How to protect yourself from romance scams in crypto, with Bezalel Raviv

0:01I'm Ashen Addison from the cryptocoin show and today on blockchain interviews with bezel reviv CEO of Lionsgate Network bezel welcome to the show and thanks for taking the time thank you Ashton very excited to dive into cyber security crypto funds crypto hacks recovery um how to best best practices really for just securing your funds inside and outside of crypto

0:26um I would love to start off by first of all just hearing a little bit about yourself your background and what got you into this kind of work at Lionsgate Network well basically you know I was just a computer geek just love you know uh messing with computers as a child my mom bought uh brought me uh my first computer at like 12 uh and at the time it was like a

0:53Pentium so if you had it you know you had some some kind of Advantage um besides playing golden X and uh you know uh Street Fighter right if you remember those uh so I mean just started from you know just you know enjoying uh the new device in the house the the the the the new uh box and I was really intrigued by what's happening inbox before even internet you know was

1:21uh introduced to the public um accidentally you know I joined the military to um you know the IDF to uh uh 8200 the intelligence unit um I always you know was surrounded by people that wanted to rule the world and you know offer solutions that are cyber oriented it was never for me because my orientation was music so I followed that

1:50path for about 10 years uh and you know it was you know the best time of my life I say because there's nothing like it and you really learn the hustle you know if you are a musician your your hustle is real right they say music business is a Cutthroat business and you better off negotiate with a terrorist and not a musician right uh they say it for a good

2:16reason because musicians are tough I mean and I've met the one at the top of their game uh when I lived in New York um and then basically I was just looking for another passage uh you know to uh express myself uh and I've done a lot of things you know in entrepreneurship uh I built companies I sold companies I wanted to do something that is Meaningful in the end of the day you

2:41know um if you create something that is Meaningful you can actually lasting you know going through the battle because it is a battlefield and I ended up you know um studying U Hallelujah uh which is a uh music copyrights on blockchain uh in Lionsgate Network which is protection of uh the $1 1.7 trillion Market of cryptocurrencies um obviously all the

3:11white hair I have on my head is based on these two projects they've been the toughest I used to have uh you know darker hair like yours but uh yeah I mean when you start entrepreneurship it's a it's it's a mess it's a daily mess that you have to win with a smile or lose with a smile uh and that's what we do um and Lions Gate network is is a at the moment uh is taking the majority

3:40of the time that I invest as an entrepreneur yeah that's a a incredible backstory way way throwback um and you're right about the the entrepreneurs Journey it is it is a tough one you know and all of these companies that they see succeed you know it was a 10year overnight success um that they people people just don't understand how hard it can be at the beginning uh but I feel

4:03like entering into the cryptocurrency industry that there has to be some level of asymmetric risk where it's risky but it's at an industry that is just innovating disrupting so much that this $1.7 trillion do Market that you're talking about could be 10 trillion or more in the near future especially with what we've seen in 2024 the Bitcoin ETF uh lots of billions of dollars moving

4:30into the crypto industry um and all of that needs to be protected as well and um and as more people get in newer people are going to get it in the industry that have less technical expertise and it's easy for them to uh make a mishap you know it's uh it's a whole new world from traditional Finance now I'd love to dive into a little bit more on on on Lion gate and how exactly

4:52you are working within that industry and helping protect it so basically as you've mentioned correctly uh the only way for that market to grow into a 10 or 100 trillion dollar market is with people feeling safe right if you take everything back to gold standard and people feeling safe about the fact that there is a place that is called Fort Knox then people can

5:19you know understand you know trade and exchange and Commerce in a way that is secured that's what people need in the end of the day right they need trust and at the moment crypto currencies are synony with mistrust and fraud and scam so I say before you bring in the furniture to the house make sure the the the the floor is mopped right so that's what we hear I mean Lionsgate network is

5:47all about utilizing intelligence of blockchain and cyber intelligence into first of all cleaning the Red Hats and the black hats within the realm that at the moment really really roam freely involves enjoying the freedom to be and do whatever they want and not talking just about you know the small scams of hundreds and thousands of dollars speaking about the billions of dollars

6:14that are being scammed out of people right now and basically they're preventing the market from its natural Evolution so the future will only be um and I know that a lot of good ogs from blockchain um and and crypto space are you know they want to see that coming but I see it in a more realistic hardcore kind of way if you will uh we we be there when the job will be done

6:44and and and more people will feel secure about penetrating uh a no man's land for them that for us is is already you know in the ongoing conversation yeah it's it's a double-edged sword because on one half I feel like as blockchain matures the security practices are getting better but at the same time there's new people coming in and there's so much Innovation

7:10that people are companies are moving fast and breaking things and you know it's common to see hundred million hack here and there normally from big companies uh which hopefully they they can stomach it or or recover it uh but also you know when when grandma gets involved especially at the top of the cycle um you know and and or lot of people come to me being experienced in

7:32blockchain and they're like check this out and it ends up being a high yield Ponzi something where they ends up losing their money I feel like there's still uh still some lessons to be learned uh in crypto although we are at the 15y year anniversary of Bitcoin um yeah there there's so many more years to go absolutely and you know law enforcement play play also a very

7:56pivotal role because law enforcement up until you know 15 years ago you would come to them and say someone stole my wallet and they will find a way and means to you know fund the recovery of your wallet but now you will go to them anywhere in the world really from Canada to Australia to US to Europe and they will tell you oh silly you why did you invest in crypto first of all they

8:20they'll make you feel terrible about your bad experience and the second thing they will say uh crypto is not real money uh therefore we cannot even trace it for you so they're not using any of the already existing Services uh and unfortunately uh you know who pays in the pocket the the citizen the civilian uh

8:47and all the people around them that will hear about that story will not invest in crypto right so we're we're losing market cap valuation based on negative actors that are funneling because they don't care about crypto essels right or or crypto thugs I call them they don't I mean they're thugs because they do it in the shades they can't really confront

9:11the fact that uh what they've done um is reckless but it's funny enough that you know you know in our business uh when we do recovery with clients we say we are not law enforcement so we can't arrest anyone right but what we found to be of incredible uh help is a flashlight with blockchain in intelligence you basically you know poor light uh onto people that

9:40utilize their embezzlement through uh crypto and the moment you do that and that's that's too funny they reverse the money no question asks because they realize that as long as no one looking out for them they can do whatever they want so this is this is a coros uh from our experience with uh hundreds of different clients and there are a lot of different

10:11ways that you could potentially have your wallet compromised or lose your funds or get in a fishing attack can you talk a little bit about some of the most common uh themes that you're seeing at lion gate and and how your team is dealing with that right so right now there is that you know word that everyone keeps on hearing uh the pig butchering scam the pig butchering scam is

10:39basically a romance scam where the victim is being called a pig horrible uh no one wants to be referred to as the pig in the scam but someone somewhere decided that that would be the you know the phrase to label the problem uh in fact uh that specific uh scenario we call we we call different cases to embezzle or hack scenarios in the company uh so for us uh the pig

11:09butchering scam or the Roman scam really started around covid where when everyone were at home right and they couldn't do much and and human interaction was rare right so groups organized crime basically uh you know organized people to start a conversation using very simple coding or you know messaging system like Facebook Messenger Twitter

11:37Linkin uh Instagram Tik Tok to generate a human conversation so real people creating a real conversation essentially to funnel you to invest in a dummy platform investment platform so this is at the moment to your question the biggest uh operation because there's a lot going on there uh and uh we see it we see it coming more

12:05and more from people in the states Europe and Australia only because of their good open Nature right uh of citizens that are easy to um you know to to you know fall on these Financial predators are looking for people that can believe them right that they have free time and now with AI Ashton they're being targeted in a way that we can

12:36recognize how they they're looking for um how can I call this uh social vulnerabilities right if you are divorced or widowed or uh not too not too active right meaning you have a lot of free times in your hand they basically will Target those uh and they will basically start uh a butchering Journey uh all the way until the end so

13:04that's what we're seeing we're seeing really the the the biggest you know Dark Shadows of crypto uh and we win it with light that's what we do we bring in intelligence to bring information out and basically move it forward uh to recovery that's crazy uh the I've heard of some of these romance scams where

13:32either I guess they're they're either just befriending them and then asking them for for money or to in you know or to show them the opportunity to invest into a platform that actually isn't real and sort of siphoning your money away and with those being in crypto I'm guessing the people that are that that they're targeting aren't necessarily you know crypto experts they're definitely

13:55not um and maybe it's their first time ever buying crypto uh which I guess makes it hard for them to understand what's happening because it's a whole another world as you said if the enforcement isn't saying this isn't real money um they can't really deal with it that's where lion gate comes in so if that does happen to somebody how do you go about recovering

14:17those funds tracing the blockchain or targeting the the perpetrator themselves and identifying them how would that work if you know my grandma lost a few thousand in crypto over Facebook Messenger God forbid right uh send her that link when we're when we're through uh so she knows and her friend would know not to trust anyone on online uh Landscapes when they asking for money on

14:45investments what we do we are looking for two things we're looking for where that crypto is in this red hot minute and we're looking for who did it okay so blockchain intelligence will reveal Uh current location of our client crypto okay doesn't matter how many funnels went through the many blockchains how many uh mixers blenders you know you can do whatever you want we'll find the

15:14information we need on where that money is even if if it was cashed out in an exchange in Hong Kong okay we need to know last location that's one second thing is we'll go after entity who did this who who's behind that uh that uh trick okay uh and there we activate every open source intelligence uh ethical unit we can put our hands on uh and we have um great uh resources to

15:45doing so once we have the two then we can uh combat it through either freezing the funds right with the exchange if it's within an exchange if it's with a cold wallet we'll contact cold wallet to freeze the funds uh if they're being you know you know used uh to to as a safe wallet right A lot of people do that uh and lastly uh if it's uh with the entity then we'll

16:11contact LW enforcement in the neighborhood where that person is uh so they can you know join the party but they always count on the information that we provide them in order to join the party because like I've said before law enforcement at this point Ashton they're kind of dting unfortunately and a lot of people uh you know have to come to us because they go to them and

16:34they say you know we can help you man or Sarah and when that process happens when somebody sends funds maybe it takes them a few days to realize that it was a scam normally hackers are working pretty quickly when they receive funds to embezzle them or to cash it out or move it around how quickly do you see that happening and and how quickly are you able to to respond and and try to

17:00recover is it like a Race Against Time always always and time is not our good friend right time is our big enemy here uh and therefore uh we never commit to 100% success in recovery and anyone that does is selling you uh an avocado and a taste of a mango don't buy it it's

17:28not real MH uh but the truth is that we are faster we are faster because right now we have law enforcement that are not so woken right and we have embezzlers roaming the space with a lot of confidence right so it's great for us because a lot of the people that use crypto and this is one of the biggest misc misconceptions uh if you decide to rob

17:58someone one with crypto you've you've made an enormous mistake because it can be traced a lot of people think that if I'm going to you know receive the money in crypto I'm in the you know back scene right I'm on behind the scene no you're on front stage with a spotlight on your face that's the truth it's the opposite because everything is tracing back to

18:22you uh so at the moment uh we are happy that everyone is still naive and and and fatigued or happy about the fact that they believe of a misconception uh that's why success ratio is so high because we are faster than what an ambassador will do and in most of the time uh they will basically just you know move the money to a safe

18:49wallet which will act like a like a safe right uh and you will find there sometimes uh sometimes hundreds and tens of millions of dollars so you basically will see how someone that has been scammed from Canada from Ottawa how that money is being led to a wallet with $300 million so we're looking at the

19:19connection between attacks and the um patterns that combine um knowledge that could be translated to operation of organized crime it's a lot of money it is a lot of money and that's why we do it because a lot of money basically means a lot of people that have been fished out of the

19:49water and are there any other you know secondary ways that people should protect themselves obviously if you're new to crypto that's a red flag right there you know your first transaction should probably be buying Bitcoin and storing it yourself for 10 years it'll probably be much better off um but I know that there are uh many you know the romance scam is is is huge um but it's

20:14getting very sophisticated and you know almost every turn you make you know don't trust any email don't trust any website um verify yourself is there any other practices or other ways that people should stay on the lookout for to protect their assets well that's what's that's like the the billion doll question here or the 1.7 trillion dollar question Ashton

20:38really uh let me just I just need half an hour to digest it uh well first of all you know trust is something that humans need to feel right even if it's with a scammer because we're talking about emotions here they need to rely on someone in order to live so to say say don't trust I can say that to people I can't say that because that's like counter uh

21:06counterintuitive uh to their basic needs so I say work hard I'd rather say that on verifying who you're talking with one of the policies in the companies is that we say don't trust us either MH that's why we are committed to a face tof face interaction which is very very difficult to render in real time right it's very difficult to fake that I will not be

21:34saying that in six months from now because I know that there are some you know AI uh uh Tech that really are dying to come into the world for scammers okay scammers are really looking looking on on on that option because right now they cannot show their face and they cannot show who they are really right so we're we're always coming out with all the

21:57information so if you don't want to fall again or in the first place make sure you do all the homework you need and it takes muscle to do that right and attention to do that so invest the time to really know your customer there is the kyc so also know the business right know the business know how how many people they are how

22:24they look have they been speaking about the product uh where are they okay look at the bigger picture uh and you're already red reducing the chances to get to being scammed dramatically yeah good advice and if this does happen to someone you know uh what is the best way for them to get started on recovering it do they call you just go to the site how does that

22:53work exactly so uh they obviously can go on the site and we have built a quick wizard a one minute wizard that will give us some assessment on the case very basic assessment um any of our clients that have finalized the wizard will receive an email to meet face tof face with an analyst to take some more information about the case because some of the cases

23:23are very strong nonrecoverable status it has on before we even begin so we want to figure out for ourself whether the chances are high medium or none right uh and we want to be able to be very uh transparent about it with our clients um once we do that uh we are able to come back to the client with the evidence of where the funds are right

23:51because our service is first and foremost blockchain analysis which will give us the indication and the evidence where your money is right you know that quote from where's the money right Kuba Kuba from the movie from the film we are basically providing the evidence the concrete evidence where is the money which is tremendous for a client that

24:19someone basically reached out to their pocket and withdrew hundreds sometimes of thousands of dollars without his permission or her per so we give the indication on that and then we decide we build a road map uh and we present it to the client on what we're going to go about and how long it will take grow or Moto uh and gives us the satisfaction to start working on

24:45each and every case because in most cases the cases are unique but in some cases they are clustered with other cases that were already solved right and in this case uh the process will be even faster F that sounds great um I I can leave the links to the Lionsgate Network as well in the show notes for those who want to learn more get educated follow these

25:08best practices that you're talking about uh is there any other uh last words that you have on you know this and moving forward as crypto continues to grow uh how you foresee the space going and how people can protect themselves I think that as a community of people that rely on transactions exchange and finance uh we must eradicate uh the malicious actors from

25:34within crypto Fiat uh this is where we are right now in the world I mean if you're looking at the news for more than 10 minutes you really want to you wantan to you know you have like a reflex right I mean it's too much right you see what's happening in government you see what's happening with freedom of Finance freedom of uh any activity that we took for granted in

26:042000 now it's like a different world for a lot of people and we acknowledge that and we see it and we want to help clear out as much negative forces from within crypto because this is our expertise but I encourage anyone uh from any Forum that might you know encounter this video to report to us even people from within groups that are

26:32malicious a specific person that maybe do not feel comfortable to doing this again right to keep repeating themselves in crime report to us and we'll keep information confidential but we'll definitely uh go about it we have a bounty program for those actors specifically where we will reward people who will notify us of malicious Act s within malicious

27:00activities uh and and I think we'll do it one um break at a time right one break at a time will will put that wall down and we can only do it with the community uh and we we rely on the community to seeing the benefits the crypto Community to seeing the bigger benefits for all of us as a community well said and that's very interesting I'm going to check out that

27:25Bounty program as well you never know when there's Inside Man willing to help out for for the the right of crypto kind and humankind so I appreciate your insights bezel uh all the best with with protecting crypto moving forward and ligate network let's definitely follow up in the near future I appreciate that thanks a lot that