4th of July "givaway" Scam Investigation

[BitTrade]

If anyone hasn't heard, the 4th of July giveaway was a massive phishing scam by user "legitnick".  He sent PM's to hundreds of forum users who posted in his giveaway thread telling them that they had won, and included a link that was supposed to be a download of a private key for their winnings, but was actually malware that many people ended up downloading and installing.  

So I did some digging..

in all of legitnick's "award" PM's, he listed these 5 accounts as other "winners" of his 4th of july contest, and merely added the name of the particular user he was trying to scam to the list:

Obama
juronimo
albert speer
hurro
bachelor
[user he was trying to scam]
[a few other random names]

In the thread below, you will see username "Obama" trying to purchase other user accounts on June 19th.  Legitnick also posted in this thread, offering to sell his username to "Obama" for $3.50:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=238432.0

Scenario 1)  "obama" purchased the highly reputable "legitnick" account for $3.50, and used it for the 4th of july scam.
Scenario 2)  legitnick (operated by the same person as "obama") pretended to offer to sell his account to Obama for $3.50 in order to encourage others to sell their accounts as well.

Scenario 1 is most likely.  If you look at legitnick's post history around June 19/20 (after he offered to sell his account to obama), you will see that the content of his posts changed drastically after he offered to sell his account to Obama for $3.50.  He went from making about 1 post every week or so about mining rigs to making 360 low value posts from June 20 - July 4th to raise his "activity" level.  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=35697;sa=showPosts;start=340)

Also, in the "obama" thread linked to above,  you see username "r3wt" offering to sell 3 accounts that he owns to "Obama", and Obama replies by offering to buy r3wt's main account from him.  

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=238432.msg2591196#msg2591196

Today, r3wt has posted in all the threads regarding the scam (acting ironically "appalled" at such an awful atrocity), so he should be considered a potential sock puppet account operated by the 4th of july scammer.

Moral of the story:

Admins should not allow buying/selling of user accounts.  

And, "obama did it".  

[maco]

EDIT: Not enough proof.

[BitTrade]

Good catch!

The obama buy/sell transaction, and using that as a 'winner' gives it away more than anything. Either rigged, or that is him so he doesn't pay-out to others.

Who do you think the objective of this is? How can he scam people and make money off of it?

He sent out hundreds of PM's to people telling people that they won the raffle, and included a link that he said was to download a private key to the bitcoins they won, but actually was malware that many people downloaded and installed.

[maco]

That's just crap. I hope people did not fall for the install.
You should NEVER EVER Install anything related to bitcoin's at least for DESKTOP.
Especially if you use it to store encrypted wallets. I mean, you are NEVER safe even with a pass phrase from the bitcoin-qt.exe  

[nottm28]

I didn't even win a scam lottery - where's my email...

[MPOE-PR]

Add TheBanker to the list of soon-to-scam if anyone's keeping it.

[r3wt]

Also, in the "obama" thread linked to above,  you see username "r3wt" offering to sell 3 accounts that he owns to "Obama", and Obama replies by offering to buy r3wt's main account from him.  

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=238432.msg2591196#msg2591196

Today, r3wt has posted in all the threads regarding the scam (acting ironically "appalled" at such an awful atrocity), so he should be considered a potential sock puppet account operated by the 4th of july scammer.

I'm pretty pissed off about this. you're lucky i can't come through the computer and whoop your fucking ass. I've worked hard for my reputation around here, and i just released a new coin this week. what makes you think i would sell my forum account for 3.50? i make more money than that a day trading on cryptsy.

In short, you need to check your facts there Nancy Drew before you go bantering around aimless accusations. For the record, i received the pm from legitnick too. For future reference, you need to contact theymos before making accusations against people. there are countless people in the forum who can vouch for me. I would appreciate it if you would keep my name outta your mouth.


Good Day

[maco]

Whoa... don't go nuts on him and make threats.

Look, this isn't my business, and I didn't get screwed here either way, nor did I participate.

Why don't you combat him with proving you aren't involved in this in any way?
instead of being highly defense about it, which doesn't help you at all - in terms of reputation.

I don't think r3wt is a scammer...

BitTrade, proof is needed before you call him out. Please share some screenshots and do some homework about how it relates to anyone.

Also, in the "obama" thread linked to above,  you see username "r3wt" offering to sell 3 accounts that he owns to "Obama", and Obama replies by offering to buy r3wt's main account from him.  

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=238432.msg2591196#msg2591196

Today, r3wt has posted in all the threads regarding the scam (acting ironically "appalled" at such an awful atrocity), so he should be considered a potential sock puppet account operated by the 4th of july scammer.

I'm pretty pissed off about this. you're lucky i can't come through the computer and whoop your fucking ass. I've worked hard for my reputation around here, and i just released a new coin this week. what makes you think i would sell my forum account for 3.50? i make more money than that a day trading on cryptsy.

In short, you need to check your facts there Nancy Drew before you go bantering around aimless accusations. For the record, i received the pm from legitnick too. For future reference, you need to contact theymos before making accusations against people. there are countless people in the forum who can vouch for me. I would appreciate it if you would keep my name outta your mouth.


Good Day

[QuestionAuthority]

Wait a minute, so, r3wt is a scammer too?

[DiamondCardz]

Today, r3wt has posted in all the threads regarding the scam (acting ironically "appalled" at such an awful atrocity), so he should be considered a potential sock puppet account operated by the 4th of july scammer.

Oh come on, even that's going a little too far.