Read a smart-contract income pitch as a flow-of-funds question

Draw the payment path

Practical checklist · not an audit of another provider

List the payment required to join, any recurring payment and the recipients of each transfer. Separate external customers from new participants buying the same opportunity. Record what the operator says generates revenue. A diagram should distinguish an observed transaction from an explanation supplied by a promoter; do not silently treat the two as equivalent.

Ask what happens without new entrants

Practical checklist · not an audit of another provider

Use that question to identify the claimed source of ongoing payouts. Do not assume the answer from a contract's existence or the word decentralised. The Forsage charging account illustrates why automated distribution can itself be central to an alleged scheme. A qualified code review may be needed to assess a contract; this checklist does not certify its behaviour.

Preserve identifiers and limits

Practical checklist · not an audit of another provider

Keep the network, contract address, version and date for any analysis you consult. Results about one deployment may not describe another. Do not connect a wallet, buy a slot or sign an approval merely to investigate a suspicious offer. Use read-only evidence where possible and treat a promised guaranteed return as a reason for further scrutiny, consistent with FTC consumer guidance.

Trace the money question without connecting a wallet

Practical checklist · not an audit of another provider

From public documentation, list who pays into the system, who can receive payments and what activity outside participant recruitment is claimed to generate value. Record the network and contract version for each claim. Mark whether the evidence is code, an explorer view or a promoter's explanation; those sources answer different questions. Do not connect a wallet or send a transaction to test a suspicious scheme. If the only identified inflow is other participants' deposits, document that gap without inventing a complete forensic analysis or declaring guilt beyond the cited record.

Sources, dates and limits

Checked 23 October 2026. The 2023 allegations, 2026 extradition and future trial listing are distinct procedural events. The cited loss percentages concern the analysed Ethereum contracts; they are not automatically applicable to every network or participant.