McAfee Accused of Promoting Copycat ICO

UPDATED (GMT 5:15) Updates in red.

Self proclaimed “crypto visionary” and software tycoon John McAfee is known for promoting initial coin offerings (ICOs) for a hefty fee. However, whether McAfee is doing his own research before endorsing a project has most recently been brought into question on Twitter, where one of promoted ICOs seemed to be copying another project.

Most recently, McAfee tweeted his support for the so-called Pink Taxi.

And even though the purpose of the project seems noble and focused on solving a very real and present danger in modern society, it would seem they are not so original after all.

A team member of a Lithuania-based A2B Taxi Token project, launched last year by a local taxi company Amber Vilnius, came forward on Twitter to say that the McAfee-endorsed project has copied theirs: “This ICO fully copied our ICO website, Onepager, visuals and was even using our video until yesterday,” asking him as an adviser to comment on that.

McAfee replied that he’s “unaware of a single city in which you are operating taxis. Your Twitter account only has produced 4 tweets, half of them to me. You are a scammer my friend. I strongly suggest you drop this, unless you would like my FULL attention?”

The onepager has been removed from the website of Pink Taxi, while the video by A2B was still on the Pink Taxi YouTube channel.

A screenshot of the original video by A2B:

A screenshot of the video on the Pink Taxi channel:

Currently, A2B is consulting with its lawyers, a spokesperson of the company told Cryptonews.com.

UPDATED (GMT 5:15)

Pink Taxi Group has admitted its fault and apologized to “all the parties harmed by this activity”. In a response to Cryptonews.com request for comment, the company explained that an undisclosed third party agency, hired for the development of the website, design and promotional materials, copied A2B Taxi materials, including parts from its website, whitepaper and video.

The group said it has terminated all its contracts with the agency and has “launched legal notice to the agency”, while all copied content should be removed withing 48 hours.

John McAfee did not respond to request for comment.

Meanwhile, McAfee in one of his replies on Twitter announced that “My tweets are now USD 500,000 per tweet. If clients want me to reply to comments, then it is USD 100,000 per reply.” The price per tweet was USD 105,000 in April.