There have been massive setbacks for traders who put their faith and money in a Bitcoin trading fund called ‘Xmas Promo.’ LEON a.k.a. @hitsXBT, the trader behind the fund seems to have successfully pulled off an exit scam, but not before deactivating his Twitter along with all secret Telegram chats with investors.
Investors were promised the yields from the Xmas Promo pool today, Dec 23 at 15:30 UTC. Instead, all they are left with now is the defunct social media accounts of the scammer with seemingly no apparent way to get back their investments, let alone the profits that were promised.
Twitter user @stealthbomber21 broke the news about the exit scam earlier today shortly after the perpetrator went missing in action.
ATTENTION@hitsXBT, formerly known as LEON, has exit scammed his BITMEX $BTC fund.
He had promised to send out his fund's "Xmas promo" profits by 15:30 UTC today.
No profits were sent. He has deleted all his TG secret chats and changed his account to this as a parting joke. pic.twitter.com/478I8dmPxQ
— stealthbomber10 (@stealthbomber21) December 22, 2019
A Bitcoin Scam With Obvious Red Flags
The premise of LEON’s Xmas Promo pool was simple. He asked investors to send him their bitcoins which he would lock up in his private wallet for a pre-specified period. He promised investors that he would trade with their bitcoins and return them the profit as per the agreed period. In return, LEON would take a small cut for his commission.
Not only that, but LEON also baited small-time investors by promising them instant 300% returns on their deposits.
LEON explained the scheme by stating that he was taking a hefty cut from the deposits of whales and redistributing the amount among those with low deposits. Anybody depositing five BTC or more were categorized as ‘whales’ as per the Xmas Promo rule.
Worth noting here is that several users on the cryptocurrency side of Twitter had warned investors that the scheme had all the ingredients of an exit scam. LEON, who claimed to be a millionaire with a big Bitcoin stash, was called out on several occasions. Eventually, he made his Twitter account private, presumably to avoid any public conversations that could potentially discourage some of his clients/victims.
@hitsXBT "Multimillionaire" contacted me for an advertising job, I was thinking his "trading fund" and that was already a red flag, but wanted to play fool and see where he wanted to go and if he was legit or no. Telling me to speak in a private chat was the 2nd red flag pic.twitter.com/Epo847YA3C
— Walter Wyckoff (@walter_wyckoff) December 12, 2019
As it turns out, despite the tell-tale signs of a possible scam, a large number of investors were successfully lured into the Xmas Promo pool.
Telegram Support Group for Those Affected
The exact number of victims is not currently known, although speculations are rife that LEON might have been able to get his hands on enough bitcoins that reach a total value of approximately several hundred thousands of dollars. According to some, the Xmas Promo pool had hundreds of BTC in deposits, although BeInCrypto is yet to independently verify those claims.
The screenshots are in the chat history I uploaded to the dropbox link in the thread.
I personally know one victim who lost 100 btc alone.
— stealthbomber10 (@stealthbomber21) December 23, 2019
Meanwhile, a Telegram group has been set up for the victims of the scam to get together and coordinate to raise a campaign to get their deposits back.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Trading View and Twitter.
