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In mid-November 2022, Lendingblock announced the launch of [Refer & Earn](https://www.lendingblock.com/post/lendingblock-announces-refer-earn-get-25-usdt-and-give-50-usdt), our referral scheme program. Over the last 9 months, our compliance team has learned a few things about catching out referral scheme abusers. Below, we’ll take a look at some common tactics used to unfairly game the system, some more sophisticated than others.


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### #1 - The Flash

 ![](https://cdn.hackernoon.com/images/ZRng7KuFnEMTrPtybm6fqxqxxft2-6i93h0e.jpeg)

As part of the referral scheme conditions, all participants have to verify their identities to prove that they’re a real person, otherwise, a single individual could create multiple anonymous accounts to pocket multiple referral bonuses.

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We call this one, The Flash: an individual begins the ID verification process in one city on a desktop computer and finishes the verification on a smartphone in a city miles away a few minutes later, as seen by this Italian example below.

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 ![](https://cdn.hackernoon.com/images/ZRng7KuFnEMTrPtybm6fqxqxxft2-fja3hv9.png)

This individual began the ID verification on a desktop in Turin, and finished it on their smartphone in Milan 142km in a little over 2 minutes. Clearly, the individual who created the Lendingblock account in Turin can’t be the same person who verified their identity in Milan!

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Of course, there is a possibility that this difference in location could be caused by using a VPN, however, VPN use goes against the platform T&Cs, so any accounts created using a VPN would be in breach of the accepted terms and subject to suspension/deletion.


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### #2 - The Clone

 ![](https://cdn.hackernoon.com/images/ZRng7KuFnEMTrPtybm6fqxqxxft2-a2c3ht0.jpeg)

This tactic involves signing up with multiple accounts using the same ID for verification! Here’s an example below, that’s right Sergey, you didn’t throw us off by wearing a headset!

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 ![](https://cdn.hackernoon.com/images/ZRng7KuFnEMTrPtybm6fqxqxxft2-zed3h86.jpeg)


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### #3 - The Multiple Personality Disorder

 ![](https://cdn.hackernoon.com/images/ZRng7KuFnEMTrPtybm6fqxqxxft2-u4e3hcz.jpeg)

This tactic involves the same individual signing up with multiple accounts under different names using fake IDs for verification.


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### #4 - The One Wallet To Rule Them All

 ![](https://cdn.hackernoon.com/images/ZRng7KuFnEMTrPtybm6fqxqxxft2-klg3hmu.webp)

Here, we would see multiple accounts withdrawing their referral rewards to the same wallet, sometimes up to 30 times, as seen in the below example! It’s also a red flag when all these withdrawals were initiated at roughly the same time on the 5th and 9th of May.

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 ![](https://cdn.hackernoon.com/images/ZRng7KuFnEMTrPtybm6fqxqxxft2-w4f3hpr.png)


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### #5 - The Car Gang

One very well-traveled car in Georgia managed to create over 20 accounts, here’s an example of 6 of the verifications we received. Seem familiar?

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 ![](https://cdn.hackernoon.com/images/ZRng7KuFnEMTrPtybm6fqxqxxft2-8yi3hok.jpeg)


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### #6 - The Hostel

One user created 4 accounts using the identities of 4 people staying in the same hostel, as seen below.

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 ![](https://cdn.hackernoon.com/images/ZRng7KuFnEMTrPtybm6fqxqxxft2-7oj3hws.jpeg)


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### Closing remarks

We hope this has opened your eyes to some of the different types of abuse that your referral scheme could be subject to. Scammers, stay away!

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If you’re looking for market-leading interest rates on your crypto, head on over to [Lendingblock](https://www.lendingblock.com/), but please, one account only!

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