Scryptcloud owes you:
-
Okay great. Thank you.
-
First of all let me apologize for not posting sooner. I’ve been extremely ill, and very stressed out. This entire process has really taken it’s toll on me… I can only imagine how the rest of you who did lose money are feeling.
I’ve been trying to work with Shane in order to recover your money. This has proven a fruitless task. He has admitted to having spent it all on personal things, of which a semi-accurate accounting has been made. Most of the value cannot be recovered due to the nature of these expenditures.
At first I was hoping to work with him to establish some hope of paying people back in a reasonable time frame, but as it turns out Shane has both an employment problem (he’s unemployed), and a lying problem. It has been revealed that basically everything he told you was a lie. Every post, every detail, a complete fabrication.
There was no GPU’s ordered. There was no motherboards, and no mismatched processors. He literally took your money, and spent it on himself as it came in.
What’s more is as we have continued to negotiate, his attitude has been the entire time that he cannot be held accountable. He’s sited articles about how Ireland doesn’t cover Bitcoins under their Depositors protection, confusing persons committing wire fraud (what he did) with banks and businesses going out of business, and is leaning on the ambiguous nature of crypto-currency as his excuse for not taking this more seriously.
And so I’ve taken it upon myself to ensure you, the people who he scammed and took money from, that this crime is not without recourse.
First and foremost, I’ve spoken to:
- A lawyer who specializes in criminal law
- A local California police detective
- An Irish police detective
- A special agent for the FBI in the cybercrimes division
And I’ve compiled a list of what will be required to prosecute Shane under international wire fraud and theft charges. They’ve assured me that, assuming I have my story right, this is a very serious crime for which Shane can be charged with both criminal and civil charges, and will likely spend time in jail for if convicted.
But in order to make that happen, a full accounting of the facts must demonstrate that Shane did knowingly commit fraud by doing ALL of the following:
(1) making a false statement of a material fact
(2) knowledge on the part of the defendant that the statement is untrue
(3) intent on the part of the defendant to deceive the alleged victim
(4) justifiable reliance by the alleged victim on the statement
(5) injury to the alleged victim as a resultSo that’s what I’ve done.
I’ve created a document which contains sufficient evidence to support all of the above claims, namely that he did:
(1) Say he was offering contracts for cloud mining for sale, including regular payouts, and launch and advertise a website to facilitate the sales, including a payment processor for accepting the money in an automated fashion
(2) Admit that he didn’t purchase any mining hardware, let alone the specified amounts claimed
(3) Make false updates regarding purchasing and acquiring hardware, promising start dates for when payouts will begin
(4) Intend for people to believe that he was going through with the hardware acquisition through numerous forum posts and website updates stating that the hardware had arrived and was being set up
(5) Take people’s money and not return it, causing not just loss of income, but loss of revenue as wellThe document contains:
- A summary of the facts
- All the personal information on Shane Buckley, including his address, phone number, recent photograph, family member names, ip addresses, and email address.
- A timeline of events, including screenshots of the various states of the websites, and forum posts he made
- A transcript of several chat logs where he admitted to having spent the money on debts and other personal items, and admitting that he can no longer issue refunds.
- A list of all the parties involved, the amounts they paid, the time and dates, the transaction IDs, and the payment processor IDs.
In the interest of [b]NOT ENCOURAGING STREET JUSTICE[/b] (I’m serious people. This is a legal matter, take it to the courts!) I will NOT be releasing this document except to the lawyers/solicitors of people who have been impacted by this. mhammilton has already sent me his solicitor information, and I will be forwarding the document to them. If you want your lawyer to recieve a copy, please PM me. If he then shares it with you, that’s your business, but I’m trying to keep this out of the hands of people who would just use it to enact revenge, and the best way I can think to do that is to only reveal it to law professionals. If you want to know what I know because you want to pursue legal action, get a lawyer. [b]I WILL NOT BE PARTY TO STREET JUSTICE.[/b]
The community itself has been invaluable in making this happen. To everyone who’s PM’ed me/Emailed me/Skyped me/tried to work this out, your help has been invaluable. I won’t be listing names here to protect the innocent, but you know who you are.
I, on the other hand, have literally worked myself ill on this one. Literally. The entire incident is terribly upsetting, and I’m ill at health as a result of the stress.
First of all, I feel horrible for the people who were taken in by this, and lost money as a result. We’re supposed to be a community who trusts each other, and a breach of that trust only hurts the trust we share as a whole. It’s a real shame that people would take advantage of this trust, utilizing our desire to get in on the ground floor of a large opportunity to take people’s money on the promise of something that should have been easy to accomplish, given the amount of money he received. This has literally set back the flow of progress, putting other entrepreneurs on pause while this all gets worked out, and giving cloud mining an air of untrustworthyness. We’re all worse off because of this, not just the people who were scammed.
As you know, I’ve devoted a lot of time to this community, helping it to grow (and sometimes to shrink), educating people, helping people, and working with people to develop common goals. That someone can come along and cause so much damage to that community while making a large personal profit leaves a bad taste in my mouth, the likes of which I’ve not managed to get rid of.
On the other hand, I’m also a human. I’m capable of making mistakes, and have been accused of poor judgement in the past, and when I put myself in the shoes of Shane, my heart sinks right down to the floor and stays there. Shane is obviously of above average intelligence, and someone who I thought was a valuable member of the community. When I’m faced with the prospect of what will happen to him next as a result of all of this, I literally weep real tears. It’s entirely possible that as a result of this little experiment of his, he has destroyed his life. He’s facing a very serious set of accusations, and I can foresee no outcome for him that has him moving on with his life in a normal fashion. International wire fraud is a very serious charge, and he’s as demonstrably guilty as any case I’ve ever seen, and the result of that is likely to be some serious fees on top of paying back what he already owes, and a good amount of jail time. How someone can be expected to pay back what they owe, on top of the fees, while in jail is a mystery… let alone finding a job once he gets out.
Do I think he deserves it? Yeah, unfortunately I do. He literally duped you out of your money through a very elaborate ruse, deceiving you every step of the way. He does deserve whatever sentence is imposed upon him by a judge. As a human being, would I ever wish to torture anyone for their mistakes to the degree that he is likely to be tortured? No. No I don’t.
Do I have a better solution? No. I wish I did. I tried to talk to him on multiple occasions, tried to figure out a way he could prevent this from going down, but he’s made it clear that he can’t get the money he spent back, and so as a result I see no option moving forward except to pursue this as a legal matter.
I would encourage you to speak to your lawyer/solicitor concerning your options before accepting any repayment from him. According to my sources, you may be entitled to your losses and damages in the form of lost revenue, and accepting any repayment from him may hurt your case in court. I know of one member who has already claimed to have accepted repayment in the form of a wire transfer, and another who is considering it. Again, I encourage you to talk to a solicitor before going through with any deal.
So… that’s that.
Or at least I’d like it to be.
I’d like to stop treating this as a public matter and start treating it as a civil one. Those who are involved, I suggest you organize yourself, but I ask, with no voice of authority to enforce it, that you don’t do it here in a public forum. PM each other. Everyone get on Skype and do a group chat. Email each other. Get organized and go after your money. I’ve tried to make it easy to do so, but it’s going to be on you to make it happen. Make one last post saying, “Hey, this is where we going to continue the conversation”, and let this thread be locked, and sink into the annuls of history, so that we as a community might not constantly be reminded of the absolute shit storm that this has caused.
And now, for my next trick, I’m going to be excusing myself for a few days. I have code ready to release for Link, from the suggested features your donations funded. I have 90% of Bitcoin Minus Bitcoin working. I have wrapper doing amazing work on eliminating ACP that I really want to be involved in.
It’s all going to have to wait, I’m afraid. I need a break after this. My body is sick, my soul is sick, and I’m not going to be of much good to anyone in my current condition.
I’ve had people offer donations, and while I love getting paid for my efforts as much as the next guy, I would ask that you instead consider donating to the people who lost money while believing in someone who they thought they could trust. In some cases, they need it more than I do.
I’ll be back once I’ve had some time to heal. I hope that I’ve made you all proud to be members of this community despite the unpleasantness. PM me if you need anything, I’ll check them regularly during my absence.
Good day.
-
[quote name=“Kevlar” post=“55779” timestamp=“1390957547”]
Monumental post
[/quote]Wow. Just wow.
Ok, not only will we one day meet in Vegas, but the [i]first[/i] trip to the VIP room is on me.
-
I, for one, have no problem with street justice. You know, the kind that involves said person walking around covered in something sticky and glitter.
I think it’s sad that we’ve bought into the propaganda that what anyone, who isn’t in a cubicle during the 9-5 period, wants is to harm people.
Anyway, that’s my story and Imma sticky to it.
-
Wow. Your effort into this is really incredible Kevlar. I would have never gotten involved in something like this.
-
Kevlar never fails to amaze.
Here’s what I don’t get, and it’s what made me want to step it out and try to assist up until he started taunting members; if you were going to run a fairly-long style scam, diving into a community in order to build rapport, why would you ever use your real name? Your address? Connect from home? Why continue to talk and even disclose what’s gone on up to this point, admitting wrongdoing but being adamant about a supposed loophole --why not cut and run?
I don’t mean to make a cookbook for “how to do it”, but the reality is that he totally would’ve completely gotten away with it IF:
a) From the start he used a name and identity that doesn’t connect to his own, one that is regionally different (Are you a Reginold? Okay, now your name is Cletus.)
b) Pay for a VPN with BTC you acquired away from your identity.
c) Use that VPN to connect to a SOCKS5 proxy (of which can also be bought anonymously with BTC) within a particular region (Live in Ireland? You’re now Cletus from Alabama.) with your machine properly configured for this. Only use proxies within that region to connect to the board, never your home connection.
d) Build that rapport and build that company.
e) When the money starts coming in, start buying equipment you can get your hands on and documenting it online; couple of rigs (which you can also run through your VPN), [i]then[/i] start lying about delays of additional equipment you never ordered.
f) You will allocate the first few MHs to your first customers. They’ll give the go ahead to everyone else, “seems legit to me”, have daily blackouts in order to precondition people that it’s shaky, but that you’re working out the kinks (you do this to buy a few days extra time when people start asking questions later on when you go completely black), promise a month extension for those who will never see a single MH, increase the cost for wave 2, skim as much as possible on wave 2.
g) Check in daily. Reassure that you’re trying as hard as you can and plead that you’re at the mercy of NewEgg/Amazon/whoever. People will sympathize, and keep off your case.
h) When they start talking amongst themselves too much, cut. Kill your site, wash the coins, never look back. There’s no point in mediating since this was your plan all along.
i) Rinse, wash, repeat on the Dogecoin community and a gazillion dollars.**I accidentally a word. I will it.
So without that playbook, and by pretty much botching every single one of those steps, I have to assume he came into the community with good intentions. Came in honest. For a millisecond really did dream about cloudmining. And then got some terrible advice from someone else and reading articles on crypto and crime and convinced himself in his mind: “yeah…yeah! That could work!” Only problem is that he blew it months ago. He screwed the pooch even before he first typed “scryptcloud”.
I don’t understand why he’s giving so much information to Kevlar. The problem with a liar is when they’re lying they could be lying about lying when they’re lying. So to admit to spending it on personal effects… pretty brazen. A little too sure about his protections and rights.
I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around how this could’ve been pulled off legitimately and… it just can’t. You can’t crowdfund this sort of project. Someone is going to have to brunt the risk as one, or everyone brunts the risk of all.
Those of you that gave, you always and forever will have my sympathy, my empathy because my dad was exactly one of these types that always tried to pull a fast one on everyone else. And then he himself fell for the Nigerian 419 scam, sending us from middle class to owing everybody he borrowed money from for his “sure thing” until we disconnected completely from him (money wasn’t his only vice and sin to separate from him, but it played a role, and kept my mom teetering between staying with the jackass to live quasi-comfortably while still contending with his bullshit or living free, poor. Eventually decisions just make themselves.).
That said, please don’t turn this into a total blame-game. Yeah, it’s Shane’s fault. But at the same time you facilitated a lie. That’s not your fault and nothing to be ashamed of, but the weight of it should be blended down into a fine powder that you can mix, gulp, wipe your mouth off with your sleeve and proudly proclaim [i]never. again[/i]. You’ve been given a gift this month. Because it wasn’t your inheritance, your child’s college fund or the down payment on the dream home your spouse has had their eye on for a decade. It’s an expensive mistake and you may reel for awhile at what else it could’ve been used for, but it’s pennies, mere fractions of what could’ve been. Because now you know. Now you’ve learned. And you’re better people coming out of the other end of it.
Let people know if you just need to talk or if you need something we can facilitate. We’re a community. That’s what we are for each other.
-
Kevlar:
Good job mate, well done …
Just on a side note though and my own personal opinion. Your empathy towards FTClover is admirable, but I wish you did not beat yourself up quite so much worrying about this poor excuse for a person. He deserves everything he gets, FULL STOP!
I only worry that your description of his coming punishment is unfortunately exaggerated. He is an adult, who clearly calculated and thoughtfully premeditated this serious crime (maybe he did not think through the finer details but he did to the extent that his two brain cells would allow), and he deserves the full weight of the law and any sentence that is heading his way.
I only hope that the victims of this parasite can be satisfied with this though, as unfortunately the chances of them seeing even a satoshi of the funds back is sadly remote.
-
HopeStillFlies:
Please can you remove your post. I do not see how posting what amounts to advice on how to better cover your tracks in the event of setting up a scam is at all helpful!
Get rid now before any other opportunistic, would-be con artists, with average intelligence, like FTClover, read it and get some ideas …
-
[quote name=“new2crypto” post=“55792” timestamp=“1390962456”]
Please can you remove your post. I do not see how posting what amounts to advice on how to better cover your tracks in the event of setting up a scam is at all helpful!Get rid now before any other opportunistic, would-be con artists, with average intelligence, like FTClover, read it and get some ideas …
[/quote]Hahaha…no.This is what causes problems in the first place.
Learn how people do things in order to build defenses against them.
Tucking your head between your legs and hoping no one takes advantage of you is how you become a victim.
I don’t believe in letting those in the darkness have that kind of power. I’ll shine a light on their tricks. Like showing people how an illusion works. If you see how they pull off sawing a woman in half in a box, your mind can apply how to solve other similar illusions without them using the same ingredients, thereby protecting yourself from “the magic”.
I didn’t name any companies, either. It’d take footwork to pull that off. And then the long con. And because I now documented how it’s doable, and you’ve read it, now you have an open eye and a clear mind to catch someone before they get completely away.
Do not be so quick to label all that makes you uncomfortable as unnecessary and evil.
-
[quote name=“HopeStillFlies” post=“55793” timestamp=“1390962799”]
[quote author=new2crypto link=topic=7176.msg55792#msg55792 date=1390962456]
Please can you remove your post. I do not see how posting what amounts to advice on how to better cover your tracks in the event of setting up a scam is at all helpful!Get rid now before any other opportunistic, would-be con artists, with average intelligence, like FTClover, read it and get some ideas …
[/quote]Hahaha…no.This is what causes problems in the first place.
Learn how people do things in order to build defenses against them.
Tucking your head between your legs and hoping no one takes advantage of you is how you become a victim.
I don’t believe in letting those in the darkness have that kind of power. I’ll shine a light on their tricks. Like showing people how an illusion works. If you see how they pull off sawing a woman in half in a box, your mind can apply how to solve other similar illusions without them using the same ingredients, thereby protecting yourself from “the magic”.
I didn’t name any companies, either. It’d take footwork to pull that off. And then the long con. And because I now documented how it’s doable, and you’ve read it, now you have an open eye and a clear mind to catch someone before they get completely away.
Do not be so quick to label all that makes you uncomfortable as unnecessary and evil.
[/quote]It does not make me feel uncomfortable but it is just common sense. It did not take a lot of brain power for this person to dupe this money and you are only assisting other two bit cyber criminals in their possible endeavours to cover their tracks in the event that they try a scam such as this.
You even started your post by saying that you do not want to produce a ‘cook book’ on how to commit crimes like this, then you go on to do just that ::)
If you want to help people not get duped then simply promote tactics on protecting ones self by way of vetting people and using escrow services etc etc
-
[quote name=“HopeStillFlies” post=“55788” timestamp=“1390962000”]
b) Pay for a VPN with BTC you acquired away from your identity.
[/quote]VPN? I didn’t know this, I would have thought using Tor would suffice.
Also, to who wanted those steps gone, remember security through obscurity doesn’t work.
-
[quote name=“new2crypto” post=“55795” timestamp=“1390963395”]
It does not make me feel uncomfortable[/quote]
I beg to differ, you’re objecting and asking me to do something to accommodate you.
[quote]but it is just common sense. It did not take a lot of brain power for this person to dupe this money and you are only assisting other two bit cyber criminals in their possible endeavours to cover their tracks in the event that they try a scam such as this.[/quote]
Please, my post is spelling out the obvious with a garnish on the side of the manipulation tactics.
If they take my list there, verbatim, and try to pull the same scam on another community (oh snap! I forgot the last step, hang on… fixed), they’re still not going to get away with it. There’s at least two things that need to be addressed, that, if not, would still reveal the perpetrator.
[quote]You even started your post by saying that you do not want to produce a ‘cook book’ on how to commit crimes like this, then you go on to do just that ::)[/quote]
I think a “complete guide” would include links to the hows and wheres and a template for how to word things for the simple con artist to copypasta in order to pull it off.
I’m being pretty vague.
[quote]If you want to help people not get duped then simply promote tactics on protecting ones self by way of vetting people and using escrow services etc etc
[/quote]Nope, it’s not enough. Because a fool and his money are still easily parted.
You don’t play the fool hoping that others will bear the responsibility for your safety. You educate yourself.
Even if you lived in a city that is populated with 50% cops, a camera on every street and a tazer on your person, you still shouldn’t walk down dark alleys while proclaiming how much money you’ve got on you.
Escrows can be compromised, social engineered MITM, vouching is still vulnerable to the fact that people are human.
We may not be able to come to an accord on this.
[quote author=JohnsonX link=topic=7176.msg55796#msg55796 date=1390963590]
VPN? I didn’t know this, I would have thought using Tor would suffice.[/quote]
Tor is leaky. Flash on a site may give an identity away if someone worked hard enough to uncover the perp. Then there’s if the SOCKS5 connection fails and next thing you know the community sees you posting from a known Tor exit node.
Tor chain -> VPN -> SOCKS5 proxy may be a route to protect from that since a Tor exploit or the Flash issue will point to the VPN, but by then you’ve already added a superlative step.
Better for a site, the administrators, to see the VPN and assume it’s for work or they use it for torrenting or getting around filters or [i]whatever[/i], rather than see a Tor connection and automatically assume something is up.
Just an opinion and from scouring over information. I cannot give you a definitive without actually doing it myself, and I’ve not really had a need for it.
[quote]Also, to who wanted those steps gone, remember security through obscurity doesn’t work.
[/quote]Indeed.
"Well, I didn’t think you’d find my porn because [i]obviously[/i] my folder is labeled “TAX DOCUMENTS 2014.”
-
On the internet you can find guides on how to make explosives with household items … But I do not think it helps protect anyone from potentially being injured by someone producing and using one, do you?
Teach people how to be vigilant, don’t teach other people how to commit crimes and get away with it …
We clearly have the same sentiment at heart, just differ slightly on methodology :P
-
[quote name=“new2crypto” post=“55798” timestamp=“1390964249”]
On the internet you can find guides on how to make explosives with household items … But I do not think it helps protect anyone from potentially being injured by someone producing and using one, do you?[/quote][url=http://www.nationalhomelandsecurityknowledgebase.com/Research/International_Articles/Bomb_Basics.html]Yes.[/url]
[quote]Teach people how to be vigilant, don’t teach other people how to commit crimes and get away with it …
We clearly have the same sentiment at heart, just differ slightly on methodology :P
[/quote]No, because if you teach merely vigilance you only give sugar coated information. Nuggets that can be easily tossed aside as “oh, well, that couldn’t possibly be important”. You show how that bit is important, it solidifies it in the mind because you’ve essentially solved an equation and don’t just have a mix of constants and variables.
Vigilance won’t come from bullet points. The most dangerous enemy you know isn’t some untouchable boogeyman, it’s from the living, breathing, charismatic and likable guy that comes to all your functions and has a joke and a light for everyone in the room. You learn processes to see patterns. You use patterns to build defenses. You build defenses to prevent occurrences so that you’re not playing cat and mouse with a criminal, you prevented them from pursuing the tactics against you from the get go.
-
Thank you Kevlar, you know we have done everything we can a Feathercoin forums to make sure this did not happen.
It is our only comfort that he/they, had to go around the market and escrow, forum members set up to stop these scams.
Members can help by reporting(report to moderator) the activity they think is suspect. The strikes aren’t made public, just highlight a review. Most spam posts are reviewed in minutes.
This means the part time, volunteer moderator team can quickly see if a problem is developing. Keeping the site safe is an important task members can easily help monitor.
I am already ill and disabled, this extra “stuff” it has also seriously deteriorated my health, worrying about what was going on, deciding and discusion on moderation etc.
Cheers again Kevalar, we’re not worthy.
-
Lets remember FTCLover is the one frustrations should be thrown at. Tossing stone at each other is only going to further separate any uniting that is to occur in taking this too legal action before people start saying my “x” bitcoin isnt worth it, I got scammed, time to cut my losses.
-
[quote name=“Artye” post=“55803” timestamp=“1390967888”]
Lets remember FTCLover is the one frustrations should be thrown at. Tossing stone at each other is only going to further separate any uniting that is to occur [/quote]That’s not what is happening, I doubt seriously n2c sees me as some adversary, we just have difference in tact of dealing with an issue, and that’s fine. When we get too circular (or more importantly for me, bored), we’ll stop.
-
whats happening here? i paid 350 ftc for 1 month. is this project not going ahead?
-
i should have known better i suppose. this ends my dealings with mining feathercoin. i only had 360 of them, and that took a long time to mine. not willing to start again.
-
And with this, I’m closing the thread.
Kevlar, I want to express the gratitude of the entire team when I say that you went above and beyond the call of duty to try and sort this out in a way that salvaged something for everyone. Please do not take it too personally, you did more than pretty much any of us, including myself, were prepared to do. Thank you once again for displaying the dedication and the desire to succeed for the community which makes this community so special.
Having said this, I would need to stress that the ONLY thing to do now is to follow Kevlar’s advice, and pursue this matter within a legal framework, using the offer of information Kevlar has said he’ll make available to solicitors and lawyers. We will not be rehashing and discussing this matter ad infinitum on a public board, especially as there is most likely going to be a legal process surrounding this now.
If you feel the need to vent or discuss further, please do it in PMs, we will not be allowing any further public discussion on this, unless we receive notice of the outcome of legal moves, which will be communicated to the community.
I have often been described as (accused of?) a harsh moderator, and in this case I will live up to that reputation. I do this purely to protect the community, and any questions on this can be addressed to me personally by PM.
Stefan (wearing his Admin hat)
