flag if anyone notices that.
Google should not allow sponsored content to show up in its news search results.
I don’t have a problem with media statements and aggregators appearing in Google News; people can make up their own minds about an article if they know the source.
What’s happened with Snowfall Protocol is they obviously bought placements with dodgy crypto news sites and Google has promoted these with high rankings in its news search.
It creates an impression there’s a buzz around the project, which is not the reality.
Google needs to develop a system that prohibits scammers from using its platform to manipulate others, deceive and steal.
The lessons to be learnt from this include:
- If it looks too good to be true, it isn’t;
- Don’t trust Google;
- Do thorough due diligence on every investment, no matter how small.