MyBitcoin.com, where did it go?

[NothinG]

If all these bitcoins stored on MyBitcoin are in fact gone, does the price of bitcoins go up due to a lowered supply, or down due to a lack of confidence infused into the market?

If the owner decides to trade the bitcoins over the public market, no doubt the market will move dramatically.

[Edit]: Post 400 =D

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[hank]

If all these bitcoins stored on MyBitcoin are in fact gone, does the price of bitcoins go up due to a lowered supply, or down due to a lack of confidence infused into the market?

I wondered myself if it was an attempt at market manipulation, but I think the only way it would drive the price up is if the market was in a rapid downturn - that is, confidence was already so low that only freezing accounts would stop people from selling off their coins.

[the founder]

It's quite possible there isn't a scam going on... but rather panic...   let's assume this guy had 100,000 coins at mybitcoin.. and he had the wallet vanish (IE: harddrive failed, backups sucked)  

The kid might have been some 20 something and panicked ..  think about it...  let's assume it was 100,000 coins... but it doesn't matter... if it was 20,000 or 10,000 it doesn't matter..

See the dollar figure must have been so high...  if it was 100,000 coins it was literally 1.3 million dollars that he just lost...  he might have just hid....  vanished...  think of the typical reaction of some college aged kid that lost 1.3 million dollars of other people's money?

[julz]

It's quite possible there isn't a scam going on... but rather panic...   let's assume this guy had 100,000 coins at mybitcoin.. and he had the wallet vanish (IE: harddrive failed, backups sucked)  

The kid might have been some 20 something and panicked ..  think about it...  let's assume it was 100,000 coins... but it doesn't matter... if it was 20,000 or 10,000 it doesn't matter..

See the dollar figure must have been so high...  if it was 100,000 coins it was literally 1.3 million dollars that he just lost...  he might have just hid....  vanished...  think of the typical reaction of some college aged kid that lost 1.3 million dollars of other people's money?

I agree that might be a common reaction.   The Polish bitomat guy in that situation was good enough to communicate it though.. you'd think that the mybitcoin guy would have seen that and followed his lead.. but who knows.


While we're speculating - he might also just be sick. Laid up in bed at home, or in hospital.. or dead.

[lettucebee]

It's quite possible there isn't a scam going on... but rather panic...   let's assume this guy had 100,000 coins at mybitcoin.. and he had the wallet vanish (IE: harddrive failed, backups sucked)  

The kid might have been some 20 something and panicked ..  think about it...  let's assume it was 100,000 coins... but it doesn't matter... if it was 20,000 or 10,000 it doesn't matter..

See the dollar figure must have been so high...  if it was 100,000 coins it was literally 1.3 million dollars that he just lost...  he might have just hid....  vanished...  think of the typical reaction of some college aged kid that lost 1.3 million dollars of other people's money?

It seems unlikely to me that some 20 something kid would have the knowledge, desire, or means to set up an anonymous corporation in Nevis.  Nor would a 20 something kid have penned the "From the desk of Tom Williams" letter.  This was a mature man or that is, at least, clear to me.

I think he succumbed to temptation when he saw the money pile and realized how willing people were to place their money with him, especially after his site began to screw up, and then after bad press began piling up and people STILL trusted him with their money.  When it became clear to him that he was basically unreachable and that he could commit the perfect crime, he took the money and ran.  I find it fascinating that people are STILL defending pirate Tom when, really, there is no scenario short of his sudden death, where pirate Tom would be unaware of the buzz around his site.

I've got to commend his shrewdness anyway.

[julz]

I find it fascinating that people are STILL defending pirate Tom when, really, there is no scenario short of his sudden death, where pirate Tom would be unaware of the buzz around his site.

There are such scenarios. 
If you've ever experienced the death of an immediate family member for example - you'll know that there are times when nothing else matters. Not even a bit.

Serious injury/illness is another such scenario.

[the founder]

It's quite possible there isn't a scam going on... but rather panic...   let's assume this guy had 100,000 coins at mybitcoin.. and he had the wallet vanish (IE: harddrive failed, backups sucked)  

The kid might have been some 20 something and panicked ..  think about it...  let's assume it was 100,000 coins... but it doesn't matter... if it was 20,000 or 10,000 it doesn't matter..

See the dollar figure must have been so high...  if it was 100,000 coins it was literally 1.3 million dollars that he just lost...  he might have just hid....  vanished...  think of the typical reaction of some college aged kid that lost 1.3 million dollars of other people's money?

It seems unlikely to me that some 20 something kid would have the knowledge, desire, or means to set up an anonymous corporation in Nevis.  Nor would a 20 something kid have penned the "From the desk of Tom Williams" letter.  This was a mature man or that is, at least, clear to me.

I think he succumbed to temptation when he saw the money pile and realized how willing people were to place their money with him, especially after his site began to screw up, and then after bad press began piling up and people STILL trusted him with their money.  When it became clear to him that he was basically unreachable and that he could commit the perfect crime, he took the money and ran.  I find it fascinating that people are STILL defending pirate Tom when, really, there is no scenario short of his sudden death, where pirate Tom would be unaware of the buzz around his site.

I've got to commend his shrewdness anyway.

Trust me man,  i'm not defending him.   I am stating that it's possible that is what happened.    It's also possible that the guy cashed out 1.3 million dollars worth of bitcoins and now is living large on a big island somewhere with a few hookers to keep him warm at night.

I don't know which solution is true...   and it could be a third (jail, sick, family sick, whatever)

but I doubt it..  I think it's most likely panic or a 1.3 million dollar thief.

[NothinG]

I love how this thread got 4k views

Anyways, there was a person who joined the forum a few days ago ( TomWilliams ) telling everyone they were the owner of MyBitcoin and everything was being looked at by the FBI...bla bla.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=33646

Anyways, Nefario noted that the user was a fake. If you think about it, it kind of makes since.
1) The FBI isn't going to do anything about it.
2) The server host won't care unless he paid extra (on his VPS lol) for data protection.
2.1) Wouldn't that mean that he would have backups??

[Edit]2.1.1)
If he new he was hacked, maybe post a screenshot or some proof that the hackers sent the BTC to another address?
Even if someone could steal it the wallet.dat, they would still have to transfer the BC.

[piramida]

Do you know of a specific mechanism by which someone could take it from you?
As far as I can see - it's infeasible to 'guess' a wallet address.
If you don't leak it - then theoretically only you (and instawallet) should know of a wallet's existence.
(spy software on your computer is also risk.. but that goes for any bitcoin service)

The greatest risk I can see is losing your wallet address - which presumably leaves the coins available for instawallet to claim for themselves at some point.

Well, losing an address is the same type of problem as losing a pass - so you should store it in an encrypted password manager, no problem. But as for https url string - first of all, it is displayed on-screen so anybody can read over your shoulder. Then, it is available to the browser and all extensions, would be stored in history on some browsers and in server logs on their server, and will sure as hell be stored in user's bookmarks - which is a plain file most of the time.

It is next to impossible to reverse a properly hashed password, but in this case an attacker just needs a read access to the system and he gets all of the access keys listed for him right there in /var/log/apache...

I fully understand the author's idea though, people don't like passwords/auth, but this is money, we don't need yet another scandal here, so I suggest BTC users should learn proper security.

[zellfaze]

Just did a tracert on his server.  Here is what I found.

His hosting provider is a company in the Netherlands by the name of Leaseweb B.V.  One of there websites http://www.leaseweb.net/ is currently down.  According to a quick nslookup on the domain, they have no A records.  So they probably just use this to make subdomains off of, which kinda makes that particular site being down rather irrelevant.

Moving on though, Leaseweb's actual website http://www.leaseweb.com/en is still up and provides a phone number that one can call them at (actually it provides 3).  If anyone would like to make that call.

Leaseweb also seems to have a history of shutting websites down (http://torrentfreak.com/leaseweb-forced-to-shut-down-more-bittorrent-sites-071116/), so in the end it could just be something as simple as them taking down MyBitcoin because some lawyer told them too.

Anyhow, hope this helps everyone out.  I don't think it was mentioned that Leaseweb was MyBitcoin's ISP here.  Although someone did mention it here I found: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1070151

[BitcoinPorn]

Anyhow, hope this helps everyone out.  I don't think it was mentioned that Leaseweb was MyBitcoin's ISP here.  Although someone did mention it here I found: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1070151

I think there was a thread title where it said just that lol "MyBitcoin.com - hosting provider: leaseweb.com" https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=33020.0 

[michaelsuede]

Before anyone else starts ANOTHER thread about this, please realize that the UABB is already spearheading a legal and unbiased investigation into MyBitcoin.com but needs your support. Discussion about MyBitcoin.com is very healthy for the sharing of ideas and suggestions on how to tackle this very serious and difficult problem, but nothing will be done about it through forum posts.


Please start contributing to the actual investigation by adding your affidavit, attaching evidence of funds lost, and contributing to the fund to pay for international investigators. Thank you.


http://uabci.org/redmine/projects/mbci

I don't trust the UABB.

I don't trust lawyers.

Businesses are supposed to compete with each other, and any time a bunch of them get together with lawyers bad things are sure to happen.

Just stay out of it.

[zellfaze]

That's too bad...

I was really hoping someone would try to do something.  I was on your side.

[NothinG]

That's too bad...

I was really hoping someone would try to do something.  I was on your side.

Are you talking about UABB trying to do something?

[zellfaze]

Yes.

I was hoping to help out with whatever they needed done.  I hate seeing people scammed.

[julz]

Yes.

I was hoping to help out with whatever they needed done.  I hate seeing people scammed.

Make sure you check out some of the other threads regarding mybitcoin and tom williams.
I believe people have already tried contacting the web host.

I've done some following up on the certificates 'Tom' used to sign emails -  dead end so far.
I still have an open query with CACert regarding the certificate used for www.mybitcoin.com itself - but I expect that is an 'unverified' certificate and will reveal nothing.

[xcooling]

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

From the desk of Tom Williams, operator of MyBitcoin.com

For immediate release.

As you have probably noticed, MyBitcoin.com had been down for almost a week due to an unfortunate event.

On Friday of last week we noticed that one of our pooled holding servers was missing a large amount of Bitcoins. After a prompt investigation we realized that the security of our SCI (Shopping Cart Interface) system had been breached by an unknown attacker.

Our response was rash, but necessary. We simply switched the system off until we could have system-wide forensics performed. The forensics took some time, as the system is quite complex by nature.

After weighing all of our options, we have realized that we have no option but to go into receivership. We will settle all accounts with a online claim process that we are currently in the process of working out.

We will release more detailed information about the security breach, the claim process, and our balance sheet in the next few days.


Tom Williams

[NothinG]

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

From the desk of Tom Williams, operator of MyBitcoin.com

For immediate release.

As you have probably noticed, MyBitcoin.com had been down for almost a week due to an unfortunate event.

On Friday of last week we noticed that one of our pooled holding servers was missing a large amount of Bitcoins. After a prompt investigation we realized that the security of our SCI (Shopping Cart Interface) system had been breached by an unknown attacker.

Our response was rash, but necessary. We simply switched the system off until we could have system-wide forensics performed. The forensics took some time, as the system is quite complex by nature.

After weighing all of our options, we have realized that we have no option but to go into receivership. We will settle all accounts with a online claim process that we are currently in the process of working out.

We will release more detailed information about the security breach, the claim process, and our balance sheet in the next few days.


Tom Williams

Still not signed?

[Clipse]

It is signed on mybitcoin.com

[NothinG]

It is signed on mybitcoin.com

After I replied, I didn't know mybitcoin.com was back up.
I was looking at another thread when I saw it.