Track down the thief?

[nbnBokayUH]

I did something very stupid recently.
On Sep 19, I sent 8.25 BTC to a web service that claimed to be an BTC to PayPal exchange.
The site is http://www.paypal-btc.com

It says they're in California.  They're not.  The phone number forwards to a spanish telecom company (Puntacom?).  The physical address in California is actually a health insurance company, I think.  Yes, I should have double checked this before I traded.  Really, I should have just used Gyft but I wasn't thinking straight.  The price of BTC was falling and I panicked and tried to cash out some coin.

Dumb.  Dumb.  Dumb.

So here's my question: is there any way to track down the thief?  Are there any online tools to tie the BTC address to a real person?

[Balls]

So here's my question: is there any way to track down the thief?  Are there any online tools to tie the BTC address to a real person?

Google? Very unlikely you will track anyone down and even more unlikely that you'll ever get your money back. If you post the transaction ID you could try follow the money but you'll end up at a dead end somewhere. I'd just forget about it as painful as it may be and learn your lesson.

[deepceleron]

The BTC is gone. Scam site. The only way you might identify the individual is law enforcement action against the domain registrar or web host information, which likely were also set up anonymously. The domain registrar is in Malaysia; aggressive reporting of the abuse to them may result in the domain register protection giving up the name or the registrar dropping the reg so that others aren't scammed.

Where did you find out about this "service"? It was only registered two months ago. The user popped into a few forums posting the link with broken English and disappeared.

https://www.bitcoinforum.com/bitcoin-exchange/bitcoin-exchange-service-httppaypal-btc-com/
https://bitcointa.lk/threads/new-exchanger-www-paypal-btc-com.331598/
(that's a rip of this site, the user https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=346576 posts were deleted from this forum). Forum mods may give up the IP to law enforcement but it also is likely anonymized.

Domain Name:paypal-btc.com
Registry Domain ID:
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.webnic.cc
Registrar URL: webnic.cc
Updated Date:2014-06-21 18:03:06
Creation Date:2014-06-21 18:03:09
Registrar Registration Expiration Date:2015-06-21 10:03:08
Registrar:WEBCC
Registrar IANA ID:460
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:compliance_abuse@webnic.cc
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone:+603 8996 6799
Domain Status:Protected
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name:Team CINIPAC WHOIS PROTECTION Team CINIPAC WHOIS PROTECTION
Registrant Organization:CINIPAC IBC
Registrant Street:Unit No C-6-25 Centrio, Pantai Hillpark No 1 Jalan Pantai Murni Pantai Hillpark
Registrant City:Kuala Lumpur
Registrant State/Province:Kuala Lumpur
Registrant Postal Code:59200
Registrant Country:my
Registrant Phone:+1.2024701095
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:+0.0
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:abuse@cinipac.com
Registry Admin ID:

[deepceleron]

You can at least post the transaction ID sending the money, so we can watch the money go from their address elsewhere.

[nbnBokayUH]

https://blockchain.info/tx/8b0fb2791ab3aabaf2f321ebe1312336eb33c05ce12adc5d723732d65f291105

[deepceleron]

https://blockchain.info/tx/8b0fb2791ab3aabaf2f321ebe1312336eb33c05ce12adc5d723732d65f291105

That's the same address as the website gave me also, not so creative. Nobody else has sent them money to that address, and it is still in the address, so I guess we will see if the scammer notices they got money.

[Yuki1988]

https://blockchain.info/tx/8b0fb2791ab3aabaf2f321ebe1312336eb33c05ce12adc5d723732d65f291105

That's the same address as the website gave me also, not so creative. Nobody else has sent them money to that address, and it is still in the address, so I guess we will see if the scammer notices they got money.

The site is giving me a different address, more precisely, a different address whenever I refresh the page.
One of them is 1HFHaM6SbDCzM6Dh4W8snjWcTavQ1xVrtV which has received 0.23175622 BTC.
Another one is 1FSWCBJe2jrQBM4QFVvbxpMsDy2QAwS4pj which has received 2.160263 BTC.

[nbnBokayUH]

I sent the BTC to 1A7HTWyrjEyqCN7LrW3Xozr4w4zB7pAELM
He knows he's got it - there are two transactions since 9/19.

If you can find it, you can keep it.

[busterroni]

I sent a message to the host of the site, webnic.cc. Hopefully something will be done. I'll try to get your btc back, I hate scammers.

[busterroni]

Update: Got this message from the report abuse email:

Hello,

thanks for the notice.
We will investigate this and if needed suspend the account.

Site is now suspended!! No one else will be scammed from it!

[deepceleron]

Update: Got this message from the report abuse email:

Hello,

thanks for the notice.
We will investigate this and if needed suspend the account.

Site is now suspended!! No one else will be scammed from it!

Good show!

Since the scammer used domain privacy, the legal owner of the domain name was the privacy company. Since they, as the responsible party, would be liable for crimes and abuse, registrars are usually quick to revoke regs that are done with privacy.

[techgeek]

Ouch... 8 BTC

It seems like you are taking the right steps, but I dont think you`ll get any luck of getting the btc back though.

Unless you know the private keys to that address or know satoshi nakamoto.

[busterroni]

Ouch... 8 BTC

It seems like you are taking the right steps, but I dont think you`ll get any luck of getting the btc back though.

Unless you know the private keys to that address or know satoshi nakamoto.

How would knowing satoshi help get their btc back?

[Shogen]

Ouch... 8 BTC

It seems like you are taking the right steps, but I dont think you`ll get any luck of getting the btc back though.

Unless you know the private keys to that address or know satoshi nakamoto.

How would knowing satoshi help get their btc back?

Knowing satoshi won't help you track down the thief or get the bitcoin back, but if you are a friend of satoshi, he probably won't mind sharing a few spare bitcoin with you lol.

[busterroni]

Ouch... 8 BTC

It seems like you are taking the right steps, but I dont think you`ll get any luck of getting the btc back though.

Unless you know the private keys to that address or know satoshi nakamoto.

How would knowing satoshi help get their btc back?

Knowing satoshi won't help you track down the thief or get the bitcoin back, but if you are a friend of satoshi, he probably won't mind sharing a few spare bitcoin with you lol.

If you're a friend of satoshi, you probably don't even know he's satoshi

[Usernamw]

Sorry for your loss.

[Golden-Fox]

Update: Got this message from the report abuse email:

Hello,

thanks for the notice.
We will investigate this and if needed suspend the account.

Site is now suspended!! No one else will be scammed from it!

It's a good news for all of us. I feel very sorry for his lose. I hope on one will be scammed in future.

[Jamie_Boulder]

Keep tracking where it's sent, try to tie an identity to one of those addresses and if you're lucky you'll find a name to give to your authorities.

Unfortunately with such a small sum you will have to do your own investigating, sorry for your loss.