It's all lovely and awesome, yes, but I don't see anything mentioned about escrow. Where is it? Been scrolling up and down this thread and can't a find word about it.

Without escrow, people will struggle to blindly send more than $10k for a Rolex upfront, hoping the watch will arrive as promised.

Integrating an escrow service into your boutique's site will help build confidence and encourage buyers to trust you and your site. These are hard times and scams are rife here. Buyers will want to be sure they will get what they pay for.

Oh well then.. that says it all. No escrow. Wants a quick and free couple of bucks sent first with boots (hopefully) to follow (that's if he really has them).

Pictures.. you can get them literally anywhere. They're no guarantee the actual stuff will be delivered.

With escrow being refused, you guys all know what to do for your safety's sake. Do NOT send coins upfront. It might be only $50 but it's still half a Benjamin and you don't pick them off trees easily. People work hard for their money.

I suggest giving this a wide berth. Unless he comes to his senses and says yes to escrow.

Why do you both want his Skype and email address? Why can't you transact here with escrow protection!

Scammers use Skype and email to communicate privately so they can avoid escrow and scam their victims undisturbed.

OP, I suggest you use a trusted escrow here and nowhere else. Be careful of scammers Skyping or emailing you with links they claim sent by a trusted escrow. Scammers usually edit or spoof those links and add their own BTC address.

Beware of the "increments scam". This is when a scammer realizes they can't boss around their victim into sending the full Payoneer or coin amount upfront sans escrow. What they will then do is suggest that a lower amount be sent upfront. To make this a tempting offer difficult to refuse, they will usually offer a higher rate than originally agreed. Refuse all non-escrow proposals.

Most if not all bitcoin debit cards are affiliate cards issued by providers or banks on behalf of the globally renowned card provider associations Visa, MasterCard and AmEx. Because of the affiliation and the provider's contractual obligations towards these associations, they almost always ask for ID.

No-ID cards are available but they have useless limits. Just one purchase event and the card's limit is depleted.

Mistertango has a good card but requires ID.

The Polish cards which used to be sold here were anonymous but those were mainly scams. Either scammers had backdoor access to the cards or the banks blocked them, rendering them useless.

There are countless no-name cards in the market with low limits but they are not loadable with bitcoin.

I love the tenacity but don't you think they would have spent those coins by now? After all, scammers do crave for the high life. Easy living with the least possible effort.

A Russian suspect complicates this further. Going after him or them four years after the fact is like going after a fish let loose in the Pacific Ocean and looking for it an hour later. The Russian element means this will be an international effort which in turn means your lawyer will need other lawyers to attempt to find him. It's all about finding him first. When found, it would be nice if your bitcoins are still on his wallet.

A million $ definitely makes it worth the time and effort. Let's hope there will be a happy ending to this story.

Your lawyer might want to start the search by convincing a local court to find or rule in your favor, essentially establishing a probable cause. When you have that, then a criminal case can be opened, followed by the all-important arrest warrant. Going international means involving prosecutors and the police so they can ask Interpol to publish a red notice for this scammer. This will all take time. Update us.

Which is why giving exchanges and card providers copies of your passports is such a bad idea. If it comes to that (US authorities raiding all their servers) then names, passports, utility bills etc will all see the light of day. Being part of an investigation is never nice. Makes one nervous and twitchy when going through immigration. They scan that passport, alarm bells ring, you're taken to an office for lots of checks and questions and you miss that flight.

I didn't quite understand the rest of what you wrote above but I get the message. They're cracking down hard on crypto services.

I'm interested in how it's done as it is obviously a very sophisticated scamming technique. Successfully screwing someone while escrow is involved is the almost perfect scam.

Let me read up on this escrow spoofing story. Is this similar to those fake bank and PayPal emails with spoofed login links? How do scammers do this when it is easy to post on the escrow's official thread or even PM him to confirm the agreement?

Escrow is the best option. Pay on tracking offers no protection since anything can be inside that package.

Escrow also offer you (and not just the buyer) protection from being scammed. You know there are definitely coins reserved for you and you know you will be paid without ifs and buts. Strangers trading with each other are best protected by using a trusted escrow to act as a middle man, someone who is unrelated to both buyer and seller and will not side unfairly with either.

You should also clarify if the $50 includes the shipping cost. If it will come with tracking, then shipping will cost a lot, especially if you are sending something like a fryer or a pasta maker. I just googled it. They both look like heavy things, especially that pasta maker.

Very interesting. So they operate under 2 separate entities? One under CSSF supervision and the other outside CSSF jurisdiction? If this is true, then this seems to open a can of worms.

With both entities named almost the same, what's stopping them from using the unsupervised "Bitstamp Limited (London, UK)" entity for most if not all their exchange operations, effectively making it an unlicensed entity and giving little to no protection to traders? Whereas the supervised entity would be there to simply show they are accredited and licensed.

To avoid jeopardizing their highly valued license, I'm guessing they are operating the exchange as Bitstamp Limited (London, UK) while Bitstamp Europe S.A. is not linked to their actual operations, making it difficult for their customer base to complain about any issues (since their UK entity is an unregulated one).

They are still a very reputable and safe exchange, but this dual entity system makes me think they thought about a plan B to safeguard their Luxembourg credentials.

FINANCIAL REGULATION
Our business model, and our Service, consists of facilitating the buying, selling and trading of Bitcoins and their use to purchase goods in an unregulated, international open payment system. The Services we provide are currently unregulated within the UK.

Incredible that he managed to do all these scams without being painted red from head to toe.

You should have contacted SebastianJu directly without relying on the link provided by this scammer. Always always always contact escrow by directly looking up their profiles on this forum. Never ever rely on, use, open or trust links provided or suggested by scammers. Using that link (and the BTC address within that link) is how they steal coins.

It's about time that his account be given it's well-deserved red paint.

Trade honorably and honestly. Stop being a scammer.

PayPal is not an escrow service and they don't always protect those who send or pay first. Their fraud protection policies only apply to those which allow payments to be disputed or charged back.

Scammers exploit this by either using MITM to buy bitcoins at the expense of those who pay by PayPal (so essentially the scammer doesn't lose a single cent, even if the payment is later disputed) or by quickly spending the funds before a dispute is opened.

If you are not a scammer, you will send your coins to a trusted escrow on this forum who will confirm they do have the bitcoins and then (and only then) will a buyer send the PayPal payment. I'm expecting you to be unhappy about this suggestion. Why? Because there are no coins to be escrowed. Am I right.. or am I right? (no option for being wrong here!)

If my assumption is wrong, prove it by engaging a trusted escrow here and trading as I suggested above. I will then apologize and retract this post.

Interesting. So Wave Crest is still operating as usual but now offering MasterCard instead? I remember Visa killed their partnership with Wave Crest earlier this month. If you got this MasterCard from Gibraltar and the issuer is Wave Crest, then it looks like there is still hope out there.

What I liked about Wave Crest's cards was the tri-currency feature and the high spend limits. Their fees were very reasonable, especially if you compare it to other cards (WageCan, to name one).

There are no victims here. Bitstamp is a regulated and legitimate exchange. Blocked funds (or perceived/assumed "losses") are most probably undergoing scrutiny or enhanced checks. I suggest you regularly contact them to remind them of any open and unresolved tickets. The one thing you should all remember is that exchanges are now very busy dealing with floods of new account registrations.

Remind them regularly of any unresolved issues and they will eventually resolve it. Bitstamp has been around for nearly a decade and they are one of the very few exchanges licensed to operate legally. They have an almost bank-like status in the EU.

Try contacting their CEO on his twitter account:

https://twitter.com/nejc_kodric

Selling a Bitstamp account is not allowed. So many risks come with buying such an account. For example, you (the seller) can recover the account quickly and easily by contacting Bitstamp and going through the account recovery procedure which involves providing your previously linked email address and account-sensitive information such as previous transactions and any ID you provided to verify that account.

There is also a risk of extortion, meaning you could threaten to report the account to Bitstamp if the buyer refuses to pay you more money.

As for your risks, if the account is verified in your name, be aware that buyers with nefarious intentions can use it for things like money or coin laundering. Then you'll be in trouble if Bitstamp escalates their investigation to authorities.

At the end of the day, cards issued by traditional banks with brick and mortar branches are still the best and safest ones. If there are any issues with the card, there is always a branch to go to or a real person to talk to. Problem with these prepaid cards is they know they are an alternative for those with bad credit scores or those who want ways to pay anonymously or those who do not qualify for regular bank accounts. There are no physical offices to go to, no real person to talk to and they respond "when and if they want". That's the price to pay for these cards.

Be careful of all these new card offers. Scammers know that Wave Crest died and thousands of stranded cryptocurrency users are looking for alternatives. It's a new money making scheme. If the cards do exist, be aware of the risk of these cards being later emptied after you load them with coins or money. Another scam is card duplication or cloning before they are shipped out. Basically the scammer has a duplicate or clone of your card. When you load it with coins, he has total access to those coins too.

Hard to trust all these prepaid card offers. The less hassles in getting them, the more suspicious they are.

Yes, this is all nice and lovely. New exchanges serving the crypto community are a welcome addition to this growing industry.

Problem is this one word: TRUST. You have a spanking new account here and you are inviting people to use a spanking new exchange service.

You will need the community's trust and confidence if you want them to use that site. Exchange sites can be created overnight. Anyone with enough money to buy an exchange software (which is sold here and there like candy) can open a fly by night exchange site. Domains are bought and sold like disposable SIM cards these days.

Inviting people to send coins upfront to that site is like playing with fire. Frankly, I wouldn't, simply because there is no established reputation and credibility vouching for your service and assuring your customers that they will really get what you promise they will get.

I suggest the following: integrate an escrow system into your exchanger website (this is a major test of credibility so let's see if you will do this). Use this site's trusted escrow members.

Thanks for this update. Not sure what's happening behind the scenes. Probably flooded with registration requests now that Wave Crest died.

I better load my Mistertango account with small BTC amounts only. I would hate to be stuck with unresolved issues for days or weeks without help from their support.

The IBAN account is funded by SEPA or SWIFT. If using either method and if the source or sending account is not the same person named on the Mistertango account, they might ask questions about the transferred funds, especially if it is a really large amount.

You can also fund the account by sending bitcoins to the dedicated BTC address linked to that account. If you go to settings, you will find that address. It's a static one and doesn't change, although you might be able to request a new address (not sure about this). My address has been the same from day 1 of opening the account.

Bitcoin transactions on the IBAN account are linked to this exchange:

http://btc-exchange.com/

Any coins you send to the linked BTC address are traded at best possible rate on that exchange.

I think they changed their fee system. Check their ANN thread.

Sorry but this scam attempt failed. No bitcoins for you. Back to the soup kitchen.

So it's $799 to buy directly from your scam link, right? Which would be how? Send the coins upfront... right again?

And "NO BULK PRICE!" which would mean paying a much higher price for the phones if using a Bitcointalk trusted escrow? So the plan is to tempt or entice victims to buy at the much lower $799 price by sending bitcoins first on the condition that the transaction is done on your scam site. And you added the escrow story to make it all look and sound legit.

Scammers like you are mentally ill. Pretending to sell something which you don't have is like talking to someone who doesn't exist. You should see a forensic psychiatrist to help you deal with your online kleptomania.
 

Why not use a trusted escrow on this forum?

"Willing to pay $500" for using an external escrow service makes this purchase offer look suspicious.

Using a trusted escrow on this forum makes the transaction less complicated and far more transparent. External escrow services are prone to risks when cryptocurrencies are being traded.

The offer of $500 to use an external escrow and the new account with just 1 post are red flags.

I'm also trying to understand how your account (Hendrix minus the i) relates to this profile:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1576315