Scam Report: Projects

[Chainsaw]

I filed my fraud report here. After speaking with their online help, I was told the following:

When you submit your report to Action Fraud, it goes to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau which is based within the City of London police.

I included all my details, and also included any emails, phone numbers, and 2-of-the-3 bank accounts (the max I could) that were from someone else.
I would strongly encourage anyone else affected to do the same, and quickly, so the department will realize this is what I claim, and your losses can be wrapped up in the same effort.

The message from the end of the report submission (which took me approximately 40 minutes):

If you know anyone else who believes they have been a victim of fraud who wants to report the incident please ask them to complete the online report found at www.actionfraud.police.uk, or phone the contact centre on 0300 123 2040.

I filed a fraud report on Projects last Friday. So far, I have only received the automated "we have received your message".
When I asked them whether I should also contact the police, they told me it would be redundant based on the NFIB being part of the City of London police.

That said, I would be thrilled to find out other efforts were also underway to find this guy.
It seems he is either a very smart or a very stupid criminal, given how much real life information he has made available. If it represents his true identity, it seems like he should already be in jail.

Ideas I have seen generated include:
-lawyers
-one individual offered to convert his stolen 10 BTC into a gift if Projects returned the rest
-private investigators (I was given a URL for a PI in his town)

escrow.ms seems to be centralizing/leading the charge going forward (thank you!!!).

[shawshankinmate37927]

Other than Chainsaw, has anyone else that was scammed been in contact with law enforcement and filed a police report?  If you are going to let us know that you were scammed, wouldn't you also want the police to know?  I realize the police likely aren't going to be able to retrieve any stolen BTC, but with your assistance at least they can investigate, file charges, prosecute him, and hopefully put him in prison for a while.

[Nightowlace]

You guys should all exchange email addresses and discuss this *off the forum*
Any actions you guys are taking and updating here prior too or as you're doing them are available to anyone too see including "projects". He may have already registered a new account and is watching and reading this giving him the upper hand.

Please post updates so that we can see progress but do not post anymore actions you plan to take or if/when people know his location. He has a half million dollars to move around with. Keep your actions private and update results.

[semaster]

I filed a fraud report on Projects last Friday. So far, I have only received the automated "we have received your message".
When I asked them whether I should also contact the police, they told me it would be redundant based on the NFIB being part of the City of London police.

That said, I would be thrilled to find out other efforts were also underway to find this guy.
It seems he is either a very smart or a very stupid criminal, given how much real life information he has made available. If it represents his true identity, it seems like he should already be in jail.

Ideas I have seen generated include:
-lawyers
-one individual offered to convert his stolen 10 BTC into a gift if Projects returned the rest
-private investigators (I was given a URL for a PI in his town)

escrow.ms seems to be centralizing/leading the charge going forward (thank you!!!).

I cannot file report as I'm outside Europe.
But I'm ready to give half (6btc) of  total 12bitcoins that was stolen from me by Projects in case if some detective or lawyers will find person who is behind the name Projects and draws him to justice

[shawshankinmate37927]

I cannot file report as I'm outside Europe.
But I'm ready to give half (6btc) of  total 12bitcoins that was stolen from me by Projects in case if some detective or lawyers will find person who is behind the name Projects and draws him to justice

Chainsaw is located in the USA, but he still filed a report.  He has even provided a link to the website where you can report the crime in this post:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=393593.msg4292830#msg4292830

[Ban Curtain]

Wow, I felt that one day Projects will be announced to be a scammer. I've stuck with his scamming behavior in early summer, what a pity I had too little trust to be trustworthy for others that days.

Good luck in investigations! I hope Truth and Justice help to win

[escrow.ms]

So far I have gotten messages and mails from few users. Everyone who got scammed please post your email id's or pm me so I can contact you or you can send me a email with all the info you have.  Please don't forget to give transaction id's of the payment you have sent to projects.

 Currently there are alot users who are saying they got scammed but only few have posted transaction id's.

Ps: As Chainsaw and shawshank said, if you got scammed by him, please file a report on that site.

[josg21]

sorry for my delay. He scammed me out of 15btc

[escrow.ms]

Updated

Username | Amount Scammed
ubettercall  | 4.5
mabipa125   | 3 BTC
Truman   |33 BTC
wachtwoord  |66.4 BTC
KCmining |20 BTC
gmoney1 | 6.1 BTC
semaster  |12 BTC
Chainsaw |201.7 BTC
gingpark |93 BTC
FlensGold |18 BTC
josg21   |15 BTC
1l1l11ll1l  |10 BTC
gudmunsn | 2.25 BTC
BiTCluE | 5 BTC
-----------------------------------------------
(Total 489.95 Bitcoins)
-----------------------------------------------

[BCB]

Is someone also collecting personal information on Projects.  I'm sure between us we have all the banks accounts and emails and locations he's been using.

[escrow.ms]

Is someone also collecting personal information on Projects.  I'm sure between us we have all the banks accounts and emails and locations he's been using.

I am trying to collect.

[1l1l11ll1l]

Date Nov 30th
Amount 25BTC

TX ID    a5013ed712bbadc1885778e61610705784b316d267cf8157ebaf7706450add5d

recipient: 1HtnBMkVCPvJo2fHBRMUz8UtEgiFk2KksH

Then his refund:

Amount 10BCT
tx:  f1172d8c79d62134db16c57c561d6abd63138314bf3a23842986ef275abc092d

Amount 5BTC
tx: 2c7d6dc35dc35e270ef51eb7bfd59d3e3d00b2e2645a099515c1eb06128f044f


Either he got himself into trouble and needed the money, thus trying to make us "okay" with his scam being glad we could recover some of what we lost due to "shipping" problems, or else he was simply trying to delay getting a torrent of negative trust ratings so he could continue to scam more and more.

His original offer to me was 1BTC per week for 25 weeks.

[Pistachio]

Updated

Username | Amount Scammed
ubettercall  | 4.5
mabipa125   | 3 BTC
Truman   |33 BTC
wachtwoord  |66.4 BTC
KCmining |20 BTC
gmoney1 | 6.1 BTC
semaster  |12 BTC
Chainsaw |201.7 BTC
gingpark |93 BTC
FlensGold |18 BTC
josg21   |15 BTC
1l1l11ll1l  |10 BTC
gudmunsn | 2.25 BTC
BiTCluE | 5 BTC
-----------------------------------------------
(Total 489.95 Bitcoins)
-----------------------------------------------



You need to add mine. I guess it's time to get this out in the open.

Here is my first payment sent of 12.5BTC to Projects on Dec. 9, 2013 for a Jupiter.

12.5btc sent  . https://blockchain.info/tx/ccec98ac536db705ea80a73ed0324ae8576330c72ede10e951d01d99040e2c28

Here is my second payment sent of 4.7BTC on Dec. 10, 2013 for a Saturn.

Hi, was just about to head to post the package but I can send the Saturn too, that isnt a problem.
I will need the BTC within 90 mins to be able to post today though else it will be tomorrow when I post them.
Address in profile for the BTC please

BTC sent https://blockchain.info/tx/1a1af7cf2ad06c7512643317d3de308b8b5abb86d087da36d7252ca913bd2d03

Here is the tracking number he sent me after a few days.

RJ315893736GB

Here is his explanation of why he gave me a bogus tracking number that delivered a package to a hotel in Wisconsin call the Wilderness Resort.

OK I am going to look into this and please do leave off any public discussions, we can resolve this between us to your full satisfaction I am sure without the need for ruining my hard earned rep (again I am not a scammer else I wouldnt care about any of this).
Royal mail is closed now and their tracking still has not updated - I know for a fact I did not send a package to that address so something is wrong somewhere.
But rest assured you will not lose out. I will speak to them in the morning and let you know when I am home from work the outcome (around this time tomorrow)
I am really sorry for this but like I said do not panic you have not been scammed.

then

If you can send me a BTC address so I can send you 25% back of the funds you sent to me as a show of good faith that I am looking into this I would appreciate it - just so you know I am not trying anything on here. I genuinely do not know what has happened but hopefully this will reassure you. If the package does arrive you can repay me and if it does not we can work something out to which you are happy with, I hope this is agreeable to you.

then

OK I will do this when I am home, out for dinner at the moment but will be in a few hours time.
I will send 4.2 BTC which means if it does turn up you need to repay the 4.2 - if there is a problem the outstanding amount you have still paid is 13 BTC and we will need to try to sort something out if thats the case as I did ship the goods as it will be a huge loss for me, but I will work with you should that be the case.
I hope this reassures you and you are happy with this outcome?
To recap I will send 4.2 BTC to the address you just sent me within 4h, speak with Royal Mail tomorrow on my lunch break at work and then update you of the situation around this time tomorrow night.
Is that all OK with you? Are you happy with this ?
Again I can only apologise for this and I am hoping it is just a simple mistake that I have given you the wrong tracking number and your package will be ariving very soon.

Kind Regards,
Projects

He did send me 4.2BTC https://blockchain.info/tx/d233e9d1b95ff42cf8df301105d0649b814ce8dd02ce7b4c7f0d93a9a27df960

then,

I did purchase insurance but unfortunately I did not declare it at full value so you would not be charged big customs fees which is my fault I guess but I was trying to do you a favor there isn't much options left I have filed an enquiry which if its found to be delivered to a different address I probably will get some money from the insurance but only a quarter of the true value and I may not get that back for up to 6 months in past experience I'm pretty annoyed as this isn't the only package that's gone missing I've sent my losses this month are huge and I'm not very wealthy so not sure how I can cover everything

I can probably offer you two options now these are in good faith and open for discussion I'm not forcing you to do anything you do t want all I ask is you keep this private so I can keep my rep intact to try to earn more money here to recover from my huge losses

The two options I have in mind is if you accept 50% refund in full now I can probably manage to scrape that together I don't know if this is more valuable to you than me giving you a full refund over time which is the second option if you allow me to repay the 13 btc over 6 months or so which I know is far from ideal but I just don't have it I've lost the equipment too so it's a huge loss to me

What do you think again please keep this between us as I'm really trying to work it out with you but if my reps ruined here I'm finished as this is more than half my income

then his last message to me.

Hi - please can I get a BTC address to start the repayments to you?
I have had another two miners get lost this week so I am really not feeling too good, what I could ask is if someone writes a thread about this you do not let anyone know I have agreed to refund you in full? I am not going to be able to refund everyone in full but I have already made the agreement with you. I am trying to preserve my reputation the best I can to ensure I can repay what I can due to this huge mistake of using Royal Mail.

Final grand total was 13BTC scammed by projects.

Please add me to any lawsuit or other legal (or otherwise) pursuit of projects for funds scammed.

[BurtW]

This is all such a shame.  Projects was one of my best customers.  I loaned him a lot of BTC over the years and he always paid me back.  I closed up my lending business a while back (too many scammers to ever make a profit) so I did not lose anything in this case.

[Nightowlace]

From reading all of these posts it sounds as though Projects had a serious drug or gambling problem. Always taking one loan to pay another. Selling fake hardware to one person to repay another person. All while keeping a few (sometimes more) B from each and the purchaser chalking it up as a loss and a lesson. My guess is gambling. probably pissed it all away hoping to make it all back each time and finally realized he is in way to deep.

I would check with the gaming sites and see if any deposits came in on the same days for the same amounts scammed.

[elasticband]

tired to scam me  i guess in a private sale of 4 KNC miners at 20BTC each, insisted he was trust worthy and had never needed to use escrow in the past. He told me it was no escrow or no deal, so it was no deal. Shady F*cker!

[elasticband]

Don't know if it has been done, but here is a google spreadsheet for victims to fill in.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1RnXR9W19092PpTrhOnns8PCYc8zAXM0U_Hs4udRfEAA/viewform

I can possibly pass the data on to a criminal legal team in Scotland depending, I have family in this sector.

[KCmining]

Don't know if it has been done, but here is a google spreadsheet for victims to fill in.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1RnXR9W19092PpTrhOnns8PCYc8zAXM0U_Hs4udRfEAA/viewform

I can possibly pass the data on to a criminal legal team in Scotland depending, I have family in this sector.

Info filled out on the form.

Tx IDs for my scammed amount (10btc x 2)

https://blockchain.info/tx/323641b1c5488567e50246e8e69379468b3428c6783cfe0c815bf307a66b53c3

https://blockchain.info/tx/022c70bdc8b38292daf52b3f0b4be49633d9330110787c2e9834838c80573536

My 'puppet' tracking number - he deliberately sent it to the wrong address.

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction!input.action?tRef=qt&tLc=1&tLabels=RJ315893705GB

I will file a report this weekend as well.

If I spend the money to get a PI involved and I find him ... well I won't be shaking his hand let's just say. And be damned anyone who wants to preach to me about being 'professional'. This silly bastard thinks he can get away with this? Spend enough money and anybody can be found.

I could care less if he is 'watching' this forum too. The more people I see who have been scammed the more pissed off I am with this worthless scumbag piece of shit.

Apologies, rant over.

Oh BTW ... either he lied on the customs forms or he has provided his real information that can be found. If he lied then - well, it's a felony here in the US, sure it ain't that different over there.

If he is in FL now then so much the better.

[josg21]

I have a thought. Perhaps we can put a "pool" together of money to find him. This way we can leverage the scale of all of us and get the most out of the money spent.

I am more then willing to contribute.

[KCmining]

I have a thought. Perhaps we can put a "pool" together of money to find him. This way we can leverage the scale of all of us and get the most out of the money spent.

I am more then willing to contribute.

I thought about this too, and I would be willing to contribute, but not being in the UK is a killer for spearheading this effort.