[Emergency ANN] Bitcoinica site is taken offline for security investigation

[naima53]

Who said anything about $5 million ? Is that how much money Bitcoinica has ?

..... you have $5,000,000 in this but tru.....

Why would the claims "grow and grow" if the system can't be gamed

they do not recognize that they have a database ... therefore do not know exactly how many who had money ... logical right?

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[naima53]

and silence .. . fucking silence . .. What are all busy right now? "stickyfingerswarriorwritingclaim"??

I suggest (advise) to stop taking claims after this post, (the exact time) (a little earlier?)

[Phinnaeus Gage]

....
People have no reason to trust Bitcoinica Consultancy either.  Right now the "official" statements have about as much credibility as those which came "from the desk of Tom Williams" following the MyBitcoin debacle.
...

Could it be that this Tom Williams is the new owner?

Only if it's the same Tom Williams of Paragon Capital.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Your answer is either YES, NO, or NDA.

Please!

Guys can someone please pull public information from NZ companies house (even if it costs to get some by paying 10 dollars or so) and post it here.

Certification of Incorporation: http://www.societies.govt.nz/scanned-images/17/BC10060962017.pdf

Application for registration of a Limited Partnership: http://www.societies.govt.nz/scanned-images/06/BC10060962006.pdf

http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/3715077
http://www.linkedin.com/in/cheaslip

So general partner is Core Credit Limited, with accountant as probably nomini director. Very shady if so.

By law, details of limited partners are private.

Whatever questions you have Chris Heaslip is your guy, email or call and ask him.

So it is basically a limited partnership with a limited company as General Partner having it seems a sole nomini director AND a sole nomini shareholder. And who knows how many limited companies in how many jurisdictions are below that. These guys are well prepared for any (civil) legal assault and any civil case would be pointless.

Zhou made an interesting post regarding Core Credit on 5 May.

Bitcoinica has started using a new bank account in New Zealand for wire transfers. This account is opened with Bitcoinica's banking partner Core Credit Limited (an approved FSP in New Zealand).

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=79688.msg883562#msg883562  Post number 3 contains the banking details which Zhou edited out of his OP.

Pretty deceptive really given that they're actually a general partner in Bitcoinica rather than just a "banking partner".  No-one thought to question it at the time, unfortunately.

CORE CREDIT LIMITED: http://www.business.govt.nz/do-it-online/register-a-company/companydetails/3715077

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Bitcoinica Consultancy: You are full of shit when you say you already dealt with a good number of the more simple claims.
My friend who has a whole bitcoin(lol) in your service still haven't got a response after he filled your stupid claim form.
I guess 1 open position with a 1 BTC balance is fucking complicated for you to deal with.
Also, one question my friend asked me: Where are you going to return his Bitcoin to if you don't even ask for a Bitcoin address?

Just stop lying.

I'm not sure were you got that. Please show us the post so it can be altered. This is what we said:

Right now, we believe the best thing for all parties involved is that we continue with the reclaims process. We have investigated many of the claims but have many left. There were still claims being filed as of at least yesterday. Our intention is to have a secure platform where users can claim their accounts and everyone will be able to claims their accounts once the claims process is finished. We cannot offer a concrete timeline for exactly when this will happen but we are working as fast as possible. Please be patient. We are truly sorry for the grave inconveniences.

Really, I'm not going back to search, this thread is damn long. If that was all you said, my apologies for misunderstanding.

Now a simple question: How do you expect everyone to claim their accounts if you didn't warn them about the theft and the fact that the website went down? Is sending a simple email to your user base beyond your possibilities?
My friend only knew about it because I told him. And I'm sure there are many other users in the same situation.

Is this true, psy, that your friend has yet to receive a single email from Bitcoinia? Has anybody else here received an email from Bitcoinia? Does Bitcoinia have a single email address at their disposal? How is Bitcoinia communicating with all those poor souls that don't frequent this forum?

[Raoul Duke]

Bitcoinica Consultancy: You are full of shit when you say you already dealt with a good number of the more simple claims.
My friend who has a whole bitcoin(lol) in your service still haven't got a response after he filled your stupid claim form.
I guess 1 open position with a 1 BTC balance is fucking complicated for you to deal with.
Also, one question my friend asked me: Where are you going to return his Bitcoin to if you don't even ask for a Bitcoin address?

Just stop lying.

I'm not sure were you got that. Please show us the post so it can be altered. This is what we said:

Right now, we believe the best thing for all parties involved is that we continue with the reclaims process. We have investigated many of the claims but have many left. There were still claims being filed as of at least yesterday. Our intention is to have a secure platform where users can claim their accounts and everyone will be able to claims their accounts once the claims process is finished. We cannot offer a concrete timeline for exactly when this will happen but we are working as fast as possible. Please be patient. We are truly sorry for the grave inconveniences.

Really, I'm not going back to search, this thread is damn long. If that was all you said, my apologies for misunderstanding.

Now a simple question: How do you expect everyone to claim their accounts if you didn't warn them about the theft and the fact that the website went down? Is sending a simple email to your user base beyond your possibilities?
My friend only knew about it because I told him. And I'm sure there are many other users in the same situation.

Is this true, psy, that your friend has yet to receive a single email from Bitcoinia? Has anybody else here received an email from Bitcoinia? Does Bitcoinia have a single email address at their disposal? How is Bitcoinia communicating with all those poor souls that don't frequent this forum?

The only email he got was the claim form submission confirmation.
He played with Bitcoinica a little, left a position open and kinda never went there for the last month or so, and possibly would not go there for another month or two unless I told him that the price spiked or crashed.
He knew about the hacking because I told him about it. He knew about the claim form because I sent him the link.
Not even a word from Bitcoinica. And I can also confirm that, because I have a Bitcoinica account and I didn't get any email from them warning me to claim any funds I may have on my account.

Bitcoinica Consultancy, where should I send the invoice for doing your job? lol eh, j/k don't throw the dogs at me

[Crypt_Current]

Bitcoinica Consultancy: You are full of shit when you say you already dealt with a good number of the more simple claims.
My friend who has a whole bitcoin(lol) in your service still haven't got a response after he filled your stupid claim form.
I guess 1 open position with a 1 BTC balance is fucking complicated for you to deal with.
Also, one question my friend asked me: Where are you going to return his Bitcoin to if you don't even ask for a Bitcoin address?

Just stop lying.

I'm not sure were you got that. Please show us the post so it can be altered. This is what we said:

Right now, we believe the best thing for all parties involved is that we continue with the reclaims process. We have investigated many of the claims but have many left. There were still claims being filed as of at least yesterday. Our intention is to have a secure platform where users can claim their accounts and everyone will be able to claims their accounts once the claims process is finished. We cannot offer a concrete timeline for exactly when this will happen but we are working as fast as possible. Please be patient. We are truly sorry for the grave inconveniences.

Really, I'm not going back to search, this thread is damn long. If that was all you said, my apologies for misunderstanding.

Now a simple question: How do you expect everyone to claim their accounts if you didn't warn them about the theft and the fact that the website went down? Is sending a simple email to your user base beyond your possibilities?
My friend only knew about it because I told him. And I'm sure there are many other users in the same situation.

Is this true, psy, that your friend has yet to receive a single email from Bitcoinia? Has anybody else here received an email from Bitcoinia? Does Bitcoinia have a single email address at their disposal? How is Bitcoinia communicating with all those poor souls that don't frequent this forum?

The only email he got was the claim form submission confirmation.
He played with Bitcoinica a little, left a position open and kinda never went there for the last month or so, and possibly would not go there for another month or two unless I told him that the price spiked or crashed.
He knew about the hacking because I told him about it. He knew about the claim form because I sent him the link.
Not even a word from Bitcoinica.

Bitcoinica Consultancy, where should I send the invoice for doing your job? lol

Pretty much same deal for me.  I had two accounts at Bitcoinica, filled out claims form for each, received confirmation email at each corresponding email addy, something along the lines of "YOU HAVE FILED A CLAIM"

money me now!

[Phinnaeus Gage]

After the Linode problem, Tihan refunded everything from his own pocket. Again after this problem, he is again putting up the money to fund Bitcoinica. To me that commands great respect. I'm really happy we are collaborating with someone that trustworthy. Now he offers to take the blame too. If that's the case, then I should equally share in the blame what with being director for Intersango.

Heh. A lot of people here assumed it was Zhoutong who ponied up out of his pocket and nobody ever denied that.

Interesting.

I was thinking that it would be paid from Bitcoinica's reserves, but that isn't the case, right?

Echo!

I'm somewhat taken aback with this revelation.

~Bruno~

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Since people are allowed to speak now, and it seems like customer funds will be repaid (Thank Mr. Tihan!), there's one more question left:

-Are there any backups left?: Is the database intact?

FTFY!

[guruvan]

I would be happy to use a service provided by Zhou Tong in the future, however unlikely that might be.

Here you go: https://nameterrific.com/ <-- started by Zhou Tong

How did you missed that guruvan?

(still 8 pages out of catching up)

~Bruno~

LOL. Must have been buried in the bickering. Anyhow. I'm super happy with namecheap and if I ever get it working, my .bit domain. That's enough domains for me.

[guruvan]

Bitcoinica Consultancy: You are full of shit when you say you already dealt with a good number of the more simple claims.
My friend who has a whole bitcoin(lol) in your service still haven't got a response after he filled your stupid claim form.
I guess 1 open position with a 1 BTC balance is fucking complicated for you to deal with.
Also, one question my friend asked me: Where are you going to return his Bitcoin to if you don't even ask for a Bitcoin address?

Just stop lying.

I'm not sure were you got that. Please show us the post so it can be altered. This is what we said:

Right now, we believe the best thing for all parties involved is that we continue with the reclaims process. We have investigated many of the claims but have many left. There were still claims being filed as of at least yesterday. Our intention is to have a secure platform where users can claim their accounts and everyone will be able to claims their accounts once the claims process is finished. We cannot offer a concrete timeline for exactly when this will happen but we are working as fast as possible. Please be patient. We are truly sorry for the grave inconveniences.

Really, I'm not going back to search, this thread is damn long. If that was all you said, my apologies for misunderstanding.

Now a simple question: How do you expect everyone to claim their accounts if you didn't warn them about the theft and the fact that the website went down? Is sending a simple email to your user base beyond your possibilities?
My friend only knew about it because I told him. And I'm sure there are many other users in the same situation.

Is this true, psy, that your friend has yet to receive a single email from Bitcoinia? Has anybody else here received an email from Bitcoinia? Does Bitcoinia have a single email address at their disposal? How is Bitcoinia communicating with all those poor souls that don't frequent this forum?

Other than the automated response to my claim, I have received zero email communication from Bitcoinica or anyone related to it.

[ashleyconnor]

They pointed out some security vulnerabilities, and I have acknowledged that. There were some customers pointed out other bugs and vulnerabilities too, and we have sent out some fair amount of bounties. I don't think there's any pride for technical creation - I'm just a Rails developer, what's the big deal?

Can you expand on the vulnerabilities? Was it a mass assignment vulnerability?

Edit: Sorry I got further into the thread. Seems it was an Nginx vulnerability.

[muyuu]

Just finished reading the last nine pages. Upon seeing naima53's avatar, I'm now hoping that this episode gets produced into a Hitler Parody for YouTube, like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alc0gG0u48M

So you need to read 2 pages more. The fun starts in page 67.

[vampire]

Is this true, psy, that your friend has yet to receive a single email from Bitcoinia? Has anybody else here received an email from Bitcoinia? Does Bitcoinia have a single email address at their disposal? How is Bitcoinia communicating with all those poor souls that don't frequent this forum?

I just checked my email and I got 0 emails from Bitcoinica. The last one was from Feb when I withdrew my balance.

[chsados]

Is this true, psy, that your friend has yet to receive a single email from Bitcoinia? Has anybody else here received an email from Bitcoinia? Does Bitcoinia have a single email address at their disposal? How is Bitcoinia communicating with all those poor souls that don't frequent this forum?

I just checked my email and I got 0 emails from Bitcoinica. The last one was from Feb when I withdrew my balance.

same.  i have filed the claim page about 3 times now in the past few days and when i hit submit i dont get any confirmation nor email.  wtf...

[Raoul Duke]

Is this true, psy, that your friend has yet to receive a single email from Bitcoinia? Has anybody else here received an email from Bitcoinia? Does Bitcoinia have a single email address at their disposal? How is Bitcoinia communicating with all those poor souls that don't frequent this forum?

I just checked my email and I got 0 emails from Bitcoinica. The last one was from Feb when I withdrew my balance.

same.  i have filed the claim page about 3 times now in the past few days and when i hit submit i dont get any confirmation nor email.  wtf...

You shoud check the form fields for errors. I read in this thread that when that happens it's some error you have in there and you aren't seeing it because it's not in red. lol

[shad0wbitz]

Bitcoin Consultancy was first retained to perform a comprehensive security audit on March 27 and they became owners and operators of Bitcoinica LP on April 24. As General Partner, they have exclusive legal authority to manage the company.

SO AS I SAID EVEN BEFORE THIS WAR GOT STARTED: BITCOIN CONSULTANCY OWNS AND OPERATES BITCOINICA!

And like I said before, take your funds out of INTERSANGO NOW!!

There is no NDA THEY NEED TO RESPECT because they are the GENERAL PARTNERS.

They are just stalling and buying time for their ATTORNEYS to help them run with YOUR MONEY.

Amir, Donald, Patrick: YOU are a bunch of LIARS, and you have been OUTED.

[shad0wbitz]

I second that Yankee would make a great PR guy for Intersango or should at least be on the board of directors.

I would not mind  

Try and remember this, when TradeHill announced they are shutting down everyone flipped out about wether they were getting their money back.

I constantly acted as middle man between TH and this community. We build an automated system so everyone can withdraw their funds via check or into another exchange. We had to manually verify every single customer for AML requirements which was not easy.

Furthermore, we also arbitrated dozens of disputes between TH and customers, all which are now resolved.

As soon as I knew an update, I posted it on these forums and recieved phone calls day and night of customers seeking assurance even though I had no stake in tradehill whatsoever

I plan on doing the same for Bitcoinica.

I hope after the transvestite of a show Bitcoin Consultancy put out on this forum, and after their lies, you would seriously reconsider this. Roger Ver (your partner if I am not mistaken?) is already taking distance from these fools and suggesting that Zhou manage the claim process.

By the way, on a previous post you claimed you knew the true owners of Bitcoinica. Then you claimed also you had 20K stuck with them. What's up with that? Aparently, and according to the capitalist that arranged the investment, Bitcoin consultancy owns and operates Bitcoinica since April 24th.

I respect you and Bitinstant, so I think it would be awesome if you could give an honest reply to this whole mess.

[shad0wbitz]

The forums where filled with the same hatred towards MtGox when they got hacked and look who is still the most popular exchange. They learnt and improved, so will Bitcoin Consultancy.

LOL People still fucking hate MtGox, and they are loosing volume by the day to other exchangers (btc-e notably, run by a russian scammer/carder).

Mark though, should be noted, is an honest person (although highly inept), unlike the liars and manipulators at InterSCAMgo.

[bulanula]

The forums where filled with the same hatred towards MtGox when they got hacked and look who is still the most popular exchange. They learnt and improved, so will Bitcoin Consultancy.

LOL People still fucking hate MtGox, and they are loosing volume by the day to other exchangers (btc-e notably, run by a russian scammer/cheater).

Mark though, should be noted, is an honest person (although highly inept), unlike the liars and manipulators at InterSCAMgo.

Making some serious acusations there mate.

Care to back them up ?

Anybody received a claim yet and got his $$$ back or BTC back ?

Why is BTC-E a scam / cheat