Looking for help on a possible bitcoin scam

[noman_one]

Hello to the bitcointalk community

I am not new to cryptos but not an expert either, just know my sh...

Recently a member of my family told me he invested money in ripple and BTC
During our talk he briefly told me the name of the website he putted money on... I did not know it. First alarm (i know most of reliable sites)
I immediatly did some researches on it and found it as a very recent website (80 days old) located in a high risk eastern europ country. Second alarm
Looking further i did not find any review, just another person asking in a forum if someone knows about it and an experimented crypto user saying to stay away from unknown site. 3rd signal.
I checked their website and found only piece of crap about cryptos , bla bla bla, not technical at all. An obvious cover. fake app etc

Then I called back immediatly my relative to ask him about how he knew about this site.
He told me they called him directly at home. Then he exchanged with them and decided to invest a big amount by wire transfert. A bank in an eastern europ country... He did complete a few small withdraws just to check the "game" but nothing important in comparison with the money he putted in.

After a more deeper investigation I know this is a scam. Not have a proof yet but we'll know pretty quickly as he is trying to get his investment back or at least a part of it.
Now I think he understood but it took some time.
He was believing buying and selling coins for real on a real platform ( which is not hard to re-create For example to withdraw your money your cant do it on the platform but have to validate it by phone

This smells really really bad to me

I did not involve authorities yet as he is trying to make withdraw .but I dont know really what is the best strategy to use here.

If someone is in this case, or know someone who has been, please dont hesitate to share any advice, experiment or anything.

I will deliver the name of the website as soon as it is safe for my relative to do so (can't wait).

Thanks to the community

NO

[Zenob1]

Hello!

Can anyone tell me if vitrocoin ( https://www.vitrocoin.foundation ) is a scam and if is so, what could happen?

Thank you!

[odolvlobo]

...
This smells really really bad to me
...

It is probably a scam. Don't let him send them any more money.

Can anyone tell me if vitrocoin ( https://www.vitrocoin.foundation ) is a scam and if is so, what could happen?

It is clearly a scam. Scammers get all the money and investors get worthless coins.

[noman_one]

sure for the vitrocoin, sounds like a scam
thanks

[altGear]

It's pretty simple bud DYOR (Do Your Own Research) which you did so your fine. I doubt reporting it will do much but posting the name so others on here can search this thread and get information about it is probably the best move you made....cheers!

[coinSpecter32]

Posting the site would be much appropriate approach for that. Because it could send a warning to their possible investor. Based on your investigation it is more likely to be a scam.

[PG13]

That' a brilliant move.
Before making a transactions online do first some reviews about there sites if it has positive feedbacks.
Hope your relatives will get back there money.

Please share the site..so our friends here we be aware and they can take action if they had investment on that site.

[noman_one]

hello everyone
thanks a lot for your answer
I will definitly post the name of the site asap but I need to wait a few days more because it mights sounds selfish but I am actively trying to help my relative to get his money back and I dont want to "scare" them by making their name appearing in google search for now... see what I mean?
dont want them to cut off the power and disappear as I think they will in a few weeks, days, hours... who knows?

But stay tuned I will definitly come back and give all the details I can. Of course I saved all their website, facebook pages, messenger talk etc...
For someone who does not know about crypto it might sounds legit, but if you know at least a bit what you are talking about this is just a big joke.
For those who are investigating on a website or a name, please do not trust a company just because they are displaying a postal adress in London in a rich district.... This is just a cover and most of business buildings in those districts are just mail box ( as I discovered myself looking for them...)

Have a nice one and stay safe.

[SayNumo]

Ugh, that sucks big time. Glad you are helping your relative and I hope they'll be able to recover the money.

hello everyone
thanks a lot for your answer
I will definitly post the name of the site asap but I need to wait a few days more because it mights sounds selfish but I am actively trying to help my relative to get his money back and I dont want to "scare" them by making their name appearing in google search for now... see what I mean?
dont want them to cut off the power and disappear as I think they will in a few weeks, days, hours... who knows?

But stay tuned I will definitly come back and give all the details I can. Of course I saved all their website, facebook pages, messenger talk etc...
For someone who does not know about crypto it might sounds legit, but if you know at least a bit what you are talking about this is just a big joke.
For those who are investigating on a website or a name, please do not trust a company just because they are displaying a postal adress in London in a rich district.... This is just a cover and most of business buildings in those districts are just mail box ( as I discovered myself looking for them...)

Have a nice one and stay safe.

Please update the topic once you feel it's alright to do so. Never hurts to know about more scams.

[noman_one]

i will as soon my family member's money is safe.

[Rebus147]

I'm sure to know the identity if the website you are talking about. All the details you gave.... I was a client and buy some crypto with them. Recently, I have been contacted on facebook by 2 persons. They wanted to have more informations about my experience with this website and warned me about this company. I didn't answer. I never had any problem with this platform but these warnings scared me. So I decided to make a withdrawal. Even if i didn't have any problem (They sent me all my money back), I think I took a good decision. Particulary if what you wrote is true. I decided to try this website because I was fedup with coinbase : Coinbase had too many problems, platform down, no answer... but they are much more well know. I can't realy help you concerning this possible scam because my experience with them was positive. But i'm waiting for your next post.

[RodeoX]

Never trade with any unlicensed business. You have absolutely no legal recourse when they take your money. Your best bet is to move on and learn from the loss.

1. Only work with legal businesses.

2. Unless you FULLY understand bitcoin never deal with alt-coins.

[noman_one]

hello there
a short message for rebus147
saying we are talking about the same site, please could you at least precise the timeline you had to go through for your withdraw?
was it done by days? weeks?
was it difficult to verified your documents?
Unfortunatly I cant be more precise on my side for now, as the fileof my relative is still in proceed... but for me they are just trying to get more time, and more time.
apparently some other peoples are concerned too on facebook by private messages...
would like to do more, but except by exchanging info I dont really know what to do untill this is confirmed on a way or another that the thing is what I think it is...
thanks for helping guys

[noman_one]

Never trade with any unlicensed business. You have absolutely no legal recourse when they take your money. Your best bet is to move on and learn from the loss.

1. Only work with legal businesses.

2. Unless you FULLY understand bitcoin never deal with alt-coins.

sure but if this seems something unreal for us to send money to a website we dont know about, or on which there is not any review, some older peoples can be easily convinced with a good talk. So I would add to your recommendations : NEVER, NEVER, send money, or even exchange information with alleged crypto website calling you first on your phone. NEVER trust a company contacting you by phone for a first contact.

[boakyei]

There isn't any stanadardized means for detecting possible bitcoins scam but I think , the reviews a website or any service receives is a major indicator in entrusting your bitcoins to an exchange or a service. But the first red flag is customer service and response to queries you post to them are things I look for  in a possible bitcoin scam.

[Rebus147]

Hi Noman,


I was contacted by a company in october. I bought first bitcoins, and then, they advised me to buy ripple. I did it.
Then, in décember, I read a post in this forum.
I sold the crypto and then, asked for the refund in euro.
It was in the beginning of January.
I had sent my ID when I registered and I didn't have any problem with it. I'm not sure to understand the problems you've had with your document. No it was not difficult to verified my document. I sent them by email.
I called them twice, just to find out what was going on.
I get my money back around 10 days after. It's very recent
That's all. Not sure it's very interesting for you.
 I'm sorry I can't help you more. Finally, my experience has been positive. Maybe I was lucky!

I hope you will get your money back.

[chengyinoing]

Sounds like a scam.

[noman_one]

hi guys
I have been trying to help my relative during all this time
He gets a small part of his investments back.
Unfortunatly for the big portion he just couldn't obtain any other withdraw...

Today french regulation authorities just reported the alleged site crypteo.io behond others on its black list of scam etc...
This is a very big network with dozens of scams, just changing website name and design, with fake adress in London, etc etc

So I guess everything is done now.

I just can give advice to anyone who want to invest somewhere, please do your research before sending money, talk to your family, your good friend before making decisions which will ruin you financially and personnally.
And NEVER NEVER trust a company CALLING YOU AT HOME. Thats a basic guys.

Good luck for then to  all of you, Thanks for the consideration

http://leparticulier.lefigaro.fr/jcms/p1_1713117/lamf-dresse-la-liste-noire-des-sites-proposant-des-crypto-monnaies-sans-y-etre-autorises

and the list released today

http://akj-crypto.com ;

- http://bank-crypto.com ;

- https://bcoin-bank.com ;

- https://bit-crypto.net ;

- https://boursebitcoin.com ;

- https://www.crypteo.io ;

- https://cryptobankweb.com ;

- http://crypto-major.com ;

- https://cryptopartnersinvest.com ;

- http://crypto2.bnd-group.com ;

- http://crypto.private-finances.com ;

- http://ecs-solutions.net ;

- http://ether-invest.com ;

- https://krakenaccess.com ;

- http://www.minedecrypto.com

[Jet Cash]

This is the whois for vitrocoin foundation

Registrant Contact Information:
Name john franklin
Organization vitrocoin
Address
10 creg avenue, new york 10 creg avenue, new york City
new york
State / Province
NY
Postal Code 10005
Country US
Phone
+1.18025527142
Email billxandra@gmail.com

I'm a bit surprised that he hasn't used privacy

[fanBit101]

Registrant Contact Information:
Name john franklin
Organization vitrocoin
Address
10 creg avenue, new york 10 creg avenue, new york City
new york
State / Province
NY
Postal Code 10005
Country US
Phone
+1.18025527142
Email billxandra@gmail.com

Vitrocoin has the necessary publicity. need to be thought in each person to see it!