I feel absolutely no sympathy for people who are owed by bitaffnet.
Me neither, It was a scam from the start & was rightly called out by many forum members a long time ago. People who chose to ignore the warnings from other pool operators, software devs, hero & noob forum members alike only have themselves to blame.
What I find particularly disturbing is that most of the forum members who correctly called out this scam have been the victims of a hate campaign by certain members of this forum & one (or two) forum moderators who seem to be at the beck & call of these certain forum members, protecting him/them at any cost.
It is every miners duty to air their concerns about any and all scams on bitcointalk in order that other miners don't get cheated, ripped off or left out of pocket by these scammers, as has happened in this case, after all, that is what a forum is for.
Questions must be asked when a forum is going out of it's way to gag those members who correctly call out scams with blanket banning of anyone who comments in the associated scam thread - particularly when they have been proven to be correct in every respect. Forum members who are concerned & brave enough to risk their reputation by airing their concerns should not be punished or banned - they should be thanked. What kind of standard does this set? A scam is a scam & should be called out as such as a warning to others - and anyone who tries to gag/stifle/censor/ban members for doing so must have a motive for doing so, and as we all know, it's usually a financial one.
The perps of this scam are still freely allowed to post on this forum & continue their scams - while the members who spotted the scam long ago are banned for trying to alert & warn fellow members.
That's not right. Not at all. There are too many behind the scenes dealings, sneaky handshakes, conflicts of interest & personal agendas going on at bitcointalk between certain moderators & other individuals & is the reason why it has become a haven for scammers in the bitcoin world.