Bitcoin Forum

BTC Jam ended up being a massive scam.   At first I thought it was acting a bit weird, then I looked in detail at my account.  

BTCJam closed this year suddenly.   What was alarming, is the amount of defaulted loans I had been awarded, nearly every Bitcoin i lent on the site went unpaid back.  That is fine, I understand that might happen, but then it got greasier.

I looked into the arbitration notices I was awarded -  Arbitration notices from a "lawyer firm" saying the debtor owes the creditor.  Well, that is where they used a fake law firm, a law firm that doesn't exist at all.  It's completely fake and the arbitration notices are completely useless.

Then I looked back at what I was owed.  The account shows 3 important things - AMOUNT LENT, AMOUNT PAID, REMAINING BALANCE.  A simple equation.  Well to my alarm, the amount lent wouldn't line up with ANY of the remaining balances or the amount paid - BTCJam was spoofing these numbers to say that far more of the loan was paid off then actually was.

I am not sure what to do but this seems  like a pretty big case of fraud IMO.


https://imgur.com/a/bRRZg https://imgur.com/a/bRRZg
https://imgur.com/a/xT2Dd https://imgur.com/a/xT2Dd

Am I the only one who had experience with them?

The concept of the site was good and had great intent to provide loans to people who need it. The problem came out when, the abusers came on to the site. Since things are automated in their system, the abusers were able to find ways to appear legit, but in truth they weren't. So in short, there were users that just registered there with the sole intent of just defaulting.

I wouldnt say BTCJam itself was a scam. They had a good concept but bad execution. Like michkima said, that people were able to abuse the system. Some would use fake identities (including stolen ones), and they would ask for a loan with the majority with no intention of repaying. When it came to those who did default, the system afterwards but then broken because it would go through some weird arbitration,then what is done from there is up to the lender, though depending on the award amount, you might as well write it off. There are other p2p btc sites out there, some which have done way better than btcjam in terms of validating ID properly, income, etc.

Read my post.  They issued arbitration notices from a lawyer that literary is made up.  They are spoofing numbers in the dashboard.  They are completely involved.

Aside from the lending on the forum here where some level of standard is maintained to ensure that collateral is solid, the individual who defaults can be called out, and there is some verification before it can be given out which put control to have a full blown scamming activities, all other platforms are mainly to scam people but they would do it gradually to make people relax before launching which is their primary objective.

There is nothing you can do though because what you should have verified first before partying with your funds only came to your attention when your funds has gone. But its good that you are bringing it out for awareness purpose so others can see and be weary of those that will still come and promise more of this.

So what I gather from the comments is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with creating a lending platform with the idea of stealing everyone's paper and defaulting on loans.  So you botch the in-acount numbers, you falsify transactions, you create a fake lawyer with fake arbitration notices and it's all good?  Yeah, right.

I tagged users on that platform for months - but no one paid any attention.

Finally, I just had to let it go.

Are you willing to shell out the lawyer money in advance of receiving a settlement?  The scammer that ran that has probably hidden all his assets...

It might not necessarily be illegal in their jurisdiction, never thought to check where they were from.
You can't usually start a criminal case in your country and have the defendent be imported and detained.

NO.

And they didn't suddenly close, they gave everyone a year to withdraw nothing they had on the platform (minimum withdrawal was something like 0.005BTC wasn't it)?

And, I remember investing in two loand. One was a server farm who I think managed to repay (or came close to anyway) and one who just didn't. Those users were given too much of an option to run and no option to stay and see what they can get to give people back - free money to them probably.

When registering with a site like that, you must realise that a lot of people will scam.
There wasn't even an option to give lones with collateral (there were just highly manipulated ratings that people had).

I used to believe btcjam was legit but after a while i left.

No man.  Not the websites them selves.  People are shady, but fuck anyone who sets up a website like this to fuck people over.

BTCJam overall plan was just a bad execution. On top of that, any platform where you lend on you will have a form of risk, rather if its in crypto or fiat.

This really makes you appreciate how sophisticated US banks are. They lend a trillion dollars or so, often without collateral, to borrowers based mostly on FICO scores and manage to not only stay in business but make a good profit.

Well, they do have much more influence and actual executable power unlike smaller businesses and companies - sophisticated and experienced, definitely.