I am offering a $1000 USD reward for the first person that can find a way to get my 6.43 Bitcoins back from LiiteBit Mining Shop.  If you can do it, I will pay you, no questions asked (in case anyone inside the scam wants to help, I'm just in this to get my Bitcoins back).  Please message me if you have any information that could lead to me getting my funds back and to your reward - lawyers always welcome!

Thanks!

PS - Their site just went down today, so it well could be they are already in custody.  If that's the case, I sure could use a lawyer to help!

Yes, we did.  I'm sorry you were involved too.  The world of Bitcoin seems to be full of scams.  If--and this is a big IF--Bitcoin ever takes off, I suggest people invest in escrow service providers because this isn't going to stop anytime soon.  Bitcoin's greatest asset is also its biggest problem - it's final.  It won't take people long, once they start to use it, to realize what this means.  It means we'll need protection, like what Visa before it provided, to protect consumers.  Otherwise, this stuff would happen constantly.

Well in one day of missing work yesterday I got this site shut down.  Get this: they are STILL writing me too!  Yup, I got an e-mail this morning - first in several days!  They want me to take down my "negativity" to which I burst out laughing reading it.  I guess I'm in a little bit of a sour mood about losing $90,000.  Imagine that.   I wrote them saying that I would do so provided they send me the miners.  Well, I'll keep everyone informed.   But I have a hunch that this batch of idiots just really want jail time, and I might have set some things in motion that can make that happen if they don't move out of town or refund my Bitcoins or--if this is even possible--send me my miners.

As a little addition to this, all the e-mails I got from the people involved with this scam had this in the header:

X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - host3.abelohost.com
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - yahoo.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - liitebit.eu

One original e-mail was supposedly from a person named "Andreas Weiss".  Now you can make an e-mail have any name in existence on it.  I could make mine seem to say Donald Trump, for example, very easily, but the headers are not easy to spoof.  That's why they are there in fact.  Here's the rub, on their website chat correspondance form is the following warning:

"WARNING: These days we get a lot of complaints from people that got scammed by a person “Andreas Weiss” “Hans Klaver” we want to confirm that neither of them works here at LB technologies!"

Yes, I did get an e-mail with the name Andreas Weiss on it.  Later correspondence did not have this name, though.  Looking at the e-mail header, however, we find this:

X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - host3.abelohost.com
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - yahoo.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - liitebit.eu

As you can see, this e-mail did in fact originate from the domain liitebit.eu.

I need to know which police department in the Netherlands to report this issue.  Where do I call?  Which city is this?

What happened::
I ordered 29 Antminer S9s from  LIITEBIT Mining shop (https://liitebit.eu/shop/) located in the Netherlands.  I immediately received an e-mail from info@liitebit.eu confirming the account, my order, the invoice, etc.  Through two and a half weeks, I had numerous correspondences from them (maybe 50 e-mails went back and forth if not more).

Scammers Profile Link:
https://liitebit.eu/shop/

Amount Scammed: ~6.43 BTC/~$90,000 USD
Payment Method: Bitcoins via an e-mail link with the header clearly showing it from info@liitebit.eu

Proof of Payment:
https://btc-bitcore4.trezor.io/tx/909e0d55d1e0ad45921c82c2cf62eceee889cc6acb0d69e0d8686ac40e907188

PM/Chat Logs: I have 50 e-mails probably to these guys.  They kept dragging me along even eventually providing me fake tracking numbers just a few days ago, and all the e-mails are through "LB MINING COMPANY" <info@liitebit.eu>, except one curious one just today.  That one I don't want to post here because I think it's the entire key to what is going on.  Using that e-mail I think we could at a MINIMUM prove that the website is fake and, at a maximum, get someone into trouble.

Additional Notes: I am offering $1000 USD to anyone that can help me catch these guys.  I don't even care if I get the Bitcoin back because I don't think that is probably possible (they are spent).  What I want is someone to go to jail and for the website to be shut down.  Please e-mail me if you have suggestions.

PS - This is the SECOND scam I've been through now.  The first was Syan Mining.

Yeah the news is always behind.  Maybe then the FBI will take a look.  I'm sure it's already too late, though, unless the FBI started to look into months ago.

I wrote to the FBI referencing the orders I made on behalf of myself, my fiancee, and my brother.  I provided them the precise blockchain identification as found on blockchain.info, the commonality being that all three were easily traced to the same destination (0x19mb1jVLBapd5SjGAPgE4pY3uVwaNkwSNE).  You can see funds moving out of this address very easily, so I assume the FBI could do the same.  In fact just yesterday (1/17) ~14.0356 Bitcoins were moved out of the address, leaving 8.07924683.  I doubt it'll help, though, unless many people do the same.  Does anyone else know their destination addresses?

Wait a lot of people have lost 10, 20, or even 55K (between 3 orders in my family) dollars.  Now if there is a way to get these funds back, I have a thousand for you.  Can you please tell me more than "write a dozen people."  How about people exchange with me on this forum what happened to you and we do this as a group?  Doesn't that just make sense?  What is the point of having everyone write all these people if there is a recourse to be had.  I have every single thing they sent me (e-mails) and proof on the blockchain of 3 payments for 10 miners each.  Who is in with me on this? 

I live in San Jose, CA.  If someone is around here that got scammed, I'd love to chat with them at a local coffee shop or something.  I want to do this as a class of people who were thieved.  Keep in mind these guys stole MILLIONS of dollars, guys.  This isn't just some dude breaking into your home and stealing your favorite pair of slippers, a dimond ring, and your wallet.  This was a serious amount of money here.

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.

Clive "assisted" you, huh?   So you received an e-mail from him that was not obviously an automated reply?  That sounds interesting and promising.  What did he say?  Why doesn't Clive show up here and post a little something that makes us feel a little less scared to death that it's a scam then?  Surely he doesn't want his company's reputation to be in doubt, right?  See, that's the problem I have.  Normally when a company is new, they take care to be reassuring.  Most of the time they are actively involved in the community too to make sure everyone is at ease.  All I've seen from Syan Mining so far are nice forum letters stating something like "No worries.  We are real!  Promise!"   First off no company should require a forum letter to state they are real.  That usually isn't even on the table.

Yes, I got an e-mail that I had not paid (just like others here).  Of course, that is not true.  I _wish_ I had not paid since if this is a scam I have never lost anywhere near this level of money in my entire life, but I have paid IN FULL and have evidence on the blockchain of it.  I guess this might be the final chapter in the scam?  I replied to the e-mail claiming I had not paid.  I'll let you know if I get any reply that makes sense.

It's a little important to me.  If they were a member of the group, then obviously, that's who you sue.  I guess I'll need to get a lawyer involved next week.  *sigh*

So is this a true statement from Syan or not?

"Syan are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based FinTech subsidiary of the multi-national investment giant and finance conglomerate the Zahrani Group."

Has anyone confirmed any part of it?

Today the Syan Mining website is down.  I think that pretty much settles it.  Wow, I sure learned this lesson the hard way.  But still getting your hands on miners (as in bulk miners over 60 units) isn't very easy now.

Between miner companies being outright fake and others selling product many months before they can deliver, it seems buying Bitcoin miners is a minefield of unknowns.  A miner is something that has a short shelf life, potentially, such that getting it late could cause one to not even break even.  Companies should not only provide escrow but also escrow with an delivery expiration.  Why?  Because if I order from Bitmain, for example, today and they take until May but I could have ordered say from Canaan and got the product the end of March (or vice versa), that matters a lot in mining.  In fact it might be all that matters in some extreme cases.  

Wow, this was (or is) a pretty elaborate scam, folks.  Of course, the reward was a lot too.  Think about it: they have been collecting people's money since October for fake miners, quite expensive pieces of equipment.  Now Bitcoin folks and miners are not really poor people that can probably afford it too.  A lot of people in Bitcoin became pretty wealthy over the last few years--it was almost hard to touch the whole thing without making quite a bit of money--so it's a deep pool of money to attack.  I wouldn't be surprised if Syan collected a million or two in Bitcoin since October, maybe more.  I guess this just goes to show me personally that Bitcoin products and services need to be vetted a lot more skeptically than others I've ever been involved in.  It seems that these people probably come from the dark corners of the web for which we owe Bitcoin's origins.  It's sure taught me a thing or two.

Yeah everyone hopes its real.  That is what scams are usually like though - things we wish were true that let one's guard down.  Looking back on this, I should have my head examined for ordering these from them.  I will never trust in anything you buy for Bitcoin again.

So I got an email stating that I can open an escrow via the bank for units I already paid for (which makes no sense at all).   I requested that they first return my original payment, but I haven't heard back from them. Here's the e-mail (has a couple spelling errors but really should have zero):


Dear Sir/Mme,

Provision of escrow has been initiated by: Syan Technologies
Ltd
Escrow#: ST1503682
Description of goods/service: Vega Bitcoin Digital Currency
Miner
Order: #36482
Quantity: 10

Your name/shipping address:
<removed>

Payee: Syan Technologies Ltd
Escrow amount: $17,530.00
Escrow fee 5%: $876.50
Total amount payable: $18,406.50
*Currency calculated in USD

Please make payment to the following account:

Payment information:
Account name: Patrick J Gleeson
Account number: 154-2-22067-6
Bank name: Kasikorn Bank PCL
SWIFT: KASITHBK
Bank address: 1 Soi Kasikornthai, Ratburana Road, Bangkok
10140, Thailand.
*Include your escrow number in the comments of your wire
transfer to 
help expedite your confirmation.

Important information:

1. Once you have made payment, reply to this email with copy
of the 
transfer receipt.
2. Your funds will not be released to the vendor until we
have 
received acknowledgement of receipt of your goods/services
as ordered.
3. Once the vendor has shipped, you will be notified by us
with 
shipping details and tracking number for your reference.
4. If you fail to receive the goods, please contact us back
at this 
email address within 30 days of your shipping notification
to initiate 
the returns process.

Please call or email if you require any further assistance.


Martin Gleeson Law Ltd.
Tel: +852 9602 6388

Langham Place Office Tower,
516-596 Shanghai Street,
Yau Tsim Mong,
Kowloon,
Hong Kong.

CRC Tower,
87/1 Wireless Road,
Pathum Wan,
Bangkok,
Thailand.

www.martingleeson.com


Please read the following carefully and keep for your
records.


Martin Gleeson Law Ltd
ESCROW AGREEMENT
Terms and Conditions
Syan Technologies Ltd of Kinwick Center, Hollywood Road,
Central, Hong 
Kong, (“The Seller”)

and

yourself (“The Purchaser”)

have agreed to appoint

Martin Gleeson Law Ltd of Langham Place Office Tower,
Kowloon, Hong 
Kong  (“The Escrow Agent”)

to hold the amount agreed in the attached order document for
the term 
of this agreement.
Furthermore, the Escrow Agent is willing and able to accept
such 
responsibilities as well as act in compliance with this
escrow 
agreement in its entirety.
In the instance any disagreement shall arise, the Parties
agree the 
Escrow Agent shall not be held liable for any costs,
damages, or 
losses that may arise from duties performed.
Furthermore, unless written permission has been received
from the 
Parties by the Escrow Agent then no releases or
disbursements shall be 
made.
If such disagreement between the Seller and Purchaser does
occur the 
Escrow Agent will have the right to be discharged from this
agreement 
by turning all agreements and documentation over to the
jurisdiction 
responsible for this agreement.
Any and all costs to the Escrow Agent from such proceedings
shall be 
the responsibility of the Seller and Purchaser.
This agreement is for the benefit of the Escrow Agent,
Seller and Purchaser.
Furthermore, all parties agree there are no beneficial
results for any 
third parties nor will third parties be involved in any
decisions for 
this escrow agreement.

Escrow
All funds received with regard to this escrow agreement
shall be 
deposited into a federally insured bank money market
account.
Any fees due to the Escrow Agent, including shipping fees,
at the time 
of disbursement request may be deducted from the escrow
disbursement 
amount prior to disbursement.
The Escrow Agent will not be permitted to combine personal
accounts 
with the escrow funds at any time during the period of this
escrow 
agreement.
The Escrow Agent will hold any notifications and
instructions they may 
receive as valid without the requirement to investigate or
question 
the sender.

Notification
With written notice from both the Seller and the Purchaser
the Escrow 
Agent will disburse the funds based on the instructions
provided 
within such notice.
The written notice inclusive of directions for disbursement
may be 
delivered in person or via facsimile.
Notification must be provided to the Escrow Agent no less
than 24 
hours before the disbursements scheduled delivery.

Liabilities
Under the following circumstances the Escrow Agent shall not
be held 
liable or found at fault,
    •    For any omission or
error by a party other than the Escrow Agent 
themselves.
    •    Any loss of funds
directly related to the suspension, insolvency, 
or failure of the funds or the bank themselves.
    •    Any legal
proceedings between the Purchaser and Seller
    •    Any and all
interest accrued during the term of this Escrow 
Agreement shall be property of the Purchaser and shall be
disbursed as 
so.

Agreement
By sending the funds as indicated above you agree to have
read and 
understood the terms and conditions outlined in this escrow
agreement.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This email and any files transmitted with it are
confidential and 
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to
whom they 
are addressed. If you have received this email in error
please notify 
the system manager. This message contains confidential
information and 
is intended only for the individual named. If you are not
the named 
addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy
this e-mail. 
Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have
received 
this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your
system. If you 
are not the intended recipient you are notified that
disclosing, 
copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on
the contents 
of this information is strictly prohibited.


-----Inline Attachment Follows-----

When I placed my order I sure wish they had continued to provide the 2% digital escrow option.  It's gone now (although it was around even in November).  I wonder why?  My guess is that it's hard to escrow a moving target like that, or if they do, they'd need to put escrow just on the dollar value of the crypto at the time of receiving it.

I also just received the below e-mail verbatim.  It's a form letter!  In my reply to the form letter, I asked for a full refund along with two others that ordered (each of them as also individually requested a refund from their e-mail addresses).  I will report if I get the refund, but if I don't, I think more than this forum should be informed of these guys.  There were articles (one of them by Bloomberg) that reported on these guys as legit, and believe it or not, I felt that mattered!  Those publications and others should be immediately informed if I or the two others that ordered 10 too don't see their orders refunded.  This scam is going to end up costing people millions maybe!  It should be stopped if that is indeed what it is!  

Also for others that were pulled into this, I am sorry and I doubt you lost as much as I did (I'm also new to mining and was not aware that this crap had gone down before).  It irritates me that many people on this forum seem to think everyone who sort of wants these to exist so was maybe a little gullible like I was are stupid and should be berated.  I assure you, I'm not stupid, and come on, people, show a little compassion!  Like others, I really did want these to exist because I have dozens of Antminer S9s and they run very hot as everyone knows.  If these miners do exist (something I think is unlikely now), they sure would be an Antminer S9 killer, but I also know that if flying rainbow fur unicorns existed that shit gold nuggets, they'd be a nice ride and money maker too.

Roger

PS - Has anyone even attempted to contact the FBI about this?  Obviously if someone is stealing millions in Bitcoin via a non-dark web website no less, it seems to me it should be traceable.

Just lost 0.53 BitCoin (now ~$330) on this www.goldxcash.net.  I didn't realize that scam sites were common with BitCoin.  I understand now.  I guess the internet is now full of BitCoin scams, and the sites that are stealing never go down (this site has been scamming hundreds of thousands I'm sure over the last year)

How do I add this to the top reference?  Also is there a way we can tie this list into a checker app of some sort?