[SCAM] bitcoinmixer.info

[kseistrup]

What happened:

I tried to use the mixer service at bitcoinmixer.info, but the amount didn't arrive at the destination address.  I used the contact form to file a question, and got a response from a gmail address.  In order to solve the issue automatically, it said, I should send additional BTC 0.1 to a given bitcoin address.  D'uh.  I never got the amount back.

Please be cautious if you decide to use this “service”!

Reference Link:

http://bitcoinmixer.info/

Amount Scammed:

BTC 0.15

Proof of Payment:

https://blockchain.info/tx/9a8eb1724b20a43bc081e7aff9b135d2853d2da43ad1ecafc946aeafeba53ce2

Email conversation:

When the amount hadn't arrived at the destination three days later, I sent a message through the contact form on the site:

On July 13 I attempted to mix some bitcoins (0.15) through your service, but they never arrived at the destination. At the time I noticed that the bitcoin address mentioned at the input “window” was different from the address presented by the QR-code, but I told myself it was just the difference between a normal and a compressed address. In hindsight I can see I was wrong. I can most likely find the transaction on blockchain.info. How do we preceed from here so that I get my bitcoins?
Cheers, Klaus

And a day later I received this reply:

Hello!
You probably do not correctly identify the Destination Address.
We see that not enough a single character.
But since we have automatic mixing program, you must send at least a minimum of mixing (0.1 BTC) and your wallet number that I could re-introduce you to the program.

You need to send at least 0.1 BTC this wallet:
 
1EkcS6Pgubr9mECjqpFXRRciyEUvW866ND

Thank you for using our service.

And my reply:

Are you telling me to send more bitcoins to a service that still hasn't forwarded the bitcoins I already sent to it?

You say I didn't correctly identify the destination address.  Not so.  I copied it verbatim to the input field of your service.  And surely your service checks if input is a valid bitcoin address before it proceeds, and alerts the user if it is not valid, doesn't it?  So surely I would have received a warning if the destination address was invalid.

Please tell me why the bitcoin address shown in plain text and the bitcoin address in the QR field are different.  Shouldn't they be the same?

Here's the transaction from my address 1MoBi7mJKSRUVzjQFgPvYmtP8Y58L5EALY to the address shown in the QR code on your site: https://blockchain.info/tx/9a8eb1724b20a43bc081e7aff9b135d2853d2da43ad1ecafc946aeafeba53ce2

I'd be happy if you would just return the bitcoins I sent you.

I never heard from the guy again.

Additional Notes:

The bitcoinmixer.info domain was registered just a little more than a month ago (unfortunately the WHOIS data is useless):

Domain Name:BITCOINMIXER.INFO
Domain ID: D53053225-LRMS
Creation Date: 2014-06-28T22:36:44Z
Updated Date: 2014-06-30T15:30:19Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2015-06-28T22:36:44Z
Sponsoring Registrar:eNom, Inc. (R126-LRMS)
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 48
WHOIS Server:
Referral URL:
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited
Registrant ID:93ce9cf7d66ce61b
Registrant Name:WhoisGuard Protected
Registrant Organization:WhoisGuard, Inc.
Registrant Street: P.O. Box 0823-03411
Registrant City:Panama
Registrant State/Province:Panama
Registrant Postal Code:00000
Registrant Country:PA
Registrant Phone:+507.8365503
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:b5c39153d25545619b8a4542d975829d.protect@whoisguard.com

It doesn't seem any people here have any experience with this “service” yet.  However there's a recent thread started by a newbie that lists bitcoinmixer.info as its first link:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=712843.0

[escrow.ms]

Don't ever trust any list which is made by some new member. I have seen same kind of fake list of exchange sites too, in which one guy lost 5 bitcoins.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=667814.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=637841.0

[kseistrup]

Don't ever trust any list which is made by some new member. I have seen same kind of fake list of exchange sites too, in which one guy lost 5 bitcoins.

Yes, it certainly looks fishy to me.

[kseistrup]

Here are two screenshots that show bitcoinmixer.info in action.

The first is where you enter the destination address and amount to mix:



The second clearly shows that the address presented in plain text is different from the one shown with QR-code:



Link to album with the images side by side ⌘ https://imgur.com/a/XHkZa

Edit:

And a reference to the images and this thread, just in case:

• https://archive.today/0MwgP
• https://archive.today/wYxOH

Cheers,

[kseistrup]

Almost one and half month later I get this private message:

We will back your money. (Bitcoinmixer.info)
 When you delete all your posts about this site.
Im serious.
Im sorry about this

That's pathetic.

[Fortify]

Bitcoin "mixing" is effectively a type of money laundering, so it's bad they took your money but when you play with fire...

[kseistrup]

Delete all your post and photos from imgur.
Im waiting.your money will back to you.

I have replied that once I've received my 0.15 BTC — and not a moment before — I will consider what action(s) to take, if any.

[kseistrup]

I will return you 0.075btc now. Then you delete all files and post, and I return other part of money. Give me your wallet

I have declined the user's offer.

Probably coinciding with this, a user on IP 188.115.165.104 [188-115-165-104.broadband.tenet.odessa.ua] has attempted to reset my BitcoinTalk password.

[Fortify]

Maybe contact sitevalley.com where the website is hosted and let them know there is a money laundering service in use there - it is illegal in most countries.

[kseistrup]

Maybe contact sitevalley.com where the website is hosted and let them know there is a money laundering service in use there - it is illegal in most countries.

Thanks for the hint.

Money laundering may be illegal in most countries.  However, bitcoin mixing seem to be accepted by the community — even blockchain.info uses it.

[grue]

Even more signs it's a poor scam attempt:
Based on the HTML source, it's obvious that the site is running wordpress, and the form where you submit your address is really a "feedback" form (lol).
https://i.imgur.com/TPHuAKZ.png

Did I mention the qr code for the address is a static image?
https://i.imgur.com/rM0YJC9.png

The "one time use address" is static and loaded with the page. Also, it will "wait" for your bitcoins indefinitely because there's no mechanism for it to notify your browser that the bitcoin has been received.

[Vod]

Did I mention the qr code for the address is a static image?
https://i.imgur.com/rM0YJC9.png

Could some pre-hypertext processing not put that in there dynamically? 

[kseistrup]

Thanks guys, grue and Vod.

The owner of the site has paid me back the initial 0.15 BTC and is now pleading me via PM to take down this thread and the images on imgur because they are — in his own words — “dishonoring [his] service”. He keeps repeating that it is not a scam and that the discrepancy between the shown bitcoin address and the QR-code “was a mistake”.  If that is so, he can explain himself in this thread as soon as his “karma” is high enough to let him post.

[grue]

Thanks guys, grue and Vod.

The owner of the site has paid me back the initial 0.15 BTC and is now pleading me via PM to take down this thread and the images on imgur because they are — in his own words — “dishonoring [his] service”. He keeps repeating that it is not a scam and that the discrepancy between the shown bitcoin address and the QR-code “was a mistake”.  If that is so, he can explain himself in this thread as soon as his “karma” is high enough to let him post.

And I got 2 reports demanding this topic be removed.

Did I mention the qr code for the address is a static image?
https://i.imgur.com/rM0YJC9.png

Could some pre-hypertext processing not put that in there dynamically? 

not sure if serious

[kseistrup]

I would still like an explanation why the “one-time-use address” differs from the one found in the QR-code. The address shown in the window right now is “18q7Z2AVrTaaJo4oyYy4GCLdoq6M2p3fy8” while the image shows “13h5X2[…]vk4TQkr”:



and dates back to September 12:

Code:

$ fsinfo http://bitcoinmixer.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/okey30000.png
[okey30000.png] No description available
accept-ranges   bytes
connection      close
content-length  1079
content-type    image/png
date            Tue, 16 Sep 2014 04:35:44 GMT
etag            "27413e7-437-502e5db89f040"
last-modified   Fri, 12 Sep 2014 22:32:17 GMT
modified_time   2014-09-12 22:32:17
server          Apache
size            1079
$ 

The owner of the site claimed that it was a mistake that I was shown 2 different addresses, but obviously he hasn't bothered fixing that mistake yet.

Cheers.

[kseistrup]

The address shown in the window right now is “18q7Z2AVrTaaJo4oyYy4GCLdoq6M2p3fy8” […]

And even if I clear the cookies and start anew — or user another browser — I'm still offered the same bitcoin address.  How's that for a “one-time-use address”?

[grue]

I recived this message today

Hello.

I want that this post https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=720538.0 will be deleted.

on bitcoinmixer.info error occurred with QR code.
I returned the money to the man but he did not remove the post.
This post dishonors the service...

Proof of returned money:

https://blockchain.info/ru/tx/301aabdb8223c965bbdf288294fe2f8baf1f315ad0866067cb608da1a6115937

This person is not healthy, help me, Please

The address shown in the window right now is “18q7Z2AVrTaaJo4oyYy4GCLdoq6M2p3fy8” […]

And even if I clear the cookies and start anew — or user another browser — I'm still offered the same bitcoin address.  How's that for a “one-time-use address”?

it's because you're looking at a (modified) feedback form. The owner was too lazy to create a fake mixer site from scratch so he took a standard wordpress feedback form and changed it up a bit. It's very obvious if you look at the source.

[kseistrup]

it's because you're looking at a (modified) feedback form. The owner was too lazy to create a fake mixer site from scratch so he took a standard wordpress feedback form and changed it up a bit. It's very obvious if you look at the source.

Yes, thanks, I was just trying to refute the “pre-hypertext processing” speculation.

[Bit123ABC]

I realize this topic is a bit old (i will also make a post under a new topic), but the exact same thing happened to me recently. I guess I should have looked here before using bitcoinmixer.info, but i did not, and in any case i still feel they should be stopped from continuing their scam.

I have tried contacting them directly, but as i have not yet had a reply or my bitcoins back, i will proceed to contact their hosting provider and anonymity service, to hopefully find out who is behind the page.

Should there be anyone else (having lost bitcoins on bitcoinmixer.info) interested in pursuing this i would be happy to hear from you.

[kseistrup]

I'm sorry for your loss — I hope those jerks get busted.