Bitwhisk.io is online again. Is it a scam attempt by someone else or a comeback?

[logfiles]

AFAIK, Bitwhisk.io announced the were closing business on 5th - November 2018 probably due to funding(not sure why funding a server would be an issue since i always believed that crypto mixers make a ton of money out of mixing)

Closing after 5th November
If you want us to stay you may donate, we need around 0.05BTC to pay server's costs for the next 3 months

Their Profile was last online in November 2018. Which implies they really meant it(about closing business)



Now all of a sudden Bitwhisk.io is online again with domain information indicating that the domain was registered last July



No announcement has been made of the "return" from the previous profile in the forum

Is this a scam attempt by someone else who bought the domain or Is it a genuine comeback?

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[mk4]

I personally haven't used that website even once, but if I was a previous user of that site, I would think twice if I would use it again. While there's a good chance that they've just reopened, or maybe someone is going to start a fresh legitimate business but just using their name, but there's also a chance that it's a scam attempt.

Quite weird though. As far as I know, if a certain decent-sized online business closes, they mostly continue to annually pay for the domain hosting just to prevent scammers from using their name.


EDIT: No announcement on their Twitter page as well. https://twitter.com/bitwhisk

[AdolfinWolf]

Anyone could register their domain name after it expires and the grace period is over, and since there is no update through any of their channels (although their twitter etc could also be hacked), i highly doubt this is actually the same owner.

[1Referee]

Quite weird though. As far as I know, if a certain decent-sized online business closes, they mostly continue to annually pay for the domain hosting just to prevent scammers from using their name.

That's usually how it goes, but when it comes to not so professional sites, especially when they're in need of funds, they'll liquidate as much of their holdings as possible. Mixers have been popping up like mushrooms after a rainy day, so it wouldn't really surprise me if an entity has bought it hoping to have a headstart with a domain that already has some history as mixer.

I definitely wouldn't risk a single satoshi on a site like this. We have a bunch of solid mixers already. If they have good intent then it will show as time goes by, but for now it's better to avoid it.

[Slow death]

It's weird that I googled it and didn't see any recent review about this site and I didn't find any news about it coming back, I believe it must be someone else who decided to run the site, but even that was someone else who decided to run the site again. why he didn't post it on twitter or bitcointalk or could create another ANN thread and another twitter account? that sounds like a scheme to steal people's money and disappear

[Mahanton]

It's weird that I googled it and didn't see any recent review about this site and I didn't find any news about it coming back, I believe it must be someone else who decided to run the site, but even that was someone else who decided to run the site again. why he didn't post it on twitter or bitcointalk or could create another ANN thread and another twitter account? that sounds like a scheme to steal people's money and disappear

Me too, trying to make some indepth research but I cant find any reviews which its hard to make comments about legitimacy.
Bitcointalk forum had been inactive and there were no announcement made or maybe they do plan to post but maybe they are just busy as of now.

[LeGaulois]

Likely someone trying to re-use the domain name. The previous domain owner preferred to close the service, he was running it with his own money to cover expenses IIRC. If he decided to reopen his service he would have already announced it here.

I have no idea why someone would want to create a new mixer but using a name already used before. After using all TLDs possible to set up scams, they're probably now moving to reuse domain names of closed mixers who left without scamming users.

[JeromeTash]

I have no idea why someone would want to create a new mixer but using a name already used before. After using all TLDs possible to set up scams, they're probably now moving to reuse domain names of closed mixers who left without scamming users.

This was what i was think about too.

Unless the intent of the person behind the new reemergence is to make people think it's the very same past non scamming cryptomixer, make people trust it and then scam them i don't see any other reason the person who use the exact same name of the past mixer.

This could probably be a new tactic that is being employed by scammers to scam unsuspecting people.

[Rath_]

The website looked different in the past. I am not even able to enter a discount code which I got when the mixer was founded.

The previous domain owner preferred to close the service, he was running it with his own money to cover expenses IIRC.

The mixer had been operating for less than a year before it was closed. Bitwhisk mixed only 3 BTC in that period of time with a much lower mixing reserve.

Me too, trying to make some indepth research but I cant find any reviews which its hard to make comments about legitimacy.

I used it 2 or 3 times for small amounts a year ago. I also did a translation for Bitwhisk and got paid without any problems. However, I did not leave any feedback.

[o_e_l_e_o]

So I have just accessed this website from 3 different devices in 3 different browsers and on 3 different IPs, and entered a different addresses to "receive" my mixed coins to each time. On every single instance, it told me to send coins to the same address (14iFzgaa2HcYQ3PiZtsHUxrZzx2LGiWypX), and they would be mixed and sent back to the address I had entered.

If anyone else would like to verify they are also shown the address above, then it pretty much confirms that this is a scam. A scam so poorly set up they couldn't even be bothered to generate a new address for each victim.

[BitHodler]

So I have just accessed this website from 3 different devices in 3 different browsers and on 3 different IPs, and entered a different addresses to "receive" my mixed coins to each time. On every single instance, it told me to send coins to the same address (14iFzgaa2HcYQ3PiZtsHUxrZzx2LGiWypX), and they would be mixed and sent back to the address I had entered.

If anyone else would like to verify they are also shown the address above, then it pretty much confirms that this is a scam. A scam so poorly set up they couldn't even be bothered to generate a new address for each victim.

I tried it and this is an absolute scam.

This is the address they forward to me to send coins to-- 14iFzgaa2HcYQ3PiZtsHUxrZzx2LGiWypX

I can't believe how stupid these scammers are to give everyone the same address. How difficult can it be to give people a unique deposit address to make it look less like a scam. This is retarded.

[BitMaxz]

Honestly, never heard this mixer before even in archive.org no old record except on month of July 2019.
It's a little bit weird on the first check I tried to check the signature campaign but only run for a week. The announcement doesn't have many posts and the owner is asking for a donation of around 0.05btc.

The other weird thing is that they only have one tweet on their twitter account it seems the old owner doesn't have a budget before so he stops this service.

I'm sure this is not the old owner look at the old design compared to the recent.
I got the old design from the article below.
- https://bestbitcointumblers.com/bitwhisk-review/

And this one image:



So like the above said this is a 100% sure scam.

[audaciousbeing]

Anyone who falls for this kind of cheap scam is just too dull to operate in the crypto world or any other world for that matter. Arguing whether a business should have enough profit for server purposes is even out of the question but the fact of even begging people to for them to stay is repulsive to hearing which is the case here.

This is a loud scam and I am sure the promoters of the erstwhile business owners are not aware of this kind of business being perpetuated in their own name.

[examplens]

I have no idea why someone would want to create a new mixer but using a name already used before. After using all TLDs possible to set up scams, they're probably now moving to reuse domain names of closed mixers who left without scamming users.

This was what i was think about too.

Unless the intent of the person behind the new reemergence is to make people think it's the very same past non scamming cryptomixer, make people trust it and then scam them i don't see any other reason the person who use the exact same name of the past mixer.

This could probably be a new tactic that is being employed by scammers to scam unsuspecting people.

Even if this domain not used for a long time, this domain probably has a better rank position than newly created. He will use old SEO, backlinks to this domain. Also, maybe the new owner plans to run regular service.

[logfiles]

Thanks @o_e_l_e_o for making such a finding about bitcoins being sent to the same address. It's a pretty stupid thing coming from a "bitcoin mixer"
Fortunately, no one has sent bitcoins in the said address yet.

https://btc.com/14iFzgaa2HcYQ3PiZtsHUxrZzx2LGiWypX

Basing on your finding and what @BitMaxz said about the website lay out of the new mixer being completely different from the old one. It's enough evidence to show that the person behind the mixer right now has malicious intent. Therefore, I am going to include it in the list of scam/malicious bitcoin mixers i created in the scam accusations board.

[bL4nkcode]

Fortunately, no one has sent bitcoins in the said address yet.

And unfortunately, someone did send some funds believing their coins will be mixed and obviously (not hoping), got scammed.

[1Referee]

And unfortunately, someone did send some funds believing their coins will be mixed and obviously (not hoping), got scammed.

0.034BTC in two seperate transactions. That sucks. 

One could blame people for not doing enough research themselves when it comes to phishing sites and whatnot, but it really seems that the one who got this domain in his possession did it to make people trust the site because it isn't a phishing site. The signature campaign they had running did some free marketing for this scammer and now he can just sit back and wait for people to bite.

I wonder how long it will take for this foolish scammer to stop using the same address over and over again.

[JeromeTash]

0.034BTC in two seperate transactions. That sucks. 

One could blame people for not doing enough research themselves when it comes to phishing sites and whatnot, but it really seems that the one who got this domain in his possession did it to make people trust the site because it isn't a phishing site. The signature campaign they had running did some free marketing for this scammer and now he can just sit back and wait for people to bite.

I wonder how long it will take for this foolish scammer to stop using the same address over and over again.

That's surely sad. I see all the coins have been moved out of the address.

Some people are definitely going to be easily fooled into thinking that this is the real bitwhisk.io that had been opened up back in 2018 and was not scamming people especially if they don't see the scam accusation that was opened up by OP in the Scam accusations board.