[SCAMMER WARNING] (Veritus101/FBI) - Selling mining gear

[trentzb]

(Kiba, feel free to move if not in correct category)

I accept full responsibilty for this loss. I should have not been as trusting and done some more due diligence before entering into a transaction with a new forum member. After repeated requests to seller to ship mining gear purchased or a refund of BTC I am afraid I must warn others to not enter into a transaction with the forum members Veritus101 (James) or FBI (Joe).

The mining gear in question was a Seasonic 850W PSU and ASRock Motherboard/Sempron/RAM combo for a total of 57.50 BTC. Transaction was completed over 05/08 and 05/09 and BTC payments made via the three transactions View #1, View #2, View #3.

I found a post by FBI which appeared oddly similar in style to the Veritus101 post I had visited and purchased from. After a bit of research I realized that the posts are from the same individual. I made contact with FBI (Joe) to inquire about purchasing the listed 5970 cards and collected additional data to support my suspicion. A sample of data is listed below.

It is unfortunate that these things happen, but somewhat expected I suppose. I hope that no other members have been taken advantage of by this individual (or other individuals) and I caution members to do reasonable due diligence with new members. I unfortunately failed in this case.


Veritus101 (James): 1M9cfrEpBiiQtry4DazHwtEMc5PJuoTYXa
FBI (Joe): 165NhEQW2vP5FAuDjD7KW7cww4LKVcwuBx

FBI Hotmail: josephkroner1456@hotmail.com
X-Originating-IP: [76.94.162.251]
From: Joe Kroner <josephkroner1456@hotmail.com>

Apache logs (I directed Joe to visit my server):
76.94.162.251 - - [10/May/2011:11:32:27 -0700] "GET /btc/DSC00115.JPG HTTP/1.1" 200 91624 "http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6128.msg98361" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1"
76.94.162.251 - - [10/May/2011:11:32:27 -0700] "GET /btc/DSC00114.JPG HTTP/1.1" 200 89484 "http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6128.msg98361" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1"

76.94.162.251 -> cpe-76-94-162-251.socal.res.rr.com


Veritus101 (James) exif (mundane data removed):
EXIF tags in 'phone1136.jpg' ('Motorola' byte order):
--------------------+----------------------------------------------------------
Tag                 |Value
--------------------+----------------------------------------------------------
Image Description   |SAMSUNG            
Manufacturer        |SAMSUNG            
Model               |SGH-T959
Orientation         |Top-left
Date and Time       |2011:05:07 17:22:56
XP Keywords         |phone1
Exif Version        |Exif Version 2.2
Date and Time (Origi|2011:05:07 17:22:56
Date and Time (Digit|2011:05:07 17:22:56
GPS Tag Version     |2.2.0.0
North or South Latit|N
Latitude            |34,  3,  7
East or West Longitu|W
Longitude           |118, 15, 59
Altitude Reference  |Sea level
Altitude            |0.00
Interoperability Ver|0100
--------------------+----------------------------------------------------------


FBI (Joe) exif (mundane data removed):
EXIF tags in '89576698.jpg' ('Motorola' byte order):
--------------------+----------------------------------------------------------
Tag                 |Value
--------------------+----------------------------------------------------------
Image Description   |SAMSUNG            
Manufacturer        |SAMSUNG            
Model               |SGH-T959
Date and Time       |2011:05:09 10:18:36
XP Keywords         |scam2
Exif Version        |Exif Version 2.2
Date and Time (Origi|2011:05:09 10:18:36
Date and Time (Digit|2011:05:09 10:18:36
GPS Tag Version     |2.2.0.0
North or South Latit|N
Latitude            |34,  3,  6
East or West Longitu|W
Longitude           |118, 15, 58
Altitude Reference  |Sea level
Altitude            |0.00
Interoperability Ver|0100
--------------------+----------------------------------------------------------

[1713309256]

1713309256

[1713309256]

1713309256

[trentzb]

He just responded that he is not the same person...although quite a futile attempt.

[TenthReality]

He just responded that he is not the same person...although quite a futile attempt.

Thats pretty bad leaving in the geotagging, and naming the second one scam2.  Not only do we know its a scam for sure, we know where the guy lives (or at least took both photos)

[SgtSpike]

Sorry to hear that trentzb, I was wondering what the details were when you mentioned that to me.

He just responded that he is not the same person...although quite a futile attempt.

Thats pretty bad leaving in the geotagging, and naming the second one scam2.  Not only do we know its a scam for sure, we know where the guy lives (or at least took both photos)

This is the address I get from looking up the long/latitude.

Selected Location (output)*
Address:Huanhu Expy, Suyu, Suqian, Jiangsu, China
Latitude:34.0527014°
Longitude:118.2711234°
Accuracy:6: Street level.
Status:200: Successful geocode.

Source:  http://www.findlatitudeandlongitude.com/find-address-from-latitude-and-longitude.php

Who knows though, he could have even stole the images from the web from someone else taking pictures.

Is there any kind of "matching" picture search, where the search will attempt to find out if the same image exists anywhere else on the web?  That'd be a pretty slick website, actually....

[LMGTFY]

Is there any kind of "matching" picture search, where the search will attempt to find out if the same image exists anywhere else on the web?  That'd be a pretty slick website, actually....

TinEye.com!

[casascius]

This is the address I get from looking up the long/latitude.
...
Address:Huanhu Expy, Suyu, Suqian, Jiangsu, China
...
Longitude:118.2711234°

That should be 118 degrees west, not east (the metadata says W, often entered as a negative number)...which would put them in the USA not in China

[SgtSpike]

This is the address I get from looking up the long/latitude.
...
Address:Huanhu Expy, Suyu, Suqian, Jiangsu, China
...
Longitude:118.2711234°

That should be 118 degrees west, not east (the metadata says W, often entered as a negative number)...which would put them in the USA not in China

My bad. 

In that case, the closest address is...
Address:1536 Cambria St, Los Angeles, CA 90017, USA
Latitude:34.052619°
Longitude:-118.271253°
Accuracy:8: Address level.
Status:200: Successful geocode.

I'm not going to encourage anyone do anything, because I don't want to get in trouble.  I'm just throwing this out there.

[trentzb]

What has Veritus101 done that you have also singled him out?  I read his posts but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary...

Veritus101 === FBI

[lulzplzkthx]

FBI and Veritus101 did signup quickly at around the same time.

Veritus101:

Date Registered:    May 07, 2011, 08:20:14 pm
Last Active:    May 09, 2011, 12:08:00 pm

FBI:

Date Registered:    May 09, 2011, 01:54:49 am
Last Active:    Today at 04:43:25 pm

But I don't know if they're connected. Just putting this out there.

Also the camera (phone?) models match perfectly, even though the filename format does not. The distances are quite close too.

Could you show us the image from Veritus101? I can only find the one from FBI.

[trentzb]

Well I could be wrong, but it sure is suspicious that they both have the same exact cell phone and take pictures of similar/same equipment while only feet apart from each other and are both trying to sell that equipment.

Not to mention the location of where he (FBI/Joe) states he is at at the moment changes between PM and email...and one of those locations happens to be down the street from where I am at this moment.

[grndzero]

If you got taken then so did I. 15BTC I hope not though.

Veritus 101 responded to this post http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7723.0.

I replied 5/9 (twice because I didn't know messaging didn't keep a copy in outgoing by default) and haven't received any communication since.

[trentzb]

Could you show us the image from Veritus101? I can only find the one from FBI.

Images are in each post:

Veritus101: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7528.0

FBI: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7709.0

I have copies of images I will place somewhere if/when they disappear.

[lulzplzkthx]

I can't find the username veritus101 on a Google search, nor the email you listed anywhere. I'm assuming they were throwaway accounts. (FBI is of course too vague to search.)

Could a moderator tell us if the IP addresses on the accounts match?

[grndzero]

I can't find the username veritus101 on a Google search, nor the email you listed anywhere. I'm assuming they were throwaway accounts. (FBI is of course too vague to search.)

Could a moderator tell us if the IP addresses on the accounts match?

Search Veritus 101 (with a space). It only comes us wit bitcoin forum stuff and profile.

[lulzplzkthx]

I can't find the username veritus101 on a Google search, nor the email you listed anywhere. I'm assuming they were throwaway accounts. (FBI is of course too vague to search.)

Could a moderator tell us if the IP addresses on the accounts match?

Search Veritus 101 (with a space). It only comes us wit bitcoin forum stuff and profile.

Right, I meant I couldn't find it anywhere except for Bitcoin.org

[sc8nt4u]

My prices are as stated in btc because it's the form of payment I will accept.  I will go ahead and reduce or raise the price if I feel they are no longer competitive enough to sell. If you are in the west coast, you should receive the item within two days of shipping.

If you really need a usd equivalent then you can just multiply by 4. 325x4 and 310x4 for $1300 & $1240 each. Just know that if the usd/btc exchange falls to make btc lower than my listed price, my listed price stands. I am planning on buying btc with the money anyways which is why I rather not give a percentage to exchange going around accepting usd. This way I can discount the machine as cheaply as possible and I get most btc as possible.

My position on clearcoin and escrow services has been posted and I want to say that they provide no protection for the seller whatsoever. I will not use services that will increase the chances of myself getting scammed no matter how badly I wish to make a sale. I hope you understand as I've been burned too many times by selling charging back or not paying up. I love btc for non reversible tx protection for the seller.

I was also interested in purchasing some of his stuff and asked for references. He couldn't provide any reference and did not want to use clearcoin. I didn't message him back. Better safe than sorry.

[trentzb]

Bump due to potential similar scam at http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8907.0