Bitcoin Forum

There has been a lack in communication from bit spend. They have given deadlines and then broken them without a single word. Many are beginning to think this was a scam and they cut it off as soon as they got popular.

We are unsure of any recourse, but the owner Justin Whelchel's information can be found easily with google. If he was scamming he is very very stupid.

I ordered something from Bitspend on June 14th and paid for it on June 18th. I haven't heard anything back from them yet. Bitspend hasn't answered any of my emails, posts on the /r/Bitspend subreddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/BitSpend/), or any of my multiple support tickets. This was a digital item, so there is no way it could have gotten lost in the mail or anything - they just simply did not deliver on their end of the promise.

Right now Bitspend is holding about 0.23 BTC of mine and thousands of dollars belonging to other customers. Just take a look here (http://www.reddit.com/r/BitSpend/) for some of the many unanswered complaints from customers. They simply took peoples' money and ran.

19 days ago, the 'Bitspend CEO' (Justin Whelchel) posted this (http://www.reddit.com/r/BitSpend/comments/1i2ikw/update_orders_to_begin_processing_next_week/) on Reddit, stating "Orders to begin processing next week." That never happened. There has been no word from Bitspend since that short, obviously untrue post.

Did you know that?

http://www.coindesk.com/bitspend-ceases-trading-due-to-frozen-accounts/

I was entirely understanding of the situation when they announced these issues, currently they have ~11BTC worth of my money.

I had placed an order with them through ebay around June 10th, and even saw the auction end appropriately, however the item has never arrived, and they will not respond to any email questions. This is entirely unacceptable, I wasnt even looking to hound them down for money, just to proxy questions to their ebay sellers! They do not require their bank accounts to answer email!

Shame on you bitspend/Justin! If I don't see answers soon the next time I am in the Florida area I will go looking for answers.

I think this is the most troubling part of the situation. People would probably be more understanding if there was at least some sort of communication from Bitspend, but for the most part there has not been. Most customers did not have their issues addressed personally, and were only given vague statements full of false promises from the Bitspend reddit account.

Yeah, this is kinda sad. BTC could still be returned back to the users.  I added them to bitcoinscammers not because I think they are scammers but so people can vent and the owners may or may not respond. Good luck everyone

I have purchased roughtly $1000 worth of equipment using their website over the course of more than a month, and I can prove it to.

As of last month BitSpend's bank accounts have been seized with no reason given, including ALL AND ANY MONEY they could have. They are essentially broke now, and they have no way to convert the Bitcoins they are given to US dollars, NOR do they even have money to make employees process and give refunds. THEY DO NEED A BANK TO PROCESS EMAILS BECAUSE A BANK HOLDS ALL OF THEIR MONEY, AND WITHOUT MONEY YOU CAN NOT PAY EMPLOYEES!

Geez, guys. Do your research.

They also have their office address listed online, for people to visit. I should go visit it today as it's in the same city that I reside in.  

Edit: Put their address in on my GPS and I'm currently 5 miles away from their office. Geez. I should seek a method of transport. xD

Take it easy, you're the first person to respond back to this thread. I think it's great you did step up and would like to put your situation on bitcoinscammers.com. All views are welcome!

Hey guys. Some more information.

So everyone knows. BitSpend has publicized their office addresses since the start. If anyone would like to visit the offices, here it is.


Furthermore, if you were a customer, You likely have a house address of one of the employees, as some purchases required home addresses for the billing address. I also have one of their home addresses on the packaging slip of one of my purchases with them. Like this one, of a GPU I bought.

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

I will not publicize their home address, but if you were a customer you can check your packaging slips if you purchased from Amazon to confirm legitimacy.

It just seems unlikely to me that a scammer would make themselves so vulnerable and be so open.

Cheers.

Good information, Thanks for posting that as it adds to credibility.

So i guess there is nothing to do to get our money back? looks like I will be seeing mr. Justin Whelchel in court.

How much does Bitspend owe you in BTC?

about 10

Can you comment with the order date, exact amount transacted in BTC, and TX details on this (http://www.reddit.com/r/BitSpend/comments/1jzzlr/how_much_money_of_yours_does_bitspend_have/) thread on reddit? Otherwise, you can just PM me here and I can add it to the post myself.

You need to get a lot more concrete than that.

Proof etc.

How long after ignoring all communications can we call this a scam? It is so obvious that it hurts.

Bitspend Also scammed me $800+

It is likely that many BitSpend employees have had all or many of their services disconnected due to their lack of money, of course due to their banks ceasing all of their funds.

It is also possible that BitSpend employees have been arrested for "money laundering" charges for appearing as a currency conversion service to the authorities, in a similar situation to what happened with MtGox initially. Although I consider this less likely.

What I think is least likely is that BitSpend employees have run off with the BTC that their website got from payments to orders that have been placed around or after their bank accounts were seized, although it is unfortunately possible.

However do consider the situation. Do consider that it's possible that BitSpend has not provided updates simply because they have been unable to.

Consequently, I expect that they will be active again and will be refunding everyone's money within the next 30-60 days. However, I can not be sure. If they have been arrested for frivolous money laundering charges, it may take much longer, as their equipment may have been ceased as well(?).

It is also possible that I can go visit this address that was on my packaging slip, which I expect is an address of an employee, and casually ask questions, to potentially get this mystery resolved, in the coming week. As I think my rebate card may have been accidentally mailed there, anyways. (This was my mistake, not their doing) If I can go, I will attempt to take some video or something to settle the case.

Cheers.

~Re

Please do if possible.

This is what is attached to his amazon account, since Recat was so kind to blur it out.

1300 20th Ave Hollywood, FL 33020 United States

I did not disclose that address. Whether or not it is correct, I believe it is against forum rules to disclose personal information in public.

Bingo

Sorry, but you can post information relevant to a scammer to help others from being scammed.

Releasing their private information does not prevent people from being "scammed". The website has now been disabled to make it impossible to place new orders. So you simply can not be "scammed" anymore. The releasing of that address does not help the situation at all.

In fact, By releasing that address, all you are doing is putting the individual and his family in danger of violence from angry and maybe even irrational past customers, as well as invading his privacy in a manner can be considered unlawful.

That's just not civil.

I had a shipping from Amazon->Bitspend->Me and they did email me that the item had arrived to Bitspend warehouse and they would be shipping it to me the next day. Well, they announced their problems just after that and I never got my items. I emailed them and got an answer, something like "Sorry, did we already reship your item to you?".. I answered and now it's been over a month and nothing happened.

My order was marked as paid & ordered weeks before they shut down. I think its obvious they were planning to scam, and they are holding onto all the items

Yeah, that is the trend of what I have been hearing about them. Hopefully the won't start the trend where the shut down and reopen under another name. (If they already haven't)

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

I can go check out the BitSpend offices. But I need someone's help. Since I'm still a student, I don't have a car to go on my own.

If I receive a donation of 0.1 BTC or more to 1recatirpHBjR9sxgabB3RDtM6TgntYUW , I can go get it cashed out and go visit the office, and provide all the information I can gather. (In photos/videos)

Why trust me? Well...It's only 0.1 BTC, afterall. :P

If anyone's wondering why he reposted it, it's because Pastebin removed his previous paste due to - you guessed it or not - terms of use violations.

This information is for you and for your lawyers and whatnot, not for the public.

Threatening to sue is going to do nothing, and I am doubtful anyone is going to do it for you. So just go ahead and do it, although realize that it ain't cheap.

It seems the pastebin website owners disagreed with you.

If they are the ones that scammed you it's better to have the info then not. 

I suppose so. I just fear that they might be legitimate people who made stupid mistakes, and some angry person will threaten them/their family/children, since they know where they live. What if one of the people who lost money on bitspend are prepared to murder from their anger?

It's just not safe to release that to a tank of piranhas.

But what do I care. I just hope someone can actually do something rather than threaten to sue and blah blah, and finally get this sorted out.

BitSpend did me many favors (Very kindly refunded products because of their error and such) and I hope they're not assholes that are headed to jail.

I agree with ya on that.

So why is there not a real reaction to this scam? Were not many people scammed? Or do people have disposable coins and don't care that they were scammed?

No, it's the fact that what you're doing is absolutely disgusting. Bitspend had their accounts shut down, it's too early to draw conclusions, yet you're publicizing all of the owner's personal information and putting him at risk.

It might be because it's too early to tell. Even a lawyer may tell you to wait a month or so more.

You ought to take action, and solve the mystery for everyone else while you're at it.

If your bank account was shut down and you were working to fix the situation and you were the guys running BitSpend, would you appreciate some aggressive customer with disgusting practices trying to tear you to shreds?

Valid point, He is rather an asshole.

If you're out of hundreds of dollars and you were waiting for the situation to be fixed and you were a customer of Bitspend, would you appreciate some negligent business with disgusting practices trying to steal your money?

There are no updates to post.

It would basically be saying.

"Yep, Bank still has our funds."


"Still waiting on the bank."

...

Etc.

Of course there are updates to post. The last update from Bitspend was this (http://www.reddit.com/r/BitSpend/comments/1i2ikw/update_orders_to_begin_processing_next_week/), posted one month ago, which claimed paid orders would be processed the following week. That never happened. You don't think we deserve an update explaining why this never happened, and more importantly, what the current situation is? All we know is that their funds were allegedly frozen by Chase. And of that claim, we were presented no proof by Bitspend. There absolutely are updates that should be posted by Bitspend. You have so far said some reasonable things (we shouldn't start a witch-hunt, we shouldn't be too quick to draw conclusions, etc.), but to say that we are not owed an explanation is ridiculous.

No arrest records for Bitspend employees have been found.

User notforlackoftrying (http://www.reddit.com/user/notforlackoftrying) commented the following on this (http://hhttp://www.reddit.com/r/BitSpend/comments/1kjz2r/theories_on_what_could_have_happened_to_bitspend/cbpu4py) post to /r/Bitspend on reddit:

I could investigate, but time and gas is money. :P of which I don't have to spare.

I have talked to the owner of bitspend through reddit. He agreed to post an update tonight. He says he has refunded about 15%

Well ain't he such an evil scammer. :P

All have been arrested.

Evidence or is this a theory?

Where's that update?

Care to link to the public police records? In what state have they been arrested? None of this is found in florida public records for all the names we could find associated with BitSpend.

He said
"I wanted to have more concrete dates before I posted. I'll be posting soon with that info."

So, he's not intending to scam us then? Can you clarify that for us?

I am not a mind reader.

I was asking for your opinion on the subject, as you are the one who communicated with him directly.

May 31 I ordered some tshirts and i got a email that the package was sent to my adress with the a screenshot of the order notice and the adderss was wrong, it stood i lived in Florida instead of Netherlands. I know that i gave the right address as i had ordered things from Bitspend before. As soon as i got their email i responded that it was wrong. The package has not arrived of course and i havent gotten any response from them since. The same day i ordered some other things from a different homepage and that package has arrived.  I see the money as lost but i just wanted a response from them or at least a email saying their sorry.  Im more angry of the lack of response then the money/package getting lost.

As far as I am aware bitspend has been unable to operate in any fashion for a good long while. I think your first order got lost and then they went out of business and were unable to respond later on.

new message on http://bitspend.net/

I was right all along. Knew it. Nobody ever believes me.

Except you aren't. Nothing from this scumbag still.

I'm afraid you just might be right... Quite sad. Scam or not BitSpend could have made /so much/ honest money, throwing away that opportunity to steal user funds is just dumb.

Just watch, now that the price dropped they can cover. I have seen this with all the sites. I wouldn't be shocked is an apology came out.

Better than nothing imo