Topic: mrugala Sapphire R9 280x GB gone to hell (Read 6210 times)

You about ready to finish up the refunds now?

I said it before, and I will say it again:

I don't think we are going to see the rest anytime soon.  He stated that it was going to take several months. to fully refund everyone.  I guess right now we have to take him at his word because well...what other option do we have?

Hey Mrugala,

You still owe me BTC1.4. 

My refund address is 172ctgy23UjYzqvA1kmhmucHGKkV1LUnLW

Please send the rest.

mrugala, you still owe me 0.531 btc , how much can you send me now?
refund address is:
1FchRZqwZRc8e8cSKt7cgVmN58bydK5Bsx
tnx

'

+1 I may be cynical but I doubt any of us will ever get to 100% but I sure could use my BTC back.

Only 1 card.

I´m a bit higher at 30%...  by no means close to a 100%... I want to know why some get higher refund percentages than others.

Got 29% refund. 0,43/1,47 btc

How come you got 100%? How many cards you purchased?

Lucky! Most of us are at 23/27%

have 100% refund.

I worked there for some time, and I have a really hard time believing what You said.

Of course they are helping, but not in terms that are not "physical". At least they did not help me in that matter.

Sadly, yes 

was it only 23% total? Will do more as fast as I can.

it is not nice of you to make a fake german customer and use it to show the world german ppl hate polish, many polish and german ppl are friends and you make them look bad with a fake account, it seems you understand german language well.

you say police will not help well fraud is still fraud and if police dont do anything ppl will find ways to help themself so watch out.

[/quote]

I would like to thank all those who supported me and trusted me till the end, especially iglasses. I received also some "not so nice" PM's, which I understand somehow, but why would You do non-escrow with the money You cannot afford to lose? This is a lesson, even for sellers - use escrow. And this only makes me refund faster to the nicer people, and later for those rude ones


This statement is not very logical. Why do we do non-escrow with money we can't afford to lose?  Because you used tricks with german posters to build the trust up on the forums to rake it in.  If you run a business and you re-invest money made from the business, into the business that doesn't mean you can "Afford to lose it" I don't think any of us who try and run mining operations can "afford" to lose BTC.  Its not like we invested the money and it didn't work out due to difficulty or whatever, we invested the money and GOT NOTHING....  There is a difference there.  We invested in our businesses and you took that investment plain and simple.  Handing out a 27% refund (in my case) doesn't change the fact that I invested 73% of my earnings from my business into you, and lost it due to you. 

Think about it while your 'recovering'  No business can "Afford to lose" its investments when no product or opportunity is presented for profit, its called a 'donation' at that point.

He did a 23% refund of total amount, he's a good guy from my point of view. Too bad we cant put a smile on our faces waiting for some 280x's to arrive

EDIT:

Explanation removed - no point of even trying. Wish You would be so sceptic while choosing about escrow and non-escrow options. Would save me and You alot of time and stress.

Other important info from explanation post:

1st refund wave about to end. Currently refunded 6+ BTC out of about 11 total.
2nd refund wave in 2-3 months.
3rd refund wave month after the 2nd one.

if t..s - 5
who bought 5 cards can acknowledge he got a refund for his investment, trust can be upped again ...

If the guy really is in hospital, I hope that he will be alright, but still until he returns the BTCs I am skeptic, about it.

He told me he lives in a not so great part of the world and that he fully intends on paying everyone back but it will not happen overnight.

What mrugala told you?

I was just sent .2BTC and got a PM from mrugala.

If he is a scammer I have no idea why he would do that so for the time being I have to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.

I'm just in a foul mood and venting.  I'm a big boy and nobody put a gun to my head.

Some are easy to fall for. Scammers like to start small, build confidence and in the long run, cash out and walk away with a big score. The "good" part is they abandon that account, make a new one and start all over. Many times they already have a sock account that participates in the scam, building Trust and or post count. They then use this one to continue their scams. Protect yourself.

Yea I kinda thought I was being careful on this one because the user had done one already and blah blah blah....

the bottom line is that I am coming to the realization that this forum is a glorified sanctuary for thieves sprinkled with the occasional straight shooter.  This place is essentially operating a safe haven for these low lives because aside from some posts here and there the site does nothing to help people once they have been ripped off, which seems to happen quite often. 

The more time I spend here the more I am reminded of online poker in it's hayday of ripping people off.

how does it shut it down?  keep on mining buddy! never quit!

Agreed my seat cost me BTC2.  A blow that has devastated my mining operation and pretty much shut it down for a while as I attempt to recoup.

He is from Poland, so maybe you can try to search on Polish subforums here...
Anyway to be honest I can only agree this was masterpiece from him, he even created nationalist emotions between his two usernames and made other users defend him. He is at least very good at psychology. Unfortunately the ticket I paid for this theater performance was too high imho

I wish that were possible but tbh I don't even know what Country he is from so at least for my part I am SOL.

What I don't understand is why the last post and the fluff about being mugged, etc.  He'd already gotten away with it so why bother posting again?

Maybe it makes perfect sense that I cannot think like a thief.

I was looking forward for his 2nd group buy to be a success so I can get in on his 3rd, but it looks as if it's too good to be true it probably is
I hope you'll be able to track down this person and recover your bitcoins.

I investigated and the first group buy is fake, same user, and second was the masterpiece of this scamatory.
We lost our money, thats obvious.

I had ordered three cards, so lost 1.47 BTC. He gave me this address to pay 1CECyUgM13GUWQxWS4JXbZrTykgUb9HcEx and looks like he emptied this wallet on 7 February.

Just wonder, is this really worth to him to scam people. If want to steal, steal from government, not from other people. Hope his is happy...?

also lost 0.49 btc

well, I got scammed also and I think that it is a scam, because I am looking at the address that he gave me to sent the money and the money are still there, so if he is robbed or he converted the BTC to USD and he was going to buy everything, why the BTC are still there?

https://blockchain.info/address/1JxBNgk1JVhfGeFjBNJFJ6yHEim7vijCjj

Here is how I see how it went down. First group buy only 3 people involved and the three of them are registered in the forum around the same date as "mrugala", so they post, post, post and buy. Okay, legit enough. Second group buy - more cards, more people (real people this time) and no Escrow, and the rest is history.

I don't think that we will see our money ever! 

I suspect 2 buyers from first group were fake too...well played performance...and I thought I am cautious.
Lost 1.5 BTC, lesson learned.  


Edit: just spoke with my lawyer, as Poland is EU member, there is some chance to get the money back via european payment order
http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/judicialatlascivil/html/epo_information_en.htm - of course if somebody finds out identity of that guy.

?
I'm not exactly sure what you mean.

I lost 1.03BTC and like the other user who already posted and some others I'm sure who haven't it is pretty big blow for me.  I do not have a large amount of equipment and have not been mining for nearly as long as most people on this board so this was a BIG chunk of what I had.  The only reason I even did it was because the organizer had what looked like a good track record here but I guess not even that counts for anything on this board.

There are a lot of things that are not clear at this point but a few that really stick out like a sore thumb...
1) Why on earth would someone who just collected thousands of dollars from various people even be in a situation where that money was at risk
2) Why can't the forum provide people who have been impacted by these things with some information to help
3) If this is truly what happened shouldn't it be a very easy thing to get the ip of the mugger from his post asking to meet
4) If the first groupbuy went well shouldn't someone from that one be able to provide location information for the organizer so we know how to proceed with legal action if it comes to that

This just sux all the way around.

pics or it didn't happen

I love the title of this threat. Its a good movie. iglasses is a good actor.

I got scammed for 2BTC.  Ouchies.  I'll hold my breath for the 'refund' lolz.  This was a hardcore stinger for me I saved up that 2 for a while.  I'm not sure that its a blow that can't be recovered from but it sure hurt.  If I had to guess what went down.

He collected the bitcoin from us.  In recent days bitcoin prices crashed. He couldn't convert the BTC into enough fiat to get the cards from his 'friend'.  He will wait until the price recovers and count his ill-gotten coins all the way to the bank.

Yes!
Here: 19KeryYmKe7Y2YnHMpaFUkC9WuEAe811Ny

 

I guess I know what the answer will be.  I don't know where this dude lives but can you imagine being beaten and robbed and told by the police that it's a civil matter?

ugh.

I was not involved in this group buy.  But why is no one asking for police report number with city it was in?   I suspect if truly sent someone to hospital... there would be a report and most likely could be read online.  Without report number one would be lead to believe scam...

Was gonna order 3 from him, glad I didn't BUT he did offer escrow??? which makes me think he isn't a scammer as the escrow option, if it was a scammer he would have said NO ESCROW etc

So I think he is genuine, or when he seen the amount of BTC in his wallet he got a bit corrupt and thought' well no one did escrow so now run'

So I think it was one of those two, I don't think he was a scammer at the beggining but maybe now.

Just my 2C

yeah sounds a little odd, But that maybe just because we don't know the whole story.  If he where really a scammer why would he come back and post? 

Maybe they convinced him he should login to his account(s) for some reason and then beat the crap out of him?

One reason I value the 2nd amendment here in the US...

Moral of the story.. protect your BTCutt

maybe he took his laptop with him and upon being beaten up was threatened to give up the password (unless he saved his wallet pw on a text file or something)

also he said the cards were in hand from his friend (the supplier)

its weird because i tried to buy one from him last min. and he told me i was too late via PM, said maybe next time.  I then even asked if he could hold a card for me and I would pay him today and he said sorry he couldnt do that...  makes me think if he was a scammer he woulda taken my btc as well as everyone elses

It's a con job. Simple. Example to all of us. At least this one didn't drag forever.

I really need explained to me how someone getting mugged becomes someone losing ELECTRONIC MONEY that only exists on a computer.  Also, if all these cards were going to ship tomorrow wouldn't they have had to have been ordered and paid for already?

There are like a dozen other things that just don't add up here but tbh I'm so frustrated right now I can barely type.

Quote from: mrugala on February 08, 2014, 05:45:18 AM
No more orders from now(out of the question - don't PM), tommorow meeting with our fancy friend from post #53 who wants to "met" with me to purchase, and converting after it ; )
Estimated shipping monday, as always I will send tracking numbers to the people after I get them. Thank You all for participating!

I will edit this post updating on progress.


Cheers!

----------

iglasses: I hope your bringing backup.

----------


Holy crap you were  spot on!

smells like a setup though, guy does a legit (maybe?) initial group buy to garner trust from the forum.. then does a bigger groupbuy and bails with the funds.

if it's true however, i feel bad for the guy.. hope hes ok

Is this related to the following thread?

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/gpu-group-buy-2-sapphire-toxic-r9-280x-3gb-gddr5-sold-out-448385

Looks like he might have taken around 18 BTC ?

Hello wife   I hope your husband feels better. If not, PM me and we will do DOGE style.

Too bad this thread will be deleted  

We should all learn from this horrible incident. How much money did he abscond with? I there a charitable address to pour our donations to?

wtf?

EDIT:

This is mrugala wife. My husband asked me to inform you as soon as possible. He is currently in hospital due to his meeting with one of the client... What the client did is robbed his of his wallet and password with 2 other guys. We tried reporting it to police but they said that they don't deal with "Guild Wars or World of Warcraft gold is not withing our reach, please talk with Bitcoin developer". We should get some money from the indemnity.

Please PM us address on which You would like Your refund. There will be 105% refunds of what You send. Please be patient our rig earns 1 BTC a month and my husbands salary is also about 1 BTC per month, and I have some on my wallet - it will take up to 3-4 months to refund to everyone. We will start refunds from people who invested the most. Once again we are sorry. I closed the thread because I don't want to read bad things about my man. This is a tragedy for us all, but I think that hits us the most, please understand...


WTF?  I can't even find an open thread to comment on.  Can others from this gb chime in here.  How in the hell do you go to meet a random unknown person and you get rolled and JUST HAPPEN to have your passwords on you? Even if he did how the fuck could he get everyone's BTC if it was in a wallet?

What the hell is going on here???


original (closed) thread
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.5011485