Bitcoin Miners

[Searing]

if i have my addresses correct...they made off with 144 btc of which 0 is left....

https://blockchain.info/address/1BofXEuBSAbjwjhZuvxkoLJ9D8btpJ8knu


ie $118,000 USD?

if somehow i mixed up the addresses tell me i'll delete this post but i think the above is correct

sheesh...makes my tummy hurt in sympathy...at least bfl sends you a doorstop.

Searing

[raskul]

if i have my addresses correct...they made off with 144 btc of which 0 is left....

https://blockchain.info/address/1BofXEuBSAbjwjhZuvxkoLJ9D8btpJ8knu

if somehow i mixed up the addresses tell me i'll delete this post but i think the above is correct

sheesh...

Searing

yup, been watching it myself;
over $118k - as BTC prices rising today

[Gator-hex]

if i have my addresses correct...they made off with 144 btc of which 0 is left....

https://blockchain.info/address/1BofXEuBSAbjwjhZuvxkoLJ9D8btpJ8knu

if somehow i mixed up the addresses tell me i'll delete this post but i think the above is correct

sheesh...

Searing

yup, been watching it myself;
over $118k - as BTC prices rising today

If you're an American victim the FBI does take wire & mail fraud seriously when it goes above $100k...

..they extradited BFL's Sonny from Italy in 2007 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=110805.0) in case anyone missed that one..  

..but the chances of finding these guys or getting your coins back is slim to none, if they were pros, they did everything behind a web proxy, located somewhere the US has no jurisdiction, and sat in a web cafe with open wifi.

[itod]

..but the chances of finding these guys is slim to none, if they were pros, they did everything behind a web proxy, located somewhere the US has no jurisdiction, and sat in a web cafe with open wifi.

No need for a web cafe, they could safely work from home using VPN. There are many VPN providers who do not collect user logs.

[augustocroppo]

SCAM WEBSITE you are hosting.

Domain: ctsminer.com
IP: 199.188.201.252

http://domains-by-day.com/2014-01-24/ctsminer.com-domain-name-data.html
shows that ctsminer.com was originally associated with IP 185.8.106.66 (on another network)

THIS IS A KNOWN SCAMMER IP:
https://www.virustotal.com/en/ip-address/185.8.106.66/information/

So it is becoming obvious that you and your brother have been pumping up the sales for the fraudsters. Of course, now you and your brother have to find a way to disassociate from the fraud, so you come here and show that you found evidence which indicates they are fraudsters. But this evidence has already been presented, so you are not showing anything new. You are just throwing bullshit around in a desperate attempt to hide your participation in the fraud. You are certainly astronomically stupid to post the above information and pretend that was not uncovered before:

A research using domaintools.com Internet page shows the domain ctsminer.com was redirect from the IP address 185.8.106.66 to the IP address 199.188.201.252. In accordance with the above evidence, the Internet Page was host in the IP address 185.8.106.66 from 13rd January 2014 to 17th January 2014.  An examination of the IP address 185.8.106.66 reveals some interesting results, such as:

https://www.virustotal.com/en/ip-address/185.8.106.66/information/

https://i.imgur.com/0Ei0aou.png

The WHOIS record on 19th January 2014 for the domain butterflyiab.com matches exactly with the WHOIS record on 12th January 2014 for the domain ctsminers.com:

https://i.imgur.com/m9c3ZD4.png

https://i.imgur.com/BC7lbZt.png

That means it is very likely the same person operating the domain ctsminers.com is also responsible for the domain butterflyiab.com. Both domains were first directed to a hosting service located in Lithuania. One domain is being used to perpetrate a fraudulent scheme and the other was registered to prey on people which misspell the official domain from Butterfly Labs.

[JudgeHearst]

the more info we can dig up and post on here the better IMHO

Sadly they seem to do something really dumb for a verification certificate company.
90 days free no documents SSL! So I doubt they can help track them down.

http://ssl.comodo.com/free-ssl-certificate.php?key5sk1=99f7df534d1ad0d1cbe906bfb690599adc5aa290&key5sk2=1907&key5sk3=1390745603000&key5sk4=1907&key5sk5=1390745651000&key6sk1=&key6sk2=FF260&key6sk3=6&key6sk4=en-us&key6sk5=&key6sk6=0&key6sk7=Google&key6sk8=119900&key6sk9=1366768&key6sk10=false&key6sk11=4abbbda1e6da568df4c6f9c64ea8961138c67831&key6sk12=53.5&key6sk13=-2.217&key7sk1=196106&key1sk1=ors&key1sk2=Google

all of a sudden i'm becoming a big fan of someone introducing a proper regulation.

A few days ago I started a long-winded thread, partly in response to this announcement, to address two serious and related problems with mining hardware companies: 1) the practice of taking pre-orders and 2) the lack of disclosure by hardware companies. Cheshyr and I have been going back and forth productively sharing ideas on how to develop community norms RE: disclosure practices. Norms for product announcements may help filter out the fraudsters by limiting their ability to use this forum (won't stop them from using other forums). I'd invite any of you with ideas, especially given the new information about CTS, to join our conversation.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=430511.0

Also, wasn't this conversation supposed to be moved to Scam Accusation sub-forum?  I guess it doesn't matter now since CTS isn't taking orders any longer.

[SantaMuerte]

Nice amount of coins in the retirement fund you got there birdman (phoenix).
While scrolling back in the thread and reading everything it´s clear as glas (for me), birdman and honolulu pumped the scam, made people think it´s possible etc, now trying to find a way to "clean" their names so they can stay @ bitcointalk etc.

Didn´t loose a single satoshi in this scam, but i feel for the people who did fall for birdmans pump-and-scam.

[Cheshyr]

I'm still not 100% sold that this is scam, but I've never had an itchy trigger finger when to investing large sums of money.  CTSMiner will likely respond to this sooner or later, so I'll wait for proof of product, like everyone else should have.  Until then, I think we can leave off on the banter and speculation.

[raskul]

I'm still not 100% sold that this is scam, but I've never had an itchy trigger finger when to investing large sums of money.  CTSMiner will likely respond to this sooner or later, so I'll wait for proof of product, like everyone else should have.  Until then, I think we can leave off on the banter and speculation.

convincing aren't they?

 

[Colin Miner]

About Us

Crypto Technology Systems, the team behind the CTS Miner, have been established in the microprocessor industry since 1975. CTS are an elite group formed internally from a world-class microprocessor engineering company at the forefront of Embedded controller design and manufacture, supplying products for a wide range of applications including Aircraft Testing, Remote Switchgear Operation, Stock Control, Instrumentation, Oil and Petrochemical Exploration, Marine Science and Environmental Control.

We have been following the cryptocurrency industry, and particularly Bitcoin mining, for the past year and a half. In May 2013, a team was put together to work on producing Bitcoin mining ASIC chips to be used in miners. Our small management team have had the backing of 50 full time microprocessor designers and engineers here in the UK. Over the past 8 months, we have worked tirelessly to build a group of products which outperform all competitors that will be available at a price which is un-matchable.
Our Team

Michael Richardson
Project Manager

Michael has run the CTS Miner project from inception through to production and has been responsible for every decision made. He has hand picked his small team with an ultimate aim of building the best in Bitcoin mining hardware. Michael joined the company in 2007 after graduating from Cambridge University with a Masters degree in Manufacturing Engineering and has worked in nearly every department of the company. Specialising in microchip product design, Michael, along with Steve, are wholly responsible for our products.


Steve Hodgeson
Product Design & Development

Steve is an expert in algebra based microchip development. Joining the team in 2012, Steve is relatively new to the CTS team; however, was the key instigator into looking further into production of Bitcoin products. Bringing 13 years of industry experience in GPU engineering at renowned semiconductor companies, Steve is a huge asset to the development of Bitcoin mining products. Steve runs the engineering team here and is responsible for the in-house build of our products.


David Brown
Customer Services/Sales

David comes from a strong electronics sales based background. Born in the UK, David has worked for electronics companies ranging from appliances through to components throughout the world. Returning to the UK in 2010, David joined the team at CTS as national sales manager and has successfully led sales and customer service for all projects since. David has ultimate responsibility for customer satisfaction and will be the first point of call for all enquiries. Don’t be surprised if David answers if you give us a call!


Rebecca Saunders
Marketing and Branding

Rebecca completes the CTS team as our Marketing and Branding Manager. Working with each of the other three team managers, Rebecca has ensured the products are aesthetically pleasing, that the branding is unique and memorable and ultimately runs all of our marketing efforts from PR through to social media. For all media enquiries, please contact Rebecca at: r.saunders@ctsminer.com.

I have added this for future reference, seeing as the site is currently down. 

[CYPER]

So it is becoming obvious that you and your brother have been pumping up the sales for the fraudsters. Of course, now you and your brother have to find a way to disassociate from the fraud, so you come here and show that you found evidence which indicates they are fraudsters. But this evidence has already been presented, so you are not showing anything new. You are just throwing bullshit around in a desperate attempt to hide your participation in the fraud. You are certainly astronomically stupid to post the above information and pretend that was not uncovered before:

I have spoken with Phoenix on Skype a few times + bought a Jupiter from him, where I trusted him by sending the coins first and then waited for the miner to arrive from Hawaii.
From these interactions I can conclude with fair certainty that it is highly unlikely he is a scammer.
I thing he just fell for the scam because greed took over and he wanted to be first in line as usual.

[raskul]

So it is becoming obvious that you and your brother have been pumping up the sales for the fraudsters. Of course, now you and your brother have to find a way to disassociate from the fraud, so you come here and show that you found evidence which indicates they are fraudsters. But this evidence has already been presented, so you are not showing anything new. You are just throwing bullshit around in a desperate attempt to hide your participation in the fraud. You are certainly astronomically stupid to post the above information and pretend that was not uncovered before:

I have spoken with Phoenix on Skype a few times + bought a Jupiter from him, where I trusted him by sending the coins first and then waited for the miner to arrive from Hawaii.
From these interactions I can conclude with fair certainty that it is highly unlikely he is a scammer.
I thing he just fell for the scam because greed took over and he wanted to be first in line as usual.

+1

these scammers are very clever (no offence intended to phoenix) but they would not be regular contributors to this forum. again, it's harsh and for the record, i sympathise with everyone who has sent coinage to this company. It is clear that as soon as they realised there were complaints made to the police, they have whipped down the website. now they are trying to cover their tracks. I have no doubt in my mind whatseover, the true criminals behind this will be caught.

[lemonte]

Cross post, but Kncminers.com looks like a cloaked redirect using their reseller id (339) It is quite possible that KNCminer have the email address, or even postal address of the person who was assigned that ID.

They've not sold enough for a free Neptune anyway

Edit: Quick look around for if that ID is used anywhere else online and found this: http://foorum.hinnavaatlus.ee/viewtopic.php?t=568902&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=1550&sid=4f96074baf308ef97cde8610673f2b5d

Sorry, not got the foggiest what any of it says, but hopefully will give some clues.

[wwwin]

The fact that the scammer's are buying hardware in this forum's group pool indicates pretty clearly that an experienced member of the forum is involved in this scam.  Obviously into bitcoin mining themselves.

Any experienced forum members writing in defense of this scam?

Oh, I guess there are a few, eh?  The prime suspects are the guy who said he bought a bunch of them, and had the block chain entry to "prove it," and the Hawaii dude.  

Posts an order on his scam website, then pays with a different wallet, then posts to "prove" he really believes in this scam.  I'm not an expert in the block chain, so if this would not work for some reason, I'd be glad to hear an explanation as to why.

Of course, it could be someone who doesn't post much too.  But I'd love to see if someone could track down the pool member who is buying hardware with these bitcoins.  Seems like we could identify the criminal that way.  Wouldn't that be possible for the guy who runs the pool?

If we got the forum member's i.d., then we'd have an email address, and the feds might even be able to get his I.P. address.  And we're off to drag this/these scumbags to prison.

+1

[wwwin]

I am eating crow right now.  My brother uncovered some information that says this is most certainly a SCAM.  I verified his findings and have sent a note to hosting company that is hosting ctsminer.com

I went here: https://support.namecheap.com/index.php?/default/Tickets/Submit
I chose "Domains -- Legal and Abuse" and submitted this data to them:
_______________________________________________________________________________ _________

SCAM WEBSITE you are hosting.

Domain: ctsminer.com
IP: 199.188.201.252

http://domains-by-day.com/2014-01-24/ctsminer.com-domain-name-data.html
shows that ctsminer.com was originally associated with IP 185.8.106.66 (on another network)

THIS IS A KNOWN SCAMMER IP:
https://www.virustotal.com/en/ip-address/185.8.106.66/information/

Many previous attempts at fraud from domains on that same IP have been perpetrated most notably "butterflyiab.com".  It is famous. it was a copy of the legit site, butterflylabs.com.  They tricked a lot of people out of their bitcoin. This company is currently taking bitcoin payments and swindling people out of their hard earned currency. Others on our forum also tracked the bitcoin payments on the block chain and this company is using their fraudulently obtained bitcoin to purchase mining hardware.  This is a CLEAR SCAM. You are LEGALLY OBLIGATED to take it down IMMEDIATELY. BE ADVISED THAT YOU CAN BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES INCURRED FROM THAT WEBSITE FROM THIS MOMENT ON.  You have been informed.

YOU CAN REVIEW OUR RESEARCH ON THE FORUM HERE:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=429513.msg4744813#msg4744813
_______________________________________________________________________________ _________

Everybody else on this forum needs to send something similar informing them of the scam.  Unfortunately, they don'y provide a telephone number. I am totally distraught right now, because of the lost BTC. Going to go cry myself to sleep now.  Good night all....

BTW, someone should probably contact FBI or something and let them know too. I'm to tired to deal with this right now.  I need sleep.

Nah, it is more than eating crow...they are contacting the Antminer seller for info on the buyers.

[wwwin]

OMG,

http://domains-by-day.com/2014-01-24/ctsminer.com-domain-name-data.html

seems to have been removed.  It no longer shows ctsminer.com being on the IP, 185.8.106.66.  It now redirects to the their home page, at least from Hawaii.    Uhg!  I should have taken a screenshot.  Lets find another website that can check IP history of a domain. Looking now

Kind of fast don't you think? Guess the owner of CST can remove the site right away.

[raskul]

OMG,

http://domains-by-day.com/2014-01-24/ctsminer.com-domain-name-data.html

seems to have been removed.  It no longer shows ctsminer.com being on the IP, 185.8.106.66.  It now redirects to the their home page, at least from Hawaii.    Uhg!  I should have taken a screenshot.  Lets find another website that can check IP history of a domain. Looking now

Kind of fast don't you think? Guess the owner of CST can remove the site right away.

their facebook and twitter have been whipped down also.

[sikke]

Cross post, but Kncminers.com looks like a cloaked redirect using their reseller id (339) It is quite possible that KNCminer have the email address, or even postal address of the person who was assigned that ID.

They've not sold enough for a free Neptune anyway

Edit: Quick look around for if that ID is used anywhere else online and found this: http://foorum.hinnavaatlus.ee/viewtopic.php?t=568902&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=1550&sid=4f96074baf308ef97cde8610673f2b5d

Sorry, not got the foggiest what any of it says, but hopefully will give some clues.

Thats pupular Estonian computer tech Forums and the guy in that post is sayin he dont know if adverticing is allowed remove if not. +that link

[wwwin]

lol, What now, Should we DDOS their site??

I think this is the point where the police should become involved.
I've already started writing the news article, so please keep me updated.

EDIT: ps: i like sitting in court watching scambags go down. - and THEY ALWAYS DO.

Errr, What? This a matter to which a FBI agent should attend to, It will be impossible for a policeman to do this, Its their least priority if you ask me, I believe there is a cybercrime form on the FBI website. Check it out.

Don't be obnoxious,  try a little harder to be a pleasant person.
firstly, the company in question have indicated they are in the UK.
secondly, see firstly.

have a nice day, friend.

oh so we have to believe that the scammer is in UK because the scammer said UK company. Really???. LOL...the FBI can get involved if US citizens were scammed...and the FBI also has a field office in Hawaii, and if the Antminers bought by the scammers are to be delivered to US than that is the ticket to one successful scam bust. Would be a great victory for bitcoin community.

[Easy2Mine]

The crooks are erasing their traces.
I am sure there are forum members who can assemble traces back to their origin.