question Selling domain - am I being scammed?

S.C.A.M

Looks to me like that.

Yes, looks scammy.
You can offer him to use an escrow service, or ask to be paid first, on your own wallet and not on another random site if using a crypto.
If it's a scammer, he won't accept

Its look scams , ask your buyers to use trusted escrow service for better transaction . Try escrow .com , DAN , or Epik escrow and other popular escrow service

He could be a legit buyer but you should not use his suggested escrow. Instead, use other escrow services which accept payment in crypto. I don't know about other but Epik escrow accept payment in crypto.

use dan.com
if he refuses
say byebye

The scam works by getting a wallet you can't actually withdraw from and more and more money going in and more reasons why you need to wait to get it out. In mean time since more and more income is rising you channel a few more things with ease into wallet that never will withdraw from.

My case is exactly the same as yours, I sell it on flippa and I get an offer of a personal eMa _il from Dimitrys Vakalis <dimitrysvakalis gmail DOT com> and Olaf <toffik toffik DOT net> and the content is exactly like those What you get. This is a complete scam SITE. All the above people and that site CRPTTRADE dot come are 1 team, and they are targeting developers who have no experience in cryptocurrencies to cheat.

The whole steps I cheated were as follows:

GETTING STARTED-> Someone introduced me to this page CRPTRADE dot comm to trade me with a product I listed for sale on Flippa. He offered to exchange me with some BTC in exchange for my product.

STEP1-> First, I check that the name of this company is registered as they are published, I found it on beta dot companieshouse dot gov dot uk, just like them that said. My thinking is: "if gov dot uk is available, they must have been certified by the authorities". so I went to the next step

STEP1-> When I tried Withdraw to check if the withdrawal was done correctly on my blockchain dot com wallet, they requested a wallet verification for a fee of 0.0299BTC. They said it was a fee to verify the external wallet address, with the following content: "You can withdraw your funds only to address, which is registered and verified with your account. You need to make a deposit from this address to verify your address with your account. The minimal amount of the deposit is 0.0299 BTC "; And I did.

STEP2-> Next, I return to Withdraw, another error message appears, that I must continue to pay a fee, the following content: "You need to make an insurance payment before to withdraw your funds, because you are from a high-risk illegal financial transaction country, US. This insurance payment will be refunded in 7 days to your external wallet if you have no complaints. outside the EU. The amount of insurance is 0.079 BTC. "

This made me feel bewildered, but I was still in a state of trust in them, so I asked their support department, "Is this the last step for me to withdraw?" => About 30 minutes later, they said, "Dear customer, I have checked your account with technical department. The insurance deposit is the last requirement for your account". I trust them again, making a deposit to the wallet on this page.

STEP4-> I try to withdraw 1 more time, Withdraw => the system needs to click on "confirm link" to confirm, I closed this pop-up, the message was "success", deducted BTC => returned to the mail to wait message => I click on "Confirm link" => a message appears "Incorrect verification code!".

I asked the supporter of this CRPTRADE dot comm site, they initially said that everything was fine, the money was transferred to my blockchain.com wallet. But I didn't see that, I asked them again, then they said: "Dear customer, your withdrawal request is confirmed, but not sent to the external wallet, because according to the authorities, the Income tax is required for your account. . The account balance will be available for withdrawal after 0.112 BTC deposit in one payment "

-> At this moment, I feel a scam in CRPTRADE dot comm

Then I asked them, "Will the insurance payment (I made at STEP3) be refunded after 7 days?" They said: "Yes, it would if the balance won't be frozen, but you made the withdrawal request and didn't pay the tax. That's why the insurance funds are frozen at the wallet, also."

->I feel total scam in CRPTRADE dot comm

< They even send you a Ma_il about your guarantee agreement, but it's completely worthless >



THE MONEY THAT THEY TRANSMISSED YOU ON THAT, WHICH THEY CALLED AS A BITCOIN, THAT WAS NOT A BITCOIN AND TOTALLY NO VALUE. YOU WILL NEVER WITHDRAW ANYTHING IN THIS SITE

I reminded again, I lost money, this is a complete SCAM SITE.

And one lesson I got after this time was: NEVER RESPOND TO YOUR PRIVATE THROUGH PRIVATE CHANNEL <If they suggest a private contact, ask them to ask questions in mode public>

Sorry to hear another victim happy to have things run past as seen so many can spot the scams pretty well.

I found your question by google searching his address (dimitrysvakalis...com), and created an account just to reply here. I'm getting the same emails/offers from him (from my Shopify Market Exchange listing) and it looks super suspicious. It seems more legit than other scams I've come across because he only offered to buy my store after like 5 back and forth emails in which he asks detailed questions about my store. Here's the first email from him in case anyone else googles it with suspicions:

"I was really looking forward to your reply. I am a Swedish writer and this time of Coronavirus and difficult times for real business I was thinking about online deal. I want to expand my opportunities, that's why I want to purchase your store. I have the following questions:
1) How long has this business existed?
2) What is the real profitability?
3) Does the business suffer losses?
4) Does your business have debts to any organizations?
5) Can I see store productivity for last months?
6) What expenses per month?
7) Do I need to provide tax documents to the authorities?
8) What are the business prospects and is it possible to increase revenues?
9) What taxes do you pay?
10) How many persons are neсessary to run a business?"

Definitely wasted a LOT of time providing detailed answers for this scammer.

I GOT SCAMMED BY THIS SAME PERSON TODAY!!!!

He wanted to buy my shopify store which was for sale and asked exactly the same questions as @kjmccart

He mentioned the same stuff and at first I thought well he is interested so I answered him. Then later he asked me to use the bitcoin escrow on bicoinhub.com

I hesitated but was like sure you are paying me so I just see if I get the money.

I even told him the price of the store used to be 8K but now I am selling for 3K and he said 8K was fine and would even raise it to 9K.

I thought he was mad so I made an account and gave him the bitcoin adress for it. And within the hour I saw almost 10K USD worth of bitcoin on my account.

After trying to withdraw the money I got a message first to send my ID front and back to their support email for verrification. I did that.

Then I was asked to deposit 0.0029 bitcoin which was a huge red flag so I emailed him asking if he was willing to make the deposit which I would gladly refund for him. He said he was in the hospital and couldn't do much and otherwise would like to get his funds refunded.

I started looking up the company name and no hits on google which gave me a big red flag as well and I didn't want to go trough with it. But for some reason I kept on looking for signs to give me a reason to go on with it because the funds would say I have close to 10.000 dollars in my account laying there for me to grab.

I found the business number and searched UK businesses and found some stuff which brought me to thinking 0.0029 bitcoin was about 200 euro's. It would be worth the risk if it might be 10K in return. My curiosity got the better of me.

I deposited the money and to my surprise the money actually went trough which got me excited. However it was not 0.0029 bitcoin, it was less which was transfered. Apparently they deduct 2.5% which is never covered anywhere and I started talking to support and I was quite mad because my account was yet to be activated and support told me I would have to again need to deposit 0.0029 btc + 2.5% to make the exact ammount for activation.

I knew by this point this was totally a scam but now half a day later I talked myself into trying one more time because that amount of bitcoin was so huge.

I just wasted close to 500 euro's on this scam and I feel terrible. This feeling is devastating. I have it very rough because of the corona virus. And I legitimately tought this guy was interested in the store and was honest. Because he send me many emails and many relatable questions. Now here I find this guy has said the exact same stuff to others and got away with it each time.

I feel terrible and I just spend money I needed for rent and groceries all because this guy put me in this position.

We need to put some google search results on the website marked as SCAM. Because if you google search bicoinhub you don't see any results saying SCAM.

bicoinhub IS SCAM
bicoinhub IS SCAM
bicoinhub IS SCAM
bicoinhub IS SCAM
bicoinhub IS SCAM

I hope people will be able to see this post in google search this way. And if they do and I helped them I gladly hear.

Chartno3 said:

Hi all, not sure if this the right place to ask this. I have a domain name that I'm selling on Flippa and for the past few weeks, I have been talking to a man who reached out to me showing interest. First off, I know very little about selling domain names. Never have done this before.

This gentleman has asked me a lot of questions about potential ad revenue, how to set up a site, how to transfer, etc... After some back and forth, he told me today that he was ok with the list price but then said this:

I agree with Buy Now price on the listing. As I am a cryptotrader I am ready to pay money in Bitcoins. We can use USD - BTC worldwide rate calculator (URL removed) to consider the equivalent value.
I will be able to make the transaction in BTC, it is fast and safe for me and for you because there is the Escrow service on the (URL Removed - CRPTTRADE dot come) site, where I have a wallet. I recommend making a deal with a secured deal. Would you be so kind to consider payment in Bitcoins? because I reached the withdrawal limit on the exchange this month, that's why I need to wait no less than three weeks to make withdraw once more. Therefore I propose to you to register the bitcoin wallet on (URL Removed - CRPTTRADE dot come) . I can make the transfers inside the site from my wallet to you without limits at any time. If such a method of payment is OK for you, please send me the number of your BTC wallet after registration. After that, We will start the secure deal and I will make a money transfer to you. You will withdraw the money, convert them to cash or send to the bank account. I'll be waiting. It is safe for both of us. There are no risks. Thank you.
​

This screams scam to me so I thought I'd get other opinions.

Any thoughts? Should I run?

(i wasn't allowed to post the URLs above)

Thank you in advance....

Click to expand...

Hello @Chratno3

I have register now here because i see what happens to you and i will share my pain with you.

This same happens to me on 1st april.

I have sell domain on Flippa and a guy contact me and tell me he love my project and would like to pay 20% extra money if they can pay with bitcoins. I say sure, why not? I have coinbase account.

They say sorry im on other platfrom and my money is on bicoinhub.com and they reach a withdraw limit.
The same text like yours... I dont need to repeat.

I have register an account on bicoinhub.com and verify it.

They send payment and i got it. I have try to withdraw and then come support and say i must deposit 300 $ to verify complete first. I do that. Then later i must deposit again so i can use platfrom 100% for free. then $900. days later i must deposit again $700 because withdraw function is not available for free. Later i have talk to support and tell them i want a contract from CEO Mr. costa rue so they should promise me this is the last deposit so i can finally withdraw money. They make a contract with hes signature and sent to me.

I have upload again $700 also the last one... 2 days later i try it again and they come again a system message. You using VPN this is forbbiden, system block me now to withdraw. If i want use a platfrom with VPN i must deposit again $900 to then is everything successfull. I told them NO because Mr Costa Rue say $700 was the last deposit. Support say sorry you must check our terms. I say you guys criminell... Is this a serious business?! User must upload $3-4,000 to use your FREE platfrom?!

What is this... They say, sorry you must check and accept our terms.

I say im gonna go to lawyer and they gonna sent you a message to london UK.
Support text me and say if you do this, then would be really expensiv for you 'good luck'

Later i tell them im gonna call a cops because you guys do a pro crime! Support tell me 'you should better not call a cops'

I mean guys, where we leaving?! They can do all what they want and nobody can stop then?!

I was by cops and explain everything. Now i must wait. The problem is im in germany and they have a office in london.

Anyway i have check they company LTD. they open a company and bicoinhub.com site in march 2020
few days later they scam me.

BTW CEO Mr. costa rue have open a LTD with a capital of $100 I mean who serious CEO open a company with damn $100

I have open my company with $50k.

Whatever, i think Mr. costa rue is one man company. He do support and all others stuff or Mr. costa rue is a guy who was sleep on street and xy guy say hey i have a job for you to be a CEO and im gonna pay you.

I dont no. I have a balance of $80,000 on bicoinhub.com site and i dont think im gonna see this one day.

This guys scam everybody who register on they site. BTW site is ugly and have only few function. On start i have belive this could be a scam because profesionall site have lot of function and if you google them then you find lot of sites with feedback. They have nothing only negative feedback since march (start).

@Chratno3 i can feel you!

All the best guys!
Zlatko