BitEnsure (Latest Ponzi Scheme)

[DumbFruit]

Hi Everyone! I hope just because this is a noobie post that this doesn't get overlooked, but this was just too precious for me to leave to myself.

Without further ado.
Suspicious crap concerning "bitensure";

They have one listed employee without a full name; "David DV", and his email goes to some mysterious black site called qubitlogic.net.
It's beyond "damned weird" for a business to use a website for their email that is separate from either their company (bitensure) or even their parent company (metaneural).

Their "We Are Hiring!" button does nothing.

None of their "read more" buttons work on the front page. (In the presentation doohickey..)

The image of said, "David DV" is a stock photo. Just one example can be found on http://dailyheal.com/meditation-news/using-meditation-and-yoga-to-combat-office-burnout/

(I highly doubt that he/they own "Suite 600" at 8400 East Crescent Pkwy Greenwood Village, CO 80111.)

Metaneural was first registered on: Feb 04, 2013
bitensure was first registered on: July 21, 2013

Unlikely that a business that registered its domain name 6 months ago (metaneural) is some super successful business. It also suffers from the same Mysterious Owner Syndrome that we have at bitensure.com

Randomly decided to reduce their rates (I heard that it was because of the litigation with pirateat40, but that was going on even before their first "offering");
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/07/sec-says-man-named-the-pirate-was-running-bitcoin-ponzi-scheme/
https://cryptocointalk.com/topic/899-bitensure-interest-bearing-wallets-bitcoin-savings-account/
https://www.bitensure.com/services

In short, if you gave them bitcoins, get them back.

Edit:
Side note; bitensure is offering interest on the bitcoins themselves, not the dollar value. So the speculation from the dude at cryptocointalk about bitcoin's price rising faster than the interest is impossible.

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[mechs]

I hope people read your post  - there is no way this is not a ponzi scheme. 

[dfxygtreywa]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Jgguy]

Like the saying goes, if something is too good to be true...

[Skyped]

Thanks for the heads up seeing stuff like this makes me want to punch a whole through a wall.

[Michael_S]

Of course it is a Ponzi Scheme!

If not, they would tell the name of the "insurance" company, and they would follow these rules to prove existence of the user funds:

http://de.scribd.com/doc/143811117/A-Mechanism-for-a-Bitcoin-Web-Service-to-Prove-that-it-is-not-Running-a-Fractional-Reserve-System-v0-2b

[facings]

Like the saying goes, if something is too good to be true...

damn shame...

[Machinery]

Yeah. Reminding people of Pirate. I think he's in jail now...

[bitensure]

They have one listed employee without a full name; "David DV", and his email goes to some mysterious black site called qubitlogic.net.
It's beyond "damned weird" for a business to use a website for their email that is separate from either their company (bitensure) or even their parent company (metaneural).

Their "We Are Hiring!" button does nothing.

None of their "read more" buttons work on the front page. (In the presentation doohickey..)

The image of said, "David DV" is a stock photo. Just one example can be found on http://dailyheal.com/meditation-news/using-meditation-and-yoga-to-combat-office-burnout/

(I highly doubt that he/they own "Suite 600" at 8400 East Crescent Pkwy Greenwood Village, CO 80111.)

Metaneural was first registered on: Feb 04, 2013
bitensure was first registered on: July 21, 2013

Hello,

Most of what you've described are overlooked design glitches in our site, we've updated the links in the "Read More" and "We Are Hiring" buttons to confirm they work as of this posting.

David is a web developer that we hire to work on the design aspects of our site and is therefore not affiliated with our company directly. His site is his own and he asked us to use a stock photo instead of his real image.

As to us reducing the rates it was not random but carefully considered in the light of the recent Ponzi Scheme news. Our business was launched the same week as the news about Bitcoin Savings and Trust broke. As you can imagine we needed to distance ourselves as much as possible, our rates were set at the high mark to pass on as much profit on to our customers as possible but we realized they seemed too high and in fact suspicious.

Thanks for your interest but the proof about our legitimacy can only be found in sampling our service.

[DumbFruit]

Of course it is a Ponzi Scheme!

If not, they would tell the name of the "insurance" company,

Insurance company? Don't you know? Deposits are insured by their guarantee!

Since I brought up a bunch of broken stuff on their website they have since then "fixed" most of it. They even added another employee!

https://www.bitensure.com/about
JP Rosenbaum! (I hope he was made aware.)
No contact information.

He was a construction manager and won season 7 on the Batchelorette. I guess now he wants to try his hand in Ponzi Schemes.
(I'm being sarcastic, there is no way this guy actually works for them. They copied and pasted his picture from the internet.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bachelorette_(season_7)
http://www.wetpaint.com/the-bachelorette/articles/how-does-jp-rosenbaum-stay-so-businessman-hot-all-the-time


Here is one thing I've overlooked since last time. On the "services" page, they list clients that don't exist. Probably a part of the template they made this website from.

https://www.bitensure.com/services

When I have some time I'm going to find out if they actually own Suite 600.

Edit:
Oh hi there.

Thanks for your interest but the proof about our legitimacy can only be found in sampling our service.

Please don't follow this advice.

[bitensure]

The photo is another stock photo, obviously we have no affiliation with the Bachelorette TV Show, you can call me camera shy. Yes the site was made from a template that we modified, as anyone else does. I'm open to talk about the actual logistics behind our business, on how we can provide the interest rates to our customers. Site design is not relevant to this conversation.

Of course it is a Ponzi Scheme!

If not, they would tell the name of the "insurance" company,

Insurance company? Don't you know? Deposits are insured by their guarantee!

Since I brought up a bunch of broken stuff on their website they have since then "fixed" most of it. They even added another employee!

https://www.bitensure.com/about
JP Rosenbaum! (I hope he was made aware.)
No contact information.

He was a construction manager and won season 7 on the Batchelorette. I guess now he wants to try his hand in Ponzi Schemes.
(I'm being sarcastic, there is no way this guy actually works for them. They copied and pasted his picture from the internet.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bachelorette_(season_7)
http://www.wetpaint.com/the-bachelorette/articles/how-does-jp-rosenbaum-stay-so-businessman-hot-all-the-time


Here is one thing I've overlooked since last time. On the "services" page, they list clients that don't exist. Probably a part of the template they made this website from.

https://www.bitensure.com/services

When I have some time I'm going to find out if they actually own Suite 600.

Edit:
Oh hi there.

Thanks for your interest but the proof about our legitimacy can only be found in sampling our service.

Please don't follow this advice.

[DumbFruit]

Ok. Fair enough. Relevant information.

1.) Please provide a picture, name, and contact information of yourself or someone that works for you.

2.) Please provide the location where your company was registered and under what name.

3.) Please explain how you expect to achieve gains on your deposits at a rate anywhere near the rate that you are advertising.

4.) Please explain what "insures" deposits with you.


As far as anyone can tell you're a nameless entity on the internet making empty promises.


Edit:
Ok, I looked into the people at Metaneural here,
http://www.metaneural.com/about.html

They use the same stock photo for their "John Titor" fellow. Which incidentally is the same name as the infamous "time traveller" at http://www.johntitor.com/.

I can't imagine why they would use the same stock photo for their web developer as well as their "director" at metaneural, is "John Titor" also camera shy?

Could be a coincidence, I suppose. There are other "John Titor's", but none that I could find that live in Colorado.

So lets look at these other people...

I couldn't find anything on Teressa Anderson. Could be legit.

Taufik Hidayat is the name of a famous badminton player, but I don't think that's a picture of him.

The picture for Jorge B. Vincee is a picture of Luis Ponjuan.
http://tamutimes.tamu.edu/tag/closing-the-gap/

And there's absolutely no contact information for any of them.


Now, at metaneural they have a big ol' disclaimer at the bottom, and refers to a company called "Ward Systems Group".

I looked these people up and oddly enough "metaneural" is not listed as affiliated with them.
http://www.wardsystems.com/contact.asp

So I'm pretty confident that they are just repackaging and selling tools from wardsystems. (I'll let you know when I hear back from wardsystems.)

Also on the about page it says,
"We are a small proprietary trading firm that has enjoyed very profitable success in the past several years using neural network and artificial intelligence technology to navigate the financial markets - implemented using various trading platforms." -Metaneural

But the problem with that is that the Metaneural website has only existed for 6 months.
Feb 04, 2013
(edit: and the company itself was registered on Jan 31, 2013)

This is too much fun. How deep does this rabbit hole go?

[bitensure]

1) I'm a very security conscious person so my picture and personal address are not things I publish on the internet.

2) This is on our site on all the pages:

Metaneural Engineering
8400 East Crescent Pkwy, Suite 600
Greenwood Village, CO 80111

3) Actually our gains are significantly higher than what we advertise. We have many years of experience investing in various markets simulateously which allows us to hedge against losses and reduce risk. Before BitEnsure was conceived we made consistent profit from the financial markets, it is only through BitEnsure that we leverage our operations with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

We also develop cutting-edge automated trading systems that we use in our investment operations, you can read more about our premiere software here: metaneural.com

Bit4x.com provided the opportunity for us to deposit, trade, and withdraw using only Bitcoins.

4) We insure all deposits. This simply means we keep a cache of Bitcoins that we own and keep separate from our operations which is greater than the sum of our deposits and any given time. Therefore, if there were ever a hacking situation or some other unforeseen catastrophe we would be able to return any deposited funds.

Ok. Fair enough. Relevant information.

1.) Please provide a picture, name, and contact information of yourself or someone that works for you.

2.) Please provide the location where your company was registered and under what name.

3.) Please explain how you expect to achieve gains on your deposits at a rate anywhere near the rate that you are advertising.

4.) Please explain what "insures" deposits with you.


As far as anyone can tell you're a nameless entity on the internet making empty promises.

[bitensure]

First, our disclaimer was copied as a general disclaimer for offering Forex trading software from the ward systems site and all mention of ward systems was changed to Metaneural except for one, thanks for pointing out the typo, it is now updated. Ward Systems could not develop our unique neural network trading system without the expertise so I'm not sure how you could be so confident it was taken from them, not to mention they have never offered software even comparable to it.

This is becoming defamatory and your arguments are based mostly on shotty web design and not much else. Lastly, yes the site is new, its possible to have a trading group comprised on investment professionals working together without a site, the site was created to make our software available to the small retail investor.

Again, veering the conversation off track to spurious accusations is not constructive, it seems that you're more interested in revealing BitEnsure as a scam than learning about how the operation is actually conducted.

They use the same stock photo for their "John Titor" fellow. Which incidentally is the same name as the infamous "time traveller" at http://www.johntitor.com/.

I can't imagine why they would use the same stock photo for their web developer as well as their "director" at metaneural, is "John Titor" also camera shy?

Could be a coincidence, I suppose. There are other "John Titor's", but none that I could find that live in Colorado.

So lets look at these other people...

I couldn't find anything on Teressa Anderson. Could be legit.

Taufik Hidayat is the name of a famous badminton player, but I don't think that's a picture of him.

The picture for Jorge B. Vincee is a picture of Luis Ponjuan.
http://tamutimes.tamu.edu/tag/closing-the-gap/

And there's absolutely no contact information for any of them.


Now, at metaneural they have a big ol' disclaimer at the bottom, and refers to a company called "Ward Systems Group".

I looked these people up and oddly enough "metaneural" is not listed as affiliated with them.
http://www.wardsystems.com/contact.asp

So I'm pretty confident that they are just repackaging and selling tools from wardsystems. (I'll let you know when I hear back from wardsystems.)

Also on the about page it says,
"We are a small proprietary trading firm that has enjoyed very profitable success in the past several years using neural network and artificial intelligence technology to navigate the financial markets - implemented using various trading platforms." -Metaneural

But the problem with that is that the Metaneural website has only existed for 6 months.
Feb 04, 2013

[DumbFruit]

I'm not being defamatory. The staff of your company and your parent company look totally fictitious. Seems totally relevant and on-subject.
Would you care to prove to us that these people actually exist?

Why is your "Principal office street address" an apartment in Florida? You must have a Hell of a drive to work. Also, it's an LLC.

"Like shareholders of a corporation, all LLC owners are protected from personal liability for business debts and claims."

Maybe your potential "investors" would like to know about that.. But it is a registered business, so I guess we know that much.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/llc-basics-30163.html

Still looking into your business address. Lots of people I can find at 8400 East Crescent Parkway, suite 600, but I can't seem to find your company so far..

[mechs]

First, our disclaimer was copied as a general disclaimer for offering Forex trading software from the ward systems site and all mention of ward systems was changed to Metaneural except for one, thanks for pointing out the typo, it is now updated. Ward Systems could not develop our unique neural network trading system without the expertise so I'm not sure how you could be so confident it was taken from them, not to mention they have never offered software even comparable to it.

This is becoming defamatory and your arguments are based mostly on shotty web design and not much else. Lastly, yes the site is new, its possible to have a trading group comprised on investment professionals working together without a site, the site was created to make our software available to the small retail investor.

Again, veering the conversation off track to spurious accusations is not constructive, it seems that you're more interested in revealing BitEnsure as a scam than learning about how the operation is actually conducted.

They use the same stock photo for their "John Titor" fellow. Which incidentally is the same name as the infamous "time traveller" at http://www.johntitor.com/.

I can't imagine why they would use the same stock photo for their web developer as well as their "director" at metaneural, is "John Titor" also camera shy?

Could be a coincidence, I suppose. There are other "John Titor's", but none that I could find that live in Colorado.

So lets look at these other people...

I couldn't find anything on Teressa Anderson. Could be legit.

Taufik Hidayat is the name of a famous badminton player, but I don't think that's a picture of him.

The picture for Jorge B. Vincee is a picture of Luis Ponjuan.
http://tamutimes.tamu.edu/tag/closing-the-gap/

And there's absolutely no contact information for any of them.


Now, at metaneural they have a big ol' disclaimer at the bottom, and refers to a company called "Ward Systems Group".

I looked these people up and oddly enough "metaneural" is not listed as affiliated with them.
http://www.wardsystems.com/contact.asp

So I'm pretty confident that they are just repackaging and selling tools from wardsystems. (I'll let you know when I hear back from wardsystems.)

Also on the about page it says,
"We are a small proprietary trading firm that has enjoyed very profitable success in the past several years using neural network and artificial intelligence technology to navigate the financial markets - implemented using various trading platforms." -Metaneural

But the problem with that is that the Metaneural website has only existed for 6 months.
Feb 04, 2013

Honestly, shut the f*ck up. You obviously a scammer.  Only an idiot would give you their coins.  The real shame is coindesk who did such a poor job of researching you first as  to give you a platform to cheat people by making your blatant scam seem realistic.  How about you make some threats to sue for libel, what the scumbags like you usually do when called straight up for the scammers you are.  You have every single characteristic of a ponzie scheme.  It is very suspicious that coindesk not allowing any comments to your article to expose all the obvious scammer characteristics. If anyone should worry about legal liability, it is you and coindesk for helping you to try and scam people.  I have sent an email to the SEC re: your solicitation via coindesk, how about you complain to them about this "slander".  Let's see how sympathetic they are.

[DumbFruit]

I can confirm that there is no Metaneural Engineering, LLC located on that floor at that building. I have been communicating with a nice gal, Ashley, that sells offices at that building.

Does it go by another name, perchance?

edit:

The real shame is coindesk who did such a poor job of researching you first as  to give you a platform to cheat people by making your blatant scam seem realistic.

Amen.
You just take a second glance at anything on Bitensure and you find deceit, wordplay, and outright fabrications.  
I'm not a journalist by profession or hobby.

Shame on you Coindesk, tsk tsk.

edit 2:
WOE! Did they do an update because of me?
http://www.coindesk.com/looking-inside-bitensure-bitcoin-savings-account-or-ponzi-scheme/

edit 3:
Nope, they probably read this one first;
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=263036.0

[DumbFruit]

Alright. I think I have a pretty good idea about what's going on here.

There is only one employee that works for MetaNeural Engineering, LLC (The owner). He works from an apartment in Florida, and bought what's called a "Virtual Office" based at the building in Colorado,

8400 East Crescent Pkwy, Suite 600
Greenwood Village, CO 80111

He made some hacks, made an add-on, or downright copied software that was created at WardSystems. Maybe he's a disgruntled employee, or maybe he really did make something novel, whatever. I'm not willing to pay a thousand dollars to find out if his software is legitimate.
(Edit: MetaNeural EA is confirmed to be an add-on application for Metatrader, unassociated with WardSystems.)

He forms the company MetaNeural on Jan 31st, 2013, and put his site together in February, then he decides to branch into a couple dubious Bitcoin businesses. (June-july)

One is a Bitcoin laundry (bitcoinhaze), the other is "BitEnsure".

Speculation;
His original idea was to get a lot of people to use his Bitcoin laundry, and skim some coins off the top. Acting a lot like a fractional reserve bank. He probably uses those coins to make trades and leverage his bets on the market.

Maybe some trades go south, maybe he wants more leverage, or maybe he just gets greedy. So he forms "BitEnsure" to do essentially the same thing his Bitcoin Laundry does. He piles the money together, skims off the top, and makes bets on the market.

He figures, "Hey, my business is an LLC, and my company has no assets. I have nothing to lose, either I make great bets on the market and everyone wins, or I don't and only they lose."

All along the way he puts disingenuous information on his sites about clients he works with, fictional employee's he doesn't have, job advertisement for jobs that don't exist ("We're hiring!"), and states MetaNeural has experience of "years" when it's only been around for about 6 months.* All to garner more trust from the community to get more coins in his betting pot.
(Note: He has changed nearly everything that he's been called out on so far..)

Does that sound about right? Mr. WhateverYourNameReallyIs?
I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. He could just be trying to mass coins and then cut-and-run, none of this "betting" nonsense.


At the end of the day the bottom line is this;

He's presented a false image of his company (repeatedly), there is only one employee, he's avoiding liability at all costs, he has no boss, partner, or stockholders he's accountable to, and he's hiding his identity.

Do not give Bitcoins to this guy.

*edit: I could have sworn I read this, but I guess I misread what he was saying on the "about" page. He allegedly has years of experience with Metatrader software before forming Metaneural.

[Playforkeeps]

Ponzi scheme or not, I think the fact that a company does not have an identifiable person acting as spokesperson is reason enough not to risk the 1BTC minimum investment. If they can't invest the time in fixing PR by creating a solid track record for themselves, they haven't invested the time to win my business over.

[ChrisB92]

Thanks for doing a bit of research on him, DumbFruit.