Bitcoin Forum

 I'm just completely lost and have no idea what to do. I've been lurking on here for about a year now, and respect all of you and would appreciate your input.

I'll try my best to keep this short and to the point.

I gambled on a Bitcoin gambling site, and won a few Bitcoins (~XX). I moved those Bitcoins to my wallet with XXX amount of Bitcoins, and then moved them to BTC-e for some trading.

I traded for 3-4 days, made some very nice profits (was going all in, my gambler mentality actually paid off). Then, for some reason my withdraws were denied. I figured it was nothing, opened a support ticket asking what was going on, and kept on going. The next day I tried logging in,

    "Account suspended. Contact support."

At this point I was pretty confused. Little did I know, it was the start to one of the longest nightmares of my life. I opened another support ticket, asking what the hell was going on. After 3-4 days of complete silence from the support, I decided to use Google Translate and post my support tickets in Russian. Finally, a day later I got a response.

    We received a report that your Bitcoins are stolen.

What the fuck? I'm not sure how they came to that conclusion, so I asked who reported that. Turns out it was the gambling site I went to. I explained to them that no stealing occured, and told them that the site owner may be mad I actually turned a profit. They insisted that I had stolen them (since when is BTC-e the Bitcoin police?), and asked for a picture of my passport to "verify my identity." I was desperate to get my coins back, so I complied entirely. They asked for some other information and said a police investigation would take place and would take 30 business days. I happily waited 30 days, and lo and behold, my account was still locked with no word from BTC-e. I'm assuming the "police" were made up and BTC-e used it as an excuse to potentially scare me off, that probably would have worked had I done anything wrong.

For the next few months, it usually consisted of me posting a support ticket, waiting 5-6 days, then getting a response from BTC-e like "show us a screenshot of X."

I showed them a screenshot of my balance on the gambling site, screenshot of my Bitcoin wallet verifying I deposited the coins, screenshot of all kinds of shit. I feel like they were purposely wasting my time. After a few months of that, they asked me to contact the gambling site. I did, no response. The fact that they are asking me to contact the very people who are trying to scam me is fucking pathetic and infuriating.

Now, every time I post a support ticket they close it with no response. I have no idea what to do. I've contacted my local police, FBI, and multiple lawyers. All said they can't do anything, because no one knows who runs BTC-e or they were outside jurisdiction. If any of you have an idea on what I should do, please tell me.

tl;dr BTC-e is risky as fuck, be careful and don't make the same mistake I did

EDIT: You guys wanted screenshots, here they are.

My skype conversation with them in Russian. (http://imgur.com/a/OfVRI)

In that Skype conversation they basically asked for a photo of my passport, I told them I didn't have one and sent them a picture of my ID instead. They later said they they contacted the police to verify my information in this picture.
 (https://i.imgur.com/MbssLqZ.png)
My ticket where they told me to "contact the gambling site" (the one attempting to scam me) (https://i.imgur.com/C0MowT1.png)

Where I say "here" is where I sent them a screenshot of my wallet (lol) for them to "verify" some other bullshit. They then ask me to contact the gambling service, I tell them no, they stop responding for a few days, then close the ticket.

i guess if you really lost 100bitcoins then you have enough money to buy another 100bitcoins.
because nobody with a average income would play with 100bitcoins^^

Seems like you're the same person from Reddit that's posting about losing money on BTC-e. Well, they're a bit shady and completely unknown... They also probably think they're doing the right thing. Have the coins moved from the exchange's address? Have they moved back to bitdice? You should also insist with Bitdice staff, there's a thread from them in the Gambling forum.

Anyways, I'm sorry for your loss. You won't probably see the coins back. If you do, you're a lucky guy...

Unfortunately these will be lost forever  :-\

Have btc-e returned them to the gambling site?

I don't know, they are not answering anymore.

sad,to hear your loss..
never thought of it, i have heard this one biggest rob till yet here..
bro, you cant get the bitcoins back nor any support ticket will work, once the coins are gone they are gone for ever.

bad luck, :-\

Well...did you steal them? Like, honestly?

Whether you did or didn't is irrelevant. BTC-e has no authority to make this sort of determination on any basis, moral or legal. Particularly because they are in violation of so many KYC/AML/BSA policies themselves.

A word of caution to anybody still using BTC-e: You are fools. This exchange will be down and your coins will be lost inside of 2 years. Move them while you still can.

U.S. Justice Department indictments and forfeitures are coming...wait and see.

Next time, use sites like www.100bit.co.in to exchange 100 bitcoin. They dont ask for KYC, they dont need you to store your fund at site wallet.

FUD ...   Link to http://imgur.com/ screenshots  Created 2 months ago

So BTC-e is scam? Please confirm

maybe somehow this gamble site and exchange site or co-owned by same group?

Interesting. I used btc-e for a small transaction before, but I might think twice in the future.  This is not the first thing I have heard about them being shady.  There are plenty of exchanges out there with a good reputation, so why take the chance?

My speculation is that BTC-e selectively steals from people whose coins are associated with non-legal activities.

Coins from gambling sites are stolen because BTC-e think you can't tell the police.

mhm, you can possibly threaten them with legal action, what country are they hosted in?

If you have the address of the coins you can see if they still have the coins, or if they've moved them back to the gambling site. Sorry for your loss.

These coins will be gone by now no doubt and no way to recover them.  Not much can do in this kind of situation other than taking legal action and going from their if you have any grounds to stand on if their is a legal firm willing to take your case on otherwise their gone.

As he said in the OP, this whole thing occurred over the course of several months and began several months prior. The screenshots were probably created for some other attempt at getting help somewhere else (e.g. police, FBI, etc.) before he came here to attempt to get help.

No one knows where BTC-e is based out of (probably Russia though). He has attempted to contact the police though.

Like others have stated, there is nothing you can do man.  :-\  Next time be wiser and don't allow them to have all your BTC at one time.  Lock the majority of your capital in cold storage.  Just take this as a very, very expensive lesson and NEVER make this mistake again.  I guess it could have always been worse.

Best of luck mate.

I really doubt that they are selectively scamming users, unless they actually do receive word about stolen shit. Otherwise, they make more in day in just trading fees than I make in a year, so that makes no sense there... However, BTC-E should always be treated with caution, i mean, nobody still knows who runs this site? Right!?   ???

If this is true, the question that bothers me is; why are you not posting under your main btc account? You also marked out the nickname in screenshots..
But in any way, even tho i have many years of successful and nice trading experience @ btc-e, i would not recommend they to anyone anymore.
The very fact that they are hiding their identity is enough of a red flag by itself, but i doubt they own the gambling site u mentioned, like some people claim; they have enough profit from fee's, making your story
pretty hard to believe, altho i am not saying it's not true.

cheers

Everybody here seems to agree that btc-e is a bit shady so filing for legal action probably won't do fuck all.
If you really are in the right and these coins were not stolen then hackers maybe your only help.
They won't get you coins back and it will probably cost you a bit more btc but im sure they could cost he site more than they took from you.
Sometimes revenge is the only answer, or forget about it, your choice.

What a tragedy for you, just make hope that your BTCs will be returned or not Karma will judge them.

You should post in the main BTC-e thread (link to this one) and give the admin a chance to see this and reply in person.

Couldn't do any harm to do so, but if they didn't solve OP's issue via official ticket system on site, i highly doubt they will do anything here on forum.
If i were in OP's shoes, and know i'm cheated , i would straight on open scam accusation so that people can be warned, and btc-e staff accounts flagged. (If OP is telling the truth that is)
cheers

Why would btc-e not return his coins? And if they don't, why do people still continue to use btc-e.

I guess after he makes some noise here they will return his coins..

I will never use btc-e as this is not the first time I heard a story like this.

Also make sure you publicize the gambing site as well.

It might be somewhere around Russia since their conversation is Russian.

Ive been reading this story a bit on reddit OP and it looks like the gambling site you bet on are in communication with BTC-e.  Your best chance is to start communicating with them if you wanta chance to see yourcoins back.  Legally wise you are pretty scewed i think.

Actually after reading about btc-e, I blame the OP. That site is only for mafia and money launderers. They might as well be operating on TOR and cash-by-mail and you'd get about the same level of trust.

Also I'd avoid using bitdice.com too.

For btc-e:
How hard is it to get decent English speakers in Russia or whatever east-European nation you are operating from?

You can't blame op for making  the error of trusting them in the first place. Like he stated; btc-e is not a bitcoin police, and furthermore, they have no right to hold funds without a valid reason.
And it's not that hard to get translators, i am from east EU and i can tell you for sure that three out of four persons speak english quite well, so hiding behind language barrier is futile.

cheers

Can you prove you have 100BTC+ in BTC-e?

yes.  proof of moving 100btc to the exchange by showing the transaction would go a long way in verifying that perhaps this did in fact happen.  op is not replying.  maybe asleep.  if we don't hear any replies within a few hours then this is all just fud. 

can you tell us what is that gambling site so some users can help you verify it?

The 2nd post say the gambling site name as bitdice so maybe they can read russian and got it from the screenshot, i didn't see OP mention it.

My question is... Why would BTC-e just believe what the dice site claimed (that the bitcoins were stolen)??

Haven't you all learned yet? Don't deal with Russians. Quite simple.

I'm reading the reddit thread and it seems like OP is a thief and won those Bitcoins from Bitdice due to a bug.

You may be guessing wrong, if I start gambling with 0.2btc and win 100btc and I am a gambler then it doesn't matter my income because I am a gambling addict and don't think about much else except "more" which is a shame because 100btc is "more" than enough and should have been saved/spent.

It also doesn't matter if he has enough to buy another 100btc that does not make it ok does it? Not sure what the price was but guessing around 28k was lost and that sucks, but.. Sounds like this story is fishy to say the least and would not be surprised if it never happened.

^^Pretty much this.Otherwise he would have provided a log of his winning bets on that gambling site, witch he didn't.

ahhh, now everything is clear, this is why he isn't responding anymore, usually when they throw the stone and run away, without continuing the conversation, you know there is something fishy

i didn't trust what the OP say since the beginning of this thread, then add to this that he used a newbie account...

Yes, it appears BTC-e stole back the coins the OP "stole".  I can see why people would not like btc-e acting like the bitcoin police.   I guess you can also debate if exploiting a gambling site is the same as stealing.  But on balance I think this is a good outcome. 

I do think they should have been more candid with OP about what was going on.

haha this is quite funny actually. OP exploits a bug and gets a windfall but then doesn't move the coins to his own wallet.

Close but no cigar.

From what i heard, their english comunication skills are pretty limited.Or at least that's what they want us to belive.Anyway, OP's mistake was trying to unload his entire stash on one single exchange witch must have raised some serious red flags at BTC-e, who might have been warned by the people at the gambling site, as was probably every other major exchange.

The question is if the story is true, what is BTC-E going to do with the 100BTC. Is there any word from them that they're going to keep it or return it to bitdice?

**
They should buy a boat from that money  ::)

The owner of bitdice.me was in very good spirits today and so I think they returned the money to him.  That seems the most honest course, but I guess they don't have to return it.

Edit: Actually they just posted about it HERE. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1090092.0)

Ok, now we found the hacker. Lets change the direction of our pitchforks. What the hell was he thinking? Guess he would have covered his tracks when posting as well.. Or is there a way to trace him? (I'm assuming its a "he")

So the member that posted this thread the hacker in question?  I am not on the same page here.  :-\

Time out please:
Fraud/stealing is wrong and needs to be punished, but does btc-e.com have the right to "confiscate" customer funds due to 'possible' crimes?

Interesting read.

I don't know who to stick up for:

1. Dumb guy who got lucky winning 100 btc because of a bug. Really dumb sending it to btc-e for quick cashout.
2. Hacker who took a gambling site for 100 btc. If you're gonna hack someone it was a good choice. Like gambling sites don't "steal" on a regular basis. Then again, really dumb sending it to btc-e for quick cashout.

Option 1 would fit the situation more. Bitdice has stated that the account that drained their bankroll has no records on playing dice before. It seems that this guy isnt really a "hacker" but more likely got lucky that he created a new account and found out that his account got 10 BTC. Therefore he keep on making new account and keep on withdrawing

if this is true that he opened an account and was credited 10btc. if he did nothing to hack or manipulate the system to receive the btc once he withdrew them they were rightfully his. 

Exactly.

Anyone of us would have kept the btc and don't tell me you would not have. Opening 10 accounts may have been a little excessive.  ;)

Talk about temptation. I think the first thing to do would be to bet with it, not just straight up withdraw it.

Its a very school boy error to have left this code giving away 10btc. OP is extremely lucky.

All in all, it makes for a nice story though.

So, the coins are returned back to BitDice, the OP has stolen the coins and btc-e is not scam (but they freeze the money without law enforcement), nice to read :)

This is the wild west.

I agree the coins are his if he got them fair and square (which includes due to a bug)
And 10 is not excessive! But I'm impressed.