I would like to start a thread here for all collectors to use for reference on coins that have been breached, or in other words, any loaded digital content stolen by the coin makers.
The two main coin makers I am aware of that this has happened were Alitin and Coinographic coins. I will give a brief history on each along with their respective coins issued. If anyone here has experienced any others, please list accordingly in this thread for future reference….
Caveat emptor
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ALITIN COINS
https://talkimg.com/images/2023/06/10/ARl3c.pngThis is as per their website….
On February 26, 2017, at roughly 1:30 to 2:30 am, our company experienced a breach of a limited number of our coins. The coins in question had their BTC removed and we are in the process of determining how this could have happened. We are in contact with the FBI and we expect a full investigation to begin shortly, to which we will offer our total cooperation and effort to bring the perpetrator(s) to light.
Please contact us at
raforsyth@alitin.com if you believe your coin may have been compromised, and we will do our best to work with you individually to resolve the issue to your satisfaction. Our current policy includes the refunding of the face value of BTC of your coin with all verified purchases where a breach has occurred. We cannot guarantee how long this will take, but we wish to provide satisfaction to everyone as quickly as possible.
You patience is very much appreciated and we hope to bring this matter to a very swift and satisfactory conclusion.
Thank you!
The Alitin Team
UPDATE: We have begun the process of verifying persons whose coins have been compromised and the first BTC refunds have been issued. We will process your application for refund carefully and as fast as we can, and in order of receipt.
We will do our best with our available funds to reimburse everyone who we can determine to be a verified victim of the breach and theft of February 26, 2017, and we will offer this refund until April 5, 2017. After this date, and due to the price volatility of Bitcoin, we simply cannot be sure we will have the funds necessary to refund stolen BTC.
We will need a photo of your unbroken case to show it has not been previously opened, and we urge you to not sell or open your coin casing before we can process your request. We do have a certified customer database, and this will certainly help in the verification process if you are an original purchaser of your coin(s). If you bought your coin from someone else, it may be more difficult to determine your status, and it may take more time, but we will still do our best.
For further reading you can read a great article on
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkmj3x/the-great-physical-bitcoin-robberyhttps://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1815933.0****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
COINOGRAPHIC COINS
I would like to add more on the theft of the digital coins on these fine looking coins. I have so far come across a Reddit post. I am sure I will add some more in time…if anyone can point me in the right direction please do so. Thanks
The Coinographic scam also involved taking pre-orders for coins that they never produced and accepting funds for orders of stock they had but never delivered
Reddit post>>>
Bought 2 Coinographics 25 LTC coins a while back. Such a pretty coin, but such a scumbag creator. Last week he finally did it and stole the litecoins from my 2 coins.
https://ltc.blockr.io/address/info/LfgAH3dMULVkGQ5UudYRgF5vGg87tQNYAHhttps://ltc.blockr.io/address/info/LXWQm7XKUSUUHZhcHUYmZtg9R1k485kb9bJust wanted to warn everyone in case there are still some coins that have not been swept yet.
I also bought 2 10 LTC coins that I've received but he never funded them.
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
INFINITUM COINS
Some members here have had big issues with coins not funded or coins arriving in less than mint conditions. A thread was started about this by ChibitCTy as follows..
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3276594.0
As per ChibitCTy "At present moment hold off from mailing in returns as they look to simply ignore them from what I have seen/experienced. I opened a case 15 days ago or so..nothing yet tho. Anyone who buys these coins and wishes to return them would be wise to open a paypal / credit card dispute immediately. State that the company has been unresponsive to returns, and you're worried about mailing the package back
Updated Info for Infinitum / Infinitum Bitcoin
"Infinitum Coins or Infinitum Bitcoin is a scam located out of “Dubai” (The company is registered in the British Virgin Islands but supposedly located in Dubai). I purchased the 4 coin set from Infinitum. Upon arrival I noticed all of the coin capsules being quite scratched up and even some were chipped in certain spots. A few weeks later I decided to replace the capsules and upon doing so I noticed the coins were horribly minted, and some had toning already. Many have scratches, milk spots and simply horrible mint marks, much of the letters on the coin are blurry and corroded. I tried to return the coin set. At first I had to battle with infinitum over the return. They told me that I was responsible for shipping costs. This was of course unacceptable to me being that they sent me greatly damaged coins. I eventually was able to make a deal with them to get a discount on shipping. However when I shipped the coins to Dubai, I kept hearing from Infinitum that the coins “never arrived” and that “we went to the local post office and the box was not there”. Infinitum simply ignored the package so that they did not have to honor a return.
Upon all of this I decided to open a SCAM ACCUSATION thread. Others chimed in saying they had received horribly minted coins, as well as many had paid for the coins to be “funded” in which Infinitum NEVER did. They all sent a bevy of emails to Infinitum inquiring about getting their coins loaded and they were always met with broken promises. I decided to check out their pages on social media (facebook for example) and found other people outside of bitcointalk.org had experienced the same issues. Infinitum chimed in “apologizing” saying they would make things right, but of course never did.
Infinitum is a clear scam. They seem to no longer be active with their ICO/digital coin sale as well as their physical coins..However they do seem to still be for sale. This is a classic scam. Being registered in the British Virgin Islands allows them to safely harbor their business. Being located in “Dubai” allows them to hide in a part of the world that would likely make it impossible for them to be caught. If you have physical coins, I would suggest just taking the loss instead of trying to return them..as there is a chance you’ll never see them again, and of course never received a refund.
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
SUPREME BTC
This coin maker scammed many member here...please refer to the following thread....
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2580746.0****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
MICROSOUL
The forum user Gravitate made the Microsoul coins. They closely resembled Casascius coins and I thought were great looking coins. He was accused of a scam and also mismanaging the private and public keys on these coins.
Gravitate stating he will no longer honor any refunds for his negligence:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2136007.0Scam accusation thread 1:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1711231.0Scam accusation thread 2:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2055992.0****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
CRYPTO PAPER WALLETS
This company or person sold crypto plastic wallets on ebay. He swept all wallets after selling them for close to a year. You can read all about it on this thread I started a few months back.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2997644.msg30829562#msg30829562****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ETSY SILVER BITCOINS
As per ChiBitCTy
This guy was trying to be very shady about whether it was pure silver or not, listing it as if it was in multiple places and only listing it as "plated" in one spot. He also said that each one of these coins had a mintage of 25. Between purchases of members here I know of, and what he's still got left on this website and other sites..it's a complete lie. When I confronted seller about whether it was pure silver or not, and on mintage..he stopped responding to emails (nor did he respond to my charge back..letting me simply keep the coins). I noticed how he changed his website details for several weeks, adding and removing mintage numbers, how many coins were left as well as moving the ".999 silver" in different spot on his page, NOT making it more clear I mind you. Other sites listing his coins prove the mintage was a lie. His other coins that were supposedly sold out are listed on sites like this one-
https://cryptocoinsstore.com/products/the-investor-silver-bitcoinand here as well-
https://bitcointeeshirtstore.com/products/limited-edition-2017-gold-bitcoinI even gave the coinmaker some advice when he asked what I’d like to see going forward, as he had planned on making more coins. Even more of a reason to give others a heads up.
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
DEFCON SILVER BARS
This seller sold bars marked as 0.999 Silver when in reality they were only silver plated. Here is the thread for reference.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1111640****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
CASASCIUS FORGERY
A whole thread was dedicated to this very good forgery of a 1 BTC 2011 Casascius coin
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
SOL NOCTIS FORGERY
This forgery of a Sol Noctis was bought off of Ebay and sent to ANACS who graded it as the real coin. Also there is no Hologram on the Forgery coin!
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
PRYPTO CARDS
Sodl loaded cards that had an expiration date but they never marked cards saying so! Read more about it here..
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5166558.0****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
HyperionGold 2018 Republic of Chad Four Guardians "Loaded" Coin Scam
Ref:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5212242.msg53429940#msg53429940****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Sol Noctis scam
A person wrote his experience with bitcoin being swept from the coin even though hologram is intact. So we should presume someone still is in possesion of the private keys. Read more here...
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5231305.0****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
*********************************
COLDKEY SCAM
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TITAN MINT
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5369583.0 ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
[/quote]
