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Topic: MyBitcoin was probably a scam - and if it was, here's who's responsible - page 5. (Read 12446 times)

legendary
Activity: 1330
Merit: 1000
Bitcoin
newbie
Activity: 17
Merit: 0
Apparently unless you post daily and bbit knows of you personally, you're a troll from somethingawful.com.

Although I dont trust Bruce at all having seen his recent posts, I think the Tod/Tom Williams thing is quite a stretch, as was the pedo stuff. Even if he was Tod, a similar name in use 6 years later is hardly a smoking gun.

You need to consider the circumstantial evidence. A proven fraudster tries to convince people to put their money into an obvious scam, and then it mysteriously vanishes (and suddenly the fraudster can afford a holiday to Tokyo despite having no obvious day job.) I'm having trouble understanding why a man who is obviously fairly proficient in the art of fraud would put any money into something so obviously dodgy unless he actually didn't and was only claiming to have done as part of his shtick.
newbie
Activity: 38
Merit: 0
Apparently unless you post daily and bbit knows of you personally, you're a troll from somethingawful.com.

Although I dont trust Bruce at all having seen his recent posts, I think the Tod/Tom Williams thing is quite a stretch, as was the pedo stuff. Even if he was Tod, a similar name in use 6 years later is hardly a smoking gun.
legendary
Activity: 1330
Merit: 1000
Bitcoin
Also, Bruce was heavily promoting MyBitcoin on his show. While he claimed that friends and family lost bitcoins when MBC ceased operations, we only have HIS word for that. He was also heavily involved in the BitCoin 'Police', and was able to steer the investigation in whatever direction he wanted. We also only have HIS word that a report was filed with the FBI.

It seems like a classic scam to me.

If I lived in the US, I would be filing an immediate report with the police. I hope US bitcoin users who lost money do file reports.



29 posts and I've never heard of you before on this forum and all of sudden you care so much about this issue to be posting everywhere about Bruce Wagner? There are dozen of you. You all from SA?


It really doesn't matter where they are from, the info is spot on and you are undoubtedly a Bruce Wagner shill LOL...

lol...I'm not at all and it does matter. Like SA has any credibility its a troll forum! are you kidding me?
hero member
Activity: 770
Merit: 502
Could anyone find that thread created, someone saying, everybody should use mybitcoin as for a secure way to keep BTC?

I recall, it was a high count post on the thread creator. I thought of this for some time, ironically, I believe a week or two passed after this thread was created, mybitcoin went down.

I tried finding the thread but couldn't.

But someone was strongly pushing highly recommending people to put there stash into mybitcoin, a few weeks later it goes down.
full member
Activity: 154
Merit: 100


29 posts and I've never heard of you before on this forum and all of sudden you care to be posting everywhere? There are dozen of you. You all from SA?

I've been on the forum for a few days. No I did not come from SA, but I have since registered an SA account this evening as I told you in a previous thread.

I joined this forum mainly due to the revelations regarding Bruce. Believe it or not, I care about bitcoins, and I don't want to see a huge PR mess exploding in our faces to the likes of "Internet crypto currency often associated with paedophiles and scammers is promoted by a convicted fraudster and possible paedophile".

If you check my post history, I also post in non Bruce threads Wink

[E2A] Why won't you explain your connections with OnlyOneTV? And could you please explain why you are attacking anyone who has anything negative to say about bruce, while at the same time ignoring the multitude of clear evidence that is laid out for all to see?
legendary
Activity: 1330
Merit: 1000
Bitcoin
Also, Bruce was heavily promoting MyBitcoin on his show. While he claimed that friends and family lost bitcoins when MBC ceased operations, we only have HIS word for that. He was also heavily involved in the BitCoin 'Police', and was able to steer the investigation in whatever direction he wanted. We also only have HIS word that a report was filed with the FBI.

It seems like a classic scam to me.

If I lived in the US, I would be filing an immediate report with the police. I hope US bitcoin users who lost money do file reports.



29 posts and I've never heard of you before on this forum and all of sudden you care so much about this issue to be posting everywhere about Bruce Wagner? There are dozen of you. You all from SA?
newbie
Activity: 17
Merit: 0
Bruce Wagner has confessed to running Bold Funding Inc, the company which ran the foreclosure scam.
sr. member
Activity: 490
Merit: 250
Maybe someone who actually lost money in the MyBitCoin.com fiasco should fill [urlhttps://tips.fbi.gov/]this[/url] out? Just go ahead and copy this thread's URL into the information box.
I'm not going to go cry to the group I'm very eagerly trying to get away from.

Face-palm
full member
Activity: 154
Merit: 100
Also, Bruce was heavily promoting MyBitcoin on his show. While he claimed that friends and family lost bitcoins when MBC ceased operations, we only have HIS word for that. He was also heavily involved in the BitCoin 'Police', and was able to steer the investigation in whatever direction he wanted. We also only have HIS word that a report was filed with the FBI.

It seems like a classic scam to me.

If I lived in the US, I would be filing an immediate report with the police. I hope US bitcoin users who lost money do file reports.

legendary
Activity: 1330
Merit: 1000
Bitcoin
Well, it is kind of... interesting that the user "bbit" here, who uses a.... posting style that highly resembles Bruce, and who posted here indicating that he was.... part of the OnlyOneTV show, was the person posting press releases on behalf of mybitcoin.  Strange...

nope, just because I enjoyed Onlyonetv doesn't mean I'm Bruce. The mybitcoin press release was  copy and paste into the forum.
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
Maybe someone who actually lost money in the MyBitCoin.com fiasco should fill [urlhttps://tips.fbi.gov/]this[/url] out? Just go ahead and copy this thread's URL into the information box.
I'm not going to go cry to the group I'm very eagerly trying to get away from.
sr. member
Activity: 490
Merit: 250
Maybe someone who actually lost money in the MyBitCoin.com fiasco should fill this out? Just go ahead and copy this thread's URL into the information box.
full member
Activity: 154
Merit: 100
As someone who lost BTC's with mybitcoin, I'd really like this thread to stay in the Bitcoin Discussion thread. This is very relevant to BTC's.

I've been reading the evidence as it has unfolded on SomethingAwful, and my instinct is that we have all been taken for a ride by an experienced confidence trickster.

While there have been a lot of posts regarding Bruce's sexual preferences relating to Pattaya, while that evidence is damning, none of the evidence is conclusive proof that he is a paedophile.

But his mortgage fraud, his spamming email company and his defaulting on rent, linked with his abject denial that child prostitution even exists in Thailand, well, let's just say that Bruce is the LAST person to be a spokesperson for Bitcoin. At least we know how he can afford an expensive apartment and studio in NY though.

I hope that the sponsors of his show are made aware of the recent revelations.
hero member
Activity: 630
Merit: 500
Posts: 69
Wow.  Go internet detectives.  Amazing.  Someone check this shit for accuracy, I'm too lazy.  But, wow.  Lemmie click an emoticon button real quick  Shocked
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
//Subscribing for further discussion.

Very Interesting.
member
Activity: 110
Merit: 10
Well, it is kind of... interesting that the user "bbit" here, who uses a.... posting style that highly resembles Bruce, and who posted here indicating that he was.... part of the OnlyOneTV show, was the person posting press releases on behalf of mybitcoin.  Strange...
sr. member
Activity: 350
Merit: 250
I never hashed for this...
newbie
Activity: 17
Merit: 0
I don't usually like to get involved in personal drama like this, and I know stuff related to the Bruce situation is being directed to Off-Topic, but the disgusting Mybitcoin scandal is most definitely on-topic, and it is looking increasingly likely that we have found at least one of the person(s) responsible. Here's why:

The First Clue

http://mortgagefraudblog.com/perp-walk/item/10674-illinois_foreclosure_rescue_company_fined_and_shut_down

Quote
Bold Funding, Inc. and its owner-operator, Bruce Wagner, were found to have violated Illinois law by falsely promising to secure private funding for loans to save the homes of persons who were in foreclosure for a fee ranging from $300 to $6,670.

...

In Civil Court on April 18, 2006, Judge Julia Nowicki ordered Bold Funding and Bruce Wagner to refund $115,858 in application fees to 74 former customers who never received any funding from the Defendants. Bold Funding and Bruce Wagner were also fined $250,000, and the Defendants were permanently banned from providing any services in Illinois related to residential mortgage loans.

...

probably the largest, most sophisticated foreclosure scam I've ever heard about, before or since then. $116,000 or so in refunds doesn't begin to compensate all of the victims. And now the owner, it seems, fled to another state and is trying to start his own talk show!

Somebody called Bruce Wagner is a fraudster, responsible for - at least - a huge foreclosure scam. On its own, this proves nothing and could well be a coincidence, but is the first step in our lengthy trail of evidence.

Edit 2: Not only was Bruce involved in the original Ohio fraud lawsuit regarding the aforementioned foreclosure scam, but he's also in default of a $514,400 lawsuit in New York regarding assault and fraud - there is no record of him ever having paid up.

The Connection

Edit: Bruce Wagner has since confessed to being the same Bruce Wagner as owned Bold Funding, but here's how he was caught:

Whois data from the domain of scam company "Bold Funding." Note the address: 9 E Huron St., Chicago

Quote
Domain: boldfunding.com - Whois History
Cache Date: 2004-08-11
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Server: whois.enom.com
Created: 2003-05-10
Updated:
Expires: 2006-05-10
Reverse Whois: Click on an email address we found in this whois record
to see which other domains the registrant is associated with:
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Registration Service Provided By: Jumpline.com, Inc.
Contact: [email protected]
Visit: http://jumpline.com

Domain name: boldfunding.com

Registrant Contact:
Bold Funding, Inc.
Bold Funding ([email protected])
+1.8005678922
Fax: +1.8003290510
9 E Huron St., Ste. 5000
Chicago, IL 60611
US

Next, an online business card from that same physical address. Note the domain name: brucewagner.com

http://www.imarketlive.com/USA/biz/bruce-wagner-omnimedia-inc-MTE2NDIwNDU.html
https://www.nanaimogold.com/images/bruce_omni.PNG

Finally, the LinkedIn profile of the Bitcoin Show presenter Bruce Wagner, the Bruce Wagner we're interested in.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/brucewagner
https://www.nanaimogold.com/images/bruce_linkedin.PNG

He owns the same domain name and company name as the fraudster. There's our connection - both Bruce Wagners are the same. The host of the Bitcoin Show is a convicted fraudster. This is the most visually striking chain of evidence, but other links, such as a correlating date of birth from criminal records, are in the process of being uncovered.

The Shill

So far, we've only proved that Wagner's a dodgy character - however, he could have reformed, and even if he hasn't we've nothing to prove he was anything other than a high-profile victim of a Bitcoin scandal. And we still wouldn't - were it not for the fact that one of Bruce's shills was a little unimaginative in his choice of pseudonym. Here's some of his posts, claiming to be a satisfied customer of Bruce's old company, Bold Funding:

http://i.imgur.com/E9Y9B.png
http://i.imgur.com/RNOvx.png
http://i.imgur.com/RNOvx.png
http://i.imgur.com/vMwDa.png
http://i.imgur.com/I4l7I.png

Tod Williams. Doesn't that name sound familiar? It will to victims of the MyBitcoin fiasco - Tom Williams was the man at the helm of MyBitcoin when it went down with half of its clients' money, including, allegedly, 25,000BTC of cash belonging to it's biggest advocate -Bruce Wagner.

From this, we've established two key facts: the first being that Bruce Wagner is a convicted con artist and the second that one of his shills called himself Tod Willlams. In isolation, neither of these conclusively link him to the scam But together, along with our knowledge about Bruce's activities before the collapse, they leave us with very little doubt of what the score is. The specifics aren't exactly clear, but it looks as if Tom/Tod Williams was a shill for Bruce's original foreclosure scam, and when he came to run one of his own - MyBitcoin - Bruce returned the favour using his popular and trusted Bitcoin show. But that might not be all...

Accomplice or Mastermind?

Followers of Bruce's online posting may have noticed he has a distinctive typing style, one which, amongst other things, makes heavy...use...of...ellipses. Though it's pure speculation, these followers have noted a distinct similarity between the style of Bruce Wagner and Tod Williams, the shill in his earlier foreclosure scam. This has led them to believe - again though, I stress that this is purely educated guesswork - that Tod Williams was in fact a pseudonym for Bruce himself, and that Tom Williams, by implication, was a reuse of this same pseudonym, slightly altered. It would certainly be foolish of him to be so careless in leaving connections to his previous life in this manner but, as we've seen, it wouldn't be the first time he's made a mistake like this. This would imply that Bruce wasn't just an accomplice in someone else's scam, but the mastermind behind the whole operation.

The Facts

We know that Bruce Wagner defrauded hundreds of thousands of dollars out of innocent homeowners. We know that he was an avid supporter of MyBitcoin, and claimed to have entrusted, and subsequently lost, huge amounts of money with the company. We're fairly sure he was in fact somehow involved, and may have even been in charge of, the whole operation, which is looking likely to be a fraud.


However, one thing's for sure: Bruce Wagner's got a lot of explaining to do.
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