Topic: {ANNOUNCEMENT} WBX Exchange Frozen - page 14. (Read 45420 times)

That's a good idea.

Andre, do you have any comment regarding this?  I read above that you no longer have lawyers, so I guess it's entirely up to you how you want me to refund the BTC to your customers.

I think your suggestion of using the outdated database backup is unworkable, since that would result in sending the wrong amounts out.

That's very unlikely.  The Bitcoin Consultancy made the Intersango (version 1) code open source, and WBX used that source code.  Other than that, the Bitcoin Consultancy is in no way related to WBX as far as I know.

Andre, I can still see my statement on your site.  This is proof that the database hasn't been deleted.  All the other users will also be able to log in and see their statements.  If the database was empty we'd not be seeing statement entries.

Please, get me a database backup and stop this nonsense.

I see, thanks for clearing that up. It's all a bit confusing for me.

Interesting that Andre claims that the database has been erased but also claims to have users' personal information.

Hi Andre,

All of the personal information on you that was posted was already publicly available (as opposed to the personal info you have on us). If your website had the correct company and contact details, we would not have had to go digging. Could you please PM me your current business address (in Qld, not old one in Vic) for further correspondence on this matter.

I truly and deeply feel for the stress you are going through with this, but in my opinion the fact that you have been defrauded does not give you the right or excuse to defraud legitimate users of your exchange.

Regards.

If the matter has been reviewed by the Financial Services Ombudsman then that is who you need to contact.  You need to remember that the WBX bank account would have been hit twice - by the fraudster to fund transactions on his WBE account before the fraud was detected and then by the bank reversing the deposits.  Poor risk management protocols essentially meant that "your" money and that of other customers is what the fraudster used to conduct his or her transactions.

I deposited cash into your wbx account and have the receipt for that transaction. If all fraudulent activity was bank transfers then no one has the right to hold my money. There is no way my deposit would be considered fraudulent.  Who can I contact? This should be a straight forward and easy refund. You should at least enquire on my behalf as I do believe they should only be concerned about bank wire transfers!

This stuff doesn't "just happen". I would recommend you be a bit more up front and honest about what the fuck is going on. Were you hacked? Is someone forcing you to withhold information? You have stated that you can no longer retain lawyers because they are costing too much, so I assume now that you may speak freely. If not, I think it would be a good idea to out the puppetmaster that is screwing you over as well as everyone else.

I would prefer you were able to deal with me directly (and you know how to contact me either pm or email), and as my Sydney based lawyers are $375/hr I would prefer not chew through a few thousand dollars on that at this stage where it is unnecessary.

Hi Chris

Please use the data base you have as i have been advised the current database has been erased this happened last week.

Andre

I'd contact both the Qld and the Federal Financial Services Ombudsman.  They can at least investigate and confirm that the bank confiscated money from the account in question.  It's also possible that any residual funds in the account were transferred to one of the "unclaimed monies" funds by the bank.  This is what FPSs often do when an account is closed due to suspicious activity (places like PayPal and Technocash explicitly state in their ToS that they will do this).  The Ombudsman would be able to tell you if this is the case and which fund to contact (there are several).


If it's Intersango/Bitcoin Consultancy then they need to make that public.  Their deception regarding their stake in Bitcoinica has generated an enormous amount of ill-will and distrust.  While references to other parties (including Andre and Chris) have been removed from the WBX webiste, references to Intersango and Bitcoin Consultancy remain.  Right now, two businesses with which Bitcoin Consultancy and Intersango are associated have had their databases deleted recently and in both cases the presumed owners of those businesses no longer have operational control.  In both cases, the transfer of control was not disclosed until after it occurred.

You might want to contact Andre's lawyers before making any refunds and get something in writing from them authorising you to do so and outlining the return process (ie, whether everyone owed money will get a percentage of their account balance paid out as BTC or whether people whose accounts show a BTC balance will be paid out in full and those who had dollar balances will be SOL).  


I suspect people would like more information about how this came about and who had control of the database when it happened.

Patrick

Again post your lawyers details here so i can contact them.

Andre

What I'm trying to work out is who I can contact to get information.  You say it's the bank and banking ombudsman, and refer to what your lawyer said, but then say it's out of your hands.  If the banks have taken "it all", how much, what's their process for the claim.  The wall and exclusion isn't helpful, therefore, there needs to be someone I can deal with (or have my lawyers deal with).

Again, in the absence of any better resolution, I can just throw this to a collection agency.

I have a backup from before you locked me out.

I don't have any recent backups, since I no longer have access to the database server.

User balances have changed since my last backup.

Who currently has control of the site?  If you put me in touch with them, I can tell them how to get me the information I need to pay people back.

OK, I thought you must have.  Just so you know, I have backups of the site from shortly before you locked me out.  As you know, the hosting company hasn't exactly had a good track record of looking after the server themselves, so I regularly made offsite backups.  That includes encrypted backups of the exchange's bitcoin wallet.  The wallet has a large keypool, so I will have access to any funds that are deposited into the exchange wallet for some time to come.  To properly minimise risk to the exchange I would advise you to transfer the remaining funds from the exchange wallet (less than 1 BTC I think) then start from scratch with a new wallet.

I also still have admin access to the WBX site, so can see client information.  Disable that by setting "is_admin" to 0 for my row in the users table:
  UPDATE users SET is_admin=0 WHERE uid=1001;
or use the web interface to the database.



Hi Chris,

You do have backups right?

Thanks Andre

I have those files.  They're out of date now.  People have since sold their balances debt to other users.

Who currently has control of the site?

Hi Chris

I have no control over the exchange site any more i do recall you doing a database dump when this all happened do you have those files?

Thanks Andre

So will you be able to provide a database dump so I can pay your users back a part of what they are owed?

Hi All,

I would like to remind you all that i was advised by my lawyers(insert: when i had money) to reframe from making any comments in public, this is why i have kept silent until now i am very sorry and it was frustrating for me watching my personal details get posted by users here, some also have mentioned my family which Im not at all happy with you wouldn't like it if i posted your personal info here. ( remember I have your personal info)

Thanks Andre