legal action against scamming ponzis

[crazyearner]

If many people have invested small amounts of bitcoins into a company that was not what the investor was expecting. Could these people get together and take legal action against the company if they could fund the legal fees through amounts smaller than their investments.

Where are you located?

For legal advice / a lawyer in London please email Richard Howlett at Selachii LLP - +44 (0) 20 7792 5649 - info@selachii.co.uk

I am located in Manchester but have only gambled small amounts (highest of 0.005 btc) but I know people have lost substancial amounts of bitcoins and was asking n behalf of these people from companies such as Emicoin where people hav elost over £100000 in investments! (Why someone would put that amount of money into an investment that has a chance of not being legit, i do not know!)

With the legal advise your providing in London what services are provided any actions work on a no win no fee price structure? As I would be interested in finding out more information and also reporting a number if company's that claim are a registered business within the UK however not even located at where they claim to be at and continue to make posts and comments on here. Theirs a wide range of programs that people are getting shafted in and open cases against them yet still claim are legit, and fully registered in UK but even their office is not at the address claiming to be at.

[epiwssa]

If many people have invested small amounts of bitcoins into a company that was not what the investor was expecting. Could these people get together and take legal action against the company if they could fund the legal fees through amounts smaller than their investments.

Yes. In the U.S., contact the FBI and the SEC.

Not a horrible option, actually. The more information you have when going to either of these agencies, the better off you are. Unless you're some high-and-mighty soul, though, you're not going to get these federal agencies to jump to attention unless they've pulled a very, very significant amount of money.

This also assumes the scammers can be traced to the United States. But if that's the case, I'd call the IRS -- they like their share and are willing to chase it with a lower threshold than the FBI or SEC.

[ashour]

Yes you can take legal action against ponzi operators as long as you know who exactly operated it. You will also need accurate evidence that the person operate the ponzi scheme, before taking any legal action.

That is true however good luck in finding who exactly operated it most hide with fake details, ip addresses, VPN proxy and then some or run them on servers and domains like http://www.goldcoders.com/ no doubt will host or provide you details on how to run a successful scam as they ran for many years providing the scripts to make them. Even some of the biggest ones running didn't find but governments closed the site down or got them suspended. Some have indeed been found out but took a long time to do so but even then and have seen no justice was served.

Yep, its always a tricky situation with ponzi schemes. That's why I think that bitcointalk should ban any ponzi scheme activity from this forums. More scams will just hurt the bitcoin reputation and image.

Would be nice to have more control over ponzi schemes or some sort of escrow done provided and only sites that have an escrow done ie middle man service are allowed to be listed. Any others, are subject to being closed or put into another section, where it is more risky and highlighted as high risk and another section with low, medium risk involved, as theirs middle man service that acts as a "backup Fund" and can payout if people lose deposits or x amount is available to be returned etc. But Bitcointalk support wont do that anytime soon.

Ponies wouldn't exist if they operated with escrow, ponzis are there so the operate can run with the bitcoins.

[crazyearner]

Yes you can take legal action against ponzi operators as long as you know who exactly operated it. You will also need accurate evidence that the person operate the ponzi scheme, before taking any legal action.

That is true however good luck in finding who exactly operated it most hide with fake details, ip addresses, VPN proxy and then some or run them on servers and domains like http://www.goldcoders.com/ no doubt will host or provide you details on how to run a successful scam as they ran for many years providing the scripts to make them. Even some of the biggest ones running didn't find but governments closed the site down or got them suspended. Some have indeed been found out but took a long time to do so but even then and have seen no justice was served.

Yep, its always a tricky situation with ponzi schemes. That's why I think that bitcointalk should ban any ponzi scheme activity from this forums. More scams will just hurt the bitcoin reputation and image.

Would be nice to have more control over ponzi schemes or some sort of escrow done provided and only sites that have an escrow done ie middle man service are allowed to be listed. Any others, are subject to being closed or put into another section, where it is more risky and highlighted as high risk and another section with low, medium risk involved, as theirs middle man service that acts as a "backup Fund" and can payout if people lose deposits or x amount is available to be returned etc. But Bitcointalk support wont do that anytime soon.

Ponies wouldn't exist if they operated with escrow, ponzis are there so the operate can run with the bitcoins.

Nothing can be done to prevent them from being made. It is our own choice deciding to paly the game of them and right now too many popping up it is going back to like the days with e-gold and hyip and ponzi being able to rip many people off and get away with it. The only difference back then they got closed down by governments because of how much $ where bringing people and governments classed as ponzi or hyip. Where some really good ones such as 12dailypro back then 12% daily for 12 days and paid for almost 2 years or so and then eventually due to how big it got in the US government actually closed it down. Only way to put a stop to the scams is having some escrow but wont happen on here as default. Would be nice to have such a feature only allowed to list if part funds are escrow.

[odolvlobo]

Yep, its always a tricky situation with ponzi schemes. That's why I think that bitcointalk should ban any ponzi scheme activity from this forums. More scams will just hurt the bitcoin reputation and image.

I assume that Bitcointalk doesn't ban scams intentionally because doing so could open them up to a lawsuit when they don't ban something that turns out to be a scam.

Would be nice to have more control over ponzi schemes or some sort of escrow done provided and only sites that have an escrow done ie middle man service are allowed to be listed. Any others, are subject to being closed or put into another section, where it is more risky and highlighted as high risk and another section with low, medium risk involved, as theirs middle man service that acts as a "backup Fund" and can payout if people lose deposits or x amount is available to be returned etc. But Bitcointalk support wont do that anytime soon.

Ponies wouldn't exist if they operated with escrow, ponzis are there so the operate can run with the bitcoins.

Escrow? Sure, you can't operate a ponzi scheme with escrow, but you can't operate a legitimate investment either.

[mitchellmint]

I stuck my neck out, posted all my personal information when I produced a coin.  I have been very careful about providing information about the coin so they can make a conscious decision about where to invest.  I do not posses a Series 66 to tell people to invest.  What I have pursued is FUDsters.  There are people that have lost money due to their accusations not to buy but to Sell.  The Anon FUD is usually orchestrating a pump and dump. 

I have plans of taking the coins I have mined to hedge the coin I produced.  I have met, on the internet, the coins developers I can trust.  Coin launches are all about mine for a day and baghold investors.  I stopped mining until last August.  I took a chance to rejoin the game with Axiom and FutureCash with $80 worth of Hash.  Its gone.  I did not sell out but could very easily made $400 praying upon the people buying into the future of the coin.  Its not what I think is right and fair.  All coins at market slope down, then stay flat for 6-9 months and die.  Only 50 coins are still viable.

My tips to stay out of strife and wanting to sue a dev,

1. Make sure they buy a 3rd Party block explorer, CryptoID or BlockExperts.  If you want to have some real fun, make your own block explorer.
2. src/main.cpp tells all.  Control + F to find "reward"  You will see if there are any hidden premines or instamines.
3. If you are into profiting on a launch, your risks of being a bagholder are high.  Every coin slopes down after launch.
4. Wait 90 days and see if the Dev is still there.  Most bail after 90 days.
5. I prefer to invest into only 9 month or older chains.