Bitcoin Forum

I had a phone call yesterday which I felt I must simply share. I had a call from the UK from a man that sounded like he was probably 30-40 and had a strong local accent. He said
'are you the bitcoin buyer'
I said ' I sometimes buy them but I like bitcoins so thats me'
He said ' I have 300 casascius bitcoins the first ones do you want to buy them?'
I said 'I already have 2 but would love to add more to the series 1 one bitcoins. What denomination are you talking and what coin material?'

This went on for a while and I actually had to explain what the concept of denomination is (I was giving him time to explain).

Anyway I asked in a nice way if he had proof he had them and I would turn up within a day with 40k cash to buy 100 of them. He said he can't work out how to upload a photo on his computer but his last remark was this ' I bought them ages ago. I actually have a few thousand bitcoins on a memory stick but I didn't really understand them I bought them because of Max Keiser'

After a few seconds we hung up.

He didn't try to scam me so why did he call me up and talk such rubbish?

Great story.

firstly. how did he get your number..

secondly, he was probably hoping you didnt want to meet up and were going to offer a wire transfer instantly to him and he post the box with a brick or a dried dog poop in it.

i think as soon as you outsmarted him and asked for proof and asked to meet, he knew his scam wouldnt work out and found an excuse to end the call..

its good that you stayed vigilant and not done any deals via a 'cold call' with a stranger you never met.

Sounds like a scam in which he is just pretending he does not know about Bitcoin. But who knows perhaps it is worth a second check.

Anyway (and this will sound a cliche, I know you already are) be careful.

I guess from www.buyphysicalbitcoins.com I make them. But he never tried to scam me

I think its scary when a stranger get your physical phone number which reveal a lot of information about you... and try to scam you or even if not, just call you about Bitcoin.

I'll go with the dog poop story mentioned above.He would have asked for cash stating he will get the stuff shipped to your doorstep.On sending him the cash he would have changed his phone number or mostly he would have called you from skype.Good you didn't fell for it.

UK (pound) value of bitcoin is £240~

100 bitcoin + spot price for the novelty of it being in coin form would be about £25,440 at most..
(£1440 due to your own valuation of unfunded coin at 0.06btc (£14.40*100)

so i ask 40k?

was that the actual valuation words you gave him £40k? (talking in terms of pounds) or did you, for the benefit of this forum translate it to dollar value to appease the many american readers here

He was probably looking to either rob you on gunpoint or sell fake casascius coins.

This is a very scare story imo. He is probably cold calling people like all day trying to bait people..
Also, the story about him not understanding bitcoin and only buying them because of Max Kaiser is really dodgy.. Who is going to spend such a huge amount of cash on something they don't understand? No sane person does that.

So scammers started telephoning people nowadays in order to scam?! What's next they will think off?

The next thing is that they will come to your house and sell bullshit/fake coins for btc or cash.

@gravitate, why didn't you hang up in the beginning?

Cool story... Good old internet catch phrase applies, pics or GTFO!

But did he even have your phone to begin with?
This is why I never mix real life credentials to anything Bitcoin related. Always have it separated, create new addresses and so on. Even if im also pretty poor, I just don't want people to know I have a couple of Bitcoins because even if we know they will go high, we can't really yet fathom how high. If you mention you have some now, they may know years later you have millions in some USB at home.

There is a huge chance that you know this guy personally and he knows you as well and knows that you are hooked on Bitcoins. Personal phone numbers are hard to get unless you posted it somewhere or you might have made a deal with him before.

Also the number may have traveled by word of mouth. His friend might have suggested him to be into bitcoins.

You have to be extra careful when buying physical loaded bitcoins. They might have taken off the holographic tape and reinserted it. They may swipe the keys right after they have handed you the coins.

With Casascius coins, or any other coins for that matter, this is impossible because the holographic tape is tamper proof and you can tell if the tape has been peeled off or not.  But still a rather funny story though, even though pretty weird how he randomly just got your number like that.

I don't even have any idea what exactly is Casascius series 1 bitcoins is  and what Max Keiser do. That person is a sure pro on BTC pretending to be ignorant about it.

Probably the first thing you should have asked him that from where he got your number ,If it was some stealer of people bad for bitcoin growth then it is a matter for concern for you ,though he has not scammed you but he has opened the doors and his friends might have known till that you hold a good fiat amount and they could try next time with another leads.
Be careful !!

You assume that he has coins to sell. What if this was only a call to confirm that you have calls or some prep work for a long scam. You never divulge how many coins you have, because it makes you a target. Next time he calls you, just hang up or call the authorities.

The scammers will come up with any excuse to hook you into doing and saying what they want you to hear.  

If it seem like its a scam, it probbaly is. how did he got your number, did you ask him?
he probably have someone who could do lead generation via web research and try cold calling each. I bet someone will also post here about a phone call they receive.

Well, if the guy was a scammer, he wasn't a very good scammer.  How can one be invested in Bitcoin but not know how to upload a photo?  Maybe it was just a prank call from a buddy who faked the accent and was just trying to "pull your leg" and have some fun.  If it were a real scammer, he'd have thought out his story a little bit better, I think.

They are series 1 casascius going for 2.5BTC each

Maybe he know that you want some casascius,and see you post about interesting to casascius..well i love casascius too,and hopw someday will have one

£25,440 is about $40k.   Its fair to assume he meant dollars then, its mostly how bitcoins are valued unfortunately.

I love the look of the coins but hardly seems to add to the security of the whole deal that the tape is what it hinges on.    If I had that much bitcoin, I'll just sell one and buy conventential solid silver coin that can be measured fairly simply dimensions/weight

Gravitate. If this one isn't straight from fantasy island ....

Did he say where in the UK he was... Or any ideas where his accent was from ? Would he provide any proof of identity ?

Any options of finding someone to meet up and to verify possession ? 1 sample coin to show genuine. Old school printed picture, or emailled picture with all coins in, plus some phrasing requested and the date also in the picture, to show possession of bulk.

He can be clear it's not for a sale, just for proof.

Midlands, Yorkshire I can cover. Possibly further afield depending on works schedule and location

Understanding of conditions of coins, how stored, plus date of funding would be useful

Feel free to email me. Owe you a reply anyways, which I will sort later

He sounded like either yorkshire or derby... I think it was fantasy land in his head. I have his phone number thats all.

That's really strange that someone would call you about this.

Unless you signed up for something and you put in your contact number

If someone would've called me like this I would've been so confused and would hang up without saying anything

Now that's too much paranoia. lol you should at least play prank too. maybe ask if he wants phone sex.

Your loss.

How to rip off chennan. (http://www.riftrecon.com/post/60420737666/exclusive-tutorial-for-casascius-bitcoin)

Sounds way too good to be true, I would recommend avoiding it, super dodgy calling you like that and seeming to not know much about Bitcoin at all.