Bitcoin Forum

Hello I have been scammed by person from who I was buying Bitcoins.
Unfortunatelly I didn't have any personal info about this person.
He gained my trust with few good transactions but later he stole big amount of money from me.

I am providing you with addresses he used for transactions.

16EvVEgJGbYfYSnbQz3x57iPfw14GAPje8
1LteyFFkC362LwVbxMhMn9kC5pr2yTMsNr
13KXVWaQF1NrAUSNV7acnVeHMcybQonUQM
bc1qrldtc9l5wn3dfma9gm3prw6hglwzenamfxjxdx
1E3WStENAFUHj8rPpX6FTpS4KwHKZVFK3m

hash of transaction where he scammed me :

3f93b071087c384703e5ebbdb2f0b007470c9774e07d18b25188ef6c40a02adf

If someone will be able to find his personal info- email, phone number, home address etc. Somehow be able to help me find this person I will send you 5000$ for reliable information.

You can contact me via:
Wickr Me : oskarpolska
Or by telegram or signal- my number is:  +48577438578

First you should move this topic on the Services section since you are offering job. Second this is a very hard task considering no one attached identity on there Bitcoin address for ownership purposes. You will be very lucky if the guy do a sign message publicly in the Internet. Although the reward is so good and worthy a shot yet the job seems impossible to fulfill. Sorry for your loss.

You could always try to follow the trail of unspent outputs trough tools like walletexplorer in the hopes your scammer deposits the funds he stole from you on a KYC exchange... There are company's that specialise in this sort of stuff, they have better analytical tools available to make it easyer for the to follow the trail...

However, if you're dealing with a scammer that has some experience, he'll either mix, coinjoin or move funds trough a coin like monero... The odds of anybody being able to follow this trail are slim to none.

Even if you're faced with a newbie scammer, or if a professional service is able to track the funds over some sort of obfuscation, you'll have to take legal action against him/her... This can be relatively easy if the scammer lives in your country, but if he doesn't it can potentially be a daunting task, one that might cost more than the ~15k you lost...

https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/3682dea897df5df2?from_address=16EvVEgJGbYfYSnbQz3x57iPfw14GAPje8
https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/3682dea897df5df2?from_address=1LteyFFkC362LwVbxMhMn9kC5pr2yTMsNr
https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/3682dea897df5df2?from_address=bc1qrldtc9l5wn3dfma9gm3prw6hglwzenamfxjxdx
https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/3682dea897df5df2?from_address=1E3WStENAFUHj8rPpX6FTpS4KwHKZVFK3m


One last thing: when talking about an $5000 reward, ALWAYS use a trusted forum escrow.
Not following this advice will either result in you being scammed out of another $5000, or you scamming your helper out of $5000.

Where did you meet this person? Did you use some sort of P2P platform? If so, maybe you'll have better luck contacting that platform. I know that Paxful does give the user's IP address when you can prove that you got scammed. You can then use that with the local authorities (assuming that you're both from the same country) to get to him.

Unfortunately we were from different countries.

We were communicating on telegram. I found his number somewhere in the internet but I can't find it again now.
This man was Romanian but he was operating in London and other UK cities.
I don't know in which direction I can go now.
After he scammed me he deleted for both parties conversation on telegram so he got rid of all evidences.
Since this moment he blocked me so I couldn't reach him.

I had no idea that after one confirmation he was able to cancel this transaction.
I could already view on my wallet that I had this funds available so I lost attention.

You said the hash was “3f93b071087c384703e5ebbdb2f0b007470c9774e07d18b25188ef6c40a02adf”, right? It doesn't seem to have been included into a block nor the mempool (https://blockchair.com/search?q=3f93b071087c384703e5ebbdb2f0b007470c9774e07d18b25188ef6c40a02adf). Are you sure, that this is the correct txid? I'll not look into the posted addresses, just in case you've indeed make a mistake.

If the amounts were big, you shouldn't hope to identify him. The easiest way to get away of a scam is by using a mixer or by converting your BTC to XMR (and back again). The only entity that could help you is the cyber crime. In summary, internet providers keep the information they receive (for years). If you really, really want to know that person, you should talk to them; note that the odds to achieve it are close to zero. I don't know, though, if they can assist you in that case, whether you bribe them or not.  :P

It wasn’t confirmed. You probably saw a pending to confirm TX, and asumed it was confirmed.

It looks like he generated a TX for 3,79 BTC, sent from 1E3WStENAFUHj8rPpX6FTpS4KwHKZVFK3m to bc1q63nu0dh3ak6saku7xfdts55g6q6jsg9vwzlvl9, on 2021-07-19 18:29, using a fee of 1.005 sat/B:

https://www.blockchain.com/es/btc/tx/3f93b071087c384703e5ebbdb2f0b007470c9774e07d18b25188ef6c40a02adf

But then used a Replace by Fee to resend the same amount, on 2021-07-19 18:36
,to 16ZbnaPXxwVkWsHeAxcRtnCBccr35tuWAc instead, paying 201.047 sat/B to ensure it was picked-up quick, thus nullifying the first TX:

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/034a8f4f6b88575ef28b314c8c42dfef63cee43d3a002c86f82953005045735d

If you willing to spend 5k headbounty then I don't want to know how much money you get scammed.

Sry for that - but that's one on btc s features, anonym money transactions.

Thank you all for responds.
It means a lot to me that someone at least care and is trying to help.

I hope that I will be able to find someone who could help me to find this man or find different solution to get back my funds.

Before this transaction I was really passionate about all cryptocurrency transactions but now I see that it is not as safe as they claim to be.

I think that Blockchain should inform their clients that transaction can be cancelled even if receiver see money on his BTC wallet.

I tried to contact them reaching for help but they told me same things like you that once it was done it cannot be reversedd.

I'm trying not to victim-blame, but being scammed has little to do with the medium. My grandfather once told me a story about how he was scammed by a fake insurance salesman that took an equivalent of about 4000€ in cash, over 60 years ago that was a little more than a years's wage. My brother in law got scammed by door-to-door salesmen numerous times, they keep on selling him fake products for a premium price, and he keeps falling for it.
Our newspaper reports scams on a very regular basis, and it's very rare to see bitcoin to be the medium.

The main problem was the fact you used a medium you didn't fully understand to transfer a huge amount of money... Once again: it's the scammer's fault you lost your money, not yours, but saying things like crypto "not being as safe as they claim to be" isn't completely fair. Crypto is really safe. It is well documented how it works, and anybody who's giving out real information will tell you crypto currency's are irreversible and should not be sent to anonymous people you don't fully trust...
If you use it like it's supposed to be used, you should be fine... You should compare it to other irreversible payment methods... Would you have sent gold to an anonymous mailbox in nigeria if a scammer asked you to do this?

Now, it seems to be i was wrong... In the list of addresses you posted, i saw transactions of ~0.4 BTC (~$15k at current exchange rate), but apparently the one that was used to scam you was > 3 BTC. For this price, it might be a reasonable idear to hire a professional blockchain analysis company...

You spend around 3.7 btc which is not a small amount. Your Newbie rank here does not represent that you are new to crypto. Can you let us know for what purpose you send this big amount without any verification  ???


https://i.imgur.com/JjMxqsA.png

I was acquiring   bitcoins from this person for more than 6 months before this transaction everything was going well.
I didn’t need verification from it because I trusted this person but after this situation I Have very costly life lesson .

Most people know how it is to be scammed in their early crypto times. After that it's mostly pretty clear and you feel dumb, but it's quite "normal" I think.
Sure it depend on how you get scammed and how much.

My advice is really to give up the hope to get your money or item back - deal with it, lern from it and trust me u will be never get scammed again cause you have that bad experience and in future u will take money trasactions not so easy.

So was this the case the in previous transactions you send him less amount of money (bitcoins) and then when you got 100% trust on him, you decided to send a big amount like 3 btc and he scamed you ? or you have send bigs amounts before to him without any issues ?

You missed the whole part. OP was buying bitcoin, not selling. Scammer sent him the BTC with low and later used a double spending since OP thought the BTC was on the way. A very silly mistake from OP.

@OP
Which payment method did you use? Any info you know about him must be shared here. May be you know the telegram username, or any other info. Please update on the OP.

I understand this now. Thanks for the clarification but this means that anyone can use the "Replace by fee" and also change the destination address while doing so ?  This is not safe.  :o
This also means that seeing a tx on the blockchain does not grantee that the amount will be delivered to us  ???
Normally when doing transactions, we see the unconfirmed tx on the blockchain and know that it cannot be reversed. This is a strange and new learning for me .

At least 1 confirmation is required in case of small amount of transaction while for big amount, you should give more time. A few confirmations are enough to ensure the irreversible tx. If you create two tx with same input at the same time, the one with higher fee will get confirmed. And in electrum mobile, the option has been included. You can anytime cancel (RBF actually) a tx as long as it is not confirmed and you can do it easily.

Anyone can do use RBF but only on supported wallet and has enable RBF before made the transaction, if he didn't enable the RBF then he can't use RBF. You need to wait until 1 confirmation or 3 confirmations if you want to be safe, since RBF can't be used after some confirmations.

If your transaction is stuck and no confirmation, your funds will be back after 2 weeks.

This transaction was done exactly 2 weeks ago and nothing change until that day.

If someone wants personal phone number to this guy you can write to me in private message through contact info that I provided.

@Oskarb123 Can you tell us how did you pay this guy for Bitcoins you purchased before? Maybe that is the key for finding him and his real identity.
Connecting that with his phone number used for telegram can help catching him, but you can also hire some blockchain analytics firms (CipherTrace, Elliptic, etc) to do some deep research and pay them percentage of Bitcoin they manage to recover.

When doing trading with someone using Bitcoin you should always double check and wait for at least one confirmation before sealing the deal.

Normally finding a scammer out of new wallets are slim to none like Mocanino said already here but this case is a bit different. I am very much sure where you will be able to get good information if you do things right.


I am gonna use this post of DdmrDdmr to continue. The bitcoin address used here 1E3WStENAFUHj8rPpX6FTpS4KwHKZVFK3m receives around 3.8 BTC via txid: https://btc.com/btc/transaction/7205197883218a6615ee6c014781b5a483893b77287423bfa99f5c78279bcf9a  from just before transferring to victim here which uses inputs from address 1NDyJtNTjmwk5xPNhjgAMu4HDHigtobu1s . After the scammer sends and then nullifies the transaction by doing the rbf he sends back the amount to 16ZbnaPXxwVkWsHeAxcRtnCBccr35tuWAc. Now 16ZbnaPXxwVkWsHeAxcRtnCBccr35tuWAc sends back the amount to 129UStX6iT1TCiFhtar2XEuT73ZBbGjCyG which sends back the amount to 1NDyJtNTjmwk5xPNhjgAMu4HDHigtobu1s via this txid: https://btc.com/btc/transaction/c66c74de8c4a130b41d1339d1247dbbae4876bf855e79e25c1c7b13d8973cba1.

The address I have underlined here : 1NDyJtNTjmwk5xPNhjgAMu4HDHigtobu1s is the hot wallet of Binance (Proof: https://twitter.com/binance/status/961666467325358081) and here is what I think. The scammer made a withdrawal from his account at binance to 1E3WStENAFUHj8rPpX6FTpS4KwHKZVFK3m prior to transaction. He made the scam and then sent it back to Binance where he desposited to his deposit address: 129UStX6iT1TCiFhtar2XEuT73ZBbGjCyG.

Now I went through their blog about their KYC (https://www.binance.com/en/blog/421499824684902130/%E2%80%8BWhat-is-KYC-and-How-Is-it-Increasingly-Important-for-Crypto) and it seems like there is a level of account where they don't need KYC but in that case they have the limit that they will allow daily withdrawal of 0.06 BTC max but since the scammer makes a withdrawal to 1E3WStENAFUHj8rPpX6FTpS4KwHKZVFK3m with amount of 3.8 BTC , he had to submit his details at the exchange in order to push the level for big trades or make withdrawals.

Now all you need to do is to contact Binance and provide them with the transactions that made withdrawal to 1E3WStENAFUHj8rPpX6FTpS4KwHKZVFK3m which is https://btc.com/btc/transaction/7205197883218a6615ee6c014781b5a483893b77287423bfa99f5c78279bcf9a and transaction that was made to deposit back to 129UStX6iT1TCiFhtar2XEuT73ZBbGjCyG which is https://btc.com/btc/transaction/c66c74de8c4a130b41d1339d1247dbbae4876bf855e79e25c1c7b13d8973cba1 and ask them how to take steps in order to catch the scammer. I am sure Binance would be happy to help you out. I don't recall very clearly but I think in a case earlier they tried to help someone like this who was victim to a scam.

I think Avirunes is right but as far as I know just being email verified at Binance you can withdraw 2 BTC daily,at least this was until a very few days ago when I made my last withdrawal there.The scammer was stupid enough(which is very good for you) to deposit to a KYC exchange and you should contact them but if he is not KYC verified(only email verified) there is not much you can do as mocacinno said.Still this remain your only options to have a chance at getting some info about the scammer,not much else you can do.

I am not sure if I understand correctly route of transfers described by Avirunes (I didn't check it), but I confirm that the daily limit on Binance is 2 BTC.
If he made a withdrawal in one transfer of 3.8 BTC (just more than 2 BTC) then he HAD to pass the KYC verification.

As Avirunes wrote, now you should contact Binance and ask how you can get his data.
Good luck!

Hello again guys.

I wanted to ask you for help with reporting this case to binance.

Do you know how to make this kind of report or maybe you know someone who could help me preparing this case?

I tried to do this through their website but it is difficult because of regulations.

Any help would be precious.

Reward is still on !!!

Go here: https://www.binance.com/en/chat then select Security issues and you will find 4 options. "Stolen/Cheated funds be transfered into Binance" this one seems to be your case out of the list. Since I am not the victim and you are, you have to report that yourself. They will help you out with what they need in order to help you catch the scammer.

Please update the thread with every development you have. We are keen to learn and ready to take such actions of such things happen to us.

Again, I think you're ignoring the biggest part. How did you pay him? In cash or other payment info?

OP may have hoped that the scammed large amount of money would be returned to him due to @Avirunes' review of the transactions.  There is a high possibility that the scammer underwent KYC in Binance especially if he uses P2P trading on the said exchange site.  But you have to prove that you have been scammed by a user who uses their platform because we all know that companies don’t just give their customer's pieces of information to another user who asks for it.  But I hope Binance will pay attention to what you do when you contact them because you said that your convo of scammer in Telegram has been deleted and the evidence is gone.

I don't know if you have like some kind of FBI enforcement agency in your country that deals with cyber crimes but you should probably go to those people because they have the equipments to track down people in this case it's bitcoin meaning that there's a public ledger that they canuse to slowly track down the scammer.

Nah he had to go through KYC I am very sure. Scammer has been dealing with him in over 30000$ mark in each transactions given in the main post and all of the address received funds from Binance hot wallet.


Normally 50,000 $ is the daily withdrawal limit of Intermediate account at Binance but the transaction in which he scammed was 150,000$ and crossed the intermediate limit so it is confirmed that he has advanced account.

According to Binance KYC blog following are the requirement for Advanced account KYC:

[1] Basic Information
[2] Government ID
[3] Facial verification
[4] Proof of Address (new requirement for Advanced accounts)

So these^^^ are the things that Binance have of the scammer.

---

Now all OP has to do seek help from Binance which I think he should do on his own since he was the victim. I am sure they are gonna ask for a police report or some sort of cyber crime report since they are also not someone who can verify whether scam happened or not nor the victim since he is just claiming and things needs to be verified so I think this is gonna steer a bit different way I mean proceeding out of the forum.

That's the best I could do to provide information about where funds used to come to and went. Now its upto you OP to help yourself out.

---

Just in one of the accusation the victim contacted Binance and here is what he replied


So they are also helping the victim with police report. I don't think you will find someone that supportive. Usually exchanges just get lazy and don't help but Binance are helping the victim. [+1] to Binance . Just contact Binance. They will be happy to help you.

I just learnt something today, does replacing a transaction by fee to a new address actually possible?
One has to be really careful when dealing from outsiders.  :o

This can be done if the transaction you make is still 0conf or has not been confirmed in the block, and this is called a double-spending transaction by activating the RBF feature. Usually the scammer will use a very cheap fee to commit his crime and will use a double spending scheme to send bitcoin to his own address at a much higher fee. This case is also known as a DS-0-Conf attack.

Hello.

Nothing changed since that day so I am providing you with personal number of this guy.

Now since rate of BTC has increased reward of finding this person is 15.000$

His number is: +447572897282

As I mentioned before - he stole from me 3,79 Btc on 19th of July.
Police is not willing to help me so I am looking for someone to help me on internet.

Please let me know if you would be able to locate this person. I know that funds were transferred on KYC verified account on Binance and those bitcoins are still remaining on his account.

In case if someone would like to contact me directly let me know I will provide my contact info.

Best regards.

Why ?
Did you tried your luck with them ?
Now almost all polices have a "CYBER" service, they even intervene in "facebook" conflicts/stories !
All you have to do is going make complaint and provide them with all the details, all the story!

Expect if the Bitcoin is restricted where you are !  ::)





How this?
Do you paying in BTC or USD ??

Have you tried contacting Binance yet?

The police will do !

Hello once again.

I would like to ask you.

Do you have some person who is able to find person just with its btc address ?

I will provide you with few of addresses that person who stole assets from me was using. :

16EvVEgJGbYfYSnbQz3x57iPfw14GAPje8

1LteyFFkC362LwVbxMhMn9kC5pr2yTMsNr

13KXVWaQF1NrAUSNV7acnVeHMcybQonUQM

bc1qrldtc9l5wn3dfma9gm3prw6hglwzenamfxjxdx

Please if someone will be able then I will reward you for it.

Or if you know someone who is verified and is doing it for commission please send me contact information.


Best...

@Avirunes has worked out a whole strategy for you to follow, and that includes a report to the police, with which you then report the whole case to Binance, because with his investigation he came to the conclusion that the person who scam you has an account there. Please read all the posts with all the answers, especially the ones from @Avirunes, because I doubt you will get a better answer or help from someone else.

Regarding your answer.

I tried to do everything accordingly to what other user told me to.

Unfortunately police did not help me with my issue so I am forced to wait for help from binance which they are trying to do right now by contacting regarding my case to this person . OR I can rely on external source of help which is why I wrote here my message.

So please if you would be able to do something that would help me find this person please contact me and if we will succeed I will reward you well.

You were asked this before but you never provided an answer. How did you pay this person who was selling you Bitcoin? You said that you two were located in different countries. That means face-to-face meetings can be ruled out. I hope you weren't sending him cash via a 3rd party courier or something like that. Did you use fiat in some form and how? Bank, payment processors such as PayPal, Skrill, gift cards, Western Union. Traditional financial institutions require KYC on their customers. Or was the seller maybe paid with other cryptocurrencies?

I saw that you posted a phone number in one of your latest posts. Is that the number you were initially looking for? If not and you still have the link to the website it was originally posted on, maybe there is a cached version of it in Google's cache or Achieve.org. Check here (https://cachedview.com/) and look for it.

Binance will not give you any user's data, request must be done by legal authorities.
Maybe there is another way to find the seller - how did you pay? With cash, paypal, money transfer, other crypto?

You may always call https://detektywrutkowski.pl  ;)