Bitcoin Forum

Lending 0.9 BTC to starbucksshop
0.97 BTC due Aug 8, 2014 23:59:59 ET.
Collateralized with Starbucks gift cards.

If he defaults, I get $600 worth of coffee.  (or around 3 grande lattes)

182aYVmvc7rdw8WrNeCuZYjBGuxBtYQLmn

Missed Repayment

ha!

Correction $786 worth and yes I accept

I stand corrected.  Collateral part done.
As soon as my coinage shows up, this loan will be funded.

Sent:
https://blockchain.info/tx/f7ae23bfd644fcba2d5c4c91d56425878871a510165669ff7c4a47b1ac26d34f

I received it

Hold a huge Starbucks coffee and treat day for your whole work :) that would be hilarious.

It's probably too late to tell you this now but if Starbucks gift cards can be bought with a reversible payment method such as a credit card or PayPal, then they are likely unsuitable as collateral as they may have been obtained fraudulently.

If that is the case and it is found out by Starbucks they are well within their rights to dishonor the gift cards, leaving you in the red.

your right but luckily that not the case! If you don't know who I am then  you should check my trust and check my 3 threads for all the starbucks that I sell. You will find all happy computers that keep coming back and not ONE person has reported any issues with their cards!

His reputation should suffice, so this is irrelevant.

But for future reference: Those vouchers are NOT worth the collateral, also can be faked (with stolen CC and PP)

Just to be clear: I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I would never do that unless I had something other than my opinion to back it up with. I'm hoping someone reading this may learn a valuable lesson is all.


While that may be the case, lets dive into some Bitcoin history.

There was a user here named PirateAt40. He was the highest rated user by far on http://bitcoin-otc.com (the forum didn't have a trust system back then so this was what most people used for feedback).

He offered an investment scheme where he paid 7% interest a week.

He paid every week on time in full for well over a year. While some people were suspicious of the scheme, their voices were drowned out by the people proclaiming his trustworthiness, pointing to the fact that he always paid on time, was a very good currency trader and his identity was well known.

He even met a few users face-to-face (he paid to have them flown out to meet him in Las Vegas). He also had acquired so many Bitcoins that he was somewhat able to manipulate the Bitcoin price, convincing even more people that he was legitimate as they thought he was a very good trader who was making tons manipulating the Bitcoin price.

He became so successful lots of other trustworthy users began reselling his scheme which lead to all kinds of problems when the scheme met its demise.

He kept this up for over a year, paying on time in full every single pay-day. He did not have any scam accusations or anything - he was completely legit, before he suddenly ran off with all of the Bitcoins he was borrowing via the scheme - which at the time were worth in excess of millions and are probably now worth hundreds of millions.


Moral of the story:

Past performance does not equal future performance.

Wow that's a shame but that's not the case here, I've done business with the lender before and he trust me enough to lend me the coins.

I have to make mention to this because of how it appears - but, I have not gotten a response from StarBucksShop as of yet.
There might be an explanation - I just don't have one yet.

I made this loan based on the previous repayment history to myself and other lenders.
I asked for collateral, as extra assurance and really wasn't a prerequisite of this loan.

With that being said, I was sent gift card codes for $786 worth of starbucks credit on July 31.
I never took possession of the credits (transferring the credits to a card that only I controlled)
But on Aug 1, the credits were drained down to nothing, which effectively killed any assurance collateral I held.

He still has a week to pay me back - but, the credits were part of the deal.
They were no longer his to use, which he obviously did use without giving me any kind of notification.

Don't he used them, almost assuredly they were paid for by stolen credit card, and Starbucks took the balance.

If you transferred to a card you owned, that's the only way they could have disappeared.  The reason no one reported ant issues is because they all used their balances before the chargeback.

All I have is conjecture.
It could have been starbucks reclaiming the balances from fraud.
It could have been starbucksshop using the held credits for other transactions.
I'm not sure yet.

Hopefully, he'll come here and help make sense of this.


Here is what the transactions are:
7/31/2014    Balance Merge    100.00 USD
7/31/2014    Balance Merge    100.00 USD
7/31/2014    Balance Merge    100.00 USD
7/31/2014    Balance Merge    (400.00) USD
7/31/2014    Balance Merge    400.01 USD
8/1/2014    In Store Purchase    (200.00) USD
8/1/2014    In Store Purchase    (200.00) USD

Card2:
7/29/2014    Balance Merge    101.49 USD
7/29/2014    Balance Merge    100.00 USD
7/29/2014    Balance Merge    100.00 USD
7/29/2014    Balance Merge    100.00 USD
7/31/2014    Redeem    (50.00) USD
7/31/2014    Redeem    (50.00) USD
8/1/2014    In Store Purchase    (200.00) USD
8/1/2014    In Store Purchase    (185.00) USD

Yeah, I PM'd KWH a few days ago about StarbucksShop exhibiting scammy behavior (successful trivial loan payback followed by a mad rush for multiple concurrent loans). Dude was on a mission to secure as many loans as possible the last couple days. I'm pretty sure he's bailing.

Hmm..... looks like he's taken a ton of other loans as well.

If this does turn out bad be sure to make a very detailed scam accusation thread.  It's possible if he scams that he will probably come back under a new alt to scam more. It's important that all the details are out their in the public domain to prevent him from scamming others in the future.

There is no "if" about it.

Hmm, guess this held true anyway.

Oh, I know... but it's not a good idea to baselessly accuse people of things. If I had proof I wouldn't be saying "if" but I don't and my suspicions are only my opinion so I'm not going to claim they are facts. The due date isn't even up yet.

Goddammit, I just gave him a loan yesterday. He requested for 0.65btc but I only approved 0.1btc. I wasn't aware you already gave him a loan, otherwise I would have denied altogether. After I sent him the loan, I saw him requesting other loan and I warned against it HERE (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=699450.msg8149602#msg8149602). Looking closer at his profile, there was another guy that purchased starbucks GC but didn't receive the code HERE (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=668130.msg8145687#msg8145687).

In hindsight, I shouldn't have just skimmed his profile but actually thoroughly read through his posts, it would have been obvious  :-\

I watched him as he continued to request loans AFTER I loaned him more than the requested amount he "needed" for his trip.  Typical bonsai scam run.   Heat was probably on his gift carding and he was exiting with as much as he could grab.

Conjecture is all I have.  Until he either comes back, or he doesn't.

I almost bought two SB cards yesterday to transfer them to a card I controlled - but, I didn't because I hate SB so much I didn't even want to consider getting stuck with a shitload of it.

I bought $200 too (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=668130.msg8155372#msg8155372) but never got my codes.

He'd already done multiple $65 for $200 transactions but I was too late I guess.   :-\

I hope he comes back because this is a big blow.  I just started Starbucks brokering a couple of days ago...

there you go...
I'm sure he will comeback with a Sr. or Full member account :)

Nice one starbucksshop :D

My question to you is, why didn't you transfer the balances of these cards onto another card, then transfer it back after the loan was repaid?  Sorry for your loss.

I didn't know enough about the collateral I held.
I thought by registering them to an online account the amounts were transferred to the online account and then I would transfer it back to a new number after he repaid.
By the time I found out, it was too late - and I figured by that time if he were going to rip me off, it would have already been done - and as soon as I got back, I checked and it was already gone.

I was just dumb.
and it was a dumb tax.

So this is how you launder... *ahem* protect your balance. I believe starbucks can still reverse the balance if they were purchased with stolen credit cards?

Yeah he scammed me out of two cards. Don't loan this guy any money. I will update if I ever receive the cards. No communication in almost a week.

damn, another lesson to be learned and another +1 to the scammers

Just a reminder:
Loan repayment is due on Friday Aug 8, 2014 by 23:59:59 ET.
0.97 BTC

182aYVmvc7rdw8WrNeCuZYjBGuxBtYQLmn

Never lend so many money to accounts with no reputation handling that amounts... he was trading 65$ starbucks cards and then he receive a 1 btc loan  thats about 10x his original deals.

I got warned about those Starbucks giftcards just in time. He had offer a 1000$ giftcard as collateral for a loan. Sneaky Sneaky.

Not sure if it's the same guy, but seems to have the same MO ($100 GC for $40 BC), has been scamming on other forums too.

https://hashtalk.org/t/starbucks-gift-cards-for-sale-100-for-40/4714/30

No big shocker, but he failed to make payment on time.

May those coins be poison in your life until you return them.
I do hex thee.

The issue with multiple people sending loans really is something that needs to be sorted... what are people's thoughts on a thread in this section with updates of all loans sent in public? Wouldn't be that much work and might be a useful last glance check for lenders...

Like a loan ledger.
Loancoin.

Like a ledger I guess... would be simple to keep updated. I'm happy to start doing this for the community (and could easily be updated by me if lenders or borrowers post in the thread). Would this be a useful service?

Damn that blows.  Hope you guys figure out a ledger of some sort so this type of thing stops happening.  Seems like a few people lost a decent amount of money, hope this guy slips up and gets caught.