UPDATED: https://prnt.sc/10lp0wg SS Of their reply ACKNOWLEDGING they saw the links I sent them.I am going to post some accusations against Changelly that are UNDENIABLE, so in reality, they arent actually "accusations", they are FACTS proven by both BTC and Firo ledgers as well as their OWN centralized DB ledger. I dont know if this rises to the level of needed a "SCAM" thread or not, so I'm using their own service thread instead.
When the situation occurred, I recognized it IMMEDIATELY and I began the 'support' process as early as I could since I knew that that possibility of the TX ID disappearing was extremely high which would result in my losing everything if I didnt get it documented early while the TX still existed. However, this situation does NOT excuse their actions at this point. They could have been MUCH more forthcoming with truthful information and they chose to be deceitful and give run-around answers instead. Decisions have consequences and they are going to learn this today.
So on Jan 20th 2021 I exchanged 0.00302680 BTC for 18.71027775 Firo via Changelly using a "Fixed" rate as seen in their TX SS below (
https://prnt.sc/10lnupi). That same day Firo had a MASSIVE 51% attack that re-orged an ENTIRE day's worth of TXs which included their TX of Firo from their Firo address (which in the end turned out to be a BINANCE address) to my Firo address. I then tried to send that Firo to another address and it kept failing and I couldnt figure out why. My wallet (Coinomi) reported that it was in my balance, but it kept aborting with an error everytime I tried to send it. So I checked the TX id and it had changed from "Confirmed" to "Unconfirmed". I have only seen that happen in 51% attack situations. So I checked the Firo discord and noticed others were complaining about the same thing. Then an hr later the dev for Firo confirmed that it was being attacked with a discord announcement. After that announcement, I quickly emailed Exchangelly to tell them about the situations and that they would have to re-send the TX as it was reversed. I did NOT expect them to do this right away so I was very lenient on them and gave them PLENTY of time to rectify the situation. But once Firo returned the attackers funds to all exchanges and I STILL wasnt refunded, my patience with the situation ENDED. I still have not received ANY kind of refund be it BTC or Firo. They have BOTH. Both the BTC ledger AND The Firo ledger confirms it. Since Feb 2nd there has been NO EXCUSED for their continued reluctance to refund me in SOME manor. So, I'm here to share the story with others with the intent to HURT their reputation based SOLELY on decisions they made. Had the attackers funds NOT been refunded, I would be happy to take the loss and would have given them a pass (even if I was almost certain they didnt lose anything because I couldnt be 100% certain, however that isnt the case here).
Here is a timeline of events:
Jan 20th 8:30am: I make an exchange for BTC to Firo via Changelly
Jan 20th 1:14pm: Firo confirmation TX comes in of completed Changelly TX
Jan 20th ~3pm: I try to transfer Firo to another address and it fails
Jan 20th ~6pm: Reuben confirms 51% attack
Jan 20th 9pm: First email to them. They were courteous as was I. I told them about 51% attack and what to expect in the coming days/weeks. They reply with vague "technician" is looking into it. (What they are "looking into", who knows, theres nothing to investigate since its all in the ledgers)
Jan 20th: Attack is halted
Jan 21st: I ping them for an update. They return with the same "Technician is investigating" claim again. Ok, whatever. It's still early.
Jan 21st: Attacker comes back with a vengeance because Reuben was able to LOCK their funds in the address they consolidated it to and FAIL.
Jan 22nd: Reuben starts a thread on Firo forums asking community what to do with the funds he locked up from the attacker. I voted to release them to the attacker because I believe in decentralization, not centralization even if it means I'm going to lose because of it.
Jan 24th: Surprisingly out of the blue without me asking them they reply to me with "We have investigated the case with the exchange partner, so it looks like your transaction is being resent now. Once it receives enough confirmations, the amount will reach your wallet." This seems to coincide with Reuben's post, so I think it could be truthful (At this point I didnt know they did this knowing it wasnt truthful), so I was still patient with them.
Jan 24th: I confirm that NO such TX was ever made to my original Firo address so I give it a few days just in case.
Jan 29th: I email them to tell them no such TX was ever made. I also ask them what exchange they are having to work with. BTW, I already knew who it was, but wanted to see what they would say because I was slightly suspicious that NO TX was ever attempted and I knew that the attack was over long ago. They work with BINANCE, I got this info from Binance themselves when I made a support ticket about the situation. This is an important fact because it's Binance that was the target of the attack and to which the Firo would be returned (along with a couple other smaller exchanges).
Jan 30th: They reply that they dont give out the exchange info. But they NEVER address the fact that their own claim that the funds were returned was indeed factual. They ignored it.
Feb 2nd 5:02am: Firo releases version of Firo that REFUNDS the attackers funds to the exchanges
Feb 2nd 5:16pm: I again remind them I have not been reimbursed yet. I tell them I would be satisfied with refund in either BTC or Firo (At this point I am STILL patient with them but that soon ends after the next email).
Feb 2nd 7:18pm: They are back again with the "Technician is investigating". Investigating what? That you've lied about a TX twice now? They are just giving me the run-around at this point and it's EXTREMELY obvious since there is nothing to "Investigate". You cant "Investigate" a blockchain ledger. Either it IS or it ISNT. There is no "maybe". Companies who are trying to use 1920s "run-around answers" with 21st century blockchain ledgers are NOT going to fare very will in the 21st century. Blockchains sole purpose is to ELIMINATED those types of situations, not continue to make them viable excuses.
Feb 5th: Block 343312 clears out hackers funds to be redistributed to exchanges from which they came originally. After this date, there is NO EXCUSE AT ALL that I should not be refunded. This is the date where I lost ALL PATIENCE with them and it's clear in my next few interactions with them.
Feb 22nd: I email them telling them I have STILL not received ANY kind of refund or Firo from them. I am CLEARLY not happy in this email to them. I also warn them about making this a public issue if the problem is not rectified soon.
Feb 22nd: This is their reply: We are sorry for this delay. Unfortunately, our team is highly overloaded right now, however, we'll send an urgent query to our tech team regarding your case. Once the issue is resolved, you'll be immediately informed. (needless to say, I've NEVER been contacted ever since.)
Feb 23rd: I reply to them that if I'm not refunded at the end of the day, that the next time they hear from me will be to provide them with a link to a public SHAMING of this experience. And that is the end. You're now reading this because I have STILL NOT RECEIVED ANYTHING FROM CHANGELLY.
Feb 23rd: They actually replied with: "We are still processing this case. We appreciate you patience." to which I promptly ignored because it's CLEAR what their intentions are at this point, which is to do NOTHING.
Mar 14th: It's been almost a month, I have received NOTHING from them, not even an email, so it's time to put this out in the public as I promised and give them the link.
Find below all the links and images supporting this experience.
Link to Firo Forums post about 51% attack refund idea
https://forum.firo.org/t/firo-51-attack-post-mortem-and-vote-on-attackers-funds/1084Link to Firo update that CONFIRMS stolen funds were returned to exchange wallets (I voted AGAINST this btw even though it meant I could lose the BTC I sent to Changelly as I dont believe in centralized decisions). But since it happened, I might as well fight tooth and nail to get it back (which I did and failed at, well, up to this point anyway).
https://github.com/firoorg/firo/releases/tag/v0.14.5.2Link to Firo TX that began process of Binance and other exchange refunds:
https://explorer.zcoin.io/tx/3ecea345c7b174271bbdcde8cad6097d9a3dc420259743d52cc9cf1945aaba03 (This TX ID is found here:
https://github.com/firoorg/firo/pull/984 for update 14.5.2)
Previous unconfirmed TX of ORIGINAL BTC -> Firo exchange that is no longer "unconfirmed", the Firo was removed from the mempool returned to the Exchange's wallet. You can see from the emails that they confirmed this TX did exist at one time.
https://explorer.firo.org/tx/abea4dd04bdb22c71f7ef35c73226a2459652c9ab45aa6c00aa680e459e87083The TX id from their own DB that confirms the above firo TX did exist at one point. It also confirms that the TX is still "failed" (duuuuuuh)
https://changelly.com/track/ozxuqnm4ata1xyr7 (
https://web.archive.org/web/20210314205600/https://changelly.com/track/ozxuqnm4ata1xyr7 and
https://prnt.sc/10lnupi in case they try to change their own DB)
My Firo address that is STILL empty and is found in the above
https://changelly.com/track/ozxuqnm4ata1xyr7 link
https://explorer.zcoin.io/address/aBgVNoPKScfV5KF8XpmWU21WDshLg9z9mBThe BTC TX from my wallet to their wallet (as confirmed in the above TX id of their own site)
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/61c9c0af78354ef218963f4d3e4e7ca882f95d26a46310b3b5a05aee5c50645f6 Email screenshots of me/changelly. I took SS's of just my replies to them to keep the number of images to a minimum.
https://prnt.sc/10ln05thttps://prnt.sc/10ln2qchttps://prnt.sc/10lngpxhttps://prnt.sc/10lnhk2https://prnt.sc/10lniabhttps://prnt.sc/10lnj11https://prnt.sc/10lnn06SS Of my own wallet using the changelly service logs
https://prnt.sc/10lnupiSo the only one that lost out in this TX was ME. Not Changelly. You will be next if you continue to use Changelly, it's just a matter of time before they get you. They will use any excuse in the book to either not send you anything at all OR send you LESS than what you were supposed to get in the first place. You have been warned.
