If you’re currently using notroll.in as your litecoin mining pool, and you’re not aware of the extreme shadiness that went down there last week, you may want to read on. In fact, even if you don’t use notroll.in, it’s important to be aware of the fact that some of the mining pools out there are run by dishonest operators looking to scam you. Don’t treat mining pools like banks: cash out often, and scrutinize activity to make sure that you’re not being cheated.

On to notroll.in. First, the facts:

• On or about April 8^th, miners using notroll.in were accidentally credited double their actual earnings for a 14 hour period.
• When the pool operator, Nicksasa, realized his mistake, he immediately took between 25-33% of everyone’s total litecoin balance to cover himself.
• This ~30% “tax” was applied to everyone in the pool, regardless of whether or not an individual was actually even mining during the 14 hour double-payment window.
• No regard was given to how much each user happened to have sitting in their pool account. Everyone lost ~30% of their balance, whether it amounted to a few hours worth of mining, or a few weeks.
• There was no communication from Nicksasa on the troll.in website about the incident (and one week later, there still isn’t). Litecoin balances were simply slashed by ~30% across the board.
• When pool users started to notice missing litecoins, they posted to bitcointalk.org asking what was up. Nicksasa eventually showed up and (in a less than “diplomatic” fashion) called his pool users cheaters for not reporting the issue, claimed he wasn’t to blame, and said that everyone was lucky that he didn’t take more of their money. Another bitcointalk.org thread with more information.

Users that had not cashed out from notroll.in in several weeks (or ever) potentially had a small fortune taken from them by Nicksasa. There are several people claiming losses well into the hundreds of litecoins at bitcointalk.org that say they weren’t even mining on the double-payment day—and that even if they were, the amount that was taken from them represents many weeks of mining. While it’s certainly true that these people should be cashing out regularly so that they don’t leave their mining gains at the mercy of a potentially dishonest pool operator, it’s important to note that the notroll.in cashout option was broken for many people for several days leading up to the incident.

One week later, and Nicksasa has essentially dropped off the face of the earth. He isn’t responding to threads or PMs at bitcointalk.org, he hasn’t updated his website, and cashouts from notroll.in are still broken (apparently due to a pool wallet that is empty). The moderators at bitcointalk.org have labeled the notroll.in advertisement thread with a “scam alert” tag for the time being, and I’d advise everyone to stay far away from this pool. Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of people don’t know what’s going on, as notroll.in is currently still one of the largest litecoin mining pool in operation.

If you’re currently using notroll.in as your litecoin pool, take a look at some alternatives.