Swedish ASIC miner company kncminer.com

[kingcoin]

Are you designing your own ASIC, or are you designing an ASIC miner based upon somebody else's ASIC?

[dan99]

if they are not otherwise more likely they are copying from someone... the easier n faster route..

[E3V3A]

Wow, this is by far the most elaborate scam I've seen so far. Damn!

Isn't there any site regulation for obvious scamming behavior? (Why not?) These guys and their sock-puppets should be banned permanently. Or better, if Anonymous could hack them back to the stone-age.

A while back I posted several relevant questions, in post #204. They have answered several times since then, but never addressed these. That should be enough scam-evidence on this site, to get them banned! (Any mods here who'd care to explain or chime in?)

BTW. With 3 degrees of separation on Linked in, you have basically covered close to every random person. On the much larger Twitter, the average random person is separated by 3.4 persons! Thus the wankers using that as a criteria for being serious connections should also get banned!

[chipd]

Wow, this is by far the most elaborate scam I've seen so far. Damn!

You haven't seen much during your lifespan then.

A while back I posted several relevant questions, in post #204. They have answered several times since then, but never addressed these. That should be enough scam-evidence on this site, to get them banned! (Any mods here who'd care to explain or chime in?)

Correct, they haven't answered that yet but others has.
Either way, which relates a bit to the first quote... a real scammer can and will provide you with all that you ask for in that post, so at the end of the day it doesn't mean jack. The only thing that matters in the end is demo of a prototype, at which point they can still run with all preorder money.

BTW. With 3 degrees of separation on Linked in, you have basically covered close to every random person. On the much larger Twitter, the average random person is separated by 3.4 persons! Thus the wankers using that as a criteria for being serious connections should also get banned!

I'm also third degree with Andreas. My colleague who is directly connected with both him and me, have met him in person and sits next to me at my office since 2 years... wouldn't call that random. I should probably be banned for this then...



Magnussoncole IT HB, registered 2011 (969753-6960).
Kennemar & Cole AB, registered 2012 (556880-5823).

kennemarandcole.se is reversed to 194-18-235-165.customer.telia.com (Telia is a swedish internet provider).
All the companies are properly registered with VAT registrations and names/addresses which correlates in some form or shape.

Their office at Drottninggatan 71C is a company hotel aka "rent-a-office".

[papamoi]

i have a registered company also

does that make me more credible while claiming i ll be able to deliver a device wich is needed to be manufactured from scratch?

NO

so please understand that making a device based on asic is not an easy task

and it s not only for mining device

that s the case for any electronic device based on asic

[DeaDTerra]

What was the phone number?
//DeaDTerra

http://www.kncminer.com/pages/contacts
+46 8 559 253 20

But, I think only infrastructure (money, engineers, ..., or more money, and use engineers of another company,  for example  FPGA-to-ASIC experts) can  prove,  or not, is  a scam.

I gave it a call but got no answer.
I will try again tomorrow.
If you guys want a Hero member with a good record who is located in Stockholm to audit and vouch for you then send me a PM.
I would love to see your operation and take my experience back to the forum.
//DeaDTerra

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Wow, this is by far the most elaborate scam I've seen so far. Damn!

You haven't seen much during your lifespan then.

A while back I posted several relevant questions, in post #204. They have answered several times since then, but never addressed these. That should be enough scam-evidence on this site, to get them banned! (Any mods here who'd care to explain or chime in?)

Correct, they haven't answered that yet but others has.
Either way, which relates a bit to the first quote... a real scammer can and will provide you with all that you ask for in that post, so at the end of the day it doesn't mean jack. The only thing that matters in the end is demo of a prototype, at which point they can still run with all preorder money.

BTW. With 3 degrees of separation on Linked in, you have basically covered close to every random person. On the much larger Twitter, the average random person is separated by 3.4 persons! Thus the wankers using that as a criteria for being serious connections should also get banned!

I'm also third degree with Andreas. My colleague who is directly connected with both him and me, have met him in person and sits next to me at my office since 2 years... wouldn't call that random. I should probably be banned for this then...



Magnussoncole IT HB, registered 2011 (969753-6960).
Kennemar & Cole AB, registered 2012 (556880-5823).

kennemarandcole.se is reversed to 194-18-235-165.customer.telia.com (Telia is a swedish internet provider).
All the companies are properly registered with VAT registrations and names/addresses which correlates in some form or shape.

Their office at Drottninggatan 71C is a company hotel aka "rent-a-office".

Amazingly, none of the four principles ever mentioned their sole viable entity(s) on their Facebook pages, with only recently liking kncminer.com

kandc.se was not even a page found on the internet until less than a month ago, now linking to their other related sites.

[opentoe]

thanking me into putting mega hours

As I wrote very early on in this thread - these guys are 3rd level contacts with me on LinkedIn (connected through some people I trust immensely). They're also Swedish/based in Sweden, which is a whole different ball park when it comes to being able to hide your identity compared to a few other backwater countries (like the US) - it's simply extremely difficult. All the information posted (names, addresses, VAT number, company registration) etc check out.

I don't see anything being done yet to warrant the level of distrust displayed here. When they start accepting money I might go through my friends-of-friends and verify that what they're doing is legit. While I'm only a short train ride away from Stockholm myself I know ten other Bitcoin entusiasts (having been so for years) that live there and I'm sure they'd all jump at the opportunity to view a pre-production unit or two.

Do I believe they're a scam? No idea - it would just be unwise to run one out of Sweden.
Do I believe they're making their own ASICs? No, knowing the Swedish non-existent fab market I'd say they're sourced.

[blabla hero member long post history blabla]

Seriously though, why can't they just prove who they are and actually are working on something? Every phone has a camera in it. Simply take some pictures or do something to put a stop to the skepticism. Why can't they just do that once? If I were presenting a new product and it was around complete distrust and skepticism the first thing I would want to do is prove what I'm doing to everyone's satisfaction. Pictures, video, test rigs, business documents, an ASIC chip, pretty much anything that would take a very small amount of time and energy to do. If they could just do that, they would have people eating out of their hands and could charge whatever they want for their rigs. Having them priced so low makes them stand out even more of being scammers.

[opentoe]

I think I'm going to start my own ASIC company tomorrow. I need some time to make, excuse me, EDIT some pictures of ASIC products already out there and make them my own. Heck, when I'm doing that I'll put up some pre-order links. Why wait? Since so many pimpled faced grown men who live with mommy have tons of money to burn I may as well cash in what I can. Payment processor? Yea right. Payments will be made directly, with your very own bitcoin address I will be emailing to you. Only 500 units will be available so make sure you jump right in.

[Beepbop]

Some reading comprehension would help here. kncminer has already made clear that they haven't got a finished product yet, and that they're going to solicit for what sort of products would be in most demand. (As in, what hash rates and power usage vs. pricing that people are most interested in, so that they know how many modules to put in each unit.)

It's clear by now that these people really do exist, and have a real company in Sweden. So they're about as proven to exist as BFL are, but they haven't taken any preorder money yet nor have they accused anyone of being a gay prostitute - the latter two steps evidently being required before being taken seriously on these forums.

I wonder if kncminer and those who are financing the operation might have been spooked by the recent BTC market crash.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

http://www.kncminer.com/pages/payment

Our payment system will allow standard card payments via PayPal and direct payments in Bitcoin.

The decision to allow Bitcoin payments was of course simple.

The decision to allow other forms of payment was a little harder.

In the end we have decided to open up to allow PayPal payments as well. The main reason for this was to allow people to enter the market. Rather than to only cater for people who have managed to trade or mine the appropriate amount of coins already.

With a greater number of people mining, the whole community gets to benefit and this will make it stronger.

During the initial phase of this business we understand (quite rightly so) that people are a little concerned when sending money or coins to companies that have not been trading for very long. To alleviate some of these concerns we will not be taking any money from our customers until we have progressed much further down development path.

Even when we have made enough progress we will open up our order books with two possible purchase methods. The first will be a standard payment in advance allowing customers to enter as far down the queue as possible (based on a first come first serve bases). The first 500 KNCminers will be sold this way, as soon as the first 500 are sold we will close that order book.

The second order type which will be available at the same time is a 50% upfront payment method. Customers enter the queue as low as possible (first come first serve) with the miner numbers starting at 501 the rest of the 50% payment is then due 3 weeks before shipment.

We will then close that method as soon as we ship our first miner and return to the standard upfront payment method.

I'm having a hard time understand the following sentence, EVEN though I've read it several times.

Even when we have made enough progress we will open up our order books with two possible purchase methods.

I believe he meant to pen: Once we have made enough progress, we will...

To alleviate some of these concerns we will not be taking any money from our customers until we have progressed much further down development path.

Pushing the "we will not be taking any money from our customers until" aside, clearly they are only at the nascent stage of development, if at all. Do they not see how far out they are in bringing this to fruition even if it's based on 110nm ASIC chips, yet projecting a Summer of 2013 delivery?

Also, according to the above mega-quote, all money sent to you WILL be considered pre-orders given the following:

...the rest of the 50% payment is then due 3 weeks before shipment.

Therefore, the two options consist of 100% payment upfront so to be included early on in the queue, or ONLY pay 50% up front to be on a secondary queue, with the remainder 50% due 3 weeks prior to when you claim to be shipping.

Meanwhile, a mailing list is being amassed on your part, whereupon at some point you'll blast them with an email stating that you're now accepting payments, included within a catch phrase similar to, "Product will be shipped to those who've paid the earliest, so the sooner you pay, the earlier in the queue you'll be to FINALLY receive an ASIC-based bitcoin miner in your hands."

At $2,999.00 a crack, I reckon you'll only need about 200 such emails, hoping for a 50% actual orders rate to profit $300,000 if you fail to produce. Unfortunately, considering the mentality of your potential customer base, I see no reason why you shouldn't amass a minimum of $500,000 into your coffer by the end of May.

All the while, without providing formable proof of your existence, sans a couple sockpuppets and a few well-wishers in your camp.

Truth be told, I'm jealous that I'm not developing such a money machine. Then again, I could be playing the reverse psychology card, all the while being KNCMiner pretending to be in Sweden, given that it's only across the Baltic Sea from Lithuania.

[kano]

...
I wonder if kncminer and those who are financing the operation might have been spooked by the recent BTC market crash.

Crash?
You consider the value ($100) of not long ago when it was considered extremely high ... a crash?
Hmm - more crashes please

[riX]

What was the phone number?
//DeaDTerra

http://www.kncminer.com/pages/contacts
+46 8 559 253 20

But, I think only infrastructure (money, engineers, ..., or more money, and use engineers of another company,  for example  FPGA-to-ASIC experts) can  prove,  or not, is  a scam.

I gave it a call but got no answer.
I will try again tomorrow.
If you guys want a Hero member with a good record who is located in Stockholm to audit and vouch for you then send me a PM.
I would love to see your operation and take my experience back to the forum.
//DeaDTerra

I also tried calling them on some of the other numbers on both Friday and Saturday:
+46 8-28 18 53 - phone company message - "number not in use"
+46 76-170 50 40 - call disconnects immediately
+46 72-178 73 60 - phone company message - "it is hard to get through right now"
+46 72-333 34 08 - voicemail - "welcome to kncminer - we can't take your call right now, but please leave a message"

I was thinking about visiting Andreas' house, but decided it would be better to at least speak to someone on the phone first.

[dan99]

Ya, it would be good if you could drop by their office or factory or home to see how things are going ..

[E3V3A]

Seriously, I suggest someone (+bring friend for security)  in Stockholm area, go to their home and ring the doorbell, perhaps that would help verify two things.
1. That they are who they claim to be, and that it's not just the address of some old lady with dementia.
2. You can ask them outright, what's the current "status".

[DeaDTerra]

Seriously, I suggest someone (+bring friend for security)  in Stockholm area, go to their home and ring the doorbell, perhaps that would help verify two things.
1. That they are who they claim to be, and that it's not just the address of some old lady with dementia.
2. You can ask them outright, what's the current "status".

I would happily go with Rix and check the situation out.
I just want to make sure they actually live there first, so we do not go and know on someone randoms door xD
//DeaDTerra

[E3V3A]

Bengt Mikael Andreas Kennemar:
http://se.linkedin.com/pub/andreas-kennemar/7/a72/381
http://bit.ly/15a5tIG

Camilla and Andreas:
http://kennemarithailand.wordpress.com/author/kalleduty/

Samuel James Cole:
http://se.linkedin.com/pub/sam-cole/1/1a8/22?trk=pub-pbmap
https://plus.google.com/118073684547886961155/about

[johnyj]

I say this again, the first day I registered on their website, I get an unautorized access atempt from a swedish IP to my online wallet. So for me it's highly likely this is a fishing site trying to collect people's login details using a ASIC ordering page

And possibly that is someone else use these people's contact infomation, these people (Sam and Andreas) might have no idea their information is utilized

[kpriess]

Wouldn't be surprised at all if their website was just a farm for emails/password.

If they're lucky, someone might be using the same email and password on their online wallet.

This might unfortunately be true; I had an unauthorized access alert on my Steam and several other online accounts..

[c1010010]

Wouldn't be surprised at all if their website was just a farm for emails/password.

If they're lucky, someone might be using the same email and password on their online wallet.

This might unfortunately be true; I had an unauthorized access alert on my Steam and several other online accounts..

Well, that is why you would use a tool like LastPass and generate a password randomly.