At about 4:45AM CST, bitcoin person to person exchange XCoins.io, was apparently hacked. Or, was it an inside job?
I woke up early this morning, at 6:30AM, and was welcomed with an automated email from XCoins.io that my 3.00000001 bitcoin withdrawal was successful.
I quickly rushed to my laptop to find that it wasn't a mistake. My bitcoin was indeed gone. The strange thing was that they had left a little over .5 BTC in my account.
Of course, I quickly looked up the transaction on blockchain.info : https://blockchain.info/tx/d97c5b343c3045bcab013915ed0e320c15d3d5a29ce1b75b13a2c75c3c9070b8
What I found, at the time, were 17 similar transactions of varying amounts done within a 25 minute time period. I could only assume, that their site was hacked or that the site operators have decided that now was a good time to call it quits and scram with their pile of what was a little over 47 bitcoins at the time. At the time of this post, the bitcoins are still in the wallet and not spent. A little strange, if you ask me.
I quickly withdrew the rest of my bitcoin, and was reminded by the process of the text verification that must be done in order to withdraw. I have my texts sent to my email, as well, and neither my phone nor my email contained any text verification of the stolen withdrawal.
I contacted XCoins by every method I could find. Still have not received a response in over 6 hours.
However, at about 10:00AMCST, their site https://xcoins.io/ went to the current state:
Right about that time, 7 more transactions showed up through the thief's bitcoin wallet address : https://blockchain.info/address/1PkTAW7ncksmFJwLN1QFjpett88HYyGi4W . Totaling 24 transactions / 51.80000024 btc stolen.
Again, it is strange that the perpetrator has left all the bitcoins unspent in that wallet. It is also strange that the thief waited 4 hours to strike again, and at nearly the same time the site "went down" for maintenance.
I have been searching twitter on an off for any tweets related to this and finally it had a mention. Albeit, not from what I would call a mainstream source. Since I have started this post, 2 more have been added. One is on reddit, and I will be commenting along with a link to this post.
Some of the basic research I have done:
A quick search of the so called founder’s name Sergey Nikitin doesn’t really pull any useful information.
The address on the site for the corporation (Aspect, Inc.) they ‘say’ runs the operation is :
325 Sharon Park Dr., #428
Menlo Park, CA 94025
This is also the corresponding address for the web-site whois : https://whois-search.com/whois/xcoins.io .
Guess what?
That address is simply a UPS Store, in which people use the equivalent of a P.O. Box.
At this point, I am going to give it a little ‘wait and see’ if some concrete news from the “company founder(s)” comes by way of email or otherwise.
Of course, any help that any steemit member can offer, is appreciated.
Side note : I hate that this was my first post on steemit. I signed up awhile ago, commented and voted on a few posts, but never posted. I use it for more of a valuable source of information from a group of people with a similar vision as me.
Hence, I will save my introduction post for a later time.
As for now, I will use this platform to spread the word of my early experience with this ‘hack’. My personal belief is this was some sort of inside job. Interested in your input. Thank you for reading.
If you would like me to update with a new post once I have found out any more information, or have any questions, please upvote and comment.
I spoke directly with Sergey the CEO of Xcoins, he is a strategic partner of mine. The site is back up now, anyone that was affected by this will be reimbursed. When you login in there is a new section under the total called Refunds. Your comprimised BTC will show in this space. It should take until aproxx end of business on 12/21/2016 to review and settle all affected accounts. No personal information was compromised.
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Let me put this bluntly.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XCOINS IS A FUCKING SCAM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is probably one of the quickest ways in the world to get your Paypal account closed and frozen. Oh Yes, Paypal will hold your funds for 180 days, not a thing you can do about.
Acting as a currency exchange with paypal is ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN!!!
PAYPAL: Acceptable Use Policy for Money Service Businesses, PayPal may not be used to operate a currency exchange, bureau de change or check cashing business including the sale of bitcoin."
You will get quick sales, then a slew of chargebacks will land upon you like a fucking tidal wave. At which point you will just eat it. You can't dispute it with paypal because you can't tell them you were selling Bitcoin as they just close your account. Also Paypal will in 100 percent of cases side with the buyer.
XCOINS IS A SCAM...
I know, tried it for a small amount, paypal account closed, still have 8k sitting in Paypal Jail till March..
STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM XCOINS...
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Unbelievable! They have restored our accounts and within 15 hours of the hack happening. I take back all of my bad statements and thoughts :-).
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Congratulations @markyd151! You have received a personal award!
Happy Birthday - 1 Year on Steemit Happy Birthday - 1 Year on Steemit
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Let me put this bluntly.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XCOINS IS A FUCKING SCAM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is probably one of the quickest ways in the world to get your Paypal account closed and frozen. Oh Yes, Paypal will hold your funds for 180 days, not a thing you can do about.
Acting as a currency exchange with paypal is ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN!!!
PAYPAL: Acceptable Use Policy for Money Service Businesses, PayPal may not be used to operate a currency exchange, bureau de change or check cashing business including the sale of bitcoin."
You will get quick sales, then a slew of chargebacks will land upon you like a fucking tidal wave. At which point you will just eat it. You can't dispute it with paypal because you can't tell them you were selling Bitcoin as they just close your account. Also Paypal will in 100 percent of cases side with the buyer.
XCOINS IS A SCAM...
I know, tried it for a small amount, paypal account closed, still have 8k sitting in Paypal Jail till March..
STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM XCOINS...
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Full disclosure; all xCoins accounts were fully reimbursed within 24 hours of this occurrence. Please email [email protected] with any questions or concerns regrading this post.
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Congratulations @markyd151! You have received a personal award!
2 Years on Steemit
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Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
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