alert Bitcoin Escrow Scam

HDmarketing · Jul 28, 2020

Hello all, just to warn the community here that I've received suspicious Flippa offers recently.

I've played around one of them to learn more about the structure of the scam. Replied to the offer and took screnshots during the negociation that followed to document the process.

I had in mind that I may write a small step-by-step for all to learn how to detect scams.

Here is what happened.

1. Offer (suspicious!)

Context:
MusiqueClassique .com is listed as Make offer > $1,000 on Flippa
(means "Classical Music" in french).

I've received many lowball offers during the years so I've put a 4 figures min offer to stop these.

Here is the message I received.

Why is it suspicious?

Comes from a brand new user (Flippa account created a few days before message). 0 transactions yet.
"Kan JUn" seems like an Asian name, the domain is a 2 french words one MusiqueClassique .com and is quite niche. Agreed a French user could want it and create a fake account to hide his ID, but I think he would chose a French name or pseudo.

My reply "BIN is $9,995, ready to consider any 4 figure offers".

2. Negociation (very suspicious!!)

He comes back with "I'm ready to offer $5,700 but payment has to be in Bit-coin because I am from china and international payment is difficult".

He confirms that he is from China and interested in this french niche domain. OK, it could happen, but seriously... I love this domain because I'm a musician and I still dream of developping it into a nice website someday, but I'm not sure it's a sound investment for someone willing to pay thousands of dollars in a discreet way from China...
No negociation, already offering a sum > half BIN. Whereas my min offer is $1,000.
We will have to move out of the platform as Flippa doesn't offer BTC payment.

I'm not opposed to BTC payments, and since these are final (you can't recover a BTC payment), then there is only one way to secure payment for the buyer: go through a Bitcoin Escrow service.

(Because if the buyer sends BTC directly to the seller, once it is in the seller's wallet, nothing can force him to honour the sale and transfer the domain).

My reply "I'm happy to accept your offer as it is very reasonnable. Flippa doesn't allow BTC payment I think, what do you suggest?"

Let's see where that takes us...

3. Follow me down the rabbit hole (highly very beaucoup très suspicious!!!!)

He offers we follow up on Telegram, gives me the @Amidamary1900 contact which leads to a "Han Chao" profile. Why not!

Telegram means anonymous / non traceable if you take the right precautions
We are now "out of platform", so there no third party to turn to if anything bad happens.

Still giving this joke a chance, I decide to act as I would do in a legit transaction. Thus I suggest we go through a BTC-Escrow. There happens to be at least one registrar that can play that role: Epik. Here is my first message on Telegram:

If he agrees to that, then it's Christmas! I'm ready to transfer the domain and we can conclude that transaction the same day. But of course, he has his own Escrow solution in mind.

4. The BTC-Escrow so suspicious that it's not even fun anymore.

Now we are at the heart of the scam.

What's gonna happen is

I agree,
I create an account on the website http://cryptodaxex.xyz,
wait for "Kan JUn", now "Han", to send his 0,55 BTC or so (BTC on the rise today!).
I will soon enough receive an email stating that "the funds are secured and I can now transfer the domain safely".
Once the domain transfered out of my registrar I'll ask for the BTC to be transfer to my wallet. Which will never happen because... http://cryptodaxex.xyz is a scam!!

How do I know? I've done some due dilligence.

"cryptodaxex.xyz" gives only 8 or so results! Well, for an Escrow service, you need TRUST and recognition. 8 results is bad...

One of the google results leads to an article about the death of cryptodaxex 3 years ago

Another leads to TrustedsReviews.xyz which gives a few reviews of cryptodaxex, the oldest one being 3 days old! (By "Justin Sun", which is hilarious to those knowing a bit about crypto!)

Looking at the whois of cryptodaxex.xyz and TrustedsReviews.xyz is even funnier...

Both sites are only a few days old. The scammers managed to rank the review site on Google in a few days and started rolling out scam sites that have "reviews"...

With all that data, I decide to have a bit fun and ask my buyer a few questions...

Of course, got no replies after that.

That was fun for me, but remember that scam happens and that you need a secure payment solution... And that YOU need to make sure it is really secure!

Best of luck in this wild world...

PS. can't find the conversation in my flippa account anymore, I guess Flippa did detect and suppress the fake account.

Kuffy · Aug 28, 2020

Thanks for posting that.

I'm particularly interested, as I want to move to using Bitcoin as a sole payment option. I'll maybe add dome alts in the future. I've used Name Silo for escrow, but I think they may have removed the Bitcoin payment option. Obviously I can accept Bitcoin directly, but some buyers may want some form of security, and I've been reflecting in this. I thought of using senior members here, or on Bitcoin Talk who offer escrow services, but that may net help if the buyer is outside either of the communities. I'm still reflecting on the possibility of a multi-sig transaction, but I haven't worked out a viable method for that.

Another idea is to use the value of a forum account as a form of security. I don't know if my account here has a value, but I am Legendary, a merit source,and a Default Trust 1 member of Bitcoin Talk, and that account must be worth a few thousand dollars. I am unlikely to jeopardise those reputations over a domain sale. Maybe I should start a discussion about this.

mdrn · Aug 28, 2020

Kuffy said:
Thanks for posting that.

I'm particularly interested, as I want to move to using Bitcoin as a sole payment option. I'll maybe add dome alts in the future. I've used Name Silo for escrow, but I think they may have removed the Bitcoin payment option. Obviously I can accept Bitcoin directly, but some buyers may want some form of security, and I've been reflecting in this. I thought of using senior members here, or on Bitcoin Talk who offer escrow services, but that may net help if the buyer is outside either of the communities. I'm still reflecting on the possibility of a multi-sig transaction, but I haven't worked out a viable method for that.

Another idea is to use the value of a forum account as a form of security. I don't know if my account here has a value, but I am Legendary, a merit source,and a Default Trust 1 member of Bitcoin Talk, and that account must be worth a few thousand dollars. I am unlikely to jeopardise those reputations over a domain sale. Maybe I should start a discussion about this.

Epik escrow allows for crypto transactions - https://www.epik.com/services/escrow/

And I believe Dan.com also allows for Bitcoin escrow

poweredbyme · Sep 2, 2020

Secure Bitcoin escrow ways:

1- Put your domain to openbazaar and invite your buyer there. Openbazaar is a decentralized marketplace and has escrow. Openbazaar is free and open source.

2- Hire a reputable escrow in bitcoin forums.

Bitcoin escrow is the cheapest and most secure escrow.

Before using bitcoin, read about bitcoin philosophy.

Bitcoin is a p2p payment method. Always keep this in mind. You are one person and need only another person in order to use bitcoin, don't need centralized marketplaces and services.

Reveron · Sep 8, 2020

Hi everyone, I got scammed by this same user yesterday - he's using a new site called cryptodust (dot) us
Below I've provided all information I've collected about 'Chetan Patel', they're based in UK btw.

WHOIS (cryptodust (dot) us):
Registrant Contact Information:
Name
Sun Jastin
Address
Masis
City
Dalan
State / Province
Shinjuku City
Postal Code
163-1390
Country
JP
Phone
+81 (dot) 369115000
Fax
+81 (dot) 369115000

The business number registered on the site:
beta (dot) companieshouse (dot) gov (dot) uk/company/11096809/filing-history
beta (dot) companieshouse (dot) gov (dot) uk/officers/fLlvYYOy10_zKWS4fJ6i983ZyDU/appointments
beta (dot) companieshouse (dot) gov (dot) uk/company/11142787/filing-history

He also seems to run this:
facebook (dot) com/TaibahPearlsUK/
gramho (dot) com/media/2387399667438947408

More information about them:
Chetan Patel - London
Date of birth
January 1985
Registered office address changed from 94 Heacham Drive Leicester Leicestershire LE4 0LG United Kingdom to 3 Barling Road Leicester LE5 0AJ on 16 December 2019

See if anyone can find his face:
uk (dot) linkedin (dot) com/pub/dir?firstName=Chetan&lastName=Patel&trk=public_profile_people-search-bar_search-submit

Hope I helped here. Hopefully this can get this loser caught and held by UK authorities and prevent others for getting scammed.

ebiz · Sep 9, 2020

I just had some clown try to use cryptodust with me , I ran away fast , was on facebook

4better · Oct 21, 2020

I have noticed a lot of people have still been victimized lately by scammers using fake bitcoin sites. For the domain names that were sold, victims were told to deposit a certain BTC amount so they can withdraw the money that the buyer has paid thru that site. After the victims have made the initial bitcoin deposit, they could never withdraw their money there. So the poor victims not only lose their domain names, they also lose their money.

Here's a sample list of the bitcoin sites managed by scammers. All of them basically have the same format/content and only the names (and fake addresses) are changed.

Watch out for these sites: CRYPTCOURT, SATOTRADE, ATHCRYPT, CREXSAT, UNDROMEDA, CREXBTC (ALL .COMS), KRYPTOESCROW (XYZ), CRYPTODAXEX (XYZ), CREX (EXCHANGE), MARKETDEFI (ORG), CRYPTODUST (US), EXPANCESWAP (COM). The last two, however, are currently no longer active.

KTC · Oct 21, 2020

As a person that used Flippa in the beginning and got scammed in that same exact manner, to see a company allow such things to happen and not put a stop to it is absolutely disgusting.

Lesson learned on my part and wish I knew better. What's crazy about that is that when I was scammed....it was roughly about 6-7 years ago? And this is still happening to this day? Wild.

EPIK and DAN would be the best options. Nothing else. If someone says use another site, run.

S8Power · Oct 24, 2020

I can add this: Namecheap is doing absolutely nothing about it too. My domain was transferred to them almost 3 months ago (and I guess the scammers are using Namechap not only to host my domain....) and they are still "investigating" it. I have provided them with al the necessary documentation/information.
Sad story.

Stevestan · Nov 4, 2020

I posted before as got scammed and you can see my story early in the thread - funny thing is they are targeting me again. This time its a different email - Is the any way I can get a little back here - send them on a wild goose chase, give them the runaround or just generally waste their time by forwarding their email to someone, a service. etc. The name he is using is chunhua Xiaoming

Rabiul Tanmoy · Nov 5, 2020

Stevestan said:
Ok. Some more info here . I can not believe I fell for this but yes I did. Unfortunately I even went one step further and lost about 400 usd in this scam . I’m writing this as a warning but also yeah... just so angry at myself for being a dumbass!! I received exactly the same info from same person as above and followed the pattern Exactly. The scammer even went as far as to set up an account With my domain name register so I could transfer the name easily. This required him to set up billing details . (Effort!!)

he set up a deal and transferred the bitcoins into my created profile on that site with the weird name above . From what I could see those funds where in there and it was a done deal.

He sent me a password after I had transferred over to unlock.. all I had to do now was to withdraw my funds . This is the part where the scam comes in and I became the idiot. Duh!

to withdraw it said you had to upload a 0.05 bitcoin amount to the wallet to verify I was real. This would unlock the wallet and I could withdraw all my funds. This came to about 400 usd. I checked the site before doing this... it had a support section, the bitcoins I could see where rising and changing with the charts of the day , the terms and conditions seemed legit and it showed the company was based in London which I checked on a map. It seemed to me this could be legit so I risked it .dumb dumb dumb.

i then tried to withdraw and it failed . I contacted support and actually got a real person who said sorry they could not help and nothing they could do and it was because I had forgotten to take into account the 1 percent commission in their terms and conditions so the bitcoin amount was wrong. The conversation went back and forwards with them getting more indignant ... I soon realised. Scam

I contacted the original buyer via telegram who got really mad , called me loads of names and asked why on earth I had cancelled the domain . ( I realised I had 5 days to cancel the transfer so I actually still got to keep my domain name )

they then blocked me and I will never hear from them ... or see my 400 dollars again.

Lesson learned .

Rabiul Tanmoy · Nov 5, 2020

Hello , I am Rabiul.
Thanks for this informations.

themarketingabhishek · Nov 13, 2020

Sinh said:
Nick "Jan Lean", is it right? , he sent me "Hi again, I can offer $ 15500 on the condition that we conduct a transaction via bitcoin, the fact is that I live in China and in my country, there are problems with paying abroad due to the policy in my country"

And finally, he said: "only crypto escrow cryptodust. us"

The same kinda person contacted me too and the lines were exactly the same, unfortunately, I got scammed and lost my domain, he contacted me on facebook.

Dominame · Nov 18, 2020

Hi all

Unfortunately being new to BTC but not new to online trading but I have fallen for this scam as well.
I was targeted on flippa as well.
I've only lost the domain, haven't lost any funds.
Same operation as the examples above, transfer site looked legit but not knowing too much about BTC I fell for it.
Tried to withdraw but site asked for a deposit from your destination BTC address to "verify" first.
This seemed suspicious to me so I decided to research before transferring any funds in.
Lucky found this thread before continuing and didn't lose any money.
Lost the domain tho.
Fake exchange site was changedeal.com which has now been taken down.
I'm normally really good at fishing out scams but I guess an unfamiliar payment method has rattled me a bit and I've let my guard down.
Scammers

HDmarketing · Dec 8, 2020

I can't edit the first post, but I'd like to add the experience of a fellow domainer here who has been scammed: @David Bayode

https://www.namepros.com/threads/have-i-been-scammed-yes.1218553/page-2

Once again, use only TRUSTED escrow service. DO YOUR DUE DILLIGENCE!

Stay Safe

DeveloperChris · Mar 4, 2021

I have come here to add my 2p and express extreme disappointment with Flippa

Someone who called themselves Sam Chou tried this on me. I knew from the instant they offered me a large sum no questions asked, it was a scam. However researching the scam lead me to this thread.

I followed through with all their suggestions and played dumb. You know, what is bitcoin? how does this work? type of dumb questions.

They asked me to register at dealchange dot net

A quick whois lookup revealed the domain was about a week old. However I did register as I was curious but used TOR to access the site and a throwaway email address.

Eventually they gave up with my dumb questions and cancelled the deal after supposedly putting bitcoins into the wallet. I did a quick wallet check and there was no actual bitcoin in the wallet however their website claimed there was $2700 in there.

The website was also buggy as hell as well.

So I wasted a little bit of their time and learnt a little bit myself.

Now to the disappointing part.

The disappointing part was when I reported it to Flippa they actually suggested I go through with the deal but if I was unsure to tell them to stay on flippa.

They denied any knowledge on what appears to be a common scam. My first time on Flippa and within 2 days I was targeted.

This is an excerpt of the email From Flippa Support.

Having read your comms i dont se that they have tried to scam you.
They have simply offered a means of paying that we dont accept or service on platform,

...

If you are not interested in proceeding with them in a sale then i would advise you to tell them that you wont be proceeding or doing business with them unless it is via Flippa's services where protection can be provided.

We will be reaching out to Sam to discuss this and educate them as to how things work and what is expected of them when using Flippa.

(The spelling mistakes are theirs)

Given the discussion thread here it is inconceivable to me they are not aware of this scam. If they aren't then it shows a complete lack of regard for their customers, if they are then that response shows a complete lack of regard for their customers.

DeveloperChris · Mar 4, 2021

An update
A reply from Flippa.

This is the first time i have been made aware of this and like i noted they are suspended so cannot make offers or buy/sell currently. We appreciate our users raising concerns directly with us so that it can be investigated. Had those forum posters contacted us or followed our processes etc there is no way to be scammed via Flippa.

Clearly this mob is just trying to deny the truth.

People on this forum (I gave Flippa the link) have contacted them. and in his first email he had not suspended the account of the perpetrator but instead suggested I go forward with the sale but on their site.

This is the first and last time I will use Flippa. I suggest it is the last time anyone else does as well. It saddens me that I paid them (Flippa) and their responses at best could be described as flippant.

FickleCell · Jun 2, 2021

This a very Organized SCAM FROM Escrow LONDON ltd

Please watch out. Escrowlondonltd is a very organized Crypto scam. I just lost my $1000 to them. It's so organized that you won't have a clue until you send your money.

They even ask for your verification and your ID card. I'm afraid they won't use my ID for fraud.

Here's the kind of thing they say: "You can withdraw your funds only to address, which is registered and verified with your account. You have to make a deposit from that address to verify your address with your account. The minimal amount of the deposit is 0.019 BTC. The deposited amount is completely refundable and you will be able to withdraw it back all together with your current balance immediately."

And once you do that, they will try to get you to pay more saying this`:

"Dear customer, the System sees that you didn't cover the Insurance trading deposit, which is a mandatory option for every customer, who uses the service of cryptocurrency. You have to make an insurance payment to withdraw your funds. This insurance payment will be refunded in 7 days to your external wallet if you have no complaints. This rule is introduced according to the Article of the Fourth EU Money Laundering Directive for every customer. The amount of insurance is 0.05 BTC."

Don't trust them. They are a Big Fraud.

azeilwatkins · Dec 27, 2023

I appreciate your helpful, step-by-step instructions. Your thorough analysis makes navigating the complicated world of online frauds simple for everyone. Since knowledge and education are essential instruments in the battle against scams, I applaud the emphasis on these areas. It is evident from the useful advice and real-world examples given that being vigilant is essential. I'm looking forward to putting these tactics into practice to keep myself and others safe from scammers. Bravo for arming us with the knowledge we need to stay safe online!

poweredbyme · Jan 17, 2024

@FickleCell,
Never send your ID to any online company including the most known, most reputable ones. KYC is a must only when you open a bank account or want a debit/credit card. Never send your ID documents online to any company.

As to bitcoin, I have never been scammed for accepting/paying in bitcoin, despite the numerous deals since 10 years. I don't count a scammer here on NP forums who scammed me for $10 or less. Bitcoin and other crypto currencies are the most secure way to pay or to get paid.

alert Bitcoin Escrow Scam

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