alert Bitcoin Escrow Scam

[HDmarketing]

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.

 

[Snowmansk8]

34bL4GvR4zJhpnXApZymZYFbtjXVxrR69e
3283WEKNsrzmoPrjPmjXNY95JqrQYtt48n
3Fn3t2DD6XPEfZmAFtTKZsW6fd4R87nRS6

Here are some additional addresses used by kryptoescrow. Luckily I only lost .1 bitcoin and not more like some others who deposited twice. Still I saw a number of searches where it looked good. And when searched as an exchange has a history going back to 2015. However next time I do a sale and if it is with bitcoin it’ll be done through a more reputable service. Like others now I’m like .....how stupid could I be?

 

[Paul]

I haven't read this thread, but the list of Bitcoin addresses caught my attention. Please note that most services use a fresh Bitcoin address for every transaction, so making a list is often a futile effort. There are some exceptions, such as "fake" ransomware (ransomware that is completely incapable of ever actually returning the files), but, generally, per-transaction addresses are needed for most services.

 

[mdrn]

I haven't read this thread, but the list of Bitcoin addresses caught my attention. Please note that most services use a fresh Bitcoin address for every transaction, so making a list is often a futile effort. There are some exceptions, such as "fake" ransomware (ransomware that is completely incapable of ever actually returning the files), but, generally, per-transaction addresses are needed for most services.

Correct, but you can see where they transfer the money and connect all their Bitcoin addresses together as it's a public ledger. I'm sure they use a mixer of some sort to cover their tracks but they seem to be messy since they're using "abyzer0001" on multiple scams.

 

[slader23]

Correct, but you can see where they transfer the money and connect all their Bitcoin addresses together as it's a public ledger. I'm sure they use a mixer of some sort to cover their tracks but they seem to be messy since they're using "abyzer0001" on multiple scams.

Yep this guy isn't very smart imho.

 

[April004]

No negotiation, already offering a sum > half BIN. Whereas my min offer is $1,000.

Why on the earth any legitimate buyer would pay almost 4x the minimum offer price without negations? I would have started with $1500, and not directly jumped to $5700 unless its some super-premium domain like cake.com, coffee.com or clothing.com!!

 

[April004]

Most posts published on Flippa are scams (Especially for mobile apps - Not about domain names), you will notice that there is a pick of visitors only the first month in the stats, after that if you wait one month later and check back that same post, the monthly visitors will be zero.

Also, its quite easy to inflate real traffic to Google Analytics of any user (once you know their UA-XXXXX). So all those GA stats in domain-sales are many-a-time suspicious for "newly created" or "similar/mirror sites" or sometimes even for established sites with sudden spikes in traffic in GA, but on google/bing search there pages don't rank even in top 100 results!

 

[S8Power]

Yep this guy isn't very smart imho.

Also, if the stolen names all are with Namecheap (like mine) then it would be very easy for the Federal Trade Commission or similar organisation to go after his personal information. He will have to pay his registration or renewal fees from an ordinairy bank account and can’t use his stolen Bitcoins for that. Even if he would close this bankaccount right now he already has a problem.
I have said it before but victims should file a complaint with ftc.gov and be as specific as possible.

 

[Samer]

Also, if the stolen names all are with Namecheap (like mine) then it would be very easy for the Federal Trade Commission or similar organisation to go after his personal information. He will have to pay his registration or renewal fees from an ordinairy bank account and can’t use his stolen Bitcoins for that. Even if he would close this bankaccount right now he already has a problem.
I have said it before but victims should file a complaint with ftc.gov and be as specific as possible.

That would be convenient! Hope!! Thanks all!

 

[Princerajasthan]

 

[Andrey Bashta]

I lost 800$ in Cryptcourt.com while selling the iOS app

Hopefully this fraudster will be prosecuted in some way. I fell into the trap of a scammer, just like the guys on this forum section. I prepared large material with facts, because Namepros doesn't allow me to attach videos, or at least images (it says that my message include links).

 

[Kuffy]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[4better]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 .