Xtreme miners - scam?

[Searing]

well I am trying to snap out of it but u know in india i am a middle class guy with an average salary which is about 5 dollars per day for working about 11 hours a day. Now for me that is about 22000 hours of hard labour. Which is almost 6 to 7 years of nonstop working days..

Sorry brother!

My condolences on the theft.  I can only imagine.

if you have been scammed ...go to the scam thread (now shown to be a scam) ctsminer on the threads here
there are guys there who managed to track back far enough to get their btc back in full...look at the links they
uploaded and how they did so...it is all I have but can give you a start

by the by the odds are long these are the only guys I've ever seen who pulled it off....the group there found the ip of the ctsminer.com
domain was previously used by www.butterflyiabs.com a scam clone of butterflylabs

I think that was enough for the host provider to ask questions and they refunded the btc

it is in the thread

much accusations of the people who lost btc being the scammers etc (blame the victim) it is in the thread

the odds are long however..but what they did

all I got sorry can't be of more help

(by the by in that thread for a bit I was accused of being the mastermind of it all...made my week lmao....fyi)

Searing

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[blackknight]

Have placed order with Xtreme.  My unit should have shipped last week.  Sent order status inquiry this morning.  Received email from XtremeMiners about 12 hours later.  Unable to determine if legitimate or just stringing me along.  Repeat of info posted on their news page from back around Jan 18.  Have opened ticket with Coinbase.  Response received from them made it sound like they are aware of XtremeMiners and the case has been forwarded to the ant-fraud team.



From: Xtreme Miners <contact@xtrememiners.net>
Date: Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 5:15 PM
Subject: Re: Order Update?
To: xxxxxx@xxxxxx


Hello,

Unfortunately we are expecting a delay in delivery times, because we
set up a new coinbase account, and the funds on there have been frozen
as a security measurement since coinbase's security system considered it to
be unusal for a new account to receive so many coins.
So we couldn't work with it.
We will definitely keep you updated on what happens next or when the
definite ship date is. (We will be releasing news updates on our
websites)
Additionally we are currently working on making the power consumption
as continuous as possible.


Our Team is doing everything to get this misunderstanding resolved as
soon as possible.

We will definitely update you if we have dates, and also launched a
"News" page on our website just now.
So if you find something new there, that's the latest info we will have.

Good News are that we have some performance improvements of up to 0.2 TH !

Thank you for your patience and Kind Regards

Team Xtreme Miners

[Searing]

Have placed order with Xtreme.  My unit should have shipped last week.  Sent order status inquiry this morning.  Received email from XtremeMiners about 12 hours later.  Unable to determine if legitimate or just stringing me along.  Repeat of info posted on their news page from back around Jan 18.  Have opened ticket with Coinbase.  Response received from them made it sound like they are aware of XtremeMiners and the case has been forwarded to the ant-fraud team.



From: Xtreme Miners <contact@xtrememiners.net>
Date: Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 5:15 PM
Subject: Re: Order Update?
To: xxxxxx@xxxxxx


Hello,

Unfortunately we are expecting a delay in delivery times, because we
set up a new coinbase account, and the funds on there have been frozen
as a security measurement since coinbase's security system considered it to
be unusal for a new account to receive so many coins.
So we couldn't work with it.
We will definitely keep you updated on what happens next or when the
definite ship date is. (We will be releasing news updates on our
websites)
Additionally we are currently working on making the power consumption
as continuous as possible.


Our Team is doing everything to get this misunderstanding resolved as
soon as possible.

We will definitely update you if we have dates, and also launched a
"News" page on our website just now.
So if you find something new there, that's the latest info we will have.

Good News are that we have some performance improvements of up to 0.2 TH !

Thank you for your patience and Kind Regards

Team Xtreme Miners

unfortunately...i think your coins are lost...if you read my previous post look around the ctsminer thread on here ...(known scam) on perhaps (longshot) ways to get your coin back

hope i'm wrong..

Searing

[blackknight]

Have had time to dig a little deeper.  Message headers from email received:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
Delivered-To: xxx@gmail.com
Received: by 10.216.84.134 with SMTP id s6csp50640wee;
        Mon, 24 Feb 2014 17:15:13 -0800 (PST)
X-Received: by 10.220.95.139 with SMTP id d11mr14884257vcn.21.1393290912596;
        Mon, 24 Feb 2014 17:15:12 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <contact@xtrememiners.net>
Received: from mail-vc0-f182.google.com (mail-vc0-f182.google.com [209.85.220.182])
        by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id lz6si6382884vcb.106.2014.02.24.17.15.12
        for <xxx@gmail.com>
        (version=TLSv1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128);
        Mon, 24 Feb 2014 17:15:12 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 209.85.220.182 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of contact@xtrememiners.net) client-ip=209.85.220.182;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;
       spf=neutral (google.com: 209.85.220.182 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of contact@xtrememiners.net) smtp.mail=contact@xtrememiners.net
Received: by mail-vc0-f182.google.com with SMTP id id10so6516424vcb.41
        for <xxx@gmail.com>; Mon, 24 Feb 2014 17:15:12 -0800 (PST)
X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
        d=1e100.net; s=20130820;
        h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date
         :message-id:subject:from:to:content-type;
        bh=Nc1QEO8pk+HISvP8szTurr9Q6Z1zkm9/VgkGEooPhbs=;
        b=bn3FFMDI24bMAK9B1I5xuw1zFy0qgrHkuVnhpRbV2iZFbBBLlPpbNXGBlMdVO/rEgB
         wLhZZ77vccUK/QHaa+bzXIFUZcqdOUejrwa8irqAmUnKb4zI61kxmWwg19KyGf0lE0gC
         G5+w696iHMSrDJ1rxey2o5dARNz+ioIb/AGN+Lf1vBU5zb55NZtoTJDLvX11U7PEwTSV
         JZfQ1vMFutCsMcpZmNVXw/vnA6qAuE3fdtzLTVzKELbM2idhqqWIO/F96TaucbeEN77D
         CdP1C82Vq9V739aEdKajFtf2D6hXoBr6jrqYhah0tCdgjDwBPa0L2eKE+lJGqZyz3jxh
         X4HQ==
X-Gm-Message-State: ALoCoQmPRPK46VACAkhmZGESgBSeZbEux8G1hnxaFJ2llngtdtzexI9KXvBz5QhEN1TEBz00KPfw
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Received: by 10.58.69.111 with SMTP id d15mr226566veu.3.1393290911953; Mon,
 24 Feb 2014 17:15:11 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.220.146.202 with HTTP; Mon, 24 Feb 2014 17:15:11 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <CAFRAbxB=SemrRhLL9SP=tFhP_7hRXz4L+oN5DnyZ73ni+PDLLw@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAFRAbxB=SemrRhLL9SP=tFhP_7hRXz4L+oN5DnyZ73ni+PDLLw@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 01:15:11 +0000
Message-ID: <CAM8o=PzOHj2tUdH_T04Vbu+kDhb9O2op_LX2rrFDHHtnDNB_Zg@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Order Update?
From: Xtreme Miners <contact@xtrememiners.net>
To: xtreme miners customer

Message headers make me think email hosted for domain xtrememiners.net is at google/gmail.
Verify looking up mail servers for domain:
> xtrememiners.net
Server:  resolver1.opendns.com
Address:  208.67.222.222

Non-authoritative answer:
xtrememiners.net        MX preference = 40, mail exchanger = aspmx2.googlemail.c
om
xtrememiners.net        MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = aspmx.l.google.com
xtrememiners.net        MX preference = 30, mail exchanger = alt2.aspmx.l.google
.com
xtrememiners.net        MX preference = 50, mail exchanger = aspmx3.googlemail.c
om
xtrememiners.net        MX preference = 20, mail exchanger = alt1.aspmx.l.google
.com
>

from message headers of above email:
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 209.85.220.182 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of contact@xtrememiners.net) client-ip=209.85.220.182;

Believe client ip of 209.85.220.182 is not client IP of person sending email but which GMail server they are logged into.

From Geo IP location service:
IP Address 209.85.220.182
Location  UNITED STATES, MICHIGAN, STERLING HEIGHTS
Latitude & Longitude 42.580310, -83.030200 (42°34'49"N   83°1'49"W)
Connection GOOGLE INC.
Local Time 24 Feb, 2014 10:14 PM (UTC -05:00)
Domain GOOGLE.COM


Google has regionalized servers.  Guessing client would be directed to closest server.  Based on time of email, received at 5:15 PST which is roughly 2:15AM in Germany, unlikely that normal business person would be up and sending email at that time.  If person in Michigan area more likely they would be sending email although still late (8:15PM) which would corroborate what I've seen elsewhere that some of the people behind the company  are in the US.

[blackknight]

Earlier email received from XtremeMiners:


Hello,
of course we have prototypes.
We can't send any pictures of our prototypes though, due to the very
high risk of plagiarism. Our products are unique, and so are our
prototypes. And we want that it stays like that, I am sure you can
understand that.

 if you want to be safe extra safe or have concerns, you can always
just wait until january when the first miners have been shipped out,
get some feedback, and then order for an april/may batch.
You can also simply purchase from bitmine.ch or cointerra or other
vendors if you're skeptical, as long as you support the bitcoin
project, we are happy.

Kind Regards,

Team Xtreme Miners

Message Headers:
Received: by 10.216.186.10 with SMTP id v10csp786420wem;
        Wed, 1 Jan 2014 16:37:05 -0800 (PST)
X-Received: by 10.14.224.197 with SMTP id x45mr11141635eep.103.1388623025832;
        Wed, 01 Jan 2014 16:37:05 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <contact@xtrememiners.net>
Received: from mail-ee0-f44.google.com (mail-ee0-f44.google.com [74.125.83.44])
        by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id r9si63482411eeo.86.2014.01.01.16.37.05
        for <xyz@xyz.domain>
        (version=TLSv1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128);
        Wed, 01 Jan 2014 16:37:05 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 74.125.83.44 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of contact@xtrememiners.net) client-ip=74.125.83.44;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;

These client IP's point directly to Google GMail servers in Mountain View, California.  Location inconclusive but communicating at times consistent with a presence in the US.

[chopsticks]

If the scammer was using the Google DNS (8.8.8. or a VPN that popped-out in the USA they would be using the regional Gmail servers of the USA.

Did you think about asking Google or Coinbase for assistance with IP address tracking from their side?  At some point in time the scammers may have made a mistake.

I doubt the scammers would be stupid enough to be within the borders of the USA.  Then again: the Silk Road fool was stupid enough to be in the USA... so one can always hope.

[blackknight]

As has already been observed, it appears that the web site is hosted by wix.com and is currently being served out of Austin TX.

If like me your money has been taken, please go to this web site and report it:  http://www.wix.com/upgrade/abuse#!general-abuse/c2t1

Internet White Collar Crimes:  http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx
You can also report it to the German authorities:  http://www.verbraucherzentrale.de/impressum

vertreten durch den geschäftsführenden Vorstand Jutta Gelbrich
Große Friedberger Straße 13 - 17
60313 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: 0180 5 972010 0,14 € pro Minute aus dem deutschen Festnetz; aus dem Mobilfunk maximal 0,42 € pro Minute
Fax: 069 97 20 10 40
E-Mail:   vzh@verbraucher.de
USt-IdNr: DE114235383
Vereinsregisternummer 6492, Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main

[blackknight]

It can be hard to hear a lone voice crying in the wilderness.  If you have been defrauded, please help me put a stop to this crime by contacting Coinbase, IC3, the German Impressum, and wix.com.  I've asked the question and was told I was only the second person to report the issue.  My order was for the 3rd week of February batch, which appeared to sell out.  Earlier batches also appeared to sell out.  If you have been defrauded, don't sit idly by and kiss your money goodbye.  That means only 2% or less of victims have reported it.  Please add strength to my voice.

Further communication from XtremeMiners, as posted earlier, and recently reiterated - they claim they are unable to produce a machine because Coinbase is withholding their funds.  The gist of the response from Coinbase is that they are not treating this as an action class.   It sounds like they may be thinking they can only return funds to individuals for whom they are actively "stopping payment".  Those who got caught later should be thankful to earlier victims for reporting the crime and sharing the funds that have been withheld from XtremeMiners.net.  If it weren't for their active voice, losses would continue to mount.

Recent communications on the issue:
From BlackKnight to Legal@wix.com
I do have cases open with both the US authorities and the German authorities.  As law enforcement can be slow to move sometimes, I wanted your opinion on which court has jurisdiction.  This would help me expedite the process of getting said court order if I can help guide the law enforcement officials to the right court.  Further many courts have different rules of procedure and my local attorney's here may not be familiar with the procedures at the court you think has jurisdiction and I would need to engage an attorney familiar with that court.  I haven't yet looked up where the owning corporation of wix.com to see where you are located but it's possible that you are incorporated in the Cayman Islands and will only honor an order originating from a court there.  The original simple question has not been answered, which court has jurisdiction and from which you will honor a cease and desist order?

In the case of firearms, stores that have sold guns to individuals who later committed crimes with them have been held culpable.  LIkewise, I am making you a witness to an ongoing crime.  An individual has used tools you provide to defraud me and many others of thousands and possibly millions of dollars.  You are no longer a disinterested third party.  The crime is happening on your premises.  You are aiding and abetting a criminal.  The XtremeMiners.net web site is clearly a template provided by wix.com with some simple alteration of text and graphics.  In other words you have provided the weapon that the alleged criminal is using to rob innocent people.

Please help me put a stop to this crime.  If you will simply point me to a court , I will move forward with getting an order from it so that you can take down this web site.


<from CoinBase support>
MAR 01, 2014  |  05:58PM PST
Support replied:
Hi BlackKnight,

Thank you for this inquiry, and I'm very sorry to hear of this difficulty. To clarify, as a payment processor Coinbase has no control over bitcoin funds that have been transferred off-site. We suggest that you address questions or complaints to the merchant directly, although there may be alternative legal remedies to consider should this fail.

If you have any further questions. please feel to contact us at any time and we'll be glad to help.
-CoinBase Support


From Xtreme Miners
4:15 PM Feb 28, 2014 (16 hours ago)

to me
Hello,
if we had definite ship dates yet, we would post them on our site.
we are doing everything we can to solve this issue but coinbase is
very slow with their customer support.
Please remain patient, we will update the news site as soon as know more.
Kind Regards,

Team Xtreme Miners
They have made absolutely no reference to any material issue with design and construction of a miner - only with funding.   I was an early investor with Butterfly Labs and followed progress on their machines for 9 long months.  I know how hard it is to make a miner.  If they could demonstrate that they had a working machine as they claimed via email on Jan 1, then they wouldn't have any problems getting a short term loan to continue construction.  With an Account Receivable balance at Coinbase it would be easy to get funding to move forward with construction/delivery of a product.
Xtreme Miners contact@xtrememiners.net
Jan 1

to me
Hello,
of course we have prototypes.
We can't send any pictures of our prototypes though, due to the very
high risk of plagiarism. Our products are unique, and so are our
prototypes. And we want that it stays like that, I am sure you can
understand that.
If you are new and have just seen the XtremeMiners web site, don't get taken in by this language like I did, it's completely false:

We are keeping our promises – Miners are in production right now and will start shipping Jan/Feb 2014 . Unlike other bitcoin miner producers, we will not let you wait several months for your Xtreme Miners.
 
We live by the simple rule of keeping the promises you make.

[broke]

well thanks a lot black night I have filed a complaint at wix.com and at ic3.gov. I hope soon there will be more people joining us.

[jockular]

I feel bad for all the dudes in this thread.  I was literally saved by the slow nature of money transfers which gave me the 4 days I needed to cool off and rationalize the numbers on that site.  This was back in november.

it's ridiculous this site is still up and the domain hasn't been prosecuted.