Announcing a new bitcoin exchange with UK banking - www.bit121.co.uk

[stevereverett]

Digging further into Mr James Richard Iddiols (https://www.duedil.com/director/917690493/james-richard-iddiols/directorships) he was also a Director of Capital Key Club Limited which was dissolved.

Trading Address:
32 North Road
Bosham
Chichester
West Sussex
PO18 8NL

[1714864536]

1714864536

[1714864536]

1714864536

[1714864536]

1714864536

[s1lverbox]

It was starting to sound encouraging.. until after registration..

Then you realise there is too much that is off-putting for now.

The flat fees for bank transfer charges - fine for large amounts (if there was sufficient to engender trust for large amounts), but definitely off-putting for even a small amount as a test.

And where is the order book?

Where are any kinds of graphics showing trade history and volumes, market depth, etc?

Come on James (& Mark?) - please give us some more functionality .. ideally like Kraken, but mixed with the BTC-e!

Feels like you're too scared to disclose how small your market is.

For what its worth.. The Companies House records indicate:
BIT121 LIMITED
THE LONG BARN DUNCTON MILL
DYE HOUSE LANE
PETWORTH
WEST SUSSEX
ENGLAND
GU28 0LF
Company No. 08600850

And the public records confirm Jim's statement:
Current Director: Mr James Richard Iddiols
Previous: Mr Nicholas Paul Dann

They're also both listed for two other companies started earlier this year:
MIZACO LIMITED 08600881
BITCOIN EXCHANGE LTD. 08459694

For all three:
23/10/2013   Mr N.P. Dann left the board

For BITCOIN EXCHANGE LTD:
19/09/2013   New Board Member Mr Mark Timothy Vickery appointed

LTD is good only for...them. means nothing to us. its just limited laiability if anything will go wrong.
they even abandon their thread.

[Sc@rF@c3]

LTD is good only for...them. means nothing to us. its just limited laiability if anything will go wrong.
they even abandon their thread.

Well spotted,

This is their big chance to instill trust and confidence.

[stevereverett]

Yep Limited Liability. We take your money (via Faster Payments which cant be recalled) we spend it, we go bust. You get nothing back.

Im sure once the FCA gets wind of this new outfit they'll be shut down, which explains why Barclays wont comment either way.


Another thing which ive noticed, is that the site is in breach of Chapter 6 of the (UK) Companies Act 2006, which states, among other things, that a physical registered address must be listed on documents or websites. Furthermore the site is in breach of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 in that, again, a physical postal address is not provide and nor is a VAT number provided. I suspect they will have to have a VAT number as they will be dealing with more then mandatory registration limit.

It all adds up to a dodgy website.

[lunarboy]

Signed up to have an investigate, As the site fills a massive gap for the uk.

Some comments:
 
At first glance things seem ok, I would like to be able to see the order book for me that is an essential for an exchange, further as your new i'd say you really need to help the liquidity along (with the amount of exchanges open these days, there is almost no reason not to do almost an instant arbitrage and keep the price at least close to the US$ price on GOX)

It would probably be wise to reduce the fees to almost zero for say the first 6 months. customers must surely be the priority at first not profit.

As mentioned above the buy sell tabs are very similar I see people making mistakes.

for an exchange that is "Fanatical About Security" I haven't been automatically logged out once yet today

I would also add its been nearly a month since you posted here. how about some customer interaction.

keep up the good work and wish you all the best.

[JamesMurrell]

GUYS,

THIS GUY IS A FKIN SCAMMER. He also own the site bitcoin2pocket which has robbed me effectively of close to 700 quid. Suddenly the website has shut down, it's all a scam. This guy is bad don't go near him. You will never see any money again. Plus his website looks crap and the 'service' it looks to provide is bullcrap.

[s1lverbox]

GUYS,

THIS GUY IS A FKIN SCAMMER. He also own the site bitcoin2pocket which has robbed me effectively of close to 700 quid. Suddenly the website has shut down, it's all a scam. This guy is bad don't go near him. You will never see any money again. Plus his website looks crap and the 'service' it looks to provide is bullcrap.

as I do understand that you may have some bad feelings related to the founder of exchange, but can u provide anything which will prove your words? my first posts.are full of scepticism and.it seems they have been exposed but without solid evidence u cannot call anyone a scammer.  I really think this is another.dodgy site but I'm trying stay away to see where this going.

[bit121]

From Jim Iddiols (CEO - bit121)

Please excuse my delay in getting back to you all. There is a lot of nervousness in the Bitcoin market and that is understandable and we need to do more to give confidence to our users. I will get more information to you through this thread and you are welcome to contact me at info@bit121.com.

Let me try and tackle your points one by one.

1. Firstly the order book has been requested many times and you are right that our order book was not strong to start with. This is understandable with a new exchange. It is now much stronger and we hope you will add to it. Because of the requests, we plan to put this in the next release. This is scheduled for the end of February. In the
meantime you can use the current method of buying and selling using the best available price displayed on the site. You will note that there is normally a small spread, showing a competitive market.

2. We have many customers that are happily trading and some have agreed to us posting their comments on our site. They are available on the news section of our home page now.

3. The note about cash payments not being allowed being a bit scary. It is supposed to be. If we take cash then we leave ourselves open to accusations of Money Laundering and that could put us out of business. Many exchanges have failed this way. It is for everyone's protection. However, perhaps we could explain this a little better and I will look into that. If you don't use cash, then there is no problem.

4. The deposit and withdrawal fees cover our costs of banking, anti-money laundering checks and administration. You will note that we do not hold your funds, they are held by a trusted Payment Services Provider. We pay for this service. This means that we cannot abscond with your money, as has happened with other exchanges. Some of you
have noted that. All in all I think we are very competitive, but we will continue to review our charges and will try and reduce fees, when we can.

5 Bank transfers into us are not instant. We are notified overnight and thus it can take us 36 hours to update.

6. We have no immediate plans for trading LTC, although we may well start providing this service in the future. We are concentrating on giving the best possible service for Bitcoins first, but your comments are helpful.

7. I note that one of you has had a problem with email but unfortunately you have made a typo error in the email address. Our email is info@bit121.co.uk and NOT info@121bit.co.uk.

8. We use Hushmail and Cloudflare to improve our security against hacking, although we do not keep bitcoins on the site (they are held in cold storage). We appreciate that this may not be the most convenient security method, but we will not take risks with our customers security.

9. We understand that we need to make our address more visible (although all you need to know about Bitcoin Exchange Limited is in the public domain).  We will, but we are about to move, more anon.

10. We will publish our VAT number, when we receive one.

11. None of us has been involved with any other exchanges of any type and in any way.

Please email us with any questions and thanks for your help. I will get back sooner next time.

Jim Iddiols
CEO

[s1lverbox]

From Jim Iddiols (CEO - bit121)



7. I note that one of you has had a problem with email but unfortunately you have made a typo error in the email address. Our email is info@bit121.co.uk and NOT info@121bit.co.uk.

email address was taken from your so called exchange. so this error is only thanks to who ever made that school project.

and NO u not competetive. if I want to pay 20 quid extra I will choose okpay and currency conversion to usd and then btc-e. or even better I will choose localbitcoins.

[JamesMurrell]

11. None of us has been involved with any other exchanges of any type and in any way.

I am gonna call you out here, Mr. Iddiols. That is complete rubbish right there. You have been involved in bitcoin2pocket.com and one other website. They both use the same name as you, James Richard Iddiols, and come from the same address. Now becuase I have accpeted that you have already stolen £650 from me then I will not bother to supply the details. But you can all check it just by googling the name on the internet. Here's the webpage: http://www.ccdni.com/director-james-richard-iddiols Now you tell me that doesn't say you are at 3 different very new companies.

[bit121]

I have to respond to Mr Murrell.

None of us engaged in bit121 have had anything to do with bitcoin2pocket.com. I have never ever heard of them. It is sad that someone has stolen £650 from you - but please ascertain facts before accusing innocent parties. And please be bothered to find details ... you won't find any. Now, you have also supplied a webpage: http://www.ccdni.com/director-james-richard-iddiols. All the facts on here are true (of course there is no mention of bitcoin2pocket). I will advise of the three companies listed. Bitcoin Exchange Ltd is the company of which I am CEO; Mizaco is "dormant" - we were thinking of using this name but decided against it. bit121 is "dormant" also - we registered the name as protection against our website brand.

So, I 100% reiterate - None of us has been involved with any other exchanges of any type and in any way.

 

[bit121]

An update to Mr Murrell's comments.

Having done a search of bitcoin2pocket, I am now as upset and angry as Mr Murrell. Bitcoin2pocket is obviously a scam to which Mr Murrell has been a victim. The so-called company have used my full name as the owner (I assume they picked this up from bit121), so I suppose I am also a victim. I can categorically say I am NOT the owner of bitcoin2pocket. I'm obviously angry as this is potentially damaging to my professional and personal integrity. Naturally, I have reported this to the moderator.

[s1lverbox]

An update to Mr Murrell's comments.

Having done a search of bitcoin2pocket, I am now as upset and angry as Mr Murrell. Bitcoin2pocket is obviously a scam to which Mr Murrell has been a victim. The so-called company have used my full name as the owner (I assume they picked this up from bit121), so I suppose I am also a victim. I can categorically say I am NOT the owner of bitcoin2pocket. I'm obviously angry as this is potentially damaging to my professional and personal integrity. Naturally, I have reported this to the moderator.

so u saying , someone stole your name and used in scam. now u acting as ceo of so called exchange which looks like school project, is expensive(not competitive), have no history what so ever, have no info on webpage apart from email address, is ltd company, cannot disclose who acctually is operator for transfers and all this upset you NOW because one user accused you of scamming him from 650gbp? I have to admit you got a point(sarcasm) and I feel your pain. obviously bitcoin business which become scam and this business which defacto is bitcoin business again have nothing to do with your name what so ever? so some one randomly picked your name and used in scam just like that? if quacks like duck...and u know the rest.

[bit121]

To Mr James Murrell,

I am sorry to have to confirm to you that you have been the subject of a fraud. My name is James Richard Iddiols and I am the CEO of Bitcoin Exchange Ltd, the owners of bit121. It is highly unlikely that the owner of bitcoin2pocket has the same name. They certainly do not trade from our address, nor does he run Bitcoin Exchange Ltd. He has damaged my good name and that of my company and our exchange. I have notified the police by calling the number on this site and I suggest that you do the same asap, www.actionfraud.police.uk.

You will note by clicking on my ID that I joined this forum 8th November, while the other James Richard Iddiols (owner at bitcoin2pocket) joined on 13th December and was last active on 18th December. Please contact me via the bit121 email address (info@bit121.co.uk) and we can arrange to talk by telephone. I can also provide you with the Fraud Report Reference Number. 

[tork]

I recently had a very nasty experience with the https://bitcoinexchangeltd.com

I placed an order to sell BTC expecting this to be honoured at the advertised rate on their order form or at least something approaching this.

A day after receiving my BTC the trade still hadn't happened.

I tried emailing and phoning them but no response.

Eventually their chat box popped up so I used that to query what was up. I was told:

• They hadn't responded because it was an unannounced company holiday (in the middle of a standard UK working week ?!?)
• That my BTC couldn't be refunded without them taking a loss because the rate had since dropped - which of course is nonsense since it would be cheaper to buy back

I said fine, then credit me the funds for which it was traded less your fees. This they refused to do, offering a lower price instead. Initially I refused insisting on the refund. Then they said they could pay me a better rate if I sent them more BTC. Which I refused.

Finally in exasperation I agreed to the lower rate offered. At which point they promptly withdrew their offer claiming the market rate had changed. I queried if in fact my BTC had been traded, because if they had what would it matter where the rate was subsequently and if they hadn't why not issue me the refund as requested? This they refused to answer.

They then offered me an even lower rate which they again withdrew the moment I accepted and promptly closed down both their chat and support boxes.

So now they have my BTC and I still have nothing.

It seems very much as if they have no intention whatsoever of refunding my BTC or paying me for them.

They claim to be partners of BTC-e and Bitstamp. I'm now checking if this is the case.

Unless I get my BTC soon, or the offered cash payment credited I'll have no option but to conclude they are indeed a complete scam - in which case I'll be reporting them to Action Fraud with the police.

I'll keep you updated here as to what happens.

[lunarboy]

Think your in the wrong thread ^ ?

edit: missed that

[tork]

No these 2 companies have the same owner, registered at the same UK address.

Until I get my money or my BTC back both are suspect.

My experience so far with just one of this guy's business isn't one I'd wish on anyone - just think people should be made aware of the risk here.

[tork]

Just to clarify please see earlier post by the owner James Richard Iddiols (bit121 here):

I have to respond to Mr Murrell.

None of us engaged in bit121 have had anything to do with bitcoin2pocket.com. I have never ever heard of them. It is sad that someone has stolen £650 from you - but please ascertain facts before accusing innocent parties. And please be bothered to find details ... you won't find any. Now, you have also supplied a webpage: http://www.ccdni.com/director-james-richard-iddiols. All the facts on here are true (of course there is no mention of bitcoin2pocket). I will advise of the three companies listed. Bitcoin Exchange Ltd is the company of which I am CEO; Mizaco is "dormant" - we were thinking of using this name but decided against it. bit121 is "dormant" also - we registered the name as protection against our website brand.

So, I 100% reiterate - None of us has been involved with any other exchanges of any type and in any way.

 

[bit121]

To Tort, James Murrell and anyone else involved with Bitcoin2pocket and the website https://bitcoinexchangeltd.com

Bitcoin2pocket are carrying out a FRAUD. And, I believe the same people are now carrying out a FRAUD with a website called https://bitcoinexchangeltd.com.
I suggest nobody goes near them and sends a report to the police.
These two companies are carrying out an Identity Theft of my name and my company's business address. 

My name is James Richard Iddiols and I am the CEO of Bitcoin Exchange Ltd, the owners of bit121 with a website address of www.bit121.co.uk which is our only website address.
We do NOT have a website called bitcoinexchangeltd.com.

My name (James Richard Iddiols) is plastered all over the bitcoin2pocket website and in blogs.
It is highly unlikely that the owner of bitcoin2pocket has the same name. They certainly do not trade from our address, nor does he run Bitcoin Exchange Ltd. He has damaged my good name and that of my company and our exchange. I have notified the police by calling the number on this site www.actionfraud.police.uk. and I suggest that anyone else involved with either bitcoin2pocket or the website bitcoinexchangeltd.com do the same asap. 

Anyone who are being scammed by these two companies can contact me via the bit121 email address (info@bit121.co.uk) and we can arrange to talk by telephone. I can also provide anyone with the Fraud Report Reference Number.

(By the way ... the moderators who run this website ... do you do anything to stop this sort of thing. In effect, you are advertising scammers. When I press the report to moderator. What happens? What action do you take?) 

[lunarboy]

Doubt mods here will help much 'we don't take down posts of known scammers' is the usual line. Until you can get their website shutdown. Your best bet is to alert the community, and hope no one else falls for the them. Perhaps stick a post on r/bitcoin reddit with some proof of fraud too.

To be fair bitcoinexchangeltd.com. looks scammy as hell I wouldn't trade there with two condoms on.