Can someone help me determine the category for "nature of suit"?

[jrmade]

What is the status of the criminal investigation? A criminal case can bolster any civil claim you are considering.

The investigator has been looking into it but nothing solid yet in determining who did it. He is currently waiting for an exchange to get back to him in order to identify the identity of the account a crypto was purchased from in order to pay for a service the scammer used. But that might take months.

 

[jrmade]

Correct, negligence is a type of tort claim. However, before you go trotting off to file a civil lawsuit in court, read your contract with the exchange carefully. It may require that you arbitrate the dispute instead taking it to court. If it doesn't require arbitration, see if it has provision that specifies in what court(s) you may file your lawsuit and wich state's law will apply. You may find it's a court in some other state. If you've got to travel some significant distance and get a hotel room, buy meals, etc that will raise the costs you incur, and those travel costs are not recoverable in a lawsuit. Finally, see if it has a provision in which the loser pays the winner's fees. If it does it raises the risks of the lawsuit. Once you've carefully read the contract you'll have a much better idea of what you are facing.

You also have the problem that the phisher is the one primarily responsible for your loss, and the exchange will also claim that you were contributorily negligent by not being vigligant enough to check out who you were dealing with before giving the crook the information he/she needed to grab your crypto. If the court determines you were contributorily negligent, that may reduce or even eliminate any damages you'd win from the crypto exchange.

Finally, in a number of states, evidence of changes the exchange made after your loss is not admissible to help prove your loss for two reasons. The first is a legal reason. Under the law of evidence those changes are not deemed any admission of fault because the exchange could have made the changes for any number of reasons, not just because it believed it's prior set up was negligent. The second is a policy reason. If the rules of evidence allowed for those changes to be used against you it would discourage the exchange from making those changes and end up potentially putting even more customers at risk of loss.

How much money did you lose? If's a large amount you'll want to see a personal injury attorney to review your case and see how good of a case you may have and what you may realistically get out of it. (Personal injury claims are the most common type of negligence claims but many personal injury lawyers will handle this kind of negligence claim too.) Typically the initial consultation is free, so all you'd have to lose is a bit your time to consult one or more attorneys to find out what they have to say. That should give you a pretty good idea of whether it's worth pursuing this.

Note that your loss from the theft may be tax deductible. While that doesn't get your crypto back it can reduce the pain of the loss a bit. See IRS tax topic 515.

Before my investigator was looking into it, and while he was on the case, I was doing my own investigating. And it seemed like either the exchange was hacked or it was an inside job. And it wasn't until 2 months of me looking into it and mailing/emailing them that their legal team got back to me and told me what happened to me. That it was the form that was used. The reason why I mention it is because that part of my investigation shows what it looked like before I learned about that form. And it shows how it appears to anyone who was victimized like this. I even went to the form and entered my investigator's email address into it. I did this before telling him about what I learned (about the form). He was sent an official email and he fell for it too. He thought it was someone from that exchange emailing him on his PD email address, one that he never even gave to the exchange. He was surprised that they were able to do that. But it was just a dangerous website form that did not validate anything.

 

[quincy]

Before my investigator was looking into it, and while he was on the case, I was doing my own investigating. And it seemed like either the exchange was hacked or it was an inside job. And it wasn't until 2 months of me looking into it and mailing/emailing them that their legal team got back to me and told me what happened to me. That it was the form that was used. The reason why I mention it is because that part of my investigation shows what it looked like before I learned about that form. And it shows how it appears to anyone who was victimized like this. I even went to the form and entered my investigator's email address into it. I did this before telling him about what I learned (about the form). He was sent an official email and he fell for it too. He thought it was someone from that exchange emailing him on his PD email address, one that he never even gave to the exchange. He was surprised that they were able to do that. But it was just a dangerous website form that did not validate anything.

That’s how phishing scams work. It is the one who is scammed who generally provides to the scammer all of the information the scammer needs. You (unwittingly, for sure) handed over your information to the scammer.

 

[jrmade]

That’s how phishing scams work. It is the one who is scammed who generally provides to the scammer all of the information the scammer needs. You (unwittingly, for sure) handed over your information to the scammer.

Sure, I understand that. But it was their website that allowed the scammer to email me as them without even needing to hack their email system. And they were aware of this problem with their site too. They're the ones that told me about it.

 

[quincy]

Sure, I understand that. But it was their website that allowed the scammer to email me as them without even needing to hack their email system. And they were aware of this problem with their site too. They're the ones that told me about it.

Unfortunately, everyone must be alert to scams and work to protect their own personal information from getting into the hands of ne’er-do-wells.

All websites are vulnerable to hack attacks, even those sites that seemingly should be the most secure. The trick is always to identify the hackers and scammers so they can be held accountable for the harm they have caused. That can take money and years and sophisticated tools that are outside the reach of the average person.

I wish you good luck with any lawsuit you decide to pursue.

 

[Zigner]

The OP *really* needs to have the user agreement reviewed by an attorney to find out if s/he's even got a case against the exchange. We don't know what exchange is involved (nor do we want to), but the user agreement is likely pretty airtight.

 

[Taxing Matters]

but the user agreement is likely pretty airtight.

I'd not predict that without knowing the firm. Particularly in the crypto arena right now there are more than a few sites run by cowboy types who don't pay all that much attention to what they regard as trifling little legal matters like having a well drafted contract, employing the best computer security, and other things that cost money for which they have little regard. Some of them, and their customers, will end up paying the price for that kind of careless approach.

Even a well written "airtight" contract is not bullet proof. There are some contract terms that state and federal laws governing consumer contracts make unenforceable because they take advantage of the consumer.

 

[Taxing Matters]

The details of everything involved matter, and that's why your best option right now is to review the contract (typically the user agreement) carefully and then consult an attorney ASAP. There simply isn't enough information here to tell you if you might have a good claim against the crypto firm or what pursuing it would likely cost you. I'd advise against putting all the details of this on the internet. That can do you more harm than good.

 

[jrmade]

The details of everything involved matter, and that's why your best option right now is to review the contract (typically the user agreement) carefully and then consult an attorney ASAP. There simply isn't enough information here to tell you if you might have a good claim against the crypto firm or what pursuing it would likely cost you. I'd advise against putting all the details of this on the internet. That can do you more harm than good.

Thank you for the additional good advise. I'm also going to try to check with FiCen to make sure that form's former design did not violate any compliance issues.

 

[quincy]

It is important to keep in mind the statute of limitations for filing a negligence claim in Connecticut, which can be as short as one year.

https://law.justia.com/codes/connecticut/title-52/chapter-926/section-52-584/#:~:text=Action based on negligence must,act or omission complained ”.

 

[jrmade]

It is important to keep in mind the statute of limitations for filing a negligence claim in Connecticut, which can be as short as one year.

https://law.justia.com/codes/connecticut/title-52/chapter-926/section-52-584/#:~:text=Action based on negligence must,act or omission complained ”.

Thank you for that info.

 

[quincy]

You’re welcome. Thanks for the thanks.