1st Post: Scam help

[BobbyH]

Hey guys,

I wouldn't say I am a blue eyed newbie to the crypto world as I have been investing/ trading the asset class for about a year now. With the ongoing bull market and a change in my personal circumstances, I thought it ws time to wet my mining whistle and invest in some mining rigs. With GPUs at a premium and the ongoing battle for hashing power in BTC vs. BCH, i thought my best bet was to go for some Antminer L3+ units. I found some units very reasonably priced on the UK Gumtree site here:

https://www.gumtree.com/p/desktop-workstation-pcs/2x-bitmain-antminer-l3-504-mh-s-litecoin-miner-with-psu-brand-new-in-stock/1274113614

I got in discussion with the guy on it for about two days and without going into much detail, he convinced me he was legit (sent me pictures of passport, utility bill, Bitmain invoice etc). Pretty well done although I am just saying that to make myself feel better!

Anyway, I sent the guy 15 LTC ( approx £1k) as a deposit to hold the units until I come to pick them up this coming Thursday 7th Dec. We chatted afterwards for a bit but I have had no contact since then and when I try to call him I cannot get through. Gumtree recommend I wait 7 days till raise it as fraud but I can't wait that long. So a friend recommended this forum and I do hope there are some savvy people here who can help me.

I am willing to offer 3 LTC for anyone who can help me track down this guy and serve some justice. Here are some addresses I found using BlockCypher:

Original address i sent 15 LTC to:
LLQSdjztHTxfBiGhAmQmBGa1TPDVp66aZj

Continuing on and on I get to an address where he split it 8 and 6:
LVTdsHSJ6ZV1YBpYuhqZrP5NVm5JpXChuY

Following the 8 LTC address I get to an address with a balance of 300 LTC:
LLXF4dniaif4rPpE1jpBe7YCjmk2AEpUU9



FYI this was the BTC address he gave me:
1LGTjvADpxQ2ubFnb4Ry7Zw4CnoSTiuCmy


Any help anyone can provide is much appreciated. I know it is't a huge amount of money and a cheap way of learning a valuable lesson, but it's the principle of the matter that has hurt me.

Thanks in advance.

BobbyH

[1714928150]

1714928150

[1714928150]

1714928150

[hardpick]

You might want to post the transaction ID as well? I don't have enough knowledge to help you but maybe someone can use that to help you trace where this money went.

[BobbyH]

Good idea

Transaction: 9493289b00e212d77b7a428e59fc3a1f8d8d45b485f539c380f2bbc6bcf2d048

[BitMaxz]

No i think its impossible to trace them i just tried to use the address and tracing them but i don't see the address was mention here in forum..
If you buy in gumtree for me its not recommended to buy in 3rd party site if you really wanted to buy a miner you should buy miner in bitmain directly they had available Litecoin L3+ available compare the link you gave,, the price is really high its likely scam..
For now i can say that better to wait for him to respond if not you've scam.. Next time if you are planning to buy better to buy directly from bitmain..
They had the hardware available and the price is really cheap compare the price from your link ..
Wait more days maybe they also order the hardware directly from bitmain.. if you didn't receive or heard any update about your order better to post this in scam accusation to inform other people to not buying hardware in gumtree..

Here is scam accusation section: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0

[dlhezter]

i think its impossible to track that person who scam you. because all crypto transactions are anonymous, so whether you track it from where he/she is, you cannot verify who this person. so even you do alot of effort to find that scammer in the end, you didnt find that person unless this person is verified on that account then he/she cash out that into fiat. but dont give up, i think there are another ways to find that scammer and teach him/her a lesson.

[sanyinchen]

I am sorry to hear that and I want to say I think it is impossible to get any result . Maybe you can trace your coins to some other address , but you will never know who is he . Because there is no other information in blockchain , such as IP or other something . The only way to trace who is he is the exchange platform . If he wan to exchange LTC to USD , maybe you can connect the platform and ask these money will transfer to who’s account, but I do’t think platform will do that for you by 15 LTC.

[Leeke]

I'm no help with finding the person via blockchain and I'm not familiar with gumtree either - but is there anyway you get more info from gumtree on his contacts or stalk his username across other social media channels? Chances are he's probs running his scam in other places as well.

But honestly - you could spend a fair amount of time trying to track him down and still not get anywhere - I'd be reporting his a** for sure and making a few scam accusation posts def to warn others - but beyond that - I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of  dedicating more of your valuable assets ie time.
I'd take this as one of those life lessons and yeh - sorry for your lost ltc

[BobbyH]

Thanks guys and yes, very valuable lesson. My rationale for going on GumTree was that Bitmain aren't shipping the L3+ until next year, March most likely so I was thinking the opportunity cost of mining at this reduced difficulty for three months... so greed got the better of me.

I've managed to trace some transactions of his to Bittrex so I have tweeted them and also will email their help. Doubt they can do anything but worth a shot.

Will keep everyone posted has this plays out.