it pains me to talk about this as it is a very fresh wound.
So I will start with talking a little about me.
I started in crypto in January of 2018 because of my awesome wife. she said to take a look at Bitcoin. And so I did. and over the course of a few months of researching I started to slowly buy bitcoin. As I started to do this I came across mining articles. I thought to my self that I could do this and actively support the crypto networks. As I'm a mechanic and I love to build and tinker this seemed like a great Idea. so I started to build my first GPU mining rig. As I was building this first rig I noticed there was not a lot of information on how to do this. I figured I could start a YouTube channel of my own "Crypto and Hot Rods" and document my journey. This started me to learn as much as I could and put this information out there for anyone to freely find. Now I have a great community that me and my friends have stared and we love everyone that is a part of it.
Now that you have a little background on me and know that I'm a person that just likes to help were I can. I don't have much in life but I give my knowledge to others to help them on there journey.
This is where my story of what happened starts.
If you don't know it is very hard to find PC parts due to the pandemic and scalpers. With this being said GPUs are next to impossible to find with out paying double what they should be to scalpers. So I thought I would try to find a vendor that I can buy them from in bulk at a wholesaler price. this way I can get the GPUs to the mining community at a good price and I could make a little money too as I lost my job due to the virus in April. This is where the story goes from a good deed to a sad story of mine.
I have shopped on Aliexpress in the past with no issues and started to look for "EVGA 3080 FTW3 ultras". Aliexpress had none listed. So I started to look onto Alibaba but I have never shopped on there and don't know how there prosses goes. I was looking on Alibaba for a vendor that had the GPUs I was looking for and at a wholesaler price for bulk purchase. This is where it all goes bad.
So I found H.A.B.A. business household listing what I was looking for (
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/EVGA-GeForce-RTX-3080-FTW3-ULTRA_1600125563660.html?spm=a2700.12243863.0.0.38403e5fld9m48 ). As I was talking to them I seen that they take Bitcoin and thought this was a great idea. So I agreed to purchase 6 of them using Bitcoin just to try them out and see how the prosses works on Alibaba. So at this time the Vendor started to email me directly not knowing this is not standard practice on Alibaba. So I was talking to them though Email to secure my order and get them shipped to me and the community of at home miners like my self.
Then the vendor tells me that they had made a small mistake and instead of 6 GPUs the accidentally shipped 66. And I thought this was an accident of someone just taping the 6 button twice and was no big issue. This should have been my first red flag that I missed as I'm worried about my sick Kitty "Mischief" that just got diagnosed with a tumor in his jaw. I told the vendor that I could pay for the GPUs thinking I could help a lot of ppl in the GPU mining community with them. And figured everything is all good at this point.
A couple of days goes by and the vendor emails me saying the shipping company "Atlantic Route Logistics" was needing shipping insurance for the amount of GPUs there was and that I would need to cover this and that I would get the money back as they were going to put it into an escrow account and when the product got delivered to me that I would get the money back of almost $9k usd. so I said that is good to me and paid this thinking I would get it back later no problem.
After a week goes by the shipping company contacts me and tells me that as they were in Canada that the port authority said there was a discrepancy in the shipping manifest. this is something the vendor should have fixed by now. Another red flag I missed. And now they said I need to pay an import tax on them. As I figured I would have to pay one anyways I did so paying over $9k in BTC. I did ask if this was all that would be required of me moving forward and they said yes.
So 3 or 4 days later the shipper contacts me again saying that now that it is in the USA that the US port authority is requiring a duty tax of over $10K usd and I contacted the vender on WhatsApp there number is (+86 186 2025 6041). They said there where not happy with the shipper at this time and would give me more GPUs free of charge and to go ahead and pay the extra tax that was not agreed too. This was another red flag that I missed.
As I paid this additional charge in Bitcoin I got a very bad feeling about the whole deal as now I have paid 3 Bitcoin and still have no product. and the vendor was saying that now that its in California that the port authority put a 14 day hold on the product I was told that everything should be good to go from this point. But the shipping company website showed that it was still in Canada for some reason. (
https://www.atlanticroutelogs.com/ ) and this should have been another red flag that I missed.
3 or 4 days goes by and the vender contacts me again on WhatsApp. Saying the shipper will not deliver to me and that I would need a local shipper to complete the delivery for another $4k USD. At this point I said I could go get it my self for way cheaper than that. and the vender said that this was not possible and that I have to pay. As I didn't have the money nor the Bitcoin to do so I told them to either give me a refund or let me pick it up. The vendor told me I have to follow there rules and pay. As I was unable to pay more I contacted Alibaba and but in a dispute with them over the vender asking for a refund at this point.
I have never been through this prosses before with Alibaba doing business on there to know what is normal or not. So after putting the dispute with the vendor on Alibaba and giving them all the records I have on the conversations with them. I told the vender that I wanted a refund or my product and that I put a dispute on Alibaba with them. This is when the vendor told me that they will not give a refund to me at all and if I want my product that I would cancel the dispute or I would get nothing and that Alibaba will do nothing to them and will agree with them not me. I knew at this point that I got scammed. So I told them that until I got my product or a refund that I would not cancel my dispute. the vender told me I better follow there directions or I will get nothing. So knowing I did nothing wrong and I would not cancel my dispute on Alibaba because what the vender was doing was wrong. I told them I would like a refund at this time and that I would be doing a full review on my YouTube channel "Crypto and Hot Rods". The vender said that if I think I can get a refund on my own good luck and that they would block me from contacting them moving forward. And they have not responded to my conversations now for a week. As they are trying to play the victim here now.
I do not know what to do moving forward with this situation except to talk about it to others so no one else falls for this scammer. All I was trying to do is a good thing for the mining community and It got me scammed out of all my money. As I start to just rebuild what I was doing for the last 4 years now. I just am at a loss of how to do this. This was Bitcoin I was going to use to try to open a mining facility with my best friend. and now I lost it all and with the pandemic making me loose my job I have very limited options to move forward.
Here is all the info for the scamming vendor
https://vn1397733622gmke.trustpass.alibaba.com/?spm=a2700.details.cordpanyb.4.38344e75aGKIjGthere Bitcoin address 3J8Nm9eRDEkPAjTgacSaz4p3RyzenGgQB3
here is the info for the fake shipper
https://www.atlanticroutelogs.com/the shippers bitcoin address 1DMsyesZwXFuvZ3LAptPyK5nAgant9w7N8
if anyone can help me I would be so very great full. if not please please share my story so no one else falls for this scam. let my mistake be a lesson for others to learn as I was not fully paying attention to the situation. As my grandpa was buried on my birthday this month my first cat died a few years ago on Xmas I got scammed and just to top it all off my other cat will be passing away soon because he has a tumor in his jaw and has quit eating a day ago. This has been a bad month for me and I'm not sure what to do. All I was trying to do is good for the Crypto community and got scammed.
thank you for taking the time to read this and any help you can give will be greatly appreciated for the holidays. At least help me share this with as many people as possible. thank you for your time.
just so you can verify that I spent the bitcoin here is my wallet addresses that I used.
3FPeXaxUkEJmYiYq9bVn3Yu6ro2YwZLNLW my core wallet
3FePHeU7ofsLLgsTauKqRxgnvAEGN8A6pT my ledger wallet
TX IDs
Transaction ID: 00d1e681009d0e93bbd5c3af640cb9c595f5b8d1d4a4c6f54496d473dbc6c011
Transaction ID: f2cc404a6184599bd6fdab57f8b05a181e4baa8710e3d0ccdb24ae6e00c88579
Transaction ID: 931f4823e18e00b2d1eb9afef23d3aa52613791f0001112e2da8230c8b19e2c4
Transaction ID: da625deb2fb0d8b6af4a3eec40aa864553f0705c30fbe2cbc5af1b51f603f97f
Transaction ID: bebf21a7b2f26999809dff790eec8ce94455f0a0d2153b6c02b0d07d582fdc8b
yours truly
Brian AKA Nemisist
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