The curious case of user 🏰 TradeFortress 🏰

[GazetaBitcoin]

During the time I've been here I read about many scams. Some were really big, some were small; some were about money; some were about trust; some were about cheating signature campaigns and so on. But what all had in common (or -- almost all) was that, once the scammer was exposed, s/he left the premises for good. This happened especially after big scams. If you need examples, look at the cases of pirateat40 (very well documented by xtraelv), master-P, El Cabron or the most recent cases of alia, Polar91 or figmentofmyass.

Indeed, some were banned and this was the reason for their disappearance. But not all of them.

One particular case raised my attention, which involved the theft of 4100 BTC, plus other (which seemed to be at that time) lower scams. And my attention was brought by the fact that the scammer did not leave the forum, was not banned and is still active. This is the case of TradeFortress.

This is the main story (more details here):

Inputs.io Hack
Date: 2013-10-26^[74] (disputed)
Victim: Inputs.io, passed on to creditors.
Perpetrator: Accusations of inside job.
Transaction of interest: 9536feebe3a50b94f85ca27d56e669a7209bd4188385d55c5b97227c95cf7f74^[75]
Amount: Estimate 4100 BTC^[76]
Equivalent in USD: 640615 $
Equivalent in January 2014 BTC: 780 BTC
Inputs.io, a web wallet service run by BitcoinTalk user TradeFortress, was supposedly “hacked” in October 2013 and was unable to repay user balances in full. There are many accusations of the hack being an inside job. TradeFortress had a contentious reputation and had supposedly scammed two separate people before this incident.^[77][78] When the theft was announced in November 2013, TradeFortress began offering partial refunds; however, 4100 BTC was not paid back as that was the shortfall from the supposed “hack”.

Apparently, years later he tried to pay back some of his victims but in the end he abandoned the idea:

A number of people have emailed me asking whether the reimbursement program is still open.

I am replying to clarify that the program is closed and no funds are available. Sorry.

Please do not reach out to me about this program.

However, excepting this scam, TradeFortress was accused of several other users for scamming the with various amounts. As it can be seen, what he did with inputs.io was his masterpiece, but he "exercised" his hand well before that.

I had hired tradefortress to do some programming for me and I had given him a 15btc deposit.  He hasn't responded to any of my messages for a week.  How do I have a scammer tag applied.

Update: TF is apparently reneging on his arbitration offer.

I believe TF is a SCAMMER because:
1) He scammed me out of 27 BTC by promising to deliver a site he was incapable of programming.
2) He is refusing to cooperate in the investigation process of his scam work on my site (he won't show his "final product" code here and is reneging on arbitration). Public review of his work on my site will obviously be very embarrassing for him, thus it is very unlikely for him to settle our dispute openly.
3)  He has scammed others (he probably thought it was safe to scam other scammers, but he got greedy and started scamming more forum members and obviously has plans to continue to do so).

LOL, he did the same thing to me and then made up some BS and still owes me a few BTC but i got over it. Tho with BTC increasing in value wouldbe nice to get the coins back

He owes me 10.15 BTC that he has taken from me and given to other people.

He has also promised to pay 445+ other people 1 BTC each which he has yet not fullfiled.

Worse, he has done so by asking them for 100 BTC credit, in a deceitful manner, setting up a scenario where many people could be scammed out of a great deal of money.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=206948.msg2213093
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=210634.msg2209999

More scams or scam attempts can be found here.


Why I'm creating this topic? As I wrote above, it's because I was almost shocked to see that the scammer remained active for 8 more years after all these scams. He was last active here last month. According to BPIP, he is (just) the 28th most distrusted user from the entire forum (but I think he should be placed on a higher spot). Also, as it can be seen on LoyceV's website, there are some users (not 1 or 2, but 13!!!) which trust TradeFortress - a fact which I find to be amazing. Another aspect amazing me is that only 23 users distrust him!

What's even worst is that it also happens that he is a VIP member, meaning that he actually paid 50 BTC to obtain this rank (no matter that when he paid BTC had a lower value). And while such members - VIPs or Donators - should be remarkable figures among us, sadly, there are cases when such titles are worn also by scammers...

Coming back to the story, I still can't understand the guts of this guy, to keep being present here all the time, involve in various threads, in various boards (Bitcoin Discussion, Gambling, Securities, Altcoins, Meta, Offtopic etc.) without having (almost) anybody asking him: "do you really have the guts of actually still being here after all you did?".

Moreover, some actually praise his posts:

TF, thanks for the laugh. When I saw who posted that I laughed so hard I almost pissed my pants.

Very rarely I saw someone which told him something more or less subtle, about what he did and that he does not belong here anymore.

It's like... everybody forgotten his actions... or closed their eyes.

Why is this happening? Opinions...?

[1714036939]

1714036939

[1714036939]

1714036939

[1714036939]

1714036939

[Poker Player]

Hi, great thread.

I like this kind of posts to learn more about the history of Bitcointalk, but:

Very rarely I saw someone which told him something more or less subtle, about what he did and that he does not belong here anymore.

I just realized that my 50 BTC donation to the forum is now worth $2.9 million. Wow! Never in my life have I expected it to be that big.

WTF? You don't consider the disappearance of your depositors' 4100 BTC in 2013, now worth $238 million, your "bitcoin pizza moment"?

I didn't have to look very hard to find this. In fact, I think I read that thread and odolvlobo's response at the time. Anyway, with all the negative feedback, I don't think he will scam anyone again in this forum.

[LoyceV]

my attention was brought by the fact that the scammer did not leave the forum, was not banned and is still active. This is the case of TradeFortress.

It looks like he successfully appealed his ban in 2015.
He also lost the ability to edit his own posts, which theymos restored in 2018 (while at the same time removing selfmod status from all his topics).

involve in various threads, in various boards (Bitcoin Discussion, Gambling, Securities, Altcoins, Meta, Offtopic etc.) without having (almost) anybody asking him: "do you really have the guts of actually still being here after all you did?".

That would be off-topic, which isn't allowed. His Trust and username speak volumes and are discussed in several topics. There's no need to mention it in every topic he posts in.

It's like... everybody forgotten his actions... or closed their eyes.

The scams happened before I (or most other users) even joined the forum. I don't trust him, but I also don't feel the need to add more negative tags to the pile.

[Findingnemo]

Scams are not moderated here that is the only reason why he is still active no matter how much money he scammed, I remember he was holding most number of negative trust when the old DT system is in place but nothing stopped him, he just chilling out here and nobody can do anything about it because its just an online forum, people who was scammed can take legal actions against him if they want that's it.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

If you need examples, look at the cases of <snip>figmentofmyass.

Jesus, I don't know what the hell I was doing in January, but I obviously wasn't paying attention to the Reputation section.  I didn't post in the reference thread that's included in figmentofmyass's negative trust, nor do I remember that scandal.  So I'm just learning that he had multiple alts in the Chipmixer campaign, a feat I find astounding!  Thanks for mentioning those examples, OP.

With respect to TradeFortress, I swear I heard that the account changed hands a while back, because I was wondering the same thing you are, which is how and why would such a notorious scammer even show his face on a forum where he scammed so many people.  Memory is a funny thing, though (especially for me).  I'm not sure what I actually read or even if I interpreted it correctly, but I could almost swear that someone stated that the account was sold or given away after those scams went down.

Maybe someone here can set us straight on that.  If not, it does seem very weird that a member would have enough balls to keep posting here as if nothing ever happened.  I mean seriously, it sounds like TradeFortress should be in a jail cell rather than on bitcointalk.

[LoyceV]

With respect to TradeFortress, I swear I heard that the account changed hands a while back

Any chance you're confusing him with red-trusted VIP JusticeForYou?
For JusticeForYou, theymos wrote this:

I'd say that there's a 25% chance of him being the original BTC_Bear.

For TradeFortress, theymos wrote this:

btw, is this still the same TradeFortress?

Probably.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Any chance you're confusing him with red-trusted VIP JusticeForYou?

No, I'm definitely thinking of TradeFortress.  The story of his massive scams is one of the first things I remember reading on the forum, and I think that goes back to the days when I was just lurking occasionally (probably 2014 or so).  And I don't think it was Theymos who said the account changed hands but someone like Bruno--though obviously I can't remember the details exactly, so I could be way off.  But I'm sure it was TradeFortress that was mentioned.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

I wonder if he has access to any of those coins. 4100BTC is no joke, if he took even 5% of those supposedly hacked coins for himself then he could be in jail for a significant amount of time.

[Lucius]

I wonder if he has access to any of those coins. 4100BTC is no joke, if he took even 5% of those supposedly hacked coins for himself then he could be in jail for a significant amount of time.

Back in 2018, he claimed that he did not have access to these funds, and that they were mostly lost in the hack. He further claims that his reimbursement plan is the result of him making some good investments over the years - but it is obvious that he could not earn 4100 BTC.

I doubt he will ever end up in prison if he doesn't by now, because he should be indicted and the authorities should know his identity.

When the Inputs.io hack happened, and CL lost most of its assets and loans, I kind of ran away from the whole bitcoin mess and settled with a portion of the accounts. But over the years, thanks to some good investments, and profitable speculative trading, I'm able to offer a reimbursement plan that I hope you're happy with. It unfortunately isn't possible to be 100% in BTC, but the average USD ROI exceeds 18x.

[suchmoon]

TF is a total sociopath and a natural-born fraudster. He seems to have a specific style in which he conducts his scams.

A "hack", funds lost, (optionally) customers trolled, excuses years later. See Hashie.

I expect one of the crappy mixer sites to turn out to be TF's new scam.

[GazetaBitcoin]

Hi, great thread.

I like this kind of posts to learn more about the history of Bitcointalk [...]

I just realized that my 50 BTC donation to the forum is now worth $2.9 million. Wow! Never in my life have I expected it to be that big.

WTF? You don't consider the disappearance of your depositors' 4100 BTC in 2013, now worth $238 million, your "bitcoin pizza moment"?

I didn't have to look very hard to find this. In fact, I think I read that thread and odolvlobo's response at the time. Anyway, with all the negative feedback, I don't think he will scam anyone again in this forum.

Hehe, thanks! Yes, I saw that reply too... that was one of the few ones remembering him what he did... And I hope he will never scam anybody again. At least, now he is notorious and people can avoid him...

It looks like he successfully appealed his ban in 2015.
He also lost the ability to edit his own posts, which theymos restored in 2018 (while at the same time removing selfmod status from all his topics).

This is incredible. I studied this subject for a while, but I was not aware that (1) he was banned; (2) he was banned for trolling (inside a topic containing doxxing information of theymos or other staff member!!! -- how comes that he was banned just for trolling when he doxxed these people?!) and I think this is the first ban for trolling I ever seen; nor that (3) his ban was lifted (I did not see any reason for lifting his ban in that thread... weird). Now I am even more intrigued. Thanks for sharing this, LoyceV!

That would be off-topic, which isn't allowed. His Trust and username speak volumes and are discussed in several topics. There's no need to mention it in every topic he posts in.

Oh well... I understand this but the situation looks a bit ironical I mean to have a criminal inside your thread and not be able to ask why he is there because you would break forum rules.

The scams happened before I (or most other users) even joined the forum. I don't trust him, but I also don't feel the need to add more negative tags to the pile.

First sentence is true. However, I would have expected to see more negative feedbacks from DT members in his case... His current Trust score, for stealing at least 4100 BTC is -13. As comparison, figmentofmyass, for cheating CM campaign for 3 years (where he lurked way fewer BTC that TradingFortress), has a Trust score very close to TradingFortress': -12. Yet, the prejudice made by the lattest is way greater that the one made by figmentofmyass...

Jesus, I don't know what the hell I was doing in January, but I obviously wasn't paying attention to the Reputation section.  I didn't post in the reference thread that's included in figmentofmyass's negative trust, nor do I remember that scandal.  So I'm just learning that he had multiple alts in the Chipmixer campaign, a feat I find astounding!  Thanks for mentioning those examples, OP.

Memory is a funny thing, though (especially for me).

My dear Pharmacist, let me tease you a bit First you did not know about your (and as well -- our) true home (smile here). Then about figmentofmyass. These, combined with change of lines between you and icopress about forgotten things, that I accidentaly noticed in the trolls-related thread, made me smile as well (I hope you get my humor.)

With respect to TradeFortress, I swear I heard that the account changed hands a while back, because I was wondering the same thing you are, which is how and why would such a notorious scammer even show his face on a forum where he scammed so many people.  [...]  I'm not sure what I actually read or even if I interpreted it correctly, but I could almost swear that someone stated that the account was sold or given away after those scams went down.

Maybe someone here can set us straight on that.  If not, it does seem very weird that a member would have enough balls to keep posting here as if nothing ever happened.  I mean seriously, it sounds like TradeFortress should be in a jail cell rather than on bitcointalk.

I was not aware of this either... this is new information and, if this happened, then indeed this is a good explanation. Otherwise, as you said, "TradeFortress should be in a jail cell rather than on bitcointalk"...

Back in 2018, he claimed that he did not have access to these funds, and that they were mostly lost in the hack.

Even so, he had access, at least, to the other "smaller" scams. 10 BTC from you, 15 BTC from me, 5 BTC from another one and so on... I'd say that even if he could not access those stolen coins, the other ones he scammed (detailed in OP) represent amounts of more than 1M USD...

TF is a total sociopath and a natural-born fraudster. He seems to have a specific style in which he conducts his scams.

A "hack", funds lost, (optionally) customers trolled, excuses years later. See Hashie.

Indeed. And what you said is perfectly illustrated in these two quotes:

Hello everyone!

Did you have a balance on CoinLenders or Inputs.io? A reimbursement is also available - please see the thread.

Refund

A refund for Hashie users is now available.

A number of people have emailed me asking whether the reimbursement program is still open.

I am replying to clarify that the program is closed and no funds are available. Sorry.

Please do not reach out to me about this program.

[xtraelv]

Why I'm creating this topic? As I wrote above, it's because I was almost shocked to see that the scammer remained active for 8 more years after all these scams. He was last active here last month. According to BPIP, he is (just) the 28th most distrusted user from the entire forum (but I think he should be placed on a higher spot). Also, as it can be seen on LoyceV's website, there are some users (not 1 or 2, but 13!!!) which trust TradeFortress - a fact which I find to be amazing. Another aspect amazing me is that only 23 users distrust him!

What's even worst is that it also happens that he is a VIP member, meaning that he actually paid 50 BTC to obtain this rank (no matter that when he paid BTC had a lower value). And while such members - VIPs or Donators - should be remarkable figures among us, sadly, there are cases when such titles are worn also by scammers...

Coming back to the story, I still can't understand the guts of this guy, to keep being present here all the time, involve in various threads, in various boards (Bitcoin Discussion, Gambling, Securities, Altcoins, Meta, Offtopic etc.) without having (almost) anybody asking him: "do you really have the guts of actually still being here after all you did?".

Moreover, some actually praise his posts:

TF, thanks for the laugh. When I saw who posted that I laughed so hard I almost pissed my pants.

Very rarely I saw someone which told him something more or less subtle, about what he did and that he does not belong here anymore.

It's like... everybody forgotten his actions... or closed their eyes.

Why is this happening? Opinions...?

I believe part of the reason (going from memory) was the young age (teenager) of Tradefortress when most of this occurred.

Latest News:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=336217.msg3747056#msg3747056

The wisest course would be to surrender to the police.
I guess he planed to hide 4,100,000 dollars, then go to jail.
Bcz he is so young, he won't stay there too long.
After being released from jail, he will be a rich in peace.

No he won't, not if we all keep up the pressure.  It seems clear at this point that TF cannot justify the measly payouts offered thus far on the basis of 4100 stolen btc.  Many more than that were on deposit at CL and many of those 4100 have been written off by depositors who settled such as Dumbfruit. I think the points made about a civil lawsuit above are valid, and I think the best bet, if TF doesn't cooperate, is pressing forward with criminal charges.  From what I know about the case, I'm pretty sure a decent lawyer could make a very strong case for conviction.  If TF is really 18, he's facing the prospect of the best years of his life behind bars.  That 's ample motivation to come clean.

Tradefortress, some of us were willing to give you the benefit of the doubt at the beginning, but no longer.  The only way you're going to satisfy us at this point -short of refunding 100%-  is with complete transparency.  Speaking for myself, I have no problem accepting a fair cut if there was a genuine theft -even, in that case, setting aside your criminal negligence.  But you're going to have to justify whatever percentage refund you offer with some concrete and verifiable figures.  Otherwise, I'm operating on the assumption that you're a criminal. 

[Igebotz]

Maybe someone here can set us straight on that.  If not, it does seem very weird that a member would have enough balls to keep posting here as if nothing ever happened.  I mean seriously, it sounds like TradeFortress should be in a jail cell rather than on bitcointalk.

Has there ever been a case of a Bitcointalk scammer going to jail? Never seen or heard of a case like that, all they get is a red tag on the forum while they move around freely outside of it, and the fact that there have been multiple scams here and no one has ever been caught in real life makes you worry.

Code:

9536feebe3a50b94f85ca27d56e669a7209bd4188385d55c5b97227c95cf7f74

The 4000 BTC  was transferred to this wallet address 1EMztWbGCBBrUAHquVeNjWpJKcB8gBzAFx
1Acj4bQBSh385WLzZKv9s1cwrYmUwUgdYg from 17 addresses and both addresses are showing zero (0) balance.If only he had kept a small portion of the coin until now. Everything appears to have been spent between 2013 and 2015.

[suchmoon]

Has there ever been a case of a Bitcointalk scammer going to jail?

pirateat40 / Bitcoin Savings and Trust: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-fraud-texas-idUSKCN1012W8
GAW / Homero Garza: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/09/man-who-swindled-9m-in-wannabe-bitcoin-ponzi-scheme-headed-to-prison/
Bitconnect scammers might get there as well: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/16/us-selling-seized-cryptocurrency-in-bitconnect-fraud-case.html

[OgNasty]

TradeFortress made a post in 2018 in the Donators section of this forum where he reached out looking for victims to repay for his misdoings.  I took advantage of this offer and received 6.51961 BTC from TradeFortress as a result.  From my perspective, at least he made/is making an effort to repay victims.  I lost far more BTC in the GLBSE debacle where no attempt was made to return Bitcoin to victims by it's owners...  So it seems like when it comes to paying people back for things you were involved in, TradeFortress showed more honor than others who had ownership stakes in operations that made no effort to repay those they took BTC from even though they are sitting on piles of other people's BTC to this day.

NastyMining has recovered 6.51961 BTC as a result of our investment with user TradeFortress. 

[KingsDen]

Scam is not moderated;
But Plagiarism is moderated.
I would rather that someone steal my work in this forum without  referencing me than steal my BTC.
Scam is not moderated here;
But obvious scam should be moderated and maybe handled case-by-case by the moderators.
With the system not having any punishment for scammers or reward for non scammers. It means that it is only a few users that will get some huge bitcoin and choose not to ruin their reputation.

[PrimeNumber7]

This is the case of TradeFortress.

<>

Why is this happening? Opinions...?

You have to look at TradeFortress' situation from a legal perspective.

In circa 2013, TradeFortress was running a website (Inputs.io) that offered custodial services for its customers, and something happened that resulted in Inputs.io not being able to honor customer deposits. According to TradeFortress at the time, this was because of a hack of a hosting provider they were using, and according to some community members, this was because TradeFortress decided to steal some of the money belonging to Inputs.io customers.

Regardless of the underlying root cause, it is very likely that TradeFortress had liability when Inputs.io could not honor customer deposits. This is an important detail.

Subsequent to the alleged hack, TradeFortress prioritized deposit claims of those with larger amounts owed by Inputs.io. IMO, by doing this, he lowered the likelihood of being pursued by customers -- in effect, he did not honor deposit obligations of his smaller customers (the customers who would have the least incentives to aggressively pursue him).

In any litigation, any statements you make can potentially be used against you. So pirate40 for example decided to stop posting on the forum so that anything he wrote could not be used against him in court. pirate40 ended up going to prison anyway, although, by the time his enterprise collapsed, there were no lingering questions if he was running a scam. Other scammers simply stopped using their accounts after their account was no longer able to produce income for them -- some of these scammers may still be here, operating under different names.

After Inputs.io collapsed, many months elapsed, and TradeFortress made statements on the forum that IMO reduced the likelihood of being pursued in court for deposits he did not honor. For example, TradeFortress tried to join a signature campaign, despite allegedly having millions of dollars worth of stolen coin (value at the time). I might point out that obtaining a judgment against someone with no assets will only get you a bill from your attorney.

Fast forward a year or two, there was a somewhat similar situation with another company, called hashie that was involved in cloud mining.

Based on what happened when hashie imploded, I believe it was a scam, although it is possible what happened was the result of TradeFortress' immaturity. AMhash, then the entity that hashie was reselling cloud mining contracts for, imploded very shortly after hashie imploded -- I think this probably points to TradeFortress potentially having lines of communication with AMhash that went dead before it was publically known that AMhash was imploding and TradeFortress deciding to maximize his profit from his company.

If you believe that hashie was a scam, a reasonable person might belive that Inputs.io was also a scam. In any case, it appears that TradeFortress is not able to cover edge cases of security issues.

[GazetaBitcoin]

~snip~

This is a very interesting story, thanks for sharing this,

NastyMining has recovered 6.51961 BTC as a result of our investment with user TradeFortress.

Well, at least, you are among the lucky ones, I guess...

Has there ever been a case of a Bitcointalk scammer going to jail?

pirateat40 / Bitcoin Savings and Trust: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-fraud-texas-idUSKCN1012W8
GAW / Homero Garza: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/09/man-who-swindled-9m-in-wannabe-bitcoin-ponzi-scheme-headed-to-prison/
Bitconnect scammers might get there as well: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/16/us-selling-seized-cryptocurrency-in-bitconnect-fraud-case.html

Excepting the examples given by suchmoon, I'd also add the case of knightmb. The case was very well documented by xtraelv.

knightmb account looks like it got sold or hacked some time in 2016 / 17
Went from only English posts suddenly to only Turkish.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=345
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=345;sa=showPosts

knightmb was number 7 richest bitcoin holder.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=321265.0
At one stage owned 371,067.36 BTC
(Which is 3x more than Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss own combined)

Apparently, he went to jail for trying to extort a political figure More info can be seen inside these posts of xtraelv: [1] and [2].

[NeuroticFish]

The scams happened before I (or most other users) even joined the forum. I don't trust him, but I also don't feel the need to add more negative tags to the pile.

First sentence is true. However, I would have expected to see more negative feedbacks from DT members in his case... His current Trust score, for stealing at least 4100 BTC is -13. As comparison, figmentofmyass, for cheating CM campaign for 3 years (where he lurked way fewer BTC that TradingFortress), has a Trust score very close to TradingFortress': -12. Yet, the prejudice made by the lattest is way greater that the one made by figmentofmyass...

I'm somewhat with LoyceV in this: the scams have happened very far in the past and probably before the trust system has become this important. Maybe I'm wrong, but I expect back those days one gave trust rating only if he had direct deal with the other person/account.
And most of the current active people don't know much about that, don't care that much about that... see it as "long gone". Not good, but this does happen. Politics and elections work on a similar principle, exactly because... as somebody famous said:

Memory is a funny thing, though

What I don't agree with LoyceV is about not "adding more to the pile". I've just added one more to the pile, with link to this topic.

[xtraelv]

Has there ever been a case of a Bitcointalk scammer going to jail?

pirateat40 / Bitcoin Savings and Trust: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-fraud-texas-idUSKCN1012W8
GAW / Homero Garza: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/09/man-who-swindled-9m-in-wannabe-bitcoin-ponzi-scheme-headed-to-prison/
Bitconnect scammers might get there as well: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/16/us-selling-seized-cryptocurrency-in-bitconnect-fraud-case.html

Other notables that went to jail.

Knightmb - (Michael Brown) for the extortion of Mitt Romney https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4547124.0 (account no longer with original owner)

WME - (Alexander Vinnik) was tracked down for the MtGox theft laundering because of this deleted post on bitcointalk. (external link http://archive.is/6cFcY )

MagicalTux (Mark Karpeles) for the failure of MtGox https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4412667.0 (although I consider him more of a victim of circumstances)

Altoid / silkroad - (Ross Ulbricht) and his co-conspirators https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4437773.0 (Not really a scammer but selling illegal goods and services) His opsec on Bitcointalk and another forum probably gave him away. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/10/silk_road-au.html

Akemashite Omedetou -  (Roman Sterlingov) - Bitcoin fog service https://darkweblive.net/bitcoin-fog-operator-arrested-in-los-angeles/

Escrow.ms (Pankaj Bhardwaj) - Credit card fraud https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1359865.0

Yankee (BitInstant) - (Charlie Shrem) - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=817069.0
He co-founded the now-defunct startup company BitInstant, and is a founding member of the Bitcoin Foundation. In 2014 he was sentenced to two years in prison for aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business related to the Silk Road marketplace.He was released from prison in 2016. In 2017, he joined Jaxx and served as its chief operating officer, and founded cryptocurrency advisory CryptoIQ. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Shrem

Julian Assange (not a scammer or criminal - but in jail)  probably lurked on here too and Wikileaks got a mention from Satoshi himself in the now famous final quote. "WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us. "
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2216.msg29280#msg29280

Excepting the examples given by suchmoon, I'd also add the case of knightmb. The case was very well documented by xtraelv.

knightmb account looks like it got sold or hacked some time in 2016 / 17
Went from only English posts suddenly to only Turkish.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=345
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=345;sa=showPosts

knightmb was number 7 richest bitcoin holder.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=321265.0
At one stage owned 371,067.36 BTC
(Which is 3x more than Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss own combined)

Apparently, he went to jail for trying to extort a political figure More info can be seen inside these posts of xtraelv: [1] and [2].