TradeFortress Review Thread

[MoneypakTrader.com]

Is there another review thread for this guy? If not, is this the right place for sharing how he scammed me by failing to do the job I ordered and paid for? He should get a scammer tag too, not sure how that works.

AFAIK TradeFortress is going to try scamming me for the full 27 BTC I sent, even after it's obvious his work is horrible. My site was supposed to be done the first week or two of January, so when he said the site is done for like the tenth time and it's almost March, I decided enough is enough (after basic testing showed the bitcoin desposit system is still broken, that being one of the first things I asked to implement on the site).
I'll update if he ever comes clean and refunds any of the 27 BTC I sent. He is an unqualified programmer/scammer, and here's some of the evidence:
What other programmers say about his work:
Programmer/Reviewer #1 - "Most features seem to be functioning on the surface but the programming is awful. Its almost as bad as I thought it would be, no offense but the person who coded this was terrible at organization. There are lots of redundancies beyond the clutter. It genuinely doesn't seem like it was planned out ahead of time so the mess is a pain to sort through. With everything wrapped in an IF statement I can't imagine how many bugs might jump out at the slightest modification.
I can salvage the interface design itself if you don't want to toss it aside, but fixing the code will definitely be more work than starting from scratch, and I would have to charge you more because of it."
Programmer/Reviewer #2 - "I haven't seen something like this in a long time... Whoever coded this really didn't knew what he was doing.
The code is a complete mess, it requires a almost complete rewrite (the design stays the same).
The database also needs to be changed, there are things there that I would never, ever, do."

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[starsoccer9]

LOL, he did the same thing to me and then made up some BS and still owes me a few BTC but i got over it. Tho with BTC increasing in value wouldbe nice to get the coins back

[crazy_rabbit]

I've been working with him for a little while and have been quite happy. Bugs do crop up, but he's been more then willing to fix them whenever they do appear. Also, communication with him has been really easy and fast. I'm not a programmer myself so I can't judge the code, but it works, and like I said- when bugs appear he is more then willing to help fix them.

Do you have anymore evidence to back up this claim? Asking for a scammer tag is pretty serious.

[MoneypakTrader.com]

Do you have anymore evidence to back up this claim? Asking for a scammer tag is pretty serious.

1) he refuses refund in any part
2) 2 separate programmers said it will cost more to fix his code than start from scratch.

That's pretty much it. . . Unfortunately we didn't spot this guy until after he scammed me and at least the one other (maybe more).
That's good you're satisfied with his work, maybe your site is simple enough for him to handle, but hopefully you'll never need to update it, because only TF will be able to do anything with the mess of code he uses.

Maybe he's not an outright scammer, but he just doesn't have the programming skills to be taking hundreds of dollars in BTC from people for programming work that he can't do.

What happened with my experience:
TF asked for half up front to develop a website similar to https://fastcash4bitcoins.com
I did it and sent 15 btc, because there was no negative reviews yet and it appeared he had some rep.
I had 2 main items to incorporate, the bitcoin deposit system and the debit card load entry. The bitcoin deposit system doesn't work properly (poorly designed) and the debit load was designed to fail if the bitcoin deposit isn't there, so that doesn't work.
He originally designed a system apparently to run on his computer as the server using a local bitcoind for the bitcoin system.
He then sent me all the server files, like I could configure all that on my own. . .
When we put this on the server, it had to use remote bitcoind, because not enough space to host bitcoind there.
He  failed to get this working (never succeeded) apparently with the excuse that setting up the server wasn't included and that the server had problems using his code. In fact, a lot of the problem was that he had no interest or ability in adapting the site to a server, only giving me what he considered a finished site. So I had problems when the site wouldn't run on either server I purchased.
He wanted more coins to implement basic features such as a way of getting the BTC out of the site.
At this point logging in to the site didn't even work. He asked me to update the php on the site. . .
After failing to implement the bitcoin system to the site and some miscommunications on how the system should work, I laid it out the site more specifically and we added more things to make a more complete agreement on what should be done. He was going to use blockchain's API for the bitcoin payment processing and automatic withdrawal of all the BTC that are deposited as well as add the second product and fix other items.
I made the mistake of sending him 12 more BTC with the agreement he would finish everything.
It was at this time I noticed him advertising his work on my site, so in addition to telling him his work was horrible (in more explicit words, outlining the problems), I also told him:
"I have a major problem with you advertising work done for my site when the site is totally non-operational for the first (and most important) product I'm trying to sell. Also, you're practically in default of our contract. Please don't claim responsibility for my site while your work is incomplete. Once the site works of course, it's a dif't story."
He replied: "yes it's 100% my fault and I will get it working." but didn't remove his claims to my site from his advertising thread (which he abandoned after I called him out).
The site was having extensive/critical errors and continued while he messaged me saying the site was finished and errors were fixed, even though it continued to be incomplete/buggy until finally I told him enough is enough after a couple weeks of back and forth with him saying the site is finished and this last time I tested the btc deposit it gets lost and doesn't forward properly.
Also, in response to my report of the site returning the wallet login/PW info in the error message, he says this: "The contract was for developing the script, not for also setting up your server." WTF?
Also, he did one test of the bitcoin system that worked and concluded it was operational. I then tested it and proved it was not operational and posted to the forums about my experience with TF.

In hindsight, he plainly didn't have the knowledge or ability to do this, and I should have never paid the first payment.
Granted, it's a complex programming task, but he shouldn't have taken the job when he didn't know what he was doing.

He may have good intentions, but he obviously shouldn't be selling programming services and definitely needs to refund anyone's btc he took for such services. He can't justify taking 27 BTC from me for what product I received.

[crazy_rabbit]

I'll let trade fortress speak for himself, but he's done a great job addressing issues I brought up. There have been errors, but he has worked to fix them. 27BTC for a site is pretty inexpensive I must say, though I agree it's not cheap if it doesn't work.

Maybe try speaking with him more and you guys can maybe find an amicable solution to your problem. I've been working with him for awhile and the site is actually quite complicated: www.terrawallet.com and I've been happy so far.

I hadn't thought about future code maintenance, perhaps I will speak with him about this, but I personally can't support a scammer tag at this point. I would say to try giving him another chance- Debugging is a long and hard process something that I think both sides need to dedicate a lot of time to.

[starsoccer9]

yea i have to side with moneypacktrader

He basically did nearly the same for me, made me a few apps I requested but the apps werent in the time frame I need and there were lots of excuses he threw in and some BS about him wanting half up front to make half the apps the rest to finish it when he didnt mention that. Then the apps he didnt give me any details about what the apps did at all simply naming them app1,app2 and so on.

[Monster Tent]

I'll let trade fortress speak for himself, but he's done a great job addressing issues I brought up. There have been errors, but he has worked to fix them. 27BTC for a site is pretty inexpensive I must say, though I agree it's not cheap if it doesn't work.

Maybe try speaking with him more and you guys can maybe find an amicable solution to your problem. I've been working with him for awhile and the site is actually quite complicated: www.terrawallet.com and I've been happy so far.

I hadn't thought about future code maintenance, perhaps I will speak with him about this, but I personally can't support a scammer tag at this point. I would say to try giving him another chance- Debugging is a long and hard process something that I think both sides need to dedicate a lot of time to.

Saw this on the front page-

two factor auto

I assume thats 2 factor auth.

[MoneypakTrader.com]

I've contacted TF with my final demand for refund however based on how many other people he apparently scammed, it doesn't look good.

Here is what I told him:
I've analyzed the damage of your non-performance on the website creation I paid you 27 BTC for and I wanted to contact you before making any allegations about you scamming me. Maybe you're not trying to scam me and only scammed on accident, I don't know for sure yet.

It looks like your non-performance will cost me 16 BTC to fix and implement a website / system to do what should have been done by our agreement.
If you can send that now, I'd appreciate it and release you from your debt to me.
However, I understand you're not that great of a programmer, so maybe 12 BTC refund would be enough for me to release you from your debt since the full 16 BTC is giving me a better quality product than you could produce. That would let you keep over $450 in BTC for giving me a non-operational website that requires complete recoding.

[MoneypakTrader.com]

Apparently, one of the reasons TF is refusing to refund even the small portion I asked for is because the price of BTC went up. . .
Using that logic, if it went down he would need to refund more BTC than I paid.

[21after2]

Where did he say that? I don't see it in this topic, and it certainly didn't say it in the other one: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=126588.0

[MoneypakTrader.com]

Where did he say that? I don't see it in this topic, and it certainly didn't say it in the other one: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=126588.0

In PM and also in the other thread there:

However, I have to say I suspect MoneyPakTrader is motivated by attempting to (and he will not) getting more money than he actually paid me with a free long on BTC. You went from asking if you owe me more to full refund to 16 BTC refund to 12 BTC refund. It's called trying to see how much you can get.

I guess he thinks giving him 27 BTC and getting back 12 or 16 is somehow beneficial to me by using him as my btc bank to go long in btc or something, wow, great logic there.

I reduced the refund request from 27 to 16 because my new programmer is charging 16 BTC for finishing the basic website TF was expected to complete. Although I should receive the full refund back for the hassle and incompetence of TF programming, 16 BTC will put me in the same position I should be in (out 27 BTC with a functional website).
I reduced it to 12 btc to give TF more incentive to pay while deciding the 4 btc loss/overpayment was acceptable since TF is such a lousy programmer and I should be getting a better website than TF could possibly create.

[MoneypakTrader.com]

TF has refused my settlement offer and is reneging on his arbitration offer.

I encourage TF customers to review his work in here, Love it? Hate it? Want to use his services but don't have any reason to?

I hope his potential victims are able to see this thread and his scammer thread before making a decision either way since TF is intent on finding more unsuspecting "customers" to separate from their coins.

[starsoccer9]

TF has refused my settlement offer and is reneging on his arbitration offer.

I encourage TF customers to review his work in here, Love it? Hate it? Want to use his services but don't have any reason to?

I hope his potential victims are able to see this thread and his scammer thread before making a decision either way since TF is intent on finding more unsuspecting "customers" to separate from their coins.

Agreed completely I wouldnt recommend using him unless you use escrow or something to protect your payment

[MoneypakTrader.com]

[...]I've been working with him for awhile and the site is actually quite complicated: www.terrawallet.com and I've been happy so far.
I hadn't thought about future code maintenance, perhaps I will speak with him about this, but I personally can't support a scammer tag at this point. I would say to try giving him another chance- Debugging is a long and hard process something that I think both sides need to dedicate a lot of time to.

Excellent, did he give you a time-frame for when it will be up so we can see how it works? Do you mind telling how much he received from you so far?
Has TF completed any commercial websites that we can review and know the cost he charged for the coding job?
It looks complicated and at least you knew in advance that he's never coded a TRC website, so there's bound to be "bugs" in that process. One of my problems was that when I asked him about making a site to accept BTC similar to the one in his sig, he just went with it like he's programmed a commercial site that allows for BTC deposits. Then I find out later the site he tried to make for me would have been the first BTC deposit taking site he's completed  (if he had ever got it to work reliably).

Saw this on the front page-

two factor auto

I assume thats 2 factor auth.

LOL, Yeah, I just saw that. But the owner could go through the code and edit it if he really cared, that's not TF fault. Or maybe the owner didn't report the error to TF yet.
Is it normal to have to go through every little piece of a commercial web-programmer's work and need to correct things like this? Maybe I've been spoiled by dealing with artisans who give guarantees/warranties on their work.

[MoneypakTrader.com]

[...]I've been working with him for awhile and the site is actually quite complicated: www.terrawallet.com and I've been happy so far.
I hadn't thought about future code maintenance, perhaps I will speak with him about this, but I personally can't support a scammer tag at this point. I would say to try giving him another chance- Debugging is a long and hard process something that I think both sides need to dedicate a lot of time to.

Excellent, did he give you a time-frame for when it will be up so we can see how it works? Do you mind telling how much he received from you so far?
Has TF completed any commercial websites that we can review and know the cost he charged for the coding job?
It looks complicated and at least you knew in advance that he's never coded a TRC website, so there's bound to be "bugs" in that process. One of my problems was that when I asked him about making a site to accept BTC similar to the one in his sig, he just went with it like he's programmed a commercial site that allows for BTC deposits. Then I find out later the site he tried to make for me would have been the first BTC deposit taking site he's completed  (if he had ever got it to work reliably).

Saw this on the front page-

two factor auto

I assume thats 2 factor auth.

LOL, Yeah, I just saw that. But the owner could go through the code and edit it if he really cared, that's not TF fault. Or maybe the owner didn't report the error to TF yet.
Is it normal to have to go through every little piece of a commercial web-programmer's work and need to correct things like this? Maybe I've been spoiled by dealing with artisans who give guarantees/warranties on their work.

Are you still happy with his work on www.terrawallet.com ?
Maybe it's time to fire him and pay a real programmer to do the job? Or did you decide to abandon the project altogether?
Please update us with your satisfaction on that site which seems horrid imho. Hopefully that's not what you consider a finished site?

[MoneypakTrader.com]

Are you still happy with his work on www.terrawallet.com ?
Maybe it's time to fire him and pay a real programmer to do the job? Or did you decide to abandon the project altogether?
Please update us with your satisfaction on that site which seems horrid imho. Hopefully that's not what you consider a finished site?

UPDATE: Terrawallet was a craptastic programming failure that lost peoples coins:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=135974.0;all
It's not even worth paying the hosting for, eh? Great work TF!

Great Summary of TF scam encounters, see source for better layout:

Compilation of a few of the different scams TF has done, starting with the best commercially developed website he created for a customer:
#1 - Praise for his work on the development of defunct website www.terrawallet.com
Quote from: crazy_rabbit on February 24, 2013, 07:28:22 PM
[...] I've been working with him for awhile and the site is actually quite complicated: www.terrawallet.com and I've been happy so far.  [...]
TF never did get past the beta stage for terrawallet, which only managed to display a horrible looking and virtually unusable website (as of a few weeks ago). It was finally put out of it's misery after numerous people lost TRC and the code utterly crapped out as described in this thread:
Quote from: crazy_rabbit on April 16, 2013, 03:10:49 PM
[...]
The wallet is closed and will not reopen. [...] The software was not final version- nor anywhere close and many things had not been taken care of yet.
[...] To those who have written rather nasty messages even before I announced the closure to complain with vulgar language: I probably won't write you back.
I must stress that all users were warned clearly on every page of the site that it was Beta and that there was a very real possibility of losing your coins. I regret that this has happened but I must stress the warning listed on every page:
Quote
"Do not lose your password- it can not be reset! As the Value of TRC rises on the exchange we must say again- this is BETA and with no warrenty! Also, don't store more coins then you can afford to lose- this site is still yet BETA and we won't take any responsbility for hacks, intrusions, coding errors or negligence! Don't be stupid. [...]"

I will be posting the source code for the wallet soon.
If the code is ever revealed, users should ignore reviewing the worthless source code seeing how horrible the site looked and performed during it's perpetual "beta" stage.
Reviews and feedback of that site are here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=135974.0;all

#2 - Report of TF committing a nearly identical Programming Scam to how he did me:
Quote from: mining4fun11 on November 18, 2012, 09:05:18 PM
I had hired tradefortress to do some programming for me and I had given him a 15btc deposit.  He hasn't responded to any of my messages for a week.  How do I have a scammer tag applied.[...]
Quote from: mining4fun11 on November 22, 2012, 03:03:10 AM
JUST and FYI.  Please dont trust Tradefortress he scammed me out of 15 btcs.

#3 - Another reported TF Programming Scam (posted in response to TF scamming me) :
Quote from: starsoccer9 on February 23, 2013, 06:34:14 PM
LOL, [TF] did the same thing to me and then made up some BS and still owes me a few BTC but i got over it. [...]

#4 - Another Reported TF programming scam :
Quote from: starsoccer9 on February 25, 2013, 01:24:37 AM
[TF] basically did nearly the same for me, made me a few apps I requested but the apps werent in the time frame I need and there were lots of excuses he threw in and some BS about him wanting half up front to make half the apps the rest to finish it when he didnt mention that. Then the apps he didnt give me any details about what the apps did at all simply naming them app1,app2 and so on.

#5 - TF scamming through ripple:
Quote from: arsenische on May 17, 2013, 03:06:34 AM
Just facts: TradeFortress issued IOUs and sent them to users who trusted him. IOU means "I owe you". Thus he admitted that he owes to that people.
Question: If one owes to people who trust him, but is not going to pay them, then who is that person?
Quote from: bitaccumulation on May 18, 2013, 12:15:10 AM
[TradeFortress] posted on a newbie forum the following: " I am giving away at least 1 BTC per address on Ripple."

You flat out said you are giving away BTC on Ripple.  The only way to do that on Ripple is to issue an IOU since the only trust-free currency on Ripple is XRP.   You are playing on the fact that people don't understand how Ripple works.  That is not a flaw. [...]
Quote from: webr3 on May 20, 2013, 05:59:23 PM
[TF] owes me 10.15 BTC that he has taken from me and given to other people.
He has also promised to pay 445+ other people 1 BTC each which he has yet not fullfiled.
Worse, he has done so by asking them for 100 BTC credit, in a deceitful manner, setting up a scenario where many people could be scammed out of a great deal of money.
[...]
Quote from: bitaccumulation on May 21, 2013, 12:04:58 AM
I PM'd [TradeFortress] to ask him how he would deal with redeeming IOUs so that anyone could convert his IOUs into BTC.  He wrote...
[message picture omitted]
So in summary he misled people, while counting on their ignorance of how Ripple works, into letting him put them in harm's way so he and his confederates could steal their legitimate IOU's from reputable gateways.

#6 - My encounter with TF:
I hired TF in December, 2012.
Paid TF a total of 27 btc for a "2 week" job that he couldn't finish in over 2 months.
TF offered to pay for arbitration around early March after I fired him towards the end of Febuary when I realized that he couldn't code the site and would continue to deliver unusable "final versions" of the site.
Later in March, TF refused to pay any share of arbitration or participate in it, even after I paid half the fee to judge.me (which judge.me is refusing to refund).
Around that time, I released the code that TF provided as his final product, it shows the incompetence of his programming.
Quote from: Carlos L. on February 28, 2013, 08:49:18 AM
I saw the code, half it's functions were not working, the structure looks like it was made by a 14 year old with 2 months experience.
IMHO, the job that MoneyPakTrader paid for was not delivered in time nor completed, so he deserves at-least a partial refund.
Quote from: Carlos L. on February 28, 2013, 05:03:15 PM
This applies: "When the script was delivered to me, some of the features weren't working"
In late March, early April I contracted with a developer who coded the site (moneypaktrader.com) which needed a "complete rewrite". This was finished in late April when it was publicly launched. Since then development has been done on a per issue basis, such as after  TF performed an unauthorized penetration test, leading to some site developments to repair that vulnerability.

TF has continually refused to either deliver a final usable version of the website I paid him in full for or refund any of the deposits I sent to him (totaling 27 BTC). I already paid for moneypaktrader.com to be created by another programmer, so TF owes a full refund for his failure to perform on the programming contract as I have plenty of evidence for. I have committed to turning over 100% of recovered btc to charity and will honor that promise in the unlikely event any recoveries are made.

There's plenty of links in this thread to realize that no matter how many people *like* TF, he scammed me on the web-development. And no matter how many people *dislike* me and who I do business with, I was the victim of TF's web-development scam similar to numerous other users.

Message me if you have something to add.

[whiskers75]

Personally, I like him.

But it's been 3 days and he still hasn't explained in this topic.

[MoneypakTrader.com]

Personally, I like him.

But it's been 3 days and he still hasn't explained in this topic.

what is the code for your sig line?

[whiskers75]

Here's the code for one of the boxes:

Code:

[size=10pt][glow=#FFBF00,1,1][b] [url=https://blockchain.info/address/1whiskrpGeZVd5ormX2ihifc9uB2YSz82][color=#5A4500][btc] 1whiskr[/color][/glow]

BTC 1whiskr

Trick is, to find a nice base colour for the glow, and make the text on the glow darker.