EDITOR’S NOTE: Beginning in late August, some promoters of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme said they were moving to a “program” known as BitClub Network, a purported “mining” venture that purportedly was selling “Founders’” positions for $3,599 and offering memberships at buy-in rates of $500, $1,000 and $2,000. By some accounts, the “program” would pay “passive” earnings of between 0.3 percent and 0.8 percent a day for 1,000 days, with “compounding” possible.
Regulators have issued repeated warnings about the volatility of Bitcoin values and about scams that seek to tie themselves to Bitcoin.
**_____________________**
UPDATED 5:44P.M. EDT U.S.A. There are reports on Bitcoin-themed websites and across Twitter that an enterprise known as “BitcoinTrader” has collapsed and that management has disappeared.
Activities at BitcoinTrader purportedly included a “mining” venture, according to the reports.
BitcoinTrader, according to the reports, used a domain name styled bitcoin-trader.biz that now is offline.
The reports suggest BitcoinTrader was operating as an HYIP and that at least one figure associated with the operation has claimed some sort of hacking or extortion plot occurred and that a bankruptcy filing in Panama is in the offing.
In what might be an exceptionally optimistic outlook, at least one report suggests that battering winds from Typhoon Vongfong might explain events at BitcoinTrader. Previous HYIPs have blamed the disappearance of websites or the absence of payouts on events such as hurricanes, the contraction of diseases such as Dengue Fever and the sudden need to travel to attend funerals in faraway places.
From a publication known as CryptocoinsNews (italics added):
Bitcoin-Trader.biz has disappeared overnight with the only communication being a letter sent out to all of their victims claiming that a hacker stole all of their funds and that they offered to comply with the hacker’s ransom notice. Bitcoin-Trader closed all of their social media accounts as well as their website almost overnight, while ducking under the cover of playing the victim of a hacker and claiming to file for bankruptcy.
From a Tweet:
Do not trust your coins on an exchange or third parties. Here is why: http://t.co/JIc1j0l7sg 3rd Bitcoin company has collapsed this year
— BTC Guys (@BTCGuys) October 19, 2014