CEO - 7x Platinum, Billboard #1 Music Producer/Engineer/MGMT - Creds: Offset, Don Toliver, Ryan Trey, Polo G, Bryson Tiller, Tee Grizzley, NLE Choppa,etc
🚨My @ParallelFi (formerly ParaSpace, also formerly ParaX, aka who knows in 2 months) Experience: A Story of Gross Negligence, Lack of Due Diligence, and Security Lapses 🚨🧵
Here is a summary of what happened:
I was utilizing the Parallel Finance platform, a “financialization” protocol company as described by themselves, registered in California by @yuboruan as a business, for managing my assets and NFTs and utilizing their platform for collateral loans. I encountered technical issues while trying to make a loan payment.
I was directed to seek assistance through their customer support, which was only accessible via Discord. After reporting my issue, I was met with an unsettling silence from Parallel Finance’s support team for over a week. There are other users who have reported having a support ticket that went unanswered for more than 3 months! (I have a screenshot of this, will reply with it below).
The interest on my loan continued to accumulate, increasing my financial stress. I was also constrained from transferring my NFTs or other assets off the platform due to the outstanding loan, which posed a risk of having my collateral liquidated. This included my very cherished MAYC #34 of @BoredApeYC, as well as a BAKC, Otherdeeds, ETH, APE, a Koda, and more.
This predicament left me in a bind, unable to manage my assets or receive the necessary support from Parallel Finance, further exposing me to financial risks due to their inadequate platform security and support. Plus I was scared of liquidation, their MAYC oracle barely updates! It is often times more than 10-15% off, this increases the risk of a false liquidation, such as what happened to @votefloridaman. This was looming in the back of my mind consistently considering the interest of the loan accruing and how the bear market was moving.
Nov 6th, the sad day of reckoning.
After a week of no communication, when I attempted to reach out again, I found the support system dysfunctional, giving me errors, which further impeded my ability to resolve the situation. The complete lack of a responsive support system during this urgent time was a glaring example of Parallel Finance's ongoing negligence.
My vulnerability was starkly revealed when, in an attempt to seek any form of help, I reached out in the general chat of their Discord. My grave mistake! A scammer, masquerading as a support agent, took advantage of the situation and deceived me into a fraudulent action, leading to the unauthorized siphoning of my assets.
This scammer impersonated DrCAO (a Parallel Finance team member in their discord), who changed his name after phishing me, and has since deleted their discord account. Please notice the yellow background avatar as it matches DrCAO's and their "DrCAO" name in a later screenshot after this. The blurred out section was me pleading with some deeply personal info attempting to get the scammer to show any kind of sympathy. He then proceeded to block me.
Nov 7th 6:40 PM CST: I have a Google Meet call with Yubo, the CEO & @abe_gomez (team member) that lasted about 35-45 mins. They were more concerned that I wasn't "lying" to them about the incident. This was the essentially the first thing they asked me about the situation on the call and more of the obvious focus of the call from their end.
They kept asking me "how long have you been in crypto?". Asserting that I should've known better. Literally victim shaming me, live, face-to-face. I strictly asked them how can they possible expect to fulfill a business goal of onboarding as many users as possible (they claim in articles they want to have a billion users!) when this happened to me, someone who is “experienced” in crypto. This was ultimately a result of a waterfall of events that 1. started with an error on THEIR PLATFORM, 2. Unraveled with their BROKEN & DYSFUNCTIONAL support system. This was met with silence. They know they’re in the wrong.
Absolute Gross Negligence:
4 days after the event and posting a screenshot of the scammer's ID in the general chat for all to see, and 3 days after a direct call with @yuboruan THE CEO & team member "Chief Growth Officer" @abe_gomez; a user in their discord posts a screenshot of the SAME SCAMMER STILL IN THE DISCORD UNBANNED.
Not only is this a display of lack of due diligence, it shows gross negligence. It also then begs the question even more of...was this an inside job by someone at @ParallelFi? Why wouldn't this scammer account already be banned? It wouldn't be the first time someone has thought there's something fishy going on over there. Not to mention the giant blowup of Yubo and the previous "founders" & team having an entire mutiny. 🧐
The delay in banning this scammer (4 days minimum), despite being reported with evidence to @yuboruan the CEO and @abe_gomez, as well as posting the scammer’s account id/username in Parallel Finance’s general chat in Discord for all to see, showcases a giant critical flaw in Parallel Finance’s security response and protocol.
This incident not only underscores the dangers of inadequate customer support in specifically Web3/Crypto financial services but also casts a spotlight on the continued gross negligence of Parallel Finance in failing to provide a secure and reliable support channel. Their ongoing oversight in maintaining customer support continuity, especially their persistent use of an unsecured platform like Discord for critical support communications when there are plenty of other options, all-the-while having double-to-triple digit millions in TVL; significantly contributed to the risk and subsequent exploitation of my digital assets.
The lack of timely support and the breakdown of communication channels, along with the failure to promptly address reported security threats, directly resulted in a scenario where my digital assets were left unprotected and ultimately compromised. The possibility that this could have been an inside job, or at least enabled by someone with deep-seated knowledge of Parallel Finance's inner workings, cannot be dismissed and warrants thorough investigation, adding to the concerns regarding Parallel Finance’s negligence and security flaws.
This was not my first technical issue with Parallel Finance, which suggests a pattern of unresolved support issues, poor security measures, and potential internal issues amongst their user base.
Summary of Events with Original Emphasized Points:
Oct 26th, 12:14 PM CST: I reached out to Parallel Finance through their Discord support channel, the only method provided for customer service, due to errors encountered while attempting to make payments on an outstanding loan. The situation was critical as interest on the loan was accruing each day.
Oct 27th, 5:53 AM: A response from a Parallel Finance support agent was received via Discord.
Oct 29th, 7:37 AM: The support agent asked for a screenshot of the console from the error page, a step towards resolving the issue that was preventing me from making timely loan payments.
Oct 29th, 1:48 PM: I sent the requested screenshot, hoping for a quick resolution to stop the accruing interest.
Oct 30th, 6:24 AM: The agent informed me that my screenshot had been forwarded to the development team.
Oct 30th, 3:31 PM: I acknowledged their response, still awaiting a solution to make my loan payments.
Nov 1st: With no updates and interest continuing to accrue on my loan, I reached out again but received no response from Parallel Finance support.
Nov 6th: After more than a week without communication, and with the interest on my loan compounding even more, I attempted to follow up. I discovered that the private support channel on Discord was not functioning, effectively cutting off the official support route.
Nov 6th: Due to the malfunctioning support channel and the urgency created by the accruing interest, I sought assistance in the general chat of Parallel Finance’s Discord.
Nov 6th: An individual named “DrCAO,” posing as a support agent, contacted me in the general chat. After gaining my trust by offering help with the payment issue, they advised me to use “Celo” wallet, which they claimed would resolve the error. Smh.
After following “DrCAO”'s instructions: I witnessed unauthorized transactions on my Metamask account, leading to the draining of my assets by this scammer.
Nov 7th 6:40 PM CST: I have a Google Meet call with Yubo Ruan & Abraham Gomez (team member) that lasted about 35-45 mins. They were more concerned that I wasn't "lying" to them about the incident, this was the essentially the first thing they asked me about the situation. They also kept asking asking "how long have you been in crypto?" as an excuse that this was my fault. Literally victim shaming me, live, face-to-face. I strictly asked them how can they possible expect to fulfill a business goal of onboarding as many users as possible (they claim in articles they want to have a billion users!) when this happened me, someone who is “experienced” in crypto.
I have been monitoring their discord daily since this has happened. Consistently there are scammers in the chat impersonating Yubo and other team members, constantly targeting users.
I have screenshots of everything and everything dated. Screenshots of the conversation with the scammer, screenshots of scammers constantly impersonating in the Parallel Finance discord, screenshots of the Google Meet call being setup, screenshots of the scammer admitting guilt, etc.
Obviously, I made a mistake and I should've caught the phish/scam and known better. But at this cost it truly begs the question for not only Parallel Finance, but for Web3 as a whole. How can we expect to onboard a billion users when those of us who have been around for years can become prey & victims so easily? A simple lapse of judgement for less than 5 minutes is all it takes and you could be a victim as well. It's a sad and scary reality.
I will be pursing legal action if @ParallelFi doesn't rectify this situation. As well, I will not stop until my voice is truly heard, and this story & incident is widespread to alert others of not only @ParallelFi issues, lack of due diligence, gross negligence, but so we can continue building Web3 & Crypto to truly onboard a billion + users in the near future.
Thank you for reading this thread. If you have had issues with @ParallelFi please like, retweet, reply, anything to interact and spread this around. My DM's are open here. I now have PTSD using Discord and for good reason.
Here is my wallet address that was drained: https://t.co/iZYIV2ZKNv
For any possible donations here is a fresh wallet 0x6c6096896E2d879E9c6f5E35cE37d6bf9f4207De
While donations are greatly appreciated, what I really want is justice and reform from @ParallelFi@yuboruan. They simply need to do better.
#ParallelFinance #Paraspace #ParaX @bountydreams@cao_lab@yuboruan@abe_gomez@ParallelFi
@Damizza saw your post about rebuilding music. It hits what my cofounder and I are building with ZALA. We’d love to involve you. Would love to setup a call with you.
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***$500,000 GIVEAWAY***
Feeling generous and WOW so very blessed. This Twitter community has grown 9,000 members in a single day, I just traded +$300,000 in 24 hours, and Probably Nothing is the biggest crypto content platform on planet Earth. We are truly winning in ever category.
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@JessieTweeting@ednewtonrex@Jrofosho@Timbaland Irrelevant. Suno scraping and using literal hard copies of files that they do not own nor properly licensed to create derivatives that compete with the original creators is no where near the same comparison that you’re trying to make.
Do you understand how sampling works? No?
@djpain1@rspbrrymusic Wasn’t saying precedent for ai attribution but for how music copyright and such works right now and essentially how things “should” follow that path.