Topic: Virtex is SCAM. Don't deposite money there. Don't trade there. (Read 9410 times)

Glad to help. 

As far as I know, there is no further information or news relating to the scam. However, if you are referring to my report, it is unlikely that I'll get any direct response from the FBI due to the fact that the value of my losses were only $156 although they were made aware of the broader scope of the scam. 

Any news ?

I just filed an official complaint at the FBI's website.
I completed a form and submitted it.
I included links to articles about their scam.
Additionally, I gave them my deposit transaction history.

Hopefully, this will at least make them aware of the situation.

I am quite sure that both Egopay and Virtex are being investigated by authorities somewhere right now.
There are literally thousands of people who have lost their funds and are very angry and want to see appropriate action taken against them.

You would have to search for PTC and HYIP forums to see more discussion about the matter.
Since this is a Bitcoin forum, not too many people here are probably concerned about EgoPay.

Scams are not legal.  Some of us are working on getting these guys to justice.

Yes, both egopay.com and virtex.com are gone ...poof, off the air.
But the crooks behind them are still out there, and they still have all of our money.

both sites have disappeared into thin air !! and those who had them money ?? perhaps it is for these reasons that many people are away from crypto, can cheat and nobody can do anything !!! in this world (unfortunately) the scam is legal!
 

Nothing really...
It's just for record-keeping mostly.

At the same time, in the event that these scammers get apprehended and go to court, there is a chance that, folks who have proof of being scammed can actually file a claim and get part or all of their money back.

What are you going to do with the snapshots ?

I don’t trust any crypro exchange for the simple reason that no transparency

They have the right to close their business for whatever reason they want.
But they DO NOT have the right to abscond with funds that do not belong to them.

If Virtex wanted to close because of [insert reason here], then that is perfectly fine.
Just make sure you pay us first.

We are the innocent victims and it is our money that they have stolen.


Let us hope so. Bring the site back, and then start paying the oldest account holders first.
I am one of those with money stuck in Virtex, which is owned by the same crooks that are also behind Egopay.

I completely agree.  They should at least explain what is happening (that is what company blogs are for), and then let us know how they plan to refund the money that they owe to their users.

Otherwise it is theft and that is a criminal offense.

I have read about this on a few news blogs.
It looks like they closed it because too many illegal funds came in and they will have to check every single transaction.
I am not defending them or accusing for anything, just saying that it might be temporary.
There is no reason to go offline "just like that".

Geh $10,000 that is a lot of money
Best of luck with the recovery and I hope you get them they mimicked Cavirtex in name but it still sucks to see people getting money stolen though.
Although with both sites shutting down now guess this type of scam with these names won't recur again at least.

scam my 3btc+
virtex and egopay scam to

I wrote a Support Ticket Requesting a Refund of all my Payments to virtex.com plus the release of information about the Virtex Business Account holder.
Within 24 hours of sending the ticket Virtex disappeared and went offline!

Not saying there is a connection although theories abound.
Anyway they pretty much told me what I expected to hear from them while completely ignoring the request for info.


"We remind all of our members that they complete their purchases of their own accord.

You are responsible for performing your due diligence on any Sellers with whom you plan on doing business.

Payza provides third-party payment processing services and carries out related actions on your behalf. By initiating and sending payments through the Service or adding funds to your balance, you appoint Payza as your agent to obtain the funds on your behalf and transfer them to the designated receiver.

For further clarification please visit our User Agreement: https://www.payza.com/legal

However, if you are not satisfied from a good or service purchased, the option to file a dispute through the Resolution Center is available so long as the transaction is within 45 days.  If the transaction is beyond this time frame the status for filing the dispute will read as “Expired” and the option to dispute this transaction will cease."

When the FBI or relevant authority comes calling, I'm sure they will have no choice but to hand over all requested information.

OUCH!  This is definitely grounds for a criminal case.

Do you have proof or evidence of your funds? The police will want that, especially if we are going to seek the extradition of Mantas and Tadus.

Like bitboy earlier in the thread, I also took screenshots of my account (as well as kept a folder with other documentary evidence).
I know exactly what I am owed, right down to the last penny, and the only way that these scammers can avoid the consequences is if they begin to pay back what they unlawfully took.

I regret that I have not read this thread earlier.

Now I cannot connect to anything of virtex.com
I have around 10,000 USD with them and I just wish if you have anyone who have already filed a case with police, please also let me know.

Good thing I took snapshots of my entire account...knew this would happen.

The virtex website is offline. Running off with the money

It really hurts !!!

When you cant withdraw your money even after seeing it

Thanks for telling here, some one recommended me to exchange your money payza to btc on here,

Thanks

I just find it strange that these supposed scammers would post their real names for everybody online to see!
Are they truly this bold
Don't they realize that eventually they will see their day in Court and no doubt behind bars

It is so silly and amateur of them.
The only reason I put any cash in their hands was due to the fact that they exposed their legitimate information online.

I've seen this play out before with E-gold.
In the end, we'll get some of our money back when the authorities step in .
Perhaps by then 1 bitcoin might be worth $10,000

Something has to be done to better protect users who know no better than to follow these scams!!

Just found this!
So funny!!!
http://www.microbuxx.com/pages/clickads

Agreed!
Let's round up everyone associated with the scammers and have the Courts decide whether they were innocent employees or not. 

Same here. No money/ no replies from their support, i.e. SCAM

Why are the sites still up?  What is their endgame?

For the record: I have still not been paid either. I hold accounts with both EgoPay and Virtex, and my balance with Virtex is substantial (both in fiat and BTC).  It has been more than 40 days since I requested payment but they haven't as much as sent an email... and of course no money either, yet.

no news  !!!   
egopay  =   SCAM
virtex    =   SCAM

i was also scammed . 27 $     

News

there is another exchange site on payza... u guys try that site? is it legit ? which site u using to exchange btc to payza or payza to btc ? i am looking for .6 btc to sell for payza usd ..we will use escrow if anyone interested .

I doubt will be any news from them even taking to the police wont make any difference you need fraud division and prevention not police if the exchange is using fake and none legit details then it will be very hard to track them down and only maybe by going to hosting company to release ip addresses and contact numbers and even then it wont do much good.

I would be first looking to find a member that is in Virtex and find out if in same country as it is located in or you will end up having very little grounds on to file claim.

Anything that is outside of your own country, you are faced with International laws and regulations and then even having to get a solicitor in both countries to work together and can end up costing an arm and leg to proceed with legal action to recover lost funds, to see if action can be taken to recover. I would be first looking for to report to their National Fraud & Cyber Crime department and file a case and investigation to be taken against Virtex then to proceed at taking legal action to recover your loss.

No good news yet:

I made my first withdrawal request from Virtex.com on January 06, but have heard NOTHING back yet (and of course not money yet either).
They owe me both fiat money AND bitcoin.

Meanwhile, the site is still up and online. It appears to be trading. There is no blogpost, no email updates, nothing at all to alert the unsuspicious that anything is wrong.  They are simply just not communicating with their victims, and we are the ones who have lost thousands.

We need to take police action against Tadas Kasputis and his collaborators (Paulius Meskauskas, Tomas Andzelis, Mantas Gustys).

EDIT: I would exclude Erik Schryvers, because I don't think he was involved, but he had early contact with the con-men behind Virtex, even from before the time that they established their scam, so perhaps he can be a witness in the trial against them when they are caught.

News ?   

Only thing that business like this are doing is causing bad news and no doubt the news and goverments will use it as a tatic to scare people into not using BTC and stick away from it. More and more scam companys are doing this as theri s no refund options if they run its coins gone and most sites set up fake details run for a short time or have some sort of goals in figures for income on it and coins within the business and then take a hike down scammers lane

Damn, These bitcoin related businesses are really turning into scam one after the another.. I wonder whats next again..

that article is not correct and it has wrong infos.

Virtex's payment processor was or still it is : http://www.mayzusfs.com/  and  https://virtex.com/education/bankwire

Virtex is based in Lithuania. Virtex Systems Ltd was incorporated in Seychelles, but the operations center is based in the beautiful city center of Kaunas, Lithuania.

https://storify.com/Virtex_trading/virtex-advanced-cryptocurrency-exchange

New article about the scandal:

http://siliconangle.com/blog/2015/01/23/millions-stolen-inside-the-elaborate-bitcoin-scams-of-tadas-kasputis-egopay-virtex-com-paymentbase/

MILLIONS STOLEN: INSIDE THE ELABORATE BITCOIN SCAMS OF TADAS KASPUTIS, EGOPAY, VIRTEX.COM & PAYMENTBASE

Quote from the article:
"The tale of Tadas Kasputis and his related Bitcoin companies is far more complicated, spans multiple countries, and may quite possibly be the most elaborate Bitcoin scam in the history of Cryptocurrency."

It also lists the collaborators of what the article says is his "scam empire": Paulius Meskauskas, Tomas Andzelis, Mantas Gustys and Erik Schryvers (although I am pretty sure that the latter person was not really involved).

Finally it urges involvement by Consumer Affairs, the police, and potentially the FBI.

according to the new update from Egopay, it was a real hack and they will cover the loss...

the only ones who can say that are those who have money in it....

Well Doog was suspicious of them from the start, I was as well because when one refers to Virtex the first thing that comes to mind is cavirtex the Canadian exchange not that scam exchange, the fact that they defaulted and were also related to Egopay is news to me though and my condolences for those that used their services, until we get more reliable stable exchanges these upstart scams are scaring away new users.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/virtex-a-new-online-cryptocurrency-trading-platform-515331

Seen loads of ads for this site and not seeing many post about it and no threads. Good thing I come across this thread tonight as was about to deposit on Tuesday. So happy not done this. Had me suspicions that it was a scam.

What is interesting tho reading though this Virtex  owned by Egopay hmm is their actual proof as I have never had any sorts of problems using  Egopay in the past and have used over the years since it poped up after the mass problems with Payza before it was known as AlertPay

You may contact http://www.mayzusfs.com/en   which is the Virtex's financial partner since Virtex was launched ( Mayzus is processing their bank wires for both egopay and virtex).  Maybe they can give you more information about this situation.

Yes, I saw posted somewhere on this forum that someone got back around of 1200 USD back and I saw that few(not all) Egopay exchangers were refunded.

For me, the situation is still the same:
I am Virtex.com victim and I haven't yet gotten a single cent out.  They are not paying neither BTC withdrawals, nor my request for a larger number of euros which are currently held hostage on their scam site.

hey mayax let me know if they payback or something like this i have 123$ on my virtex account

IMO, Egopay will continue to work and same Virtex. from what I see, I think they will cover the loss. I heard that some exchangers were already refunded.

Firstly, I through they will run with the money but then...I am not sure. They said the truth on their Blog...there were hacked by "inside" ....Why would someone refund few exchangers, posting update on the blog by saying "inside infos" like the real owner name : Aziz and so on...

But this person can cheat and get away with it? the police can not do anything?

correct. Virtex and Egopay are owned by the same person

how can you tell? 2 companies are headed to the same person?

virtex is egopay. virtex belongs to egopay....

egopay.com ceased to exist!
but my btc them virtex.com
virtex.com how soon cease to exist?

Whether they knew or not, or claim that they are innocent, is really not my problem.
I don't care about anyone's excuses.
Because I am in the same boat as Paolo:
I JUST WANT MY MONEY BACK.

In my case it is quite a bit more than Paolo, but regardless of the amount I can completely understand why lots of people are upset.
We have sent a lot of support requests and the thieves at Virtex.com can't even be bothered to type a simple reply to tell us what is going on. That is typical fraud behavior.

if egopay cheated who cares? my btc are on virtex.com and not on egopay, I do not think virtex can hold my btc because egopay is a scam !! I sent $ 200 with OKPAY! OKPAY cares if virtex not me them back.
So I have the 0.66 btc virtex.com of them want it and I do not care nothing egopay.
clear?

richana, do you think they knew that site will be scam? If you think they helped to create scam, then yes, but do you
really think so? Virtex scammed just because egopay scammed, so it explains everything.

If you go to make a complaint to the police? could move something?

I haven't posted any photos of those who are responsible for this theft of our money.  Maybe that explains why I haven't gotten my refund.

There's no point in splitting hairs over the distinction as to how guilty other crooks like Paulius Meskauskas and Tomas Andzelis may or may not be. Facts are that they all worked together in the same gang to start the site: Paulias as initial CEO and Tomas Andzelis as CMO. So they were executives, and they had no problems marketing the site when they launched it and telling all of their victims (like me) how great the site was. It is only now, after the money is already stolen, that they are publicly distancing themselves from the scam.

So.... Where's the money?

richana I wrote you before, I and another user who posted photos get refund. He got ~6BTC back.

 "AND also warning other users about their associates, who (by their own admission in this forum) helped them build the site" -
are you serious?!? so lets sue google, because they advertise on it!!! ohh, I am going to be so rich so fast after we win this case.
Doesn't sound stupid? I can answer for you. Yes, it sounds ridiculous.

So you got your money back?  You are luckier than the rest of us.... Sorry, but until these crooks face up to what they have done and pay us what they owe us, I don't see a problem with warning other users about them in public AND also warning other users about their associates, who (by their own admission in this forum) helped them build the site and do the marketing that made it possible for them to capture innocent victims like myself.

That is the truth.  Whether or not one of them from that group of thieves is more responsible than another one is merely a matter of detail, and they can happily debate it amongst themselves. Honestly, that is not our problem. Because as far as the ordinary users are concerned, we just want the money back that is owed to us. It is as simple as that.

good to know there are more clever people, what I offer you guys, try to find as much as possible information
about Tadas Kasputis and Mantas Gustys. There are lot of information about Tadas on other threads, I don't know
about Mantas, but this is the only way. Making them more public gives you more chances to receive money.

Mantas Gustys - http://cointelegraph.com/news/113008/gustys-mantas
http://i.picresize.com/images/2015/01/23/FmQI.png
Tadas Kasputis - http://eventdove.com/resource/20140909/382703_20140909182041307.jpg

tonybark, I know about that.Chill out !

I only told you how the most of the people are thinking.... They want the money back and they are blaming everybody who worked for Egopay even most of the exployees have NO fault

I am not thinking like them  

I am sure that Tomas and Paulius has NO fault.

The people should ask Payza to give the money back

mayax hi, you are right about payza, but about last statement, why you are telling it doesn't care who stole money,
it cares a lot, because only when you know who stole money, only then you can take it back, isn't it? How the hell is possible
in this world to get back money from persons who got conflict with Tadas and was fired? I am talking about Tomas and Paulius.
Also company who did marketing, you think they knew that Tadas and Mantas will scam people? I don't think so.

People here are looking for responsible person who stole money and few poeple talking like: maybe he, maybe another guy or that
marketing company or Dalai Lama. STOP BULLSHITING for got sake. Please read forums, everyone knows that Tadas Kasputis - owner
and Mantas Gustys - CEO were controlling everything at the end and scammed people. Why scammed? because it was shitty project and
all money were coming from egopay. No egopay? = no virtex. Kapish?

you see richana ?

I told you that Payza and Egopay are the same. Now, someone who worked for Egopay is saying the same thing. Do you need more proves?

Tomas, I understand your position and I agree that you are not involved in this shit.

Try to understand that many, many people are angry and frustrated because they lost a lot of money with them and these people are trying to recover the funds or to find the truth.

Someone stolen their funds. They do not care if you, Tadas, Fidel Castro, Dalai Lama or Payza. They want the money back IF possible

richana how could you write these bullshits, just making from air? thinkbig is owner, Paulius and Tomas criminals
cmon did you ever read news? I have nothing in common with them but I will ask moderator
to delete your posts because it is just misleading people from right direction. I got back money from Virtex because
I posted Tadas and Mantas photos, they paid me in 1 day. Why they are not paying for you? because they see you are
involving more people, separate companies, add bill gates too then. The thing is Paulius and Tomas were fired 3-4 months ago,
so how could you even write about them with words "criminals"? They did their jobs, Tadas didn't like smth and fired them,
maybe they have to pay from own pockets? STUPID! Owner Tadas Kasputis put Mantas Gustys to CEO position and when project
scammed, they were still on their positions, they are responsible for this, so you have to try find them, post photos, try to find phone numbers to call, not
posting some stupid comments from air and making other people guilty. Also Payza own Egopay, they put Tadas to control everything, you wrote they have nothing in common,
but they have and a lot.

Please read NEWS before posting!!!!

Sorry if I sound bitter, Tomas, but you were part of the gang who started this scam-site, and you even admit that you helped promote it. It was because of your great job of marketing Virtex.com to the public that many of us found out about the site and became clients WHO HAVE NOW LOST OUR MONEY.

Can you help us get it back, please? If not, your words are just empty words and you are just as legally responsible as the others in your criminal gang.

Virtex CEO Paulius Meskauskas also claimed to have left the company.  Now that all of our hard-earned money has been stolen, no one wants to take responsibility or have their names associated with the truth of the Virtex.com fraud that they helped create. I am sure you did not complain when Tadas Kasputis was paying you money for what you did.

If this is not solved, I expect to soon see another post here who says: "Hello, my name is Tadas Kasputis (...) i have left the company (...) Please stop using my name..."

The question is simple, where the money

Unfortunately, not many people will understand that you are not associate with egopay anymore and they will keep mention your name.

The people who lost their money in Egopay and then in Virtex are very annoyed and I am sure you can understand

Hello, my name is Tomas Andzelis. I was hired by Tadas Kasputis to help him develop his business, so i did helped with marketing, seo and adwords part. On october 2014 i have left the company and i stated that on my linkedin. Please stop using my name with refferences as criminal, feel free to contact me
skype: javiukas
email: [email protected]

What do you mean? I don't understand? Virtex is (was) only one exchanger.....

it's one of the most populer system in bitcoin world
now is it scam?
how can we trust any bitcoin invest system?

I think not. You must forget your btc. 

hey guys i deposit btc to virtex.com from blockchain is there anyway to back my btc?

Payza removed Virtex from his list of Cryptocurrency Trading Platforms. A little late but better late than never 

Good job Payza!!!!

Hi Arthur/Arturas, your marketing was well done and the front-end programming certainly looked very slick and professional. But the "business development" part was not so good: The business was a fraud, and customers like myself have been scammed out of our money.

Since you worked with these crooks, please inform us how to get in touch with some of them and ask for the return of the money they stolen from us: Scammers like Paulius Meskauskas, Tomas Andzelis, Mantas Gustys and in particular Tadas Kasputis.
 
Please don't be silent like EgoPay/Virtex who don't respond to any messages whatsoever.

Payza owners do not want to make waves. They are involved in the Egopay project(in fact, they are the owners), that guy Tdas was only a puppet.

Hello everybody,
I am Arthur, the CEO of marketing agency ThinkBig.lt that you have mentioned above. EgoPay was a client where me and my team was doing marketing and business development part. Your information and considerations are wrong
Also, we provide only marketing and business development services, and partly front-end programming; thus EgoPay.com project is too large-scale project for my marketing agency.

Normal communication. I had my money after my third email to them. Two first answers taken from a Payza specialist and the reverse of transaction and the third email was from an account manager.

Congratulations! (And thanks for letting the rest of us know).

Unfortunately in my case I deposited BTC directly to both Virtex and to EgoPay so the only way I can get my money back is through the actions of those two "companies" directly.

Also, out of curiosity:
Did you have to do anything special, like write a lot to Payza or pressure them, or get the authorities involved?
Or did it just happen automatically?

I got my money. Payza reversed back the transaction with Virtex. I don't know if this could be possible for the others which want to withdraw from Virtex.

they won't give any answer because they are not honest.

Any honest owner/manager would have came with an announcement to his customers. it's not a shame to admit that you were hacked or about what happened. the people can undertand that any business may have problems from time to time.

They failed to do it.
IMO, they ran with the funds so....I am sorry for your loss.

More and more innocent victims:
I've lost a lot more than you, samiya. But it is really not the amounts that matter: It is the principle. They are not giving any info, no explanations, no plan for getting back on track and fixing it: They just went silent, and we are left holding the bag.

same problems with me i saw that site on payza then deposit btc & my 120$ gone . really can't bear my mistake gl guys

Very interesting article. I found confirmation of it here as well:
http://ecurrency.ec/2013/04/egopay-payment-system-review/

Thanks, mayax, for finding this!

Now it all makes sense. The story more or less goes like this:
Payza wanted to distance itself from the riskier areas of payment processing; areas which cause too much fraud and too many chargebacks and which can therefore put Payza's relationship with the banks at risk.
So they convince Tadas Kasputis to be a strawman and he hires his scammer friends from Kaunas in Lithuania to help him pull it off: Criminals like Paulius Meskauskas, Tomas Andzelis and Mantas Gustys.
Behind the scenes, Payza does all the heavy lifting (and takes all the big fees). But Payza's name isn't sullied. And if law enforcement moves in to stop all the scams, it is EgoPay which is stopped and Payza can continue in business.

I still stand by what I wrote in my original post above:
"There are no indications of cross-ownership between Payza and EgoPay."

This is true. Because this is how the Patel brothers wanted it to be: They set it up this way on purpose.

Now the big question still remains:
Where is our money?
And will we get it back?

I am a client of both EgoPay and Virtex.com, and I have my money stuck in both.  They stopped processing our withdrawal requests at the same time, and neither of them responds to support requests. Same modus operandi, and operated by the same team of criminals.

There is a strong relation between Payza and Egopay.  Tadas was like a puppet while the most of the money went to Payza's owners

this article is since 2013
http://beforeitsnews.com/economy/2013/04/ego-system-egopay-payment-system-review-2507416.html

Payza is the former AlertPay, which is indeed run by the Patels. Lots of problems in the past, but they appear to (hopefully) have cleaned up their act.

There are no indications of cross-ownership between Payza and EgoPay.  
EgoPay has always been run out of Kaunas in Lithuania, which is where the owners and principals reside and where they keep their offices. They are the same offices as Virtex.com and have the same overlap in ownership and staff.

Both sites (EgoPay and Virtex) were made by http://www.thinkbig.lt/ which is also based in Kaunas, Lithuania. So for filing criminal charges with law enforcement and tracking down the funds that the owners have allegedly stolen, the place to start the police investigation is with ThinkBig.

Focus on Paulius Meskauskas, Tomas Andzelis, Mantas Gustys and Tadas Kasputis, who is the ringleader and who has a past history of having scammed the same way before with a site called RegalPay.  Fraud is punishable by jailtime in Lithuania.

Or, they could just play honest... pay the little users, like us, what we are owed and what we deposited with them in good faith. Then work with the big creditors to negotiate a payment plan for liquidating the larger debts. I know it is easier to steal, but in the long run crime doesn't pay.

I don't think so. Payza is a big business. But I don't understand this kind of behaviour from they. Maybe negligence. But that cost money to the people.

I thought Paiza was a scam like Egopay? Both are run by the Patel brothers?

About ten days and yet no money at Virtex. And Payza continue the publicity to this site at its site. Every member of Payza can see this site as a credited one in the list (the first) of cryptotraders.

Very good responsability and sensibility.

Same problem here, guys.

I am a registered user of Virtex.com but for the past week I have had problems with the site.

I deposited quite a bit to Virtex.com (more than both of you combined). Then I made some trades on the exchange, and finally I tried to withdraw.
I have both requested money, and also tried to retrieve Bitcoin.
But so far nothing.

They don't even reply to my emails.

When a company is not able to handle basic customer support, doesn't answer emails, doesn't pay out fiat, and doesn't allow BTC withdrawals either, then users start to get worried...

i scam too !!!!   0.66 btc !!!

I have problems with Virtex (https://virtex.com). I have deposited 100$ 4 days ago and my money are yet in pending. I deposited there from payza. They told the money from Payza comes max in 48 hours but are gone 4 days and nothing. And the big problem is that no one answered to my tickets.

I found Virtex at my Payza account and I thought that this site is safe because of this. But because of they above actions I think that they smell scam and Payza must be responsible that collaborate with such kind of sites.