Their business model:You deposit your BTC with them in exchange for nothing but broken promises and wasted time
What happened: Chatted in some detail about the services claimed which are to trade BTC for $ funded to Bank Account, Paypal CreditCard and various other payment processors.
Rates, fees and timescales seemed reasonable, not too good to be true just average.
Appeal was simplicity, in the UK its quite difficult converting BTC to £. The best site for it is BitBargain. But this seemed interesting if genuine.
Thought it over a few days and decided to test them out:
- Issued order to sell 1 BTC for around $930, the current advertised rate on their order page
- Got an email by reply asking me to send BTC to 1Ndvbh9Li8Bm8jSSfPUyj3ytNrNz49HxWV to complete my order (this was the last email ever got from them)
- 20140106@16:17 sent 1 BTC to 1Ndvbh9Li8Bm8jSSfPUyj3ytNrNz49HxWV
- waited for my order to complete - and waited - chased with email and through their support link - no reply
- the following day chased some more, so despite claims of 24/7 support: no one ever answers their phone, Skype doesn't recognise their published Skype id, and support emails are NEVER answered
- the only way to contact them is through the chat box, their vehicle to net new victims
- this eventually popped-up mid afternoon. I asked why no response they said it was a company holiday. I asked where are my funds, they said they couldn't match the order price and offered a lower one. Or I could send them more BTC for a better rate.
- I told them I just wanted a refund- which they said was against company policy
- Eventually I agreed to the poorer rate - which they promptly withdrew - offering a still worse one, when I accepted that they withdrew the offer and closed the chat box
- I later discovered by switching my client IP the chat box would re-appear - so obviously they were blocking my IP
- Chased further on a different IP - this time they said they would refund the BTC but it would take 5-7 days
- I'm still waiting, each time I've chased since they block my IP to remove the chat box - it really annoys them to have this occupied by people asking for refunds
- I've now reported them to UK Action Fraud and Trading Standards. Although their chat box offers no transcript I use snips to capture the full dialog so I have a complete record of all their broken promises
- Action Fraud confirmed they are known to them via other complaints, and that their behaviour is that of classic scammers. Things like making offers and withdrawing when you accept, blocking chat by IP address
- Needless to say I am still waiting for my 1 BTC refund
Scammers Profile Link: n/a
Reference Link:
https://bitcoinexchangeltd.comAmount Scammed: 1 BTC/$930 (the then rate)
Payment Method: Bitcoins
Proof of Payment:
https://blockchain.info/tx/4d6ca6e5a4ee6a2bce7b943436cc2435ec5e34953ce26d73580ae2ddd88a2923BTC deposits (by others) to their same address I used:
https://blockchain.info/address/1Ndvbh9Li8Bm8jSSfPUyj3ytNrNz49HxWV?offset=200&filter=0Additional Notes: My test of their services proved to me these are scammers, confirmed by subsequent enquiries and conversations with other victims of these criminals. The matter is now with the police. Whether they take this up depends on other priorities measured in part by the number of complaints and the scale of the fraud.
So if they have taken your Bitcoin in exchange for nothing but broken promises be sure to contact
UK Action Fraud http://www.actionfraud.police.uk on 0300 123 2040 (or +44 161 234 9230 if calling outside the UK)
