1. Payment Upfront + No Delivery

You pay via bank transfer or crypto (full or partial deposit). They simply don’t deliver anything. They stop communicating or the website disappears.

2. Payment Upfront + Bait & Switch

To prove to payment processors/authorities that they “shipped” something, scammers send a package. But inside, it is decidedly NOT what you ordered.

• The Brick: An original miner box filled with bricks to match the weight. You can’t prove the miner wasn’t there.
• The Junk: Instead of an €18,000 L7 machine, you receive a new Avalon 1126 worth €3,400.
• The Scrap: Instead of an €8,000 machine, you get two old S9 miners worth €400 combined.
• The Broken: You receive a physically damaged, beaten-up, non-working unit.

3. Cash on Delivery (COD) Trap

You might think: “I’ll pay the courier only when I get the package, so I’m safe.” Actually, it’s worse. Most people feel false security with COD.

Even if you know the courier driver and they let you peek… seeing a miner chassis means nothing. The inside could be empty, filled with weights, or contain broken/used hashboards. You won’t know until you plug it in.

PS: If we were scammers, we wouldn’t be warning you about this.

Signs of Fraud:

• Prices 30% lower than market standard = 95% chance of scam. Margins in this business are thin. If someone sells -25% below the MANUFACTURER price, something is wrong.
• Marketing Tricks: “Buy 1 Get 1 Free”, “Insane 30% discount if you order in 30 mins”.
• Copy-Paste Networks: We see organized crime groups running multiple shops with identical layouts, graphics, and structures—only the Logo and Name change. One shop dies, two more pop up.

What to Check:

1. Domain Registration Date: Use WHOIS tools. Is this “industry leader” website only 2 weeks old?
2. Legal Info: VAT number, Company reg number. Is it even on the site?
3. Content Quality: Are photos and text unique, or stolen from others?
4. Social Media: Do they post real content from warehouses/offices, or is it empty?
5. Blog/Education: Scammers rarely waste time writing hundreds of educational articles.

The Only 100% Solution?

Personal Pickup & Payment on the Spot.

Case 1: The “We Repair It” Lie

A seller claims to offer a warranty but has zero spare parts and no technicians.

They think ASIC repair is like fixing a toaster. It is not. It requires micro-soldering chips (0.5mm – 2mm), expensive diagnostic tools (worth thousands), and specialized knowledge of signal flow and pin maps. Most “shops” are just drop-shippers with no technical capability. If a hashboard fails due to one tiny resistor, they can’t fix it.

Case 2: The “Manufacturer Warranty” Nightmare

The seller says: “Just send it back to the factory.”

The Reality:

• Logistics Hell: Shipping a heavy machine to China costs ~600€ one way. And you deal with customs.
• Timing: 2 weeks shipping + 5-8 weeks repair + 1 week return = You lose 2-3 months of mining.
• Warranty Void: Manufacturer warranties start when the machine leaves their factory. Resellers often hold stock for 3-6 months. You might buy a “new” machine that technically has an expired warranty before you even unbox it.
• Repair Quality: Even factory repairs can be messy, sometimes returning units that are still broken or poorly soldered.