btc-arbs.com - Update: dead HYIP, Refund progress: BTC-arbs still doing refunds

[dyask]

email and PM sent

I've done the same.  If we hear anything we should report back to the thread. 

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[FreeJack2k2]

I will definitely be following up here if any action is taken to restore my principal to me.

[Rannasha]

Scam Allegations

BTC Arbs was not created to be a scam, and was never intended to rip off investors. Bitcoin arbitrage is possible and many Bitcoin users have realized this and have started arbitrage trading on their own. Bitcoin arbitrage trading took place and earnings were made. Anyone who has ever looked at bitcoinaverage dot com can confirm this. The prices vary greatly from exchange to exchange, and there are always variations on the price. Even today, you can buy Bitcoin on BTCE for $556 and then sell it immediately on Bitstamp for $572. That produces a 2.7% profit, which is closer to 2% after exchange fees and transfer costs.

Really? REALLY? How dumb do you think people are to believe that this example legitimizes the impossibly high profits claimed by BTC-Arbs? On the other hand, judging by some posts in this thread you may have a chance...

Anyway, to buy 1 bitcoin and immediately sell it elsewhere, you need to have available both the bitcoin and the fiat money. Your profit estimate is based on the price difference relative to the value of just 1 bitcoin. Since you need an equal value of dollars for this trade, this immediately cuts the expected profit percentage in half.

So if that's where the story ends, it'd still be okay. But it doesn't. Exchange rate differences are almost always one-sided. How often is Bitstamp cheaper than BTC-e? Right. This means that for continuous operation you need to transfer fiat around constantly. And how fast are international wire transfers compared to Bitcoin transfers? Indeed, when operating efficiently you have to have many times more value in fiat money than you have in bitcoins. Most of this fiat money is in transit, through the slow international banking system yet for profit computations it can't be ignored. And while many times more fiat money is needed than bitcoins, it stands to reason that the actual ratio of deposits is the other way around, which would mean a large part of the Bitcoin deposits would just be sitting idle waiting for fiat to move around, yet still counting towards the total value of the investments and therefore affecting profit percentages.

But even disregarding that last point, since I have no insights into how much of each currency was actually deposited, the fact remains that with a price difference between exchanges of 2.7%, you can consider yourself lucky if you can reach a profit on the total value of the operation of 0.5%. Lower is much more likely.

The above isn't really news, I've made these rebuttals of BTC-Arbs' profit claims since the first page of this thread and noone has been able to offer a reasonable counter.

[dmz241]

He knew he was bullshitting about the takeover and all. He is a liar. Seriously, someone do something. I have no sympathy whatsoever if someone actually hurt his daughter, cruel thing to say but seriously admin, you know what you do. It just so happens u got caught this time.

If your parent was involved in something that went very bad, would you want to be attacked for it?

If someone is doing these threats and/or DDOSing the site, please stop!   You aren't helping.   I sure we all want our BTC back, we should give the guy a chance.

The guy only came out to speak from the covers because his family was threatened. He would not even be on this form trying to return back if he wasent.

[dmz241]

Scam Allegations

BTC Arbs was not created to be a scam, and was never intended to rip off investors. Bitcoin arbitrage is possible and many Bitcoin users have realized this and have started arbitrage trading on their own. Bitcoin arbitrage trading took place and earnings were made. Anyone who has ever looked at bitcoinaverage dot com can confirm this. The prices vary greatly from exchange to exchange, and there are always variations on the price. Even today, you can buy Bitcoin on BTCE for $556 and then sell it immediately on Bitstamp for $572. That produces a 2.7% profit, which is closer to 2% after exchange fees and transfer costs.

Really? REALLY? How dumb do you think people are to believe that this example legitimizes the impossibly high profits claimed by BTC-Arbs? On the other hand, judging by some posts in this thread you may have a chance...

Anyway, to buy 1 bitcoin and immediately sell it elsewhere, you need to have available both the bitcoin and the fiat money. Your profit estimate is based on the price difference relative to the value of just 1 bitcoin. Since you need an equal value of dollars for this trade, this immediately cuts the expected profit percentage in half.

So if that's where the story ends, it'd still be okay. But it doesn't. Exchange rate differences are almost always one-sided. How often is Bitstamp cheaper than BTC-e? Right. This means that for continuous operation you need to transfer fiat around constantly. And how fast are international wire transfers compared to Bitcoin transfers? Indeed, when operating efficiently you have to have many times more value in fiat money than you have in bitcoins. Most of this fiat money is in transit, through the slow international banking system yet for profit computations it can't be ignored. And while many times more fiat money is needed than bitcoins, it stands to reason that the actual ratio of deposits is the other way around, which would mean a large part of the Bitcoin deposits would just be sitting idle waiting for fiat to move around, yet still counting towards the total value of the investments and therefore affecting profit percentages.

But even disregarding that last point, since I have no insights into how much of each currency was actually deposited, the fact remains that with a price difference between exchanges of 2.7%, you can consider yourself lucky if you can reach a profit on the total value of the operation of 0.5%. Lower is much more likely.

The above isn't really news, I've made these rebuttals of BTC-Arbs' profit claims since the first page of this thread and noone has been able to offer a reasonable counter.

I second your information I had been monitoring this thread just to make sure if I should invest or not and decided not to as I agree what you say. I mean just to get money out of btc-e even with visa it takes for 72hours? that to 7% cut. Then you have to transfer that to bitstamp? I dont see the point either... while you might claim to transfer via different methods all seem to have at-least 1% withdrawal fees and when you enter into bitstamp there will transfer fee which will negate the 2.7% he claims.

[christophorus]

If the site was being DDOSed then surely we'd be getting the Cloudflare version of the site? Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure the login page had the Cloudflare logo.

Ignoring that, to carry out a DDOS for this long is either costing someone some serious cash or they have a sizeable botnet under their control. In which case, they have the ability to make more money from that than from a site like btc-arbs.

I'm all for trying to get our money back but threatening family etc. is just not on. We should be above that behaviour.

[sunny1]

If the site was being DDOSed then surely we'd be getting the Cloudflare version of the site? Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure the login page had the Cloudflare logo.

Ignoring that, to carry out a DDOS for this long is either costing someone some serious cash or they have a sizeable botnet under their control. In which case, they have the ability to make more money from that than from a site like btc-arbs.

I'm all for trying to get our money back but threatening family etc. is just not on. We should be above that behaviour.

If they are (or have been) indeed protected by Cloudflare, their DDoS part of the story is a joke. Cloudflare mitigated the Spamhaus attack early last year, which was then the most powerful DDoS attack ever. And yes, if under attack sites protected by Cloudflare are showing a Cloudflare splash page.

[worldlybedouin]

Hello Ron/Adam/or whoever wrote the above post:

I've emailed the details you've asked for in your post.  I sincerely hope you make things right and I have the chance to profusely apologize to you for my comments on this thread as well as those on the Litecointalk.org forum as well.

I'm including it here as well for reference:

Hello BTC-Arbs,

Here's the info I have regarding my account.

BTC-ARBS Username:  worldly

Amount Deposited:  1.25BTC

Amount Earnings:  0.34BTC

Total Amount Owed:  1.59BTC

My BTC Address:  <witheld from this post>

My Bitcointalk Username:  worldlybedouin

Sincerely,

Worldly Bedouin

Sincerley,

Worldly Beodouin

[aminkorea]

The Whole Story - From BTC-Arbs ADMIN

I am aware that this post may fall upon deaf ears, given the mob mentality that seems to have developed as a fallout from BTC-Arbs, however I am here with the ultimate goal of resolving the issues that currently face everyone involved. Before I get into my future plans I feel it is necessary to share a bit of background information on BTC-Arbs.

Scam Allegations

BTC Arbs was not created to be a scam, and was never intended to rip off investors. Bitcoin arbitrage is possible and many Bitcoin users have realized this and have started arbitrage trading on their own. Bitcoin arbitrage trading took place and earnings were made. Anyone who has ever looked at bitcoinaverage dot com can confirm this. The prices vary greatly from exchange to exchange, and there are always variations on the price. Even today, you can buy Bitcoin on BTCE for $556 and then sell it immediately on Bitstamp for $572. That produces a 2.7% profit, which is closer to 2% after exchange fees and transfer costs.

BTC-Arbs was not created to scam users.

Hacking

In early April, the BTC Arbs website was hacked. Numerous members can corroborate this fact. Many accounts were accessed and large amounts of Bitcoin were withdrawn. When this first started occurring, we were under the impression that it was due to users who had failed to secure their accounts with 2-factor authentication and who had been infected with a virus. It then became apparent that the website was not secure and the issue was impacting hundreds of accounts. HUNDREDS of Bitcoins were paid out that should not have been. To make matters worse, our incoming Bitcoin addresses were changed and hackers stole all of the incoming coins. When we tried to fix the issue, we just kept getting hacked over and over. Finally the problem was solved, but it was too late.

After the hacking, the plan was to use profits to re-liquidate the program, however people continued to withdraw, which ultimately lead to the overall failure and "reset". This can be referred to as a run on the bank.

100,000 Bitcoin Address

Those who believe that the 100,000 Bitcoin address belongs to BTC-Arbs are crazy. The total value of ALL BTC-Arbs accounts is more or less 500 Bitcoins. We weren't some billion dollar scam. The average user had less than 1 Bitcoin in their account. There are only 7 users with balances over 20 Bitcoins. There were less than 1000 accounts with Bitcoins in them.

Re-Incarnation

Upon resetting the program, the plan was to pay back all users using future profits. The plan was going well and members of Bitcoin Talk can attest that withdrawals were being paid and that many users had begun receiving a good portion of their investments back. The plan was going well until angry users decided to:
- Hack the website further
- Initiate a prolonged DDOS attack against the server
- File a trademark complaint for the domain (WTF???)
- Freeze fiat accounts (preventing refunds)

Apology

I am VERY VERY VERY SORRY that the outcome of BTC-Arbs was what it was. I had dreams of running the first large and legitimate Bitcoin Arbitrage investment company that could have one day competed with banks and other global investment institutions. Instead, my dreams were destroyed and I now receive threats on a daily basis.

Moving Forward

I have created a plan to help us move forward. I would appreciate everyone's help in fulfilling it. If you have any suggestions on how to improve my plan please tell me.

The Plan
1 - I have some Bitcoins left and I am still doing arbitrage with them.
2 - I want nothing more than to repay everyone. This won't be instant, but I want to do my best.
3 - I will continue paying refunds to everyone who lost money. In the interest of fairness, I think it is reasonable that until everyone is repaid their initial investments, that everyone only request the amount that was lost, not including profits.
4 - Please send your username, amount lost, Bitcoin address, username here (optional), details of your deposits, and any other information you can think of to btcarbsrefunds@safe-mail.net or by PM here.
5 - I will be using this thread to keep track of everything that I do, including refunds.

BTC Arbs is NOT a scam. It was a failed investment that is now trying to make good on past promises.

Why didn't you just tell users what was really going on instead of concocting some story about btc-arbs being sold and an audit was being done by the new company.  Why should people believe you now when you  blatantly lied to everyone then?   

[skunk]

Code:

Status: 2009 confirmations
Date: 5/18/14 02:20
To: btc arbs 1FL6HppBu5QyW1XSkDjzXrgv3HwX7hE6nH
Debit: -0.05 BTC
Transaction fee: -0.0001 BTC
Net amount: -0.0501 BTC
Transaction ID: 56d17d27ee53d69a312768bd6fb842291b716282d2b3f3a07bd4393b015d69d1

so after all the hacking issues btc-arbs had why did users (new and members) not get warned? and even more important: why were deposits on 5/18 still allowed?

12iDLCVoNBJhcyXoNoKrGSr4KxU5UFW6ZK
you can refund me to this address but i doubt it will ever happen...

just a honest and simple miner

[Tompkins]

Email with user and balance info. just sent.
Thanks

[thcst8]

email and PM sent

No response yet to my PM or email.

[y80]

PM sent. Waiting for reply.

[dhsc19]

The Whole Story - From BTC-Arbs ADMIN
...

BTC Arbs is NOT a scam. It was a failed investment that is now trying to make good on past promises.

Why didn't you just tell users what was really going on instead of concocting some story about btc-arbs being sold and an audit was being done by the new company.  Why should people believe you now when you  blatantly lied to everyone then?  

1) It's an HYIP scam
2) End goal of any HYIP admin is to take the money and run
3) Almost all get away with it.
4) This one got caught (or claims to in order to shut up some people and buy a little more time).
5) Anyone getting caught will cry like a baby, but have no doubt they would have happily taken your money with their middle finger in the air and a big smile on their face if they could.

Pretty darn good sleuthing if this all pans out to be true.  I'd love to see the same thing happen to oilrigcontractors.  They ripped off big time in just 30+ days.  Someone should set up an HYIP SWAT team business.  This is great!

[yonce]

I don't believe any of it, other than the admin being a frightened new admin to the industry I imagine. This will be interesting to watch.

[bad01nk]

someone should be watching in their 'hedge'


 Moral of the story; do not steal what is others, and do onto others as you would have them do onto you. Justice shall prevail.

[hongo]

Thanks for showing up. I think the true is more credible than that the site was bought by "capital global alliance". That is what made the people to withdraw all the btc, the lie. Also that the fact that the site was DDOS at first place and you didn't report it to the users. People always suspected this was a ponzi scheme so at first sign of scam they started withdrawing the money. The lack of communication through email is also a factor of suspicion. I think you should pay the remaining btc you have to the ones they ask. The payment should be proportionally of the money people invested on the site. For me is Ok to get whatever you have without including interest. It would be nice if you can report the proportion of money stolen or the proportion of money you can payback. I think if you start again with the true and good communication people may trust again in you and reinvest and even wait for the full repayment of the debth. A better transparency of your side regarding how you really run the business, who you are, where you are, how you do it would give us more trust.

[bad01nk]

THIS IS THE CONTENTS OF MY PM TO BTC-ARBS FOR THE RECORDS :

I had a bit more than .69 at my peak, i withdrew .4 (from  your 'legacy' transfers) before you shut down,  i supported your site quite hard in the threads, i sent a lot of (now very angry) friends there as well.. I was able to make daily deposits because of a combined purchasing agreement with members as well for miners, my investment was $2800 for the equipment and with the climbing difficulties i was looking for the best return on investment for my shares.. I am not interested in threatening you, I would only like .65 sent to my address provided. You are not a difficult person to find; your apology is accepted and after the payment, we have no business... Unless you put together a real outfit.

.65 to
1CHAX1mp3mRueKxytHnDPtDhPwCiJH5SDc

[tom14cat14]

We do not even know if this guy really is the admin. Has anybody received any portion of payment? If it is him it took someone threatening his kids in order for him to say he is going to try and pay us back. So if we didnt find him he was going to just leave with what coins he has left? Who ever found out the info on him needs to spread it to us and to the authorities. He was responsible for all of our money therefore until it is all returned he has stolen it form us.

[FreeJack2k2]

The post definitely sounds like him...so I am inclined to believe it actually is him.

That said, no...I haven't seen a single Satoshi yet and if we go back to the .03 BTC/day payback program, I'm not going to be real impressed.