Right, have been somewhat on the sidelines for a bit, but feel I need to weigh in on this:
Domainname and WHOIS dataThe domainname (coinsmarkets.com) is registered at the hostname registrar Gandi.net, Gandi.net does not actually check the WHOIS records provided by its clients since +31.0001220358 (not a valid .NL phonenumber) and "amesterdam" are incorrect.
I think the WHOIS information is fake, but there are three companies registered on the address [1], namely:
a. Stichting Moerka,KvK 27259166 Surinamestraat 26 - kamer 5 - 2585GJ 's-Gravenhage Rechtspersoon
b. Bohema 's-Gravenhage B.V. (Hoofdvestiging) KVK 27030037 - Vestigingsnr. 000020540590 - Surinamestraat 26 kamer 5 - 2585GJ 's-Gravenhage
c. Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder B.V. - KVK 27119670 - Surinamestraat 26 2585GJ's-Gravenhage Nevenvestiging
Only the first two are active, c. is stated as inactive.
This tells us two things: apparently there are multiple rooms at the Surinamestraat 26 (the Dutch word kamer means room), and one of the rooms has two companies registered to it (a. being a not-for-profit). There are hardly any references to a. on Google, but b. is listed as a financial organization of some sorts [2] - and has the phonenumber listed as: (0031 70 364 0475). This is also the phonenumber of "W J Hoogsteder-Vd Weiden" which might be the elderly couple another forum member talked about as having visited [4]. I also recall reading somewhere that someone called the phonenumber above, and that an elderly person answered, not sure where that was. Gandi.net (where the hostname coinsmarkets.com is registered) is a large company that has it's own Wikipedia page [5]. It's
not shady nor relevant that other Exchanges/companies used the same domainname registrar.
Configuration of the serverBasically their configuration sucks; but to make it clear: they use Cloudflare to offer HTTPS and DDoS protection (
https://www.coinsmarkets.com) but the website can be contacted directly at:
http://mail.coinsmarkets.com (but be aware that this is HTTP so do not login on a public WiFi). It can also be contacted directly at the IP that was mentioned before in the SQL error that was visible on the frontpage: 185.66.140.234 =>
http://185.66.140.234 . This is also their mailserver (for receiving e-mail) but obviously the incoming and outgoing mail has been disabled. The server runs PHP on Windows Server 2008 R2 which (and more info) can be found on theinfo.php page on mail.coinsmarkets.com [6] that shows the full phinfo() output... (wow). The website seems to be programmed by a complete noob: copypasting JavaScript files in the webroot for different purposes (ajax10.js, ajax12.js, ajax14.js, ajax21.js, ajax23.js, ajax28.js, ajax3.js, ajax32.js, ajax5.js, ajax7.js, ajax9.js, ajax11.js, ajax13.js, ajax20.js, ajax22.js, ajax24.js, ajax29.js, ajax30.js, ajax4.js, ajax6.js, ajax8.js). The programmer is probably not using a framework (based on files like header.php) and uses inline styling like: style="margin-bottom: 2px; width: 30px;" - which are all signs of amateurism. Another interesting file istest.php which shows some debug output. Oh and also, the website looks like it was designed by a five year old.
If http://mail.coinsmarkets.com is down, the https://www.coinsmarkets.com only shows the cached version.The most important scripts: withdraw.php and apiv1.php are removed from the webserver.
One other thing:
https://www.coinsmarkets.com shows
cached pages! Therefore: any error message you might see might be cached on a Cloudfare server that is close to you. Different pages might have different messages, but the best way to see the current message is through viewing the site (the source) at
http://mail.coinsmarkets.com. Stuff like: "ordered new servers" and "DB load balancing" have been displayed at one point before and cached. I doubt that there was ever a new server, because all the time it was hosted at the same IP (185.66.140.234).
Hosting of the server The mail.coinsmarkets.com server, or 185.66.140.234, is hosted by NForce - which is a Dutch hoster, that allows for payments in Bitcoins [6] - possibly making it more difficult to trace the guy purely on his payment history.
Conclusion of technical part- Domainname coinsmarkets.com is registered with (very likely) bogus WHOIS information;
- Website coinsmarkets.com is 'protected' by Cloudflare, so no information can be retrieved from the IP for
www.coinsmarkets.com or the SSL-certificate.
- Actual website is hosted on
http://mail.coinsmarkets.com (port 80) which is hosted by the Dutch company NForce.
Wallet balancesUnfortunately I cannot confirm or deny whether any money is gone, because I do not fully understand the process that an exchange goes through with regards to storing wallets for its members. But - having the right balances shown on the webpage
does not actually mean anything. If the money was moved it should be visible on some of the blockchains, I hope that someone can do some more digging into this.
Speculative: thoughts on CM being a scamAt first I didn't hope CM was a scam (I do have some BTC stashed there) but unfortunately I do think we're fucked because:
-> There is NO communication from the owners. NO communication. It would be VERY SIMPLE to provide daily updates;
-> Outgoing e-mail, the trading engine, most of the wallets and critical PHP-scripts have been disabled/removed: apiv1.php, withdraw.php;
-> There are no signs of ANY updates to the website, next to the ECA trades a couple of days ago (which was very hopeful, at the time);
-> Messages like new servers were ordered/have arrived: the same infrastructure is in use since the beginning, there was no change of servers;
-> The admin did have an account on this forum [7] and was active before when there were issues on the site, but is totally silent now.
Honestly I have declared my coins there as lost.
My advice: consider the coins lost (lowers the frustration) go to your local police and report them as fraudster, if enough people do this it _will_ become an investigation. The guy(s) did leave more than enough traces for a (high tech) police department to find.
[1] Check
www.kvk.nl with the address information; KVK is the Dutch Chamber of Commerce
[2]
www.infobel.com/nl/netherlands/bohema_s_gravenhage_b_v/s_gravenhage/NL100070924-0703640475/businessdetails.aspx[3] plusbedrijf.com/stad/s-gravenhage/surinamestraat
[4]
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/2185903.msg27582400#msg27582400[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandi[6]
https://www.nforce.com/payments[7]
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=978044