LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Mining for cryptocurrency is a new way people hope to make extra cash. But some hopeful miners believe they're getting scammed, paying hundreds of dollars for equipment they never received.
The Better Business Bureau said it's received dozens of complaints in the last three years against SyncroB.it, a Shepherdsville company with an F grade with the BBB. Eighty-eight complaints were unanswered by the company.
"We've had numerous customers report to us that they've ordered hardware to mine cryptocurrency, and we're talking hardware that can cost several hundred or several thousands of dollars," said Whitney Adkins with the BBB.
Most complaints center around people ordering data mining equipment from SyncroB.it that never arrives.
"I sent repeated requests to get updates on the delivery, but after a few months they just stopped responding and now their website isn't active any longer," according to one complaint from February to the BBB. "I made an order ... for the amount of US$4,773.62. ... The only thing I received from Syncrobit was a tracking number, nothing else, and now there’s no website, discord, email or phone number to contact them. I believe it is a fraud."
Adkins said there are a lot of consumers contacting the BBB — some out anywhere from $800 to $2,000 — but they can't get any reply from SyncoB.it.
"We've got a problem where we have this equipment that's hard to come by anyway, and now these folks are out money," Adkins said. "We're not even getting a response. We're working on it. ... We're just not getting any response from this company."
Out of all the complaints to the BBB, there were only three where the company replied back to the customers. In 2021, CEO Candi May wrote that she was "very sorry" for delays and frustration, citing the global chip shortage as a hurdle to fulfilling orders on time.
"The team is working hard to try to rectify the situation," May wrote.
"It probably seemed like a good deal at the time when we are talking about cryptocurrency," Adkins said. "We're talking about folks who were hoping to make that money back very quickly or make much more than that."
The business has a P.O. Box number in Shepherdsville and a listed street address which looks like a home. The Shepherdsville address listed is the same address used for another company called Launch Pad run by Brandon May.
The business license with the Kentucky Secretary of State's Office shows the business is active but misspelled the business name in its filing. Brandon May said SyncroB.it was his mother's business, but "she died a bit ago."
"It fell to me when she died but we are going through some legal processes that I can’t discuss until complete," he said in a private message to WDRB.
When asked about customers requesting a refund, May said he couldn't discuss that, citing an active non-disclosure agreement.
Adkins said there has been a jump in cryptocurrency scams the last few years. She recommends people interested in cryptocurrency research as much as possible.
"They tried reaching out to this company and they would get the runaround," Adkins said of SyncroB.it customers. "'Oh, it's with the billing department. It's with this department.' They could never get a straight answer. 'Where is this equipment I ordered? Why can't I get a refund? What's going on?'"
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