0.73BTC stolen by Localcoin.is

[jayrubil]

What happened::
Back in December I deposited some BTC into localcoin.is DEX to trade XMR. I went to withdraw 0.73BTC in December and the transaction never broadcast. After 2 weeks @localcoinA on telegram responded saying the Bitcoin node needed a resync after saying "still resyncing" for a further 2-3 weeks @localcoinA finally came clean. Apparently his exchange is insolvent and he doesn't have the BTC to send me anymore. Instead and without my permission he issued me with 13,000 LLC tokens and said if I help him they will be worth something. They are currently worthless.

After days of telegram chats he is refusing to return my funds. I am making this post in the hope that it saves someone from losing their funds too.

I know it was stupid of me to deposit into an unknown exchange but I got greedy because there were (probably fake) good trading opportunities.

The whitepaper list a bunch of people from a web dev company called nineseven (nineseven.by). The main person listed is Dmitry Khorushko. I spoke to him and he denies any involvement apart from being contracted to develop the localcoin.is exchange. He claims some anonymous person who goes by "Fluke Hawkins" is the person behind it and the person in control of the wallet/gateway. I am incredibly skeptical of this claim and I do believe there is a chance that Dmitry Khorushko is simply using this so called anonymous person as a front. This is despite his company github account making a commit on the localcoin.is github project as recently as 10 days ago.

I have attached some chat logs below, it's only partial because I have been mostly talking to myself for days. They are definitely worth a read, at one stage he whinges about "centralised" exchanges scamming people, the irony of someone saying that to a customer that they are currently in the process of scamming.

Scammers Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2556732

Reference Link: localcoin.is DEX
Amount Scammed: 0.73BTC
Payment Method: BTC

PM/Chat Logs: https://imgur.com/a/ZfIWAcF

[hugeblack]

Why did not you search in this forum or using Google? There are many negative signs^{[1] [2]} that indicate that they are scammers.
Sorry for your loss, but you know that you do not spend a lot of money in unknown sites or even invest in one dollar.

[1] Localcoin.is - Plagiarized Whitepaper
[2] Localcoin.is - Plagiarized Whitepaper @ ICOEthics

[TalkStar]

Why did not you search in this forum or using Google? There are many negative signs^{[1] [2]} that indicate that they are scammers.
Sorry for your loss, but you know that you do not spend a lot of money in unknown sites or even invest in one dollar.

Same suggestion is continuously providing by our community users to keep them far from scam projects but sorry to say that most of the time these guys don't feel it necessary to gather some information before investing their money. This necessity increase when they totally understand that they got scammed and feel it necessary to share the story on bitcointalk.

It was definitely necessary for him to make an simple investigation by using search button of this forum which could save him from this kinda unexpected losses. I don't think OP gonna get his fund anymore but hope thread visitors will be careful enough and will not repeat the same mistake.

[JollyGood]

I am sorry to read about your loss. Sadly it is a lot of money to lose. I have tagged the scammer, I hope others do not fall for their scam.

After reading the chat logs I am surprised by the level of openness the scammers showed by saying you should bring more users to them to have any chance of getting your funds back. It means they want you to send people to them so they get scammed. Disgusting.

What is your next step in trying to retrieve your funds? Is there any way users from this forum could help?

What happened::
Back in December I deposited some BTC into localcoin.is DEX to trade XMR. I went to withdraw 0.73BTC in December and the transaction never broadcast. After 2 weeks @localcoinA on telegram responded saying the Bitcoin node needed a resync after saying "still resyncing" for a further 2-3 weeks @localcoinA finally came clean. Apparently his exchange is insolvent and he doesn't have the BTC to send me anymore. Instead and without my permission he issued me with 13,000 LLC tokens and said if I help him they will be worth something. They are currently worthless.

~snip~

PM/Chat Logs: https://imgur.com/a/ZfIWAcF

[dkbit98]

You could also see that recently they offered their fake usd in bitcointalk forum for registration on their crapchange.
I posted few posts their also

[jayrubil]

Why did not you search in this forum or using Google? There are many negative signs^{[1] [2]} that indicate that they are scammers.
Sorry for your loss, but you know that you do not spend a lot of money in unknown sites or even invest in one dollar.

[1] Localcoin.is - Plagiarized Whitepaper
[2] Localcoin.is - Plagiarized Whitepaper @ ICOEthics

Because as far as I am aware I am the first person to claim that their funds have been stolen. A plagerised whitepaper is a bit less serious than stolen funds. Anyway I know I am an idiot but the point of this post is so when searching other people clearly see that Localcoin.is has started stealing money.

The other point I guess if Localcoin.is is reading this and they do want to try to repair the damage they can show they are not scammers by paying me back.

[JollyGood]

I hope they do the right thing and return your funds but after that they take long hard look at themselves and charge their practices and reform otherwise they will not last long before their reputation becomes so well know that they will have no users at all.

Because as far as I am aware I am the first person to claim that their funds have been stolen. A plagerised whitepaper is a bit less serious than stolen funds. Anyway I know I am an idiot but the point of this post is so when searching other people clearly see that Localcoin.is has started stealing money.

The other point I guess if Localcoin.is is reading this and they do want to try to repair the damage they can show they are not scammers by paying me back.

[logfiles]

Because as far as I am aware I am the first person to claim that their funds have been stolen. A plagerised whitepaper is a bit less serious than stolen funds. Anyway I know I am an idiot but the point of this post is so when searching other people clearly see that Localcoin.is has started stealing money.

You don't have to first wait until your funds are stolen before you can start to believe that they are scammers. Plagiarism of the whitepaper, fake team etc is enough to make you avoid them. That's shady and unprofessional and that what most scammers here always do.

Sorry for your loss but this should act as an eye-opener. When you see a red flag or a legitimate warning from someone else. Avoid the service at all costs.

[brayktcristal]

in the 2019/2020 year %90 of the ANN sale threads are born to scam peoples.
%90 of the positive ANN comments are purchased from here seoclerk . com/Forums/634620/I-Can-Do-Comments-On-Your-Bitcointalk-Thread * spaces added.

Think twice before paying for a scam coin.

[FIFA worldcup]

Because as far as I am aware I am the first person to claim that their funds have been stolen. A plagerised whitepaper is a bit less serious than stolen funds. Anyway I know I am an idiot but the point of this post is so when searching other people clearly see that Localcoin.is has started stealing money.

You don't have to first wait until your funds are stolen before you can start to believe that they are scammers. Plagiarism of the whitepaper, fake team etc is enough to make you avoid them. That's shady and unprofessional and that what most scammers here always do.

Sorry for your loss but this should act as an eye-opener. When you see a red flag or a legitimate warning from someone else. Avoid the service at all costs.

So if the whitepaper was just a copy paste and team members were not real, then it is mistake on the OP who trusted them and did not perform the checks to see if they can be trust worthy or not. 0.73BTC is a big amount and he should have done his research. Also people are scamming in the name of decentralized exchanges and therefore we should beware of that.

[logfiles]

Looking at OP's ordeal, I decided to create a newbie flag against the scam exchange, just to warn guests and brand-new members from using their service as they risk losing their money.

The accusations against plagiarism of whitepaper and stealing BTC are legitimate therefore anybody can support the flag.

Please support the flag: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=1689;support

[jayrubil]

Please support the flag

Thanks for setting that up, I have supported it.

Since I posted this I have had no communication from localcoin.is despite contacting them constantly for months. All the nodes recently have been brought down so hopefully this means they are gone for good and wont scam anyone else. Not sure if I was the only one who got scammed but it looks like it.

If anyone has any information on the identity of the person running localcoin.is please PM me or post in this thread - I would be incredibly greatful for any leads. I know I'm probably not going to ever see my BTC again but if I can possibly make life hard for the scammer I absolutely will.

Ridiculous how it appears they were just about to be listed on coinmarket cap before they went down: https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/localcoin-dex/

I tried to stop this from happening but it looks like my pleas were futile.

[Avirunes]

Since I posted this I have had no communication from localcoin.is despite contacting them constantly for months. All the nodes recently have been brought down so hopefully this means they are gone for good and wont scam anyone else. Not sure if I was the only one who got scammed but it looks like it.

You can't be sure that with the nodes down the scammer is gone for good. Site for now is gone and has went down with bad reputation with so many flags but the scammer can still use the money he made to start with another new exchange. Therefore always stay tuned with community warnings. People need to learn to google up or research up a bit before doing any transfer to a site or they can ask about the site in Service discussion, there are plenty of helpful guys around here.

[TalkStar]

Thanks for setting that up, I have supported it.

Since I posted this I have had no communication from localcoin.is despite contacting them constantly for months. All the nodes recently have been brought down so hopefully this means they are gone for good and wont scam anyone else. Not sure if I was the only one who got scammed but it looks like it.

Basically its quite hard to tell how many users have faced same situation like you did where many of them don't know about bitcointalk. We only able to know them who will feel it necessary to share their story here. You may created this topic from the responsibility of making others careful about this scam platform but who can say how many people have already lost their money on this trap. I don’t think they will make any response but yeah this scammers will definitely start another projects to make users fool again.

Flag supported and user will be tagged shortly. Hope you will take it as a lesson and not gonna repeat similar mistake in the future.

[COVID-19]

I don't know if it would help, but I supported the flag too.
These weasels deserve to meet me in person.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

It seems like they have already pulled off an exit scam. The scam exchange doesn't seem to load anymore from my side even after using different browsers. Could be due to location.
Can someone else confirm if the website is still online on their side?

[BitSat19]

It seems like they have already pulled off an exit scam. The scam exchange doesn't seem to load anymore from my side even after using different browsers. Could be due to location.
Can someone else confirm if the website is still online on their side?

This is really sad they run away with some good funds many users lost their savings and now we have no way to chase them and bring back this amount in future they will came again with new name and new tactic to cheat again this is worst for this community.

[Twinkledoe]

It seems like they have already pulled off an exit scam. The scam exchange doesn't seem to load anymore from my side even after using different browsers. Could be due to location.
Can someone else confirm if the website is still online on their side?

Seems that they are already gone because upon checking their website from my end, it will direct you to their github acct

https://github.com/LocalCoinIS/LocalCoin-ui/releases/tag/1.0.6

So yeah, they exited already along with their clients' funds.

[ScamViruS]

It is sad to hear that you have deposited a big amount in a scam exchange. I don't know how many more people like you have lost their funds in this exchange. I have seen this happen before, people deposit in any exchange without checking anything, as a result of which they later fall in to scams. I hope people will be stay away from such exchanges. Scammers always try to come up with new ideas so that they can easily scam.

[jayrubil]

It is sad to hear that you have deposited a big amount in a scam exchange. I don't know how many more people like you have lost their funds in this exchange. I have seen this happen before, people deposit in any exchange without checking anything, as a result of which they later fall in to scams. I hope people will be stay away from such exchanges. Scammers always try to come up with new ideas so that they can easily scam.

I think in this case localcoin.is didn't set out to scam from the start, I reckon he genuinely thought he could clone bitshares and make a bunch of money. I think he decided to scam / exit scam when he realised after over a year that he just wasn't going to make any money.

The project lead Dmitry Khorushko is a real person and I am working to hold him personally accountable.

Dmitry Khorushko face picture:
https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C5603AQHLU_uBOgYG3g/profile-displayphoto-shrink_200_200/0?e=1589414400&v=beta&t=4VeNEsXD9kuO6CD6daekR0n-rc0jiFCNBtwNbjCKpBg