The Abundance Coin (TACC): An Obvious Scam
Recently I’ve become aware of a scam that’s making it’s way through Antigua And Barbuda as well as the greater Caribbean. “The Abundance Coin” has been promoted on the radio, in local newspapers, and on a number of YouTube channels.
The scam is headed by Steve Williams, who calls himself “Mr. Abundance,” And does not appear to have much of a background in cryptocurrency, even by his own admission on The Abundance Coin website. It’s unclear if this is a real name or an alias. Doing searches for “Steve Williams Abundance” on YouTube or Google will lead you to many videos of him explaining that you can become a millionaire and have nice cars and houses if you invest in TACC. To cryptocurrency experts or anyone with a strong technical background, the first look at the TACC website immediately raises yellow flags:
A page with a countdown timer asking the user to buy the TACC coin at a rate of $0.75 per coin. Ok, let’s take a look at how it works:
One consistent theme with The Abundance Coin (TACC) is the use of terms often found in legitimate cryptocurrency products, chopped up into word salad and spread across the page. The promoters often talk about problems in the world, but never as to how this coin that doesn’t exist yet will solve them.
A staggering number of people are posted on The Abundance Coin website with various roles that don’t appear to have anything to do with cryptocurrency. As of this writing, 91 people are listed on the site, which is likely some sort of record, with titles ranging from “TACC Chief” to “Director of Beauty Pageant and Makeup Artistry.” One position that is sorely missing here is developers. The Abundance Coin (TACC) makes no mention of any developers! As we’ll soon learn, TACC is said to be based on Ethereum (doesn’t mention if it’s an ERC20 or not) but not a single mention of a Solidity developer, and no link to a Github repo, which is a huge red flag. With all of these flags now raised, it’s time to go into The Abundance Coin White Paper. I ask the reader to buckle up for this next part, because it’s quite a ride.
Eliminating Afro-Caribbean debt to China is a nice idea, and this writer would love to see it happen. So let’s see how TACC plans to do this:
With 2 billion coins in circulation, for each coin to achieve the $4,500 USD valuation needed to eliminate the Afro-Caribbean debt, that would value The Abundance Coin market cap at SEVEN TRILLION DOLLARS. For reference, as of March 2021, Bitcoin has a market cap of about $1 Trillion, and the total world money supply is about $37 Trillion.
The Abundance Coin scam works by targeting people that aren’t technologically inclined. In Antigua and Barbuda, TACC operatives make contacts with church leaders and appear on local radio shows broadcast on Facebook. These operatives give their WhatsApp details on the air, then make personal contacts and tell prospective marks they will become millionaires if they invest in The Abundance Coin. It’s not the type of scam that Bitcoin users will fall for, but instead it’s a type of confidence scam that plays on the greed of the less technologically inclined. They will use lines like “We all saw what happened with Bitcoin, if you invested early, you would be rich now. Here is another chance, don’t miss it.”
When a mark wishes to “invest,” the TACC operative will ask them to make an account on The Abundance Coin website. After doing so, the user is presented with options to deposit Bitcoin, Ethereum, or a USDT Ethereum token to trade for TACC. Because this deposit screen is intimidating to those that have never used cryptocurrency before, the mark will call the TACC operative to ask for assistance. The TACC operative will then suggest a cash alternative, whereby they will meet, cash is handed over, and the TACC operative will call “An admin” to have the TACC coins credited to the account.
The Abundance Coin (TACC) is nothing more than a website. There is no mention of developers or a Github. When TACC operatives receive cash, they simply increase a number on their website shown to an unfortunate soul that believes they are investing in a new cryptocurrency. It’s unclear how this will end, but it’s not going to be pretty.
