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<ul><li><strong>A group of YouTubers dedicated to stopping scam calls has taken on scammers in India.</strong></li><li><strong>The group identified a scam call centre in Kolkata and pranked them.</strong></li><li><strong>The group’s efforts also resulted in the closure of a scam call centre and arrests of those involved.</strong></li></ul>Scam callers are a known menace who prey on the elderly and non-tech-savvy people to steal money from them. It is a known fact that several scam callers <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/india/how-an-army-of-online-criminals-has-turned-india-into-a-call-centre-fraud-haven-10121201.html">operate</a> from India to steal money from people in western countries.<br /><br />Here’s where Mark Rober comes in. Rober is a former NASA engineer and YouTuber who posts videos about the stuff builds on his channel. He is popularly known for his over-engineered packages that he builds to prank people who steal packages from outside houses.<br /><br />After coming across Mrs Bessie, an elderly person who was scammed by a person for $20,000, Rober took it upon himself to get to the bottom of this. While some of the people responsible were arrested in the United States, he found out that those arrested were only low-level mules and the actual scammers were based in India.<br /><br />  <div type="Youtube" id="xsLJZyih3Ac" title="Pranks Destroy Scam Callers- GlitterBomb Payback" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xsLJZyih3Ac/mqdefault.jpg"></div><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="A single scam call centre earns around $18 million per year" comment="subhead" text="A single scam call centre earns around $18 million per year"><span data-til="noop">A single scam call centre earns around $18 million per year</span></cmsannotation><br /><br />  <div type="image" title="Screenshot (127)" msid="91463380" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Document accessed by the group.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />Rober and his team were able to access the documents of a scam call centre’s owner. This revealed that the centre earns over $60,000 per day, which is over $18 million considering that the centre works six days a week.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Team behind the prank" comment="subhead" text="Team behind the prank"><span data-til="noop">Team behind the prank</span></cmsannotation><br />As part of the plan, Rober teamed up with Jim Browning, who has a dedicated channel to take on tech support scams. Trilogy Media, a duo dedicated to busting scammers, were also part of the plan.<br /><br />Once the team was ready, Ashton Bingham and Art Kulik, the duo behind Trilogy Media landed in Kolkata, the city where the alleged scam callers were based. They worked with some of their associates in the city to infiltrate some of the call centres.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Here’s how the prank began" comment="subhead" text="Here’s how the prank began"><span data-til="noop">Here’s how the prank began</span></cmsannotation><br />Jim Browning was able to locate four of the alleged scam call centres in Kolkata – Ansh Info Solutions, VRM Business Services and MET Technologies. The fourth centre has not been named. The group then hired 10 private investigators to apply for jobs at these centres to collect information about them.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Contraptions built by the group" comment="subhead" text="Contraptions built by the group"><span data-til="noop">Contraptions built by the group</span></cmsannotation><br /><br />  <div type="image" title="1" msid="91463409" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The stink bomb bottle.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />The first contraption built by the group was a bottle that had a chamber in which the group placed a military-grade putrescent that induces nausea. Then, they built a custom box that was used to store and release cockroaches at these centres.<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="2" msid="91463439" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The custom-built box that releases cockroaches.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />The group also built a box that released rats and a micro fogger that released smoke in the room. Finally, the team built a glitter bomb that also releases fart spray and is equipped with four cameras.<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="Glitter bomb" msid="91463457" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The Glitter bomb that releases fine glitter and fart spray.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The setback" comment="subhead" text="The setback"><span data-til="noop">The setback</span></cmsannotation><br />Members of Trilogy Media were spotted by some scammers in Kolkata and information about this was shared in a Telegram group that contains over 55,000 scammers from the country. The message further asked members to keep an eye for the duo and shoot them if they are found.<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="TG" msid="91463504" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The telegram group and the messages about Trilogy Media.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />This prompted the duo to stay in their hotels while other members continued with the plan.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The prank begins" comment="subhead" text="The prank begins"><span data-til="noop">The prank begins</span></cmsannotation><br />The contraptions built by the group were smuggled into the call centre by a former scammer. Thanks to Browning, the team already had access to the security feeds at the call centre.<br /><br />The scam began with the team setting off the stink bomb bottle in the office and placing a hand soap with dye was in the bathroom.<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="C" msid="91463514" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The cockroaches released by the box.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />Before the scammers could figure out where the stink was coming from, the box with dozens of cockroaches was released, resulting in a frenzy. While the cockroaches were being removed, the fogger started smoking and the rat box was triggered.<br /><br />The glitter bomb was removed from the office and opened in what looked like the office’s parking space.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The result" comment="subhead" text="The result"><span data-til="noop">The result</span></cmsannotation><br />Once the devices were set off in the scam call centre, the Telegram group received another message that alerted other scammers. This resulted in several scam call centres across Kolkata and Delhi being shut off for several days.<br /><br />Rober revealed that the unnamed fourth scam call centre was raided by the authorities in India and was shut down. Unfortunately, the other three call centres remain open. Rober ends the video with a request to viewers to share the video with the Kolkata Police on Twitter.<br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/hackers-using-seo-to-plant-malicious-pdf-on-search-engines/articleshow/91459859.cms">Cybersecurity researchers uncover a new trick that lets hackers plant malicious PDFs on search engines using SEO</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/10-things-in-tech-insta-crypto-scams/articleshow/91179344.cms">10 Things in Tech: Insta crypto scams</a><br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/policy/news/new-york-couple-part-of-a-plot-to-trick-a-man-into-embezzling-4m-to-save-woman-from-make-believe-mob-enforcer/articleshow/91033439.cms"><strong>New York couple part of a plot to trick a man into embezzling $4m to 'save' woman from make-believe mob enforcer</strong></a><br />

Here's how a group of YouTubers pranked a scam call centre in India that makes $18 million per year

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Have you ever been online when a window pops up&#xa0;saying your computer has&#xa0;a virus and urges you to call Microsoft Support (or maybe Apple Support) at the number provided?<p>That's a support scam, <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/safety/online-privacy/avoid-phone-scams.aspx">Microsoft says,</a> and it's really trying to trick you into downloading malware, or handing over your credit card info&#xa0;- or both.</p><p>And now one telecom programmer professional has come up with a brilliant, and hilarious, way to take these scammers offline, and possibly, put 'em out of business for good.</p><p>Roger Anderson, a telecom consultant and owner of <a href="http://jollyrogertelephone.com/finally-a-realistic-plan-to-stop-unsolicited-telemarketing/">The Jolly Roger Telephone Company</a>, built an army of human-sounding phone bots that stops telemarketers from harassing homes or business. It's not his main gig, he makes his living as a consultant designing telecom systems.</p><p>He built the bot army&#xa0;after a telemarketer called his house and used nasty language with his son, now he sells it as a service to businesses and consumers. When a telemarketer calls, you transfer the call to the bot service and the bot gabs with&#xa0;the telemarketer as long as the telemarketer wants, until the telemarketers&#xa0;figure out they are being played and hang up. It wastes their&#xa0;time so they'll stop calling.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Jolly Roger Telephone" title_caption="Microsoft Support Scam pop-up" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image-960/589b743b3149a162308b4bbd-1195"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span><a href="http://jollyrogertelephone.com/i-am-going-to-eradicate-the-inbound-windows-support-scam/">Jolly Roger Telephone</a></span></p><p class="caption">Microsoft Support Scam pop-up</p></div><p></p></div></div>The bot says things like&#xa0;"yes" or "uh huh" or "I'm listening" and "Oh geez, hang on, there's a bee on my arm. You keep talking. I'm just going to stay quiet because of this bee."<p>Anderson did <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXVJ4JQ3SUw">a hilarious TEDx talk</a> about it in December.</p><p>This&#xa0;week, when his computer&#xa0;stumbled onto one of those support&#xa0;scams, a light bulb went off.</p><p>"I ended up getting a popup saying my computer was infected. I felt invaded. I thought, 'screw that.' Of all the people on planet, I'm probably the only guy that has the tech to make blast phone calls. And I have robots that sound like people convincingly&#xa0;enough&#xa0;to waste time," he told Business Insider.&#xa0;</p><p>Anderson had never used his bot army to make outbound calls, since it "makes him nervous" to think of the evil that could be done if the technology was&#xa0;in the wrong hands.</p><p>So he called the number on the pop-up to make&#xa0;sure it was a scammer's call center. It was. Then he had one of&#xa0;his bots call.&#xa0;The person was fooled enough for the call to last more than five&#xa0;minutes. (He posted <a href="http://jollyrogertelephone.com/i-am-going-to-eradicate-the-inbound-windows-support-scam/">some samples of the calls here</a>. It's like listening to a prank call.)&#xa0;</p><p>Then&#xa0;<span>Anderson</span> unleashed the bot army.</p><p>"I called 100 times on 20 simultaneous channels. They answered, talked to my bots. Then they started to put my bots on hold. Then they started swearing, shouting to each other, about what is going on, I could hear in background. Then I made 500 calls on 20 simultaneous&#xa0;channels to the number. After 300 phone, they disconnected the number," he laughs.</p><p>It took about 15-20 minutes to put them out of business, he said. "I completely annihilated them." Anyone else getting that pop-up with that number will find it out of service.</p><p><span>Anderson</span> wrote <a href="http://jollyrogertelephone.com/i-am-going-to-eradicate-the-inbound-windows-support-scam/">a blog post about it</a> and it went viral on Facebook, Reddit, and Hacker News.</p><p>And now he's thinking of taking this to the next level, he tells Business Insider. That means letting people report Windows support&#xa0;scams to him, figuring out a way to verify the phone number belongs to the scammer, and then blasting them out of business with bots.&#xa0;</p><p>"I am going to eradicate the inbound Windows Support scam," he vowed in post while telling Business Insider. "I personally can put a stop to the Windows pop-up scam.You report a number to me. I've got tools."</p><p>He hasn't yet worked through the details. And he'll be asking for donations to cover the costs, since making hundreds of simultaneous calls to offshore numbers, where the scammers usually operate, will be costly, he says.</p><p>And maybe he'll even take down other phone&#xa0;scams, like the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/scam-phone-calls-continue-irs-identifies-five-easy-ways-to-spot-suspicious-calls">IRS email phishing scam.</a>&#xa0;</p><p>"I guarantee I have more [telephone] ports in my system then they have in theirs. Even if they hang up on a robot, I can congest their call center so their potential victims can't call in."</p><p>Here's&#xa0;<span>Anderson</span> TEDx talk. To hear&#xa0;the bots annoy the telemarketers, skip to 9:21. It's really funny.</p><p>&#xa0;</p><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-we-know-about-apple-iphone-8-2017-1">Here's everything we know about the iPhone 8</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="80bW8xOTE65GsikAS7NUEVtqu0CRttmg" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A programmer came up with a hilarious way to shut down dangerous Windows scammers

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Valerie Bertinelli posed as Elon Musk on Twitter to show flaws in his new verification system. </li><li>After changing her display name, she posted dozens of tweets in support of Democratic candidates. </li></ul><p>Actor Valerie Bertinelli impersonated Elon Musk on Twitter this weekend, posting and retweeting in support of Democratic candidates under the guise to make a point about his newly proposed verification system. </p><p>Bertinelli first changed her name on Saturday, shortly after Twitter rolled out the billionaire's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-rolls-out-elon-musks-blue-check-verification-2022-11">controversial paid-verification system</a>, which requires users to shell out $7.99 a month to receive a blue checkmark.</p><p>Critics have voiced concern that the plan could foster the spread of misinformation by paving the way for impersonators acting as notable politicians, journalists, and celebrities. Several celebrities — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shonda-rhimes-celebrities-leave-twitter-elon-musk-takeover-social-media-2022-10">including Shonda Rhimes and Sara Bareilles</a> — have expressed plans to leave Twitter since Musk took over, citing concern with his leadership.</p><p>"The blue checkmark simply meant your identity was verified," Bertinelli wrote on Twitter after changing her name. "Scammers would have a harder time impersonating you. That no longer applies. Good luck out there!"</p><p>Over the next several hours, the actor posted and retweeted dozens of tweets in support of Democratic candidates ahead of midterm elections Tuesday.</p><p>As "Elon Musk," she posted hashtags like #VoteBlueToProtectYourRights and shared tweets supporting gubernatorial candidates Gretchen Whitmore in Michigan and Beto O'Rourke in Texas, among others. </p><p>As other users pointed out, many of the tweets on their feed appeared as if Musk himself had actually retweeted them. </p><p>The actress, who recently <a href="https://www.insider.com/matthew-perry-valerie-bertinelli-made-out-eddie-van-halen-drunk-2022-10">made news after Matthew Perry claimed</a> in his memoir that the two kissed while her then-husband Eddie Van Halen was passed out drunk next to them, began trending on Twitter on Sunday.</p><p>As buzz over her prank mounted, she opted to change her display name back, writing on Sunday: "Okey-dokey I've had my fun and I think I made my point. I'm just not a 'trending' kind of gal. Never have been, never want to be. Have a safe Sunday everyone! xo"</p>

Valerie Bertinelli 'became' Elon Musk, trolled on Twitter to prove point about blue-check verification system

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p><p class="caption">Elon Musk said Model 3 production nearly killed Tesla.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Monday.</p><ol><li><strong><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-asks-parliament-to-keep-quiet-on-seized-internal-documents-2018-11">British lawmakers seized internal Facebook documents to try and find out what led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal after Mark Zuckerberg refused to answer MPs' questions</a>.</strong> Politician Damian Collins invoked an obscure parliamentary mechanism to compel a the founder of a software company to hand over the papers.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/25/elon-musk-tesla-had-single-digit-weeks-before-it-would-die.html">Elon Musk told Axios that Tesla very nearly died earlier this year</a>.</strong> "Tesla really faced a severe threat of death due to the Model 3 production ramp," Musk said in an interview on Sunday.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scammers-edit-google-maps-bank-listings-fraud-2018-11">Scammers are changing the contact details for banks on Google Maps to defraud people</a>.</strong> The app lets users edit and update listings, so the fraudsters are changing banks' phone numbers to their own.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/black-friday-amazon-workers-protest-poor-working-conditions-2018-11">Thousands of Amazon workers across Europe went on strike on Black Friday over warehouse working conditions</a>.</strong> Strikes took place across in Italy, Spain, France, and Germany, and the Italian press reported that managers were having to pack boxes to meet demand.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-asked-police-in-spain-to-intervene-warehouse-strike-2018-11">Amazon left police in Spain "dumbfounded" by asking them to intervene in a mass warehouse strike and patrol worker productivity</a>.</strong> Spanish newspaper El Confidencial reported that Amazon asked the police to force employees to "go to their respective jobs and ensure their performance was identical to that of a normal working day."</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/25/google-settled-racism-case-from-contractor-treated-like-a-terrorist">Google settled a racial discrimination case with a contractor who was treated like a "terrorist" while having to surreptitiously gather information about WiFi areas in shopping centers</a>.</strong> "There was a complete disregard for the safety and interest of contractors," he told The Guardian.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-wont-say-if-its-cutting-ties-with-elliot-schrage-2018-11">Facebook won't say if it will sever ties with Elliot Schrage, the outgoing top exec who took responsibility for linking critics to George Soros</a>.</strong> Business Insider asked Facebook four times if it will retain Schrage's services after the Definers affair, but the company has refused to answer the question.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-google-portable-mini-mri-see-inside-body-brain-animal-testing-openwater-2018-11">A superstar ex-Facebook and Google exec is trying to upend a $24 billion industry with devices that spot disease sooner, and she's already testing it on animals</a>.</strong> A brush with death inspired ex-Facebook and Google executive Mary Lou Jepsen to embark on her latest initiative as the founder of a San Francisco-based startup called Openwater.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/pay-taxes-with-bitcoin-ohio-says-sure-1543161720?mod=searchresults&amp;page=1&amp;pos=1">Ohio is the first US state to allow people to pay their tax bills with cryptocurrency</a>.</strong> The move doesn't grant Bitcoin any legal status, but it does lend it legitimacy, The Wall Street Journal reports.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cards-against-humanity-launches-ridiculous-99-percent-off-black-friday-sale-2018-11"> Cards Against Humanity is selling used cars, medieval weapons, TVs, and even $100 bills for 99% off on Black Friday</a>.</strong> The company's cofounders have not been shy with their hatred of Black Friday and have pulled off incredibly successful pranks in the past to commemorate the holiday.</li></ol><p>Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cooked-entire-thanksgiving-dinner-using-google-home-hub-2018-11">I tried cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner using Google Home Hub and found there are two major flaws with it</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

10 things in tech you need to know today

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>A German cryptocurrency startup called Savedroid vanished from the web on Wednesday, leaving behind a "South Park" meme which said: "Aannd it's gone."</strong></li><li><strong> Savedroid's founder tweeted out a beachside photo not long after, leading investors to believe that he had absconded with their money.&#xa0;</strong></li><li><strong>Adam Selene, a cryptocurrency journalist, decided to track Selene down using clues from the photo he had tweeted.</strong></li><li><strong>Savedroid's purported scam turned out to be publicity stunt, but Selene says that the company has lost its investors' trust.</strong></li></ul><p>The website of Frankfurt-based cryptocurrency startup <a href="https://www.savedroid.de/">Savedroid,</a> which is said to have raised $50 million in funding from its initial coin offering (ICO) in recent months, went down on Wednesday,<a href="https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/04/19/savedroid-ico-not-gone">&#xa0;leaving only a single cryptic South Park meme in lieu of any actual content:</a></p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>A short while later, the company's founder Yassin Hankir, tweeted out a photo of himself holding a beer on the beach with the words: "Thanks guys! Over and out..."</p><p>Savedroid's defaced website, its empty offices, and its founder's tweet, gave Savedroid's investors reason to believe that they had fallen victim to what has become an increasingly common occurrence in the cryptocurrency world: the dreaded ICO scam, where the creators simply take the money and run.</p><p>Savedroid's stunt felt near-identical to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/post/preview?post_id=5ad8b412066a4c19008b490e&amp;mode=desktop">January's Prodeum debacle</a>, in which cryptocurrency scammers stole the identities of Prodeum's team, then vanished from the internet. Investors learned of their misfortune when they visited the Prodeum website and were greeted with a blank page bearing a single word: "penis."&#xa0;</p><h2>A reporter goes on the hunt</h2><p>Redditors on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/savedroid_ico/">Savedroid's Reddit forum</a> were incensed. One Redditor with the username SpiritualCupcake4 wrote, "They take our money and run...yassin i will find you if you are in egypt i will find you."&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>But one reporter, Adam Selene, who writes for the cryptocurrency site<a href="https://www.savedroid.de/"> Crypto Briefing</a>, decided to take action and investigate. Selene says that once he discovered Hankir's tweet, he decided to hunt down the Savedroid founder, no matter what beachside resort he had holed up in.</p><p>"The media just reports on these things, and they never do anything about it," Selene told Business Insider. "In this occasion, I thought: let's do something about this." First, Selene alerted the police in Frankfurt that Hankir had seemingly vanished with $50 million of his investors' money. However, Selene said the German police were unimpressed.</p><p>"They told me to call back in the morning to talk to a person that deals with the media," he said.&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>From there, Selene decided to take things a step further: First, he scrutinized the beachside photo, and discovered that the beer is an Egyptian brand. With that as the first clue, he scoured Google Maps, and found that the photo was a match for a resort off the Red Sea. He then took to social media to ask local cryptocurrency enthusiasts for help.</p><p>"The goal was to use some of the crypto community's assets to track this chap down," Selene said. "It wasn't easy. Obviously, there's a language barrier."</p><h2>A curious twist in the story - "this is not funny"</h2><p>But by that time, another strange twist in events had taken place: Hankir had uploaded a video, explaining that the purported Savedroid scam was not a scam at all. On the contrary, it was simply a publicity stunt that was meant to illuminate the serious problem of ICO scams within the cryptocurrency community.</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/savedroidAG/status/986873529986625536">&#xa0;In the video</a>, Hankir explains, "So yes, we are still here. We are not gone, actually. Never gone, actually. We will always be here for the Savedroid community in the future."</p><p>Hankir then goes onto apologize for what he describes as a "drastic campaign."</p><p>"This was not meant to do any prank," Hankir says. "This was not meant to do fun of anyone."&#xa0;</p><p>Instead, the message that Hankir was attempting to send was that his cryptocurrency startup, which he calls a "highly-regulated German stock corporation," could blithely run off with its investors' money.&#xa0;</p><h2>His trues motives are a mystery, but some people aren't buying the joke story</h2><p>Selene, for one, was unamused.&#xa0;</p><p>"This is not monopoly money," Selene said.&#xa0; "[Savedroid's investors] are real people. People were panicking on [social media app] Telegram. This is not funny."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Selene said that he was perplexed by Hankir's motivations. Up until this point, Selene said that he had always regarded the German founder as a trustworthy CEO.</p><p>"I can't speculate as to his motives," said Selene, "but I can answer the question of his outcome. The community has lost faith in Savedroid. [Hankir] has betrayed his investors. They entrusted him with $50 million to go out and build a product and that's imploded because of a poorly conceived publicity stunt. What it comes down to is that no one will trust him."</p><p>True to Selene's prediction, the original Savedroid ICO investors seem unamused, with many speculating that Hankir had planned to take the money and run, and only backed down once Selene's investigation started closing in.</p><p>"He realized his face was out there, so easily caught online, and decided to say 'SIKE <em>[sic]</em>, I'm just joking' with a quick cheap video made in 5 minutes to try to stop it," <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/savedroid_ico/comments/8dd6t4/this_was_most_likely_going_to_be_an_exit_scam_a/">reads one Reddit post</a>, in part. "If this is not an exit scam, I hope authorities shut this company down," <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/savedroid_ico/comments/8dc4bw/this_is_probably_a_pr_gag_but_this_kind_of_news/">reads another</a>.</p><p class="tagline"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/bitcoin-101?IR=T&amp;utm_source=businessinsider&amp;utm_medium=ctgr&amp;utm_term=ctgr_leadgen&amp;utm_content=fintech_ctgr_leadgen&amp;utm_campaign=fintech_ctgr_leadgen_bitcoin-101"></a></p><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-gross-sharing-earbuds-2018-4">How gross are your earbuds?</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div></hr>

A cryptocurrency CEO bragged that he ran off with $50 million  - but after a journalist tracked him down in Egypt, he said it was just a joke

<ul class="summary-list"><li>TikTok erupted over SkeletonGate — a dispute between a small seller and a customer.</li><li>Desire Westphal was sent posters of skeletons instead of a birthing gown — and loudly called the company out.</li></ul><p>As an online seller with her own business, Caitlyn Schollmeier is used to packages going missing, or getting damaged in transit.</p><p>But when a customer received two posters of skeletons instead of the birth gown she'd ordered from Schollmeier's maternity brand, she was baffled.</p><p>"It was really weird," Schollmeier told Insider. "We don't sell anything like that."</p><p>She said at first she wondered if it was a prank or a joke, "because it just didn't really make any sense."</p><p>The strange parcel mix-up resulted in a back and forth with Schollmeier and her customer, Desire Westphal, on TikTok, which became a viral spectacle attracting millions of views.</p><p>It took on a life of its own — and became knowns as SkeletonGate — as people shared their own theories and took sides in the dispute.</p><p>Westphal posted the first TikTok showing herself opening the parcel on September 12, asking her viewers: "Did I just get scammed?"</p><p>In the video, she tears open the suspiciously small package to find two tubes. Both of them contained A4-sized, black and white posters of skeletons.</p><p>"I'm very confused right now," Westphal said, showing the camera the label which seemed to match Schollmeier's company, Lila.</p><p>"I'm really confused why they sent me pictures of skeletons."</p> <p>Schollmeier said she became aware of Westphal's strange situation through people tagging her on the video.</p><p>Schollmeier is training to be a midwife and mostly posts childbirth and maternity content on her page.</p><p>"I've just built this beautiful community of people who just want to learn about childbirth," she said. "So it was very much a very rude awakening to be all of a sudden getting all these hate comments, not knowing where they're coming from."</p><p>She told Insider her team then tried contacting Westphal to sort it out, calling four times in total.</p><p>The operations manager eventually spoke with Westphal, Schollmeier said, and agreed to send a new gown for free, plus a swaddle.</p><p>"That seemed to be a good resolution to him," Schollmeier said of her colleague.</p><p>Schollmeier thought this was the end of it, but then Westphal posted another video on September 13. She said the brand gave her "sketchy vibes" and accused them of "blowing up" her phone trying to contact her.</p><p>Westphal said she would have preferred the company emailed her, but "they kept calling" with multiple different phone numbers. She also said the operations manager who called was "rude and unprofessional" when he questioned why she had posted a TikTok about the order.</p><p>"The attitude is crazy and so uncalled for because you're the one that messed up, not me," she said. Westphal didn't respond to Insider's attempts to contact her.</p><p>In the video criticizing Lila, she said she wouldn't recommend the company to her 700,000 followers.</p> <p>Schollmeier said she found this response surprising and "not entirely honest" because Westphal posted the second TikTok after she agreed to resolve the dispute by taking the second delivery.</p><p>"It's like, well, you are getting hundreds of thousands of views on this video that's pretty damaging," she said. "Tagging my personal page, sending a lot of pain over here, yeah, we're probably going to want to call you."</p><p>Schollmeier decided to respond with her own TikToks, which she now admits were "a little emotional" because she felt "backed into a corner".</p><p>"I think it was just because it was something that had kind of blindsided me a little bit, and I was frustrated," she said.</p><p>Schollmeier started Lila Maternity two days before her twin boys were born. She had made a gown to wear during labor, and was getting inundated with requests from other moms who wanted one too.</p><p>"It's taken a lot of time and energy to make it into what it is today," she said. She described living in a trailer, packing gowns in shifts with her husband while they juggled caring for the baby boys.</p><p>In Schollmeier's video, she floated two separate theories for what happened — though without evidence for either.</p><p>She suggested Westphal may have switched the packages herself to make content for TikTok. She also said she had doubts about a person on her own team.</p><p>She said she later regretted jumping to that conclusion, and took her videos down. But her response had already upset Westphal who made several more TikToks, including one where she showed the doorbell camera footage of her package being delivered.</p><p>"So instead of just taking accountability that your new hire potentially could have done this, you're going to call a customer a scammer," Westphal said. "It sounds so silly, that doesn't make sense."</p><p>Schollmeier said she didn't watch any more of Westphal's videos because she wanted to distance herself from it after that, but hoped the second pacakge would end the matter.</p><p>"I didn't appreciate the way that she handled it. I'm sure she didn't appreciate the way that we handled it," she said. "I do think that there's definitely a higher standard for how a company or a business owner should respond, and I didn't meet that mark."</p><p>She added she thinks Westphal could have handled the situation differently too, and it "didn't have to turn into the issue it did."</p><p>Westphal also included Schollmeier's phone number in one of the TikToks, she said, which led to harassment.</p><p>"It was just really terrible," Schollmeier said. "It's just all so malicious and just so unnecessary."</p><p>Schollmeier said she's seen TikTok justice in action, and appreciates its power when it comes to, say, an airline unfairly booting a customer off a plane, or someone getting called out for harmful behavior.</p><p>"But this was a situation that just wasn't that at all," she said. "Because by the time that I even posted my very first video, it was already fixed. She had already gotten what she wanted, and it was within probably two hours of when she sent us an email."</p><p>The comments on Westphal and Schollmeier's videos were full of people adding fuel to the disagreement, taking sides, and calling both women unprofessional.</p><p>Schollmeier said that it wasn't all bad though.</p><p>"Surprisingly, even with all of it, I did actually gain followers," she said. "And we had a little uptick in sales, weirdly enough."</p><p>But her conclusion was that it would have been better not to post at all, settling the dispute in private then waiting for it to pass.</p><p>"Maybe people didn't follow the whole thing or they didn't understand both sides. That's fine. They don't have to," she said. "I'm just going to let it blow over."</p>

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