What happened:: Myself and a group of members from our local bitcoin club had decided to do a bulk order of a minimum of 12 of theirh 4TH/s units (
http://www.bitcominers.com/shop/bitco-forcer-4-ths-rack-mount-asic-miner/ ) . As we live not even 4 hours from the company we contacted them to do a local pickup. As there is NO record of them being an incorporated business in the state of Illinois, and the Chamber of commerce in Channahon, IL where they say they are located have No record of this business in town. One would have to be heavily insane to wire transfer over $150,000usd to someone with no proof of product or even proof of the business existing and seeing as it is a 4 hour drive, we decided that the only way to verify the company and product was to physically pick them up and pay in cash. Below, you will see the events that transpired while communicating with this company.
Scammers Profile Link: None that i can find, although they do have some bogus 1 -3 post accounts of people claiming to have bough some of their smaller units with no other activity other than trying to promote the product.
Reference Link: http://www.bitcominers.com/Amount Scammed: They are attempting to scam us out of over $150,000 Luckily we did not send any means of payment after a very thorough investigation
Payment Method: They claim that they will not accept anything but a direct wire transfer or bitcoin, and decline to use escrow.
Proof of Payment: No payment has been made yet. although one of our club members is a retired detective and now private investigator as he is retired. Once we can get the name behind the head of the claimed company, we will be sending payment for 1 unit via bank wire transfer and on the assumption that they are not going to deliver, we are going to sue for $100,000 to make sure that they do not scam anyone else.
PM/Chat Logs: Original e-mail January 4th 2014:Good morning,
I don’t mean to be the typical cynical skeptic but when I see 4TH/s available for under $13,000 a unit and you stating that they will be ready by January 10th. It raises a few red flags for me. On the bright side, I live only 6 hours away from your published address and I deal in cash. SO if this is in fact a legitimate product and is in fact going to be available in just over a week, I would love to drive on down and buy one or two of them from you in person. I don’t buy into the pre-order game most manufacturers are playing these days. And don’t send money to small companies with little or in your case no history. Its nothing personal. I have purchased over 100 TH/s worth of hardware the past few months and have not been scammed out of a dollar, so I just don’t want to start now. So please. Let me know if this is possible. If this is in fact legit, I would happily take your whole office out for lunch for producing such an amazing product and an amazing price. I also am president of our local bitcoin club with over 250 members, so if it is in fact legit, I could probably return with orders for 10 or more of the 4 TH/s unit.
Respectfully,
Reply Email: January 4th 2014Hello,
I understand your concern in this matter, but for security reasons, we do not allow visits. It may be possible but later, in 1-2 month, when we will end with bustle that is happens now because of nearest deadline of shipping of our Forcer 4TH/s miners from the first batch.
Best regards,
Brian Lewish
--
Sales Department,
Bitco Miners
My reply to them 10 minutes later:Ok then give me another payment option. I will not wire transfer money without seeing a working product, just as much as you wouldn’t send me the product on my word that when it arrived I would pay you. $13,000 is the price of a small car, you would not wire someone money for a car that you have not seen or been able to test drive. Send it COD, or start taking credit cards. If your company is really lacking in business smarts so much that they are going to lose out on $26,000 in sales over not allowing someone to stop by for 10 minutes to see the machines work and pick them up. Then there is not a doubt in my mind as well as anyone else’s mind that this 4TH/s miner is nothing more than vaporware or a scam. I could have $130,000 worth of these units sold on top of the units I want to buy for myself and have them sold the minute they are available. But nobody is spending a single cent until we see a working product. We have over 250 active members in our bitcoin group between Madison and Lacrosse WI. All within 5 hours drive from you or less, I have at least 10 guys who want to order at least one unit each when I return with working units to prove they work and are real, that is at minimum of $150,000 in sales for your company including the two I wish to purchase.
I really think you should re-think your decision to not let me pick up my miners in person, you could even have someone meet me somewhere with internet connection to show that the unit works. At a police department even if your that worried about it. I don’t give a hoot if you’re selling them out of the basement at your grandmother’s house as long as it is a legitimate working product. I hate to be the one to call a kettle black, but if you’re willing to pass up over $150,000 minimum in sales this month alone over something so minor as a local pickup on a unit or two to verify its existence and fucntion, there is not a doubt in the world that your product is 100% a sham, and I think that It would make a great project for this month for our 250 members to be sure and warn everyone with a pair of ears or eyes to stay away from your company in general. So lets be sensible here and find a workable solution, We have cash, we want to buy your machines, but we are not spending a penny until we verify their existence. You stand to make a very substantial profit off our sales if the units are real. Or we can spend hundreds upon thousands of man hours making sure that your scam does not make another dollar of the bitcoin community. What I was asking for is not unreasonable, and I certianly was not expecting the shady reply that I just got from you. Beyond that 1-2 months from now those machines won’t be worth half what you’re asking for them as there will be 6TH/s units for the same price in hand ready to ship, no pre-order. The only reason we are standing in line now to buy your units if they are real is because of the ROI before the march surge in hardware on the network.
Their reply an hour later:We will not loose any sales.
Most of our customers are paying via Bank Transfer, we have enough demand on our products (even more than we can produce).
You are welcome to order miners from another company if you feel it is more comfortable with you.
Best regards,
Brian Lewish
--
Sales Department,
Bitco Miners
Additional Notes: Now with all that, and having nothing to do on an idle Saturday afternoon we decided that since it was early we were going to take a drive to where they say they are located. at 27380 W Saxony Drive channahon IL. Roughly 4 hours later we arrive at that address (which does not really exist as Saxony drive is an access road behind a bunch of strip malls ) and find the following; A doctors office, a dental clinic, great clips, a veterinary clinic, little ceasers pizza, some a dollar store. and a nail salon. Every retail location clearly labeled, no other buildings in sight on Saxony drive and we drove it from end to end about 5 times. So needless to say unless they have a top secret underground laboratory with a secret hidden entrance in the middle of a corn field. This business does not exist. Furthermore after a full day exhaustive search there including a search through an irs database. wouldn't you know it. there is not a single person in the entire united states named Brian Lewish who has ever reported an income in the past 50 years.
And to end with, we have notified the IC3 (
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx ) in the united states and already received a reply that since December 19th they have received over 20 complaints from people. To make it even better, we were politely informed by a sweet old lady on the phone @ the IC3 that as they are claiming to do business overseas as well that they have already passed the case along to the FBI and their anti terrorism department for further investigation based on the nature of the reports.
To aggravate matters worse although i am already sure they are aware, we are notifying the local police department on Monday so they too can launch a formal investigation.
Case Closed Bitco Miners is a scam
Now please feel free to talk smack and be sure and leave some negative trust comments for me while your at it.
