Bitcoin Forum

Hey guys,
I ordered 3 D3 Antminers from https://shop-antminer.com/store/.
They gave me a fed ex tracking number that says invalid tracking number on the fed ex website.
Then after that they sent me an email asking for a copy of my passport and credit card statement as per below.
Has anyone ordered anything from them?
I had to pay them like 5k USD through bitcoin.
I am not really sure about them?
I think I got screwed, BEWARE OF THEM, SHIT!
Is there anything I can do?

Email contents:

"Hello XXXX,

Our system has identified suspicious payments to your account.

You need to send us any document from each of the following groups to verify your
account.


Evidence of Identity
---------------------
- Copy of a current full Driving License;
- Copy of an ID card;
- Copy of a current signed Passport including photograph;


Evidence of Address
---------------------
- Recent copy of Utility bill or a certificate from a supplier of
utilities confirming your arrangement to pay for services on pre-payment
terms. Mobile phone bills are not acceptable;
- Copy of credit card statement containing current address;


---------------------

Notes:

1. The above document must contain your name and address, which needs to
match the information you have registered with us.
2. Please ensure image clarity.
3. Any document provided to Shop Antminer for this reinstatement process will be
destroyed after your information has been verified.


Thanks for your cooperation!


Shop-Antminer.com Shop Antminer
Email: admin@shop-antminer.com
Web: https://shop-antminer.com"

Regards

Why would they need to verify any of this?

I could see them wanting to possibly if you bought with credit card and they were worried about chargebacks or a stolen card?    But if you payed with BTC what are they concerned about?  Feels like info they'd use to steal your identity or something.

Hopefully someone has experience ordering and getting stuff from them before sharing it

I am looking at their 'about' section of their website: https://shop-antminer.com/about/
These guys are either incredibly stupid or naive, I am not sure which.
Publicly they posted a comment from another person who bought just like me:

"To whom it may concern:

This is my third attempt to contact your company via email and to date I have not received any replies. The tracking number you have provided is not a valid FedEx tracking number not does it meet the formatting requirements for the other to shipping companies you listed. Please check the number and get back to me as soon as possible.

Thank you,
Michael
rcmco@webalsi.com"

I think I got screwed royally by this website, avoid at all costs.
What a pain, stupid of me, lesson learnt

Yup you got robbed. Sorry for loss too many scammers out there.

OMG this site is not affiliated with Bitmain yet they state they are BITMAIN. Do not buy from this site super scam. Also you can post any comment you want with any fake info. I just posted a warning on their comments DO NOT PAY HOAX site posted no problem.

I just filed a complaint with the FBI
https://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx

Well that's the problem.
How is a new person like me supposed to know which is the real BITMAN website?
I never even heard of Bitman just till a few weeks ago.

Looks like SCAM

Sorry for your loss :/

us hosted.  should be easy to get removed from the web.

email abuse@hostinger.com

Domain Name: SHOP-ANTMINER.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2150361934_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.hostinger.com
Registrar URL: https://www.hostinger.com
Updated Date: 2017-08-05T14:45:43Z
Creation Date: 2017-08-05T14:45:42Z

Site is 4 days old.

not their first rodeo it seems  (https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bitday.biz.service%40gmail.com&oq=bitday.biz.service%40gmail.com&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.237j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)

That is why you need to do research before jumping into stores that nobody has never heard of.
It doesn't matter if you are a newbie or a veteran, research is always needed to make things sure.

Only buy directly from manufacturers by using their verified web sites or if you buy used hardware for example here at the forum, use escrow service.

I'm sorry for losses though.  :-\


And I'll write this here: SCAM ALERT

the more people that email abuse@ with a link to this thread the quicker they will be shut down.

I'm sorry to hear about people getting scammed.

In an effort to educate people on what they can do to prevent being victimized by these type of sites, I offer up the below items I noticed when visiting the site that would make me question their legitimacy.

First visit to site I ever made and I see this notice at bottom which is my first Red Flag

| We don't currently accept Paypal, Credit/Debit/Prepaid Cards, We only accept Bitcoin , Litecoin , Dashcoin |

I always question the legitimacy of any business that doesn't accept regular payment methods.

2nd Red flag, the Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube icons list on the site just go to Facebook.com, Twitter.com, and Youtube.com

3rd Red flag, Page has a "Donate Bitmain" option.... why would BITMAIN need donations?

4th Red flag, Page source has "Demo Store" in the Body

5th Red Flag, These photos on the about page... lol -- why would they have exercise equipment and a ping-pong table on their page?
https://shop-antminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/china1.png
https://shop-antminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/china2.png

Thank you for the abuse email address, I emailed them with the ordeal.
What a pain, especially since I could have bought the miners from the official webpage, WHICH ARE NOW IN STOCK!!!
https://shop.bitmain.com/productDetail.htm?pid=00020170810095433354pA1g4rfp06BC

Well they were in stock and I had a chance to buy 3 of them, but no money since I or robbed......

Yes thx for your feedback.  Honestly I thought they were the main manufacturer's website and/ or a real partner, since it has antminer in the title.
I wish I discovered these forums sooner.....

Thanks for the great tips.  They are really helpful.
Although on the main manufacturers page they also state that they only accept BITCOIN or LITECOIN:
https://shop.bitmain.com/productDetail.htm?pid=00020170810095433354pA1g4rfp06BC

Has anyone ACTUALLY got a real D3 to mine with from the supposed manufacturers website?  It also seems like a scam, why would they only accept BITCOIN or LITECOIN?
I will never again pay by only using bitcoin or Litecoin, there is to purchase guarantee like with Paypal or a credit card. 
NEVER AGAIN, I tell ya.

managed to place an order this morning.

They are legit, they just need to host their site properly.

hi, try contacting bitmain and tell them your story, maybe they can give you discount if you place an order.

Wait a minute, how do you know they are legit?
Of course anyone is able to place an order, they take orders and give out fake tracking numbers.
Did you get any actual equipment?

Regards

In response to people trying to scalp profits from Miner sales, Bitmain stopped accepting USD Wire Transfer on recent D3 sales. The reason being is scalpers would create multiple Bitmain accounts with random email addresses to buy up D3 miners with the USD WT option which provides 7 days to make the payment. The scalpers would then try to resell the "Account" for profit to the highest bidder.

Bitmain on occasion has also accepted Paypal for miners but they do not do this every time.

The reason they don't transact with credit cards is due to Western World / China relations.

Just because you successfully placed an order doesn't make the company legit.

I still see too many red flags as few others here have also seen, so SCAM ALERT.

I meant shop.bitmain.com is!

Hi,
yes I just contact the main BITMAIN and told them what happened to me.  The fake site states that they are partners of the main BITMAIN manufacturer, so I will find out soon enough if they are actual partners of a scam site. ( I still think they are a scam, unless I actual get a delivery from FED EX )
They are not responding to any of my emails, yet when I sent an email from an anonymous email address they respond right away as per below:

Le 2017-08-11 15:14, fynx gloire a écrit :
Hello this is Mark,
do you have any Antminer D3's in stock?



Hi fynx gloire,

All the antminer units of D3 are in stock now,

D3 $1599 : https://shop-antminer.com/product/bitmain-antminer-d3-15ghs/

Thanks.
Best regards
Support Team.

Its a scam, another user who ordered from there just told me 8 other users emailed him with the same results.....

https://twitter.com/BITMAINtech/status/893477229535010818

If you follow Bitmain on Twitter you can see the warning they have been posting warnings ( Only buy from Bitmain.com) I dont believe Bitmain has any legit re-sellers. Any re-seller that actually sell you an Antminer basically purchased them on web site from Bitmain to resell.

Thanks for their twitter feed, I am following them now,....

https://i.imgur.com/KvjiBAC.png

REKT

 :D

The problem is I still see their website up:
https://shop-antminer.com/store/

They need to be shut down permanently, I don't think there is any way to get my money back...

Hi @fynxgloire,
So I also got taken by the scam.  Normally I am quite prudent and I check everything before I commit to any purchase online.
I know that there are a lot of scammy sites out there, but for whatever reason, I did not check this one.

When I told my wife about my purchase (2 L3+ and 2 power supplies = $4507...sent in BTC), her first reaction was "..that sounds too good to be true; are you sure these people are legit?"

That was the question I should have asked myself first before spending the money.  In addition, I know that crypto transactions are not reversible...once I sent the funds, they are gone and so I needed to trust that the transaction will be legit.  But I ignored my instincts and went ahead with the transactions anyway.

I just checked WHOIS.com and here is the information that I found:
DOMAIN INFORMATION
Domain:shop-antminer.com
Registrar:Hostinger UAB
Registration Date:2017-08-05
Expiration Date:2018-08-05
Updated Date:2017-08-05
Status:clientTransferProhibited
Name Servers:ns1.hostinger.co.uk
ns2.hostinger.co.uk
ns3.hostinger.co.uk
ns4.hostinger.co.uk
REGISTRANT CONTACT
Name:Bitmain Antminer
Organization:Bitmain Antminer
Street:Building 25, North Olympic Baosheng South Road, ,
City:Haidian District
State:Beijing
Postal Code:100029
Country:VN
Phone:+84.4008908855
Email:email@gmail.com


They registered the site just on August 5th 2017; so they couldn't have been able to have shipped any units. If I had checked this before like I usually did; I wouldn't have fallen for this.  In addition, now their site is no longer online. Which means they did a hit and run .

I traced the Bitcoin address, I sent the payment to and noticed that they had transferred the funds to a final destination: 1R5gqq66UBDiCyzHtuAtkyh5MpVGPDJG8

At this address, they have managed to accumulate: 6962.4998 BTC in this account and there have been 162 transfers.  I think that this is what they do.  They setup these fake sites and run it for a few days and then they shut down and setup another.

It shows that their address is in Beijing to match Bitmain address, but then the registration address for the domain is showing Vietnam.

Anyways, this is a confirmed SCAM!  I hope that people see this and that it helps prevent someone else being scammed.  It took me 2 years to collect and mine all that Bitcoin and now it is gone. Quite painful, but I believe that everything happens for a reason and so I shall carry on.

Thanks for reading

Hello SuperSoloKing,
I feel your loss.
its so frustrating as you mentioned, I hope we could somehow get our money back.
ANyways I was wondering if you heard of this company, they sell mining rigs and also can host on their own dataservers ( it is cheaper for me since my electricity is a lot )
https://www.cloudsigma.com/secure-latest-generation-crypto-mining-equipment/

What do you think of this service? I don't wanna get ripped of again.

Regards

Hi fynxgloire,
I checked out the companies website.  It appears that they have been around for a while...maybe not in the same line of business.
I like the fact that you can order with PayPal because we would have recourse in case there is any issues...

This is what I found about them:
By Post:
CLOUDSIGMA AG
Badenerstrasse 549,
8048 Zürich
Switzerland
By Email: info@cloudsigma.com

cloudsigma.comUpdated 3 days ago
DOMAIN INFORMATION
Domain:cloudsigma.com
Registrar:Tucows Domains Inc.
Registration Date:2009-08-27
Expiration Date:2022-08-27
Updated Date:2017-04-04
Status:clientTransferProhibited
clientUpdateProhibited
Name Servers:ns.cloudsigma.com
ns.sjc.cloudsigma.com
sns.cloudsigma.com

I will check to see if they can provide me a telephone number so that I can speak to some one directly.
I have a feeling that they work as middle men with the Chinese manufacturers and that is why they can give the guarantees they give.
i.e: "CloudSigma is pleased to offer this exclusive opportunity to pre-order crypto-currency mining equipment on a risk free basis*."

Thanks Supersoloking,
In addition I also found this website, it is a startup though: https://giga-watt.com/
They claim to have the cheapest electricity in the world, in addition to selling miners at a reasonable price.
Have you heard of them, I guess they are new, but a lot of people have already paid for their ICO.
I believe they will be in operation later on this month.
What do you think of this place?

Regards
Sean

I had another email from their host.

They said they would be happy to pass on all the info they have to the police if you have filed a report.

IP, name, address, how they paid etc.

If they are US based and used their actual bank account then they might be able to catch them.

you were probably seeing a cached version.  It was taken down when I posted it.

Hi Wysi,
thx for the information.
I did file a report online ( since I am not in the US, but  it was with the Internet Crime Complaint Center) here:
https://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx

The problem is I am not sure if the culprits were in the US, although I did have a suspicion that they may have been since all their emails they sent to me was during the US working hours ( which I found to be strange since here in Asia where I live it is past midnight, yet they were replying to my emails. ).

Has anyone who got scammed live in the US?
If so could you please file a police report?

Regards

Guys,
I need your help.
After searching the internet and gatherin many clues, I think I found out the culprit.

He left an advertisement here:
https://enforum.bitmain.com/bbs/topics/4686
and here:
https://enforum.bitmain.com/bbs/topics/4630

The same picture of the thumbnail is the guy in the video below.
His Youtube channel is here:
I found his video also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=317wqakIKx8

How do we catch this guy?
Can I call the police in America from where I am in Asia?

Regards

Do you realise  anyone can take screenshot from any video? how do you know this is the guy who scammed you?  may be the scammer took screenshot from this guy's uploaded Video.

That was one of the ads that I saw -- from which I went to their website.
I think anyway that we can use to catch this guy will be great.

Thanks for the research fynxgloire!

Hello Manay24,
I do understand that anyone can take a picture from anywhere and post it up.
I am not accusing him of it.  I just found a clue.
Who knows, maybe we can trace back to the IP location to where this person posted their ad onto the BITMAIN page, right?
Don't you think that better than doing nothing?
I would rather do something than nothing, I won't ever let this individual(s) get away with stealing my hard earned money.

Regards

Hello SuperSoloKing,
I filed a consumer complaint with the FTC here: ( I did it, even though I am not American )
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#&panel1-3

I found this suspects individual homepage here:
http://mrbryceguy.000webhostapp.com/

I also tried calling the Kansas City Police Department but could not get through, they seem busy ( since his personal domain page shows a location in Kansas city as well as in Europe -> Cyprus and Lithuania )
https://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/mrbryceguy.000webhostapp.com

I will try again to call the police department during my night time ( your day time if your in America )

Regards

I went there myself after seeing a post (in the ethereum.org forums) and threw 5 in my cart... then, after my left brain smacked my right brain, I went in to my bitmain acct. (the legit site) and found they've not released the next batch.  I instantly went hunting for the truth, and I'm sorry to say I've not found anything good.

The first question one should ask themselves is; Would bitmain sell on a secondary website?   NO, I can't see why they would.
2nd; If a reseller in China actually had this kind of stock of Sept batch ASICs, would they be selling them 10% less than bitmain's release prices? NO WAY.  Sept batch S9s are selling for 7-9k, so does it make sense to sell them for $1199?

I really feel for you, and the hundreds who appear to have been swindled. They only take crypto, so I don't know of any recourse.  Which they knew as well.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'll not be ordering those 5 units.  :-\


For those who have been taken and are trying to find a legal means to start, I would suggest Interpol Cyber Crimes Division
https://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Cybercrime/Cybercrime

IF this is as big as I would imagine it is they will be very interested in finding these people.

When all of it sounds to good, it's simply not true. All of the things you mentioned are clearly to good to be true and must therefore come from a scammer.
Bitmain repeats at every possibility it has that you should only buy from their website and no other, they have no official resellers at all.
The biggest problem when not ordering from Bitmain however is the warranty. Bitmain only offers warranty to those who bought the miner on their site. When you sell your miner to someone else, you can't transfer your right for warranty, which leaves the secondhand buyer pretty helpless.

Two more good points. They are obviously pretending to be Bitmain and have scraped all of their pages.

Again, for those who have been taken and are trying to find a legal means to start, I would suggest Interpol Cyber Crimes Division
https://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Cybercrime/Cybercrime

IF this is as big as I would imagine it is they will be very interested in finding these people. Also, if these people are international with some players in the US (I highly doubt it) Interpol will bring in the FBI, and even the Secret Service.  I know, I've done it myself when I was swindled.  The guy got caught and went to jail, though I was out 30k.

Fynx did you get your money back?
Are you still looking for miners?

Hey Bigjee,
no after I got screwed from this website, then Paul, I decided to order from BITMAIN directly.
They are coming in November however, which kinda sucks.
I wanted the September batches.
Did you get your miners from Paul, or did you order from somewhere else?

Looks like i got scammed for $2k usd.
I ordered antminer D3 & psu on the promise of less than 30 day delivery

dont expect to see my money which sux...
should have looked before buying, excitement overrides caution sometimes...
This site in my research let me know others have been ripped off.
reported site to ACORN (federal police Australia online crimes division)

I ttried to call the website hosting company but only went to voicemail on US and UK ph numbers....
karma will get em one day... I hope....
I believe
antminer-store.com is a SCAM !!!!!!
 >:(

I'm sorry for you that you lost your money. You're right that the excitement often overwhelms you and than you make mistakes. A D3 for 2000$ within one month? Who in the world would make such a good price? Only those who don't want to sell anyway.

I really feel bad so many people fell for that site. Just a bunch of thieves, as if we don't have enough of those already.

I guess the Sept batches have come online.  In just 2 weeks 15gh went from $2200.00 mo. roi to $1200.00. So they must be increasing the difficulty fast. Now I know why the Sept batches were selling for as much as $10k ea. I won't be getting mine until Nov as well...sigh

But come to think of it, we who bought the Nov batch for $1500 may stand a better chance of recovering the investment than those who paid outrageous sums for the Sept batch. $10k will take almost a year now.

It's very easy to run adwords... never click on ads. always look for organic ranking website..   for antminer www.bitmain.com is the official website.

Hi there:

While I was checking websites that might provide antminers, I came across this website https://antminer-store.com/store/. After reading all your comments I have to say SCAM ALERT. This website is copying the same method used some users of the forum.

The address is the same used in the previous scam website, the whois information is recent. Maybe, these are the same guys again using the same method. They are using shop-antminer photos. If you have an open investigation, you should direct them to this website. Be careful!!!

Whois information site registered in America but selling from same Bitmain address.

RAW WHOIS DATA
Domain Name: antminer-store.com
Registry Domain ID: 2156728440_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namesilo.com
Registrar URL: https://www.namesilo.com/
Updated Date: 2017-09-29
Creation Date: 2017-08-25
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2018-08-25
Registrar: NameSilo, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 1479
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: email@namesilo.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4805240066
Reseller: QHOSTER.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Domain Administrator
Registrant Organization: See PrivacyGuardian.org
Registrant Street: 1928 E. Highland Ave. Ste F104 PMB# 255
Registrant City: Phoenix
Registrant State/Province: AZ
Registrant Postal Code: 85016
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.3478717726
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: email@privacyguardian.org
Registry Admin ID:

See some images of their website with the same data as shop-antminer.com

https://i.imgur.com/Q6mGSIf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hJ2de9P.png

I think this shows the weakness of cryptocurrency.  I never have an issue with buying online because I use paypal or a credit card.  I have some kind of protection.  With any cryptocurrency, you are using them exclusively online and have NO protection at all. 

Transactions are not reversible and pretty much not able to be tracked because there is so much anonymity.   

I'm not sure the solution, but to really go mainstream, it is going to need to be addressed.  Perhaps we will see an intermediate processor which will act as an escrow similar to a paypal, charge a small fee but offer some recourse. 

they made other scam sites which are

shop-antminer.asia
antminer-shop.com

And they adversizing their web site in google. Be careful
Also they uploded videos into youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYoKWjfQfF81ZIPl9fv2DKg/videos

https://www.bitmain.com/

Use this or amazon or other trusted listing dont buy from any site that is not recommended by pros , experts check before buying.

If its credit card just call n say u didnt make it ?
If its bitcoin sry man GG WP

I tried to open the link. The website it is no longer active. This must be a scam. It really pays to spend a little more time investigating or reading 3rd party reviews. Sorry for your loss.

They have spammed this scam site on localbitcoins forum. I have alerted admin.

See link below

https://localbitcoins.com/forums/#!/general-discussion:bitmain-antminer-s9-l3-d

hey guys sooooo SORRY to hear about everyone getting ripped off by these pieces of shit... i almost went along with it as well  lucky enough i ran the site before ordering and ran into this so thank you very much as for me i am a noob farming with gtx 970 and an i7 of 1 dollar a day haha but i am in the market of buying an S9 that i have the funds now just waiting for the next batch does anyone have experience with the T9 vs S9 ? is it worth it or not please let me know as well are they really 1415 ? and also i see the next batch release is in the end of December correct if i am wrong in any lines thanks and thanks for the help

hi to all members
sorry for this qusetion
this site is scam ? asic-antminer.com
thnaks

Thank you for pointing out this scam.  I'm starting to wonder if there is a single honest Antminer seller in the entire world that isn't a scam other than Bitmain itself (even they fail to deliver on time, though).  If anyone knows of one, please let me know.  Oh and as for the scammers that are reading this, no I will not send you Bitcoin directly.  I only purchase through an escrow service unless your business can prove to me that you aren't a scam.  If I search your name and a single scam report is online, I'll not order from you.  Sorry.

This site and others like:
http://antminer-buy.com

ARE PURE SCAM
DONT EVER BUY ANYTHING FORM THEM
THEY ARE GOING TO STEAL YOU!!!!!

It seems a legit business, they call you and everything but at the end, they become unreachable once they got paid.

Glad I found this post - they are advertising on google adwords here in the UK.

I'm unfamiliar with purchasing off US companies or doing background research but I asked them for a DUNS number (is this correct for checking out US companies?) they didnt reply.

It pricked my ears when they said they wouldnt except cards or paypal - btc only

How can fraud like this continue to be so widely available for so long - even through adwords on the domain listed here over a year ago and flagged up?

Hope no-one else gets bitten by this.

DO NOT BUY any product on https://antminer.store/ !!!
I found this chat too late.
I ordered some Antminer product, but it has not arrived to this day.
They comunicate with me, but the communictaion is very poor after I payed :-(

I would like for any advice how to get money back, but I think, that it is impossible.