Disgruntled Trader’s PoloniexLawsuit.com Redirects To Poloniex
Not long after our last story regarding the apparently-anonymous trader who was attempting to get a class action suit against Poloniex due to the very suspicious trading pattern that occurred in conjunction with a concerted denial of service attack, CCN.com received word that a firm specializing in virtual currencies was looking into the matter:
The virtual currency practice group of Los Angeles-based law firm Berns Weiss LLP is investigating potential cases dealing with DDoS attacks that recently affected cryptocurrency exchanges Kraken and Poloniex.
Customers who have suffered losses may reach out directly to Berns Weiss LLP.
Not long after that, a friend of the author pointed out that PoloniexLawsuit.com was now redirecting to Poloniex.
Here is what the site looked like when we originally reported:
Now it simply redirects to Poloniex.
Our first instinct was to try and get hold of the founder of the site, who registered it anonymously and did not inform us of the site directly. Unable to find his identity, we contacted the person who told us of the site initially. That person also did not know who had founded the lawsuit site.
We then reached out to Poloniex themselves, and they went the route of plausible deniability:
Dear P H Madore, I have no idea who owns this domain or why it would redirect to Poloniex. Best regards, Michael
That Poloniex went the “no-comment” route is troubling, for they did not inquire what the site was initially about, or anything of that nature.
So what do we know? From the Poloniex terms of service :
In addition, we reserve the right to all remedies available at law and in equity for any such violation. “poloniex.com”, “Poloniex”, and all logos related to the Services or displayed on the Site are either trademarks or registered marks of Poloniex or its licensor. You may not copy, imitate or use them without Poloniex’s prior written consent.
Do you know, the author once registered skunkworks.website. Little did he know, “SkunkWorks” is in fact a trademark of Lockheed Martin. He was contacted by their legal team within hours of registration and forced to surrender the domain under threat of legal action. Corporations are good at this sort of fast moving, and it would be completely unsurprising if it later turns up that the domain is now owned by Poloniex.
Another possibility is that someone, directly or indirectly employed by Poloniex, or even just one of the bears involved in the original bear attack, or even just a fan of Poloniex or someone who hates class action lawsuits, DNS-jacked the domain and pointed it to Poloniex. DNS-Jacking has happened to the likes of Google before , so it’s far from out of the realm of possibility.
The last possibility is that the owner of the site felt he was already made whole and canceled the class action firebranding, or was advised by his legal team to let them handle the garnering of parties to the class action suit. Speaking of which, as an update to our previous article, if you wish to pursue action based on the recent events, you can contact Berns Weiss LLP via bernsinc.com or call them at +1-818-961-2000.
Image from Shutterstock.
