[LOCKED] DoubleIcaras/Alexander Adams Collections Thread

[Kluge]

Good job locking the original thread, DI. That went a long way toward stopping us and showed uncommon integrity.  

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=61366.0

Code:

Involved Party | Amount Owed (in BTC) by Alex A. | Due Date (if applicable) | Type of Transaction
Joel D.        | 16.1                            | 2/21/12                  | Loan
Patrick H.     | 83.6                            | 2/21/12                  | Loan
Chaang Noi     | 10                              | 2/21/12                  | Interest-free Loan
"brendio"      | 10.41472                        | 2/21/12                  | Loan
Burt W.        | 28.75                           | 3/6/12                   | Loan
Patrick H.     | 28.75                           | 3/6/12                   | Loan
Ben M.         | 68.08                           | 3/6/12                   | Loan
Mark H.        | 57.5                            | 3/6/12                   | Loan

Letter and phone calls are being sent out today after I get back from town. DI is now in default on ALL of his loans and has not stated ability to repay, nor reply to requests for a time when he'll repay, instead opting to lock the thread where we were asking. I have authorization to represent all lenders and collect payment on behalf of the lenders.

This list does NOT include donations or t-shirts, nor am I representing people who donated or purchased t-shirts as I didn't get any timely replies when posting I was going to collect. That said, if you lost money to DI and are not listed here, I have plenty of contact information in meat space provided you have evidence of an unfulfilled transaction with DI.



Will post updates as updates occur.

[farfiman]

Was this a very sophisticated scam or another failed venture ?

I just don't get it. If it's a scam why do the scammers keep coming back to read
whats going on long after they have the funds? And if it wasn't a scam , the guy killed
his reputation for 1000$ , I know it's  a lot of money for some people but I would stick
around and try to pay back what I can when I can. Oh well once again...

[Kluge]

Was this a very sophisticated scam or another failed venture ?

I just don't get it. If it's a scam why do the scammers keep coming back to read
whats going on long after they have the funds? And if it wasn't a scam , the guy killed
his reputation for 1000$ , I know it's  a lot of money for some people but I would stick
around and try to pay back what I can when I can. Oh well once again...

For now, we're assuming he was overwhelmed with debt and lost interest in Bitcoin London and the other ventures. Just got back from town. Have stuff to unload, need to check the time in the UK, then will call when appropriate. Thinking I'll just try email, first. Can't use Google Voice right now from where I am, and don't know if I can even make international calls through other means. Just looking for more firm ways to contact DI, atm -- oddly enough, he posted his information which led to family members' phone #s, addresses, and work places, but nothing on himself. Don't want to bother them more than absolutely necessary to get contact info.

Fwiw, at the time of transactions, the total amount (including donations and t-shirt orders which were never fulfilled) was around $2k. Heh - probably the worst part of this for us is the coin was possibly sold off, pushing the value of BTC down. Double-whammy.

[BurtW]

Darn it all.

[Kluge]

First contact request sent to DI's dad, hoping to confirm he is who we believe he is. If no response received within a couple days, will proceed with other readied methods.

[John (John K.)]

Kluge, are you sure the person you're contacting is his dad? If he were wanting to scam from day one, wouldn't he try hide such information? Note that I'm fully in support of going after those goddamn scammers like DI 

[Kluge]

Kluge, are you sure the person you're contacting is his dad? If he were wanting to scam from day one, wouldn't he try hide such information? Note that I'm fully in support of going after those goddamn scammers like DI 

I am not. DI did not provide contact information of who I believe to be his dad to us, but accidentally supplied it by using personal information elsewhere on the Internet which, through some further snooping, revealed what appears to be his father's information -- that leads me to believe it's probably accurate. However, I was thinking the same as you this morning and decided against sending sensitive information prior to the fellow I'm contacting confirming he is who I believe.

[John (John K.)]

Well, just as I've thought so... I've did some google-scraping of my own, and if he uses the same username then we should get him fairly easily. However, there is a chance that someone could impersonate him by taking a well-known username and scamming here, thus leaving all leads closed. He has the signs of a scammer when he borrowed and repaid a small amount, and immediately borrowed a large sum of money after that. Also, the persons that he said would be helping him during the London event are present on the internet too. (Ahles - Photographer) No leads on the Alexis gal as alexis's are fairly common. Can you ask the mods to verify that his IP originates from UK at least?

[Kluge]

Well, just as I've thought so... I've did some google-scraping of my own, and if he uses the same username then we should get him fairly easily. However, there is a chance that someone could impersonate him by taking a well-known username and scamming here, thus leaving all leads closed. He has the signs of a scammer when he borrowed and repaid a small amount, and immediately borrowed a large sum of money after that. Also, the persons that he said would be helping him during the London event are present on the internet too. (Ahles - Photographer) No leads on the Alexis gal as alexis's are fairly common. Can you ask the mods to verify that his IP originates from UK at least?

Yes, Maged might be willing to do that for us. PMd him. Good idea.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Question. Who is DoubleIcaras, what did they do, and why does it seem like everyone on this forum falls for this shit every week?

[Kluge]

Question. Who is DoubleIcaras, what did they do, and why does it seem like everyone on this forum falls for this shit every week?

You can read through the link in the OP if you're really curious. He was supposed to host an event raising awareness for Bitcoin in London. He sold t-shirts (which were apparently never delivered), accepted donations, and took out loans.

This seems to happen every week because we lenders seem to often make the mistake of thinking smaller loans do not require the same effort in IDing the person and demanding to know how the BTC will be paid back as we would with larger loans.

Both Pat & I (haven't heard from others) seem to be @ ~10% default rate (with regards to # of loans, if weighted for amount loans made for, probably much lower), and AFAIK (it's true for myself, at least), they're all for relatively small loans, never large single loans. Seems there's a strong correlation there and we're dropping the ball by thinking smaller lendees have a stronger right to privacy, or perhaps we're thinking we have a right to be lazy.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Question. Who is DoubleIcaras, what did they do, and why does it seem like everyone on this forum falls for this shit every week?

You can read through the link in the OP if you're really curious. He was supposed to host an event raising awareness for Bitcoin in London. He sold t-shirts (which were apparently never delivered), accepted donations, and took out loans.

This seems to happen every week because we lenders seem to often make the mistake of thinking smaller loans do not require the same effort in IDing the person and demanding to know how the BTC will be paid back as we would with larger loans.

Both Pat & I (haven't heard from others) seem to be @ ~10% default rate (with regards to # of loans, if weighted for amount loans made for, probably much lower), and AFAIK (it's true for myself, at least), they're all for relatively small loans, never large single loans. Seems there's a strong correlation there and we're dropping the ball by thinking smaller lendees have a stronger right to privacy, or perhaps we're thinking we have a right to be lazy.

Oh that person who claimed he would remake the money back from standing outside shouting about bitcoin? Yea, I don't know what anyone would trust such a scam. How was he supposed to make money anyway? Selling bitcoins?

As for the lenders, sounds like being lazy tbh.

One of our DCAO colleagues is working on a new system (it will be advertised in the Bitcoin Magazine actually) for a new secure and smart system for loans. You guys will love it.

[Kluge]

Question. Who is DoubleIcaras, what did they do, and why does it seem like everyone on this forum falls for this shit every week?

You can read through the link in the OP if you're really curious. He was supposed to host an event raising awareness for Bitcoin in London. He sold t-shirts (which were apparently never delivered), accepted donations, and took out loans.

This seems to happen every week because we lenders seem to often make the mistake of thinking smaller loans do not require the same effort in IDing the person and demanding to know how the BTC will be paid back as we would with larger loans.

Both Pat & I (haven't heard from others) seem to be @ ~10% default rate (with regards to # of loans, if weighted for amount loans made for, probably much lower), and AFAIK (it's true for myself, at least), they're all for relatively small loans, never large single loans. Seems there's a strong correlation there and we're dropping the ball by thinking smaller lendees have a stronger right to privacy, or perhaps we're thinking we have a right to be lazy.

Oh that person who claimed he would remake the money back from standing outside shouting about bitcoin? Yea, I don't know what anyone would trust such a scam. How was he supposed to make money anyway? Selling bitcoins?

As for the lenders, sounds like being lazy tbh.

One of our DCAO colleagues is working on a new system (it will be advertised in the Bitcoin Magazine actually) for a new secure and smart system for loans. You guys will love it.

Dollartrader has an interesting system already up, just not public, afaik. It'd make a solid attempt at verifying a person by sending a post-card to their claimed address with a code via mail. They then enter that code into their account page, and are marked as verified. Other than that, the site has a rating system, with a page for everyone, and an easier way of taking loans out and advertising them than the forum.

Otherwise, we already have lists of defaulters, but it's useless with so many unproven people requesting a loan, and that's just a lack of self-discipline on our part to give out loans to relatively unproven people. People fake pay stubs, their pictures, addresses, identity, take out "confidence loans" and repay, etc. Unless there's something totally revolutionary never done before in the new proposed system, we'll still just end up needing to turn away those without a lot of rep, I suppose. I'm hoping the free escrow service I'm offering will help convince new sellers to pop up and get involved so they'll be accepted when they request new loans.

[Matthew N. Wright]

One of our DCAO colleagues is working on a new system (it will be advertised in the Bitcoin Magazine actually) for a new secure and smart system for loans. You guys will love it.

Unless there's something totally revolutionary never done before in the new proposed system,

It's exactly that! Can't wait till it's announced formally.

[Kluge]

One of our DCAO colleagues is working on a new system (it will be advertised in the Bitcoin Magazine actually) for a new secure and smart system for loans. You guys will love it.

Unless there's something totally revolutionary never done before in the new proposed system,

It's exactly that! Can't wait till it's announced formally.

You're better than Steve Jobs, sometimes. 

I'll start checking my mailbox better to ensure I didn't miss my copy. Starting to become too exciting.

[Matthew N. Wright]

You're better than Steve Jobs, sometimes.  

Make no mistake, I didn't make it. I'm just on-board as an adviser.

I am pretty proud of our extensive 2012 DCAO lineup though. We've got enough projects to keep Bitcoin busy for 5 years.

[Kluge]

Admin confirmed DI's IP address originates from the UK. No response to email to personal address. Sending to work address tonight. Tomorrow, phone call, possibly letter.

[John (John K.)]

Admin confirmed DI's IP address originates from the UK. No response to email to personal address. Sending to work address tonight. Tomorrow, phone call, possibly letter.

That's a relief to hear as we can be more assured that he is probably not using any proxies; hence he might be the same person under the username quite possibly.
What's his email provider? Is it one of those free email providers?

[Kluge]

Admin confirmed DI's IP address originates from the UK. No response to email to personal address. Sending to work address tonight. Tomorrow, phone call, possibly letter.

That's a relief to hear as we can be more assured that he is probably not using any proxies; hence he might be the same person under the username quite possibly.
What's his email provider? Is it one of those free email providers?

Personal email is free. Work email isn't. I'm going to wait until the very end of the day to send to his work email, as I consider that public. For reference, I'm still trying his dad. Contact requests to DI have come everywhere from Skype info I found to another person trying a forum he admin'd (which has since shut down).

[Kluge]

ETA: Removed. Was operating on old information.

Evidence suggests someone with the name "Alex" who wears near-identical glasses as Alex and has similar (or perhaps identical, depending on lighting variables) recently purchased drugs from Silk Road and is trying them out -- the link was found on DI's FB page. This was about a month ago, after he'd already have our money, but there's enough time for a SR seller to've already shipped him his purchase.