Coinvert claims to be a cryptocurrency exchange similar to ShapeShift. It offers instant conversions between different coins, the attractive prices and the recent marketing campaign created by Coinvert has attracted quite a few users. Unfortunately, many of those users claim to have been scammed for their coins and effectively had their funds stolen.

Coinvert.io is a relatively new cryptocurrency exchange which caught many crypto enthusiasts’ attention. Coinvert is a registered company of Coinvert LTD and was incorporated in London in June of 2016. According to reddit and steemit, many users are having issues with not receiving their funds. According to the users’ posted email logs, support seems to be giving them the runaround about transaction backlogs or platform issues.

The shameless part of the scam is that users do have success when converting smaller amounts of coins. The scam lies in attracting users in converting small amount of coins for the best rate on the market, then when a user deposits a large amount of coins – like 1 BTC – the company takes the coins and refuses to pay out the equivalent in the requested crypto.

One user in particular – Dan Anderson – wanted to convert some Counterparty (XCP) tokens to Bitcoins. He wanted to withdraw them from Poloniex but they were having issues with XCP withdrawals at the time. Dan decided to convert the XCP to BTC and withdraw it that way. He still wanted XCP so he went to the first alternative exchange that came to mind – Bittrex. However, as Bittrex’s volume is too low to purchase 1 Bitcoin worth of XCP, Mr. Anderson decided to find other, cheaper alternatives to convert the coins. As the user was from New York, Shapeshift was inaccessible, furthermore Changelly the Shapeshift alternative didn’t have XCP as an option. After doing some research he stumbled upon Coinvert, which just recently launched their marketing campaign by purchasing press releases on top Bitcoin news sites.

As most users, Dan was cautious with sending a large sum of money to a brand new company. He sent enough bitcoins to purchase around 24 XCP – roughly $170 – as expected, Coinvert sent him the coins. After the successful transaction, Dan decided to send a whole Bitcoin to convert to XCP. However, this time he received 1 XCP in return. This is quite infuriating as it really seems like an honest mistake on the company’s end. However, after contacting support numerous times he was able to have them promise a return of the coins in the next 48 hours along with an extra 3% bonus for the inconvenience – this was over 3 days ago. As you might expect, Dan still hasn’t received his funds.

According to Shapeshift’s CEO Erik Voorhees, Coinvert is a scam:

“Their rates are a lie, and they are routing orders through ShapeShift. Just use ShapeShift directly.”

If you were scammed by this company you may be able to get your money back. Since it is a registered company you could file a complaint with the relevant agency, if the authorities get involved and enough people get scammed a class action lawsuit will follow. If you were a victim of this fraud file a complaint at: actionfraud.police.uk

Bitcoin is a powerful and disruptive currency which creates many new business opportunities. Its anonymous nature allows for easy execution of financial scams like Coinvert. Dealing with any services in the cryptocurrency space one must be extra vigilant and have due diligence when researching them.

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