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This thread may come off to some of you as a conspiracy theory and you may think I am crazy, that is fine.
If you won't entertain the idea of LocalMonero.co being an elaborate scam perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party
then this thread is not for you.
Let's get started, shall we?
Our adventure starts with me, wanting to convert some of my Monero to Fiat.
Any method I found that involved exchanges was quickly crossed off my list as they were a hassle, required too much fuckery or were and are simply impossible for me currently
as today is a national holiday in my country of residence and I'd be required to go to my bank in person to go through with them.
This leaves me with, to my knowledge, one option.
And that is Peer-to-Peer trading.
There are many sites and exchanges that allow for Peer-to-Peer trading, and I won't get into why I can't use most of them since that would take up too much time and is not important to the thread's main subject.
The site I chose due to hearing it is popular, and due to it having the method of receiving payment I would have liked to use was LocalMonero.co scam
I am sure many of you have heard of it and may have even used it.
So, I created my account and deposited funds.
Then I went ahead and searched the website for a seller I previously chose due to overwhelmingly positive reviews and the method of payment I wanted to use.
Note:
His lower limit before my trade with him was set to only 5,000 HUF
You'll see me explain why it is now 50,000 HUF later in the thread.
The user in question is "jmcabc2008"
I set a trade amount and clicked send trade and was greeted with him messaging me in English, despite his Hungarian description.
Transcript:
jmcabc2008: hello
jmcabc2008: welcome
Me: (in Hungarian) Greetings! This is my first transaction onsite. What information do you require?
Me: I am proficient in English too if required. (I said this noticing he wasn't a native Hungarian speaker, figured this would make things easier.)
jmcabc2008: (in Hungarian) Just send me your payment information, buddy
jmcabc2008: Just send me your payment information, buddy
Alright, nothing too strange so far other than the fact he is not Hungarian, offering National Bank Transfers from a bank in Hungary
He completely ignored my question but whatever, very professional.
But he can be foreign with access to accounts all over the world, this isn't too strange, people do this all the time.
Let's continue. . .
Transcript:
Me: What information do you require? My bank account number is xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx
Me: Account holder is xxxx
Me: Please let me know if you require additional information.
jmcabc2008: Sorry, buddy, I just opened it and I need 50,000 HUF to pay, or if the amount is small, I lose money.
Me: I cannot send you that amount, the trade I opened is 35,000 HUF
jmcabc2008: Can you place an order for 15,000 HUF? (Assuming this is meant to say "15,000 HUF more" at a total of 50,000 HUF)
Alright, this is where problems start to manifest.
He is claiming he cannot send me 35,000 HUF since he'd lose money for some reason.
You may think that if he's an international seller, he can't send me that amount because there is a lower limit to what he can send.
This may be the case, but the problem is, he isn't asking for IBAN and he isn't doing an International transfer.
His listed method is "National Bank Transfer: Hungary"
Already pretty fishy, but let's go on. . .
Transcript:
Me: I would like to exchange 35,000 HUF exactly. If you are not able to fulfill my request I will respectfully contact another seller.
jmcabc2008: Wait a minute buddy
Me: Alright
Note:
At this point I was slightly annoyed. If he couldn't fulfill my request for the amount I stated in the original trade proposal, he should tell me and we should go our separate ways.
His reasoning also didn't make sense to me, because of this I instantly started doubting his credibility.
Also note his complete tone change after this message. My theory is that another person that runs the account took over the conversation.
jmcabc2008: name and surname
jmcabc2008: name and surname
Me: xxxx
jmcabc2008: No to card 16 numbers
jmcabc2008: Send me 16 numbers
Me: xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx (Bank Account Number)
I resent my information despite me already sending it once, thinking it might just be some kind of mistake on his part.
Notice how he asked me for my Card Numbers instead of my Bank Account Number which he needs to make a National Bank Transfer along with the account holder's name.
I resent my information despite me already sending it once, thinking it might just be some kind of mistake on his part.
Notice how he asked me for my Card Numbers instead of my Bank Account Number which he needs to make a National Bank Transfer along with the account holder's name.
jmcabc2008: There is no such card, what kind of map?
jmcabc2008: Is this card of Hungary?
Me: It is my bank account number at xxxxxx Bank
jmcabc2008: Send me the picture of your bank card and let me see what the card number is.
Me: You are very funny. Have a nice day my friend.
jmcabc2008: Why are you always prompting errors? Let me cancel the order for you, buddy
Me: Go ahead.
jmcabc2008: Maybe the amount is not enough 50,000 HUF, sorry
jmcabc2008: Can I pay you in Euros, buddy?
This is the end of my chats with him. He canceled the order shortly after sending his last message.
I quickly withdrew all my funds, now not sure if I can trust the website itself. Thankfully the withdraw went through.
You can see proof of these events transpiring in my history.
After this I hopped into the Telegram channel of LocalMonero.co to tell them about the scam attempt.
I don't have screenshots of this but I basically just sent a screenshot of the latter half of the trade conversation and told them he's a scammer and beware.
To this one of the admins of the channel prompted me to PM him on Telegram, to which I told him to go ahead and PM me.
Here is our conversation:
Haha, China you say? Interesting.
Make no mistake, I don't buy a word he has to say, and here is why:
1. jmcabc2008 marked the trade as paid despite him obviously stating in the chats that he cannot pay me. i don't have proof of this as to my knowledge this fact isn't visible when looking back trades, unfortunate.
2. After he asked for a picture of my credit card, I pressed the "Open Dispute" button to have an admin handle this. Problem is, nothing happened. No admin came to answer.
Very professional.
You can see in my chats with the admin that I told him to set his lower limit to 50,000 HUF as apparently he can't trade below that, he should be able to with National Bank Transfers but I guess that's completely ignored by the admins (or maybe ignored is not the right word, as they are defending this scammer.)
This is mostly sarcasm by me, I don't have a doubt in my mind that he will continue scamming with different excuses.
Conclusion:
jmcabc2008 is a Chinese Communist Party State Actor working with LocalMonero.co staff to scam international crypto owners of their money, possibly to fund whatever atrocities they are committing.
Thank you for reading my thread and I hope you found it entertaining if nothing else.
This took 10 years to write btw since LocalMonero website is laggy and constantly down when making such a big ass thread with so much formatting.
LocalMonero.co admins are hiding behind their own platform users, pretending to be an independent traders, but in reality they are working for LocalMonero.co itself
LocalMonero.co is scam, strongly recommend avoiding it
