Following the incident reported by Doron404 below, here is a summary of what transpired (timestamp in UTC +13hrs):
09-12-2013 8:41:42I received an escrow request from Doron404 (buyer) for an MSC trade with Peezr (seller) worth a total of 2.88 BTC
09-12-2013 11:51:46I sent out a PM to buyer & seller containing Trade Details based on information received from Doron404 through the
escrow form. The Trade Details PM requested both parties to verify that the information contained therein was correct, and if so to proceed according to the instructions.
Escrow address given was: 1HjQ76Ssnoqof8Bb2Fifi28M1VJWV5maGF
09-12-2013, 14:50:35I received a PM from Doron404 asking what happened to the BTC which he just sent to xxx since the MSC has not been delivered.
09-12-2013, 14:55:57I received a PM from Doron404 asking if escrow address was xxx, suspecting that Peezr had swapped the escrow address with the BTC receiving address when replying with a quote.
09-12-2013, 15:27:42I sent PM to Doron404 confirming that the escrow address was 1HjQ76Ssnoqof8Bb2Fifi28M1VJWV5maGF as per my original PM, but has been swapped by the seller. This was said based on the quote from Peezr embedded in Doron404's PM to me.
Who is liable for this loss?In my Trade Details PM, I requested both parties to use the "Reply to All" button when communicating, so that the entire conversation regarding a particular trade can be easily tracked by all parties. I did not foresee this potential exploit, and hence did not warn users to refer to original PM when sending to escrow.
I have successfully executed 93 escrow trades totalling 682.76 BTC using this this system before this incident.
If there is consensus amongst the community that I am liable, I am prepared to compensate Doron404 for this scam.
I would also like to announce that I will be ceasing to act as an escrow agent in this thread with immediate effect.
Pouncer
Pouncer, you did a great job as an escrow agent and you are not liable for the loss in my opinion. The instructions for payment of the BTC were in your original PM. The victim was tricked by an unscrupulous and dishonest person, who is liable for this loss. What he did amounts to a criminal offense -- theft.