Bitcoin Forum

I found recently a possible new way of scamming, while I was looking for Bitmain coupons.

Several newbies post they are selling coupons then they lock the thread. Sometimes they also post an email or a Telegram account. Sometimes they say they have hundreds of coupons and they post fake images from their Bitmain accounts. Check some of the posts below:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5220816.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5218106.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5220298.0.

All of them ask you to send money first and they say they send coupons after. I wasn't scammed by any of them as I don't send money first unless I'm dealing with high reputable members (for example, I sent money first when I transacted with Biodom (a legendary member) or philipma (a high reputable legendary member, involved in Bitmain coupons deals for a long time); they are legit buyers).

However, most of them are newbies, registered a few days ago, and, most likely, they think that if they lock their topics they can't be exposed as scammers. Most likely, they don't know about negative trust, nor about the Scam Accusation board.

I highly advise - mostly the new members, but also the other ones - to not send money first under any circumstance unless you know very well the seller. Use an escrow or ask to send the coupon first and money after. Do not let yourself fooled by unreal price such as 5% of the coupon value, nor by fake images showing hundreds of coupons in their Bitmain accounts.

A similar post, but regarding auto-buy links, was also created by EcuaMobi (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3035620.0). Check this one too!

If a new account asking you to go first on a transaction isn't sketchy enough, then you (speaking generally, not to you OP) are silly. This is common sense: don't trust a complete stranger. It becomes even worse when someone trusts a stranger nobody else around knows either. And knowing the Bitcoin transactions are irreversible.. what could go wrong, right?

There are some early warning signals on scammers:
- Brandnew or newbie or higher rank but still lower ranks in the forum.
- Woke up from long period of inactivities.
- Password or email changed/ resetted recently.
- Posting in a topic, then lock it.
- Starting a self-moderated topics.
- Negative trust counters.
That one is one of them: Password changed / Woke up recently. Good signals to know potential scammers (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5204739.0)

Not all of them are scammers, but whenever you see these warning signals, they should investigate further.

Some of the criteria that you mentioned are things that all forum users should always pay attention to if they don't want to be scammed. Increasing awareness of such accounts will keep us from fraud and will be more perfect by ignoring them.

We are all really targeted by fraudsters, its just that sometimes they are not smart enough to deceive us in the usual and familiar ways. Therefore, raising awareness is a must for all of us.

One more, not willing to accept escrow (from trusted members).

The problem is that people nowadays can get easily derived by words and promises, they are allowing the scammers to take advantage of that opportunity to deceive them. It's the reason why they need to be enlighten how they can secure their funds from it. They must realize that they can't trust and believe anyone except themselves because you can't easily identify a person's real intention. There is a huge possibility that they are just looking for an opportunity to get the benefits they wanted from you that's why we need to be aware of such incidents to remind and guide ourselves.