placepool.pro: mining pool credits balances, does not pay, bans users who ask

[planetcrete]

What happened:
placepool.pro advertises ZEC, BCH and other pools for rented hashrate (NiceHash).
- On 2026-11-04 I mined ZEC there through a NiceHash order. The pool credited my account 0.01244058 ZEC, above its own 0.01 minimum payout. Nothing has been paid since.
- On 2026-11-05 I asked for the payout in the dashboard support chat and through @placepool_support on Telegram. Neither answered.
- The site gives no email address. Its only public contact is the Telegram group @placepool_chat. I was banned from it after asking when payouts are made, and on 2026-11-13 a second account of mine was banned for the same question.
- On 22 October another user asked in that group why a BCH payout had not arrived. The admin answered that payment would be made on October 24.

Scammers Profile Link: website https://placepool.pro ; Telegram @placepool_support and @placepool_chat

Reference Link: https://placepool.pro

Amount Scammed: 0.01244058 ZEC (credited by the pool, never paid)

Payment Method: hashrate rented on NiceHash and pointed at the pool

Proof of Payment: no payout transaction exists; the balance shows as credited in my pool dashboard

PM/Chat Logs: the requests got no answer; the Telegram group no longer opens for me

Additional Notes:
The domain was registered on 2025-11-27 and expires 2026-11-27. It is hosted at Timeweb (194.87.226.61). The pool is not listed on miningpoolstats.
I have reported it to the host and the domain registrar. If you are considering this pool for rented hash, don't. If you were paid by it, or not paid, please post here.

[coupable]

Additional Notes:
The domain was registered on 2025-11-27 and expires 2026-11-27. It is hosted at Timeweb (194.87.226.61). The pool is not listed on miningpoolstats.
I have reported it to the host and the domain registrar. If you are considering this pool for rented hash, don't. If you were paid by it, or not paid, please post here.

The registered domain says it all. I don't know if you have checked the domain age before or after they stop communicating with you, but a legit service doesn't pay the minimum for the domain and the hosting. I would immediately call it a scam. The best you did was report the site to the domain registrar, but I doubt they will act upon just few reports.You missed providing the most important note about how much you sent to this scam service to rent a mining hash. This is the exact amount they scammed from you, not the 0.01244058 ZEC. I hope it is not to be a heavy lesson to learn that the real mining process is far from the illusion promoted by those cloud-mining scammers. Nobody will mine anything for you, simply because he can do it for himself. Those scams are just fake dashboards. To lead you to believe in a profit.