I find it staggering and mind boggling how one could send $5000 to a website whose owner/s can't even afford SSL encryption.

It's no wonder that these scams flourish and thrive. It probably doesn't take a day to design and publish such a cheap site. $5000 here, $5000 there. It only takes 20 naive victims for them to "earn" $100k.

Have a look at their incredibly effective scam strategy:

IMPORTANT: We get more than 300 emails a day and can not answer them all. Please read this carefully: Antminer D3 is not in Stock now. Our first delivery is sold out but the next delivery is available at: Sepemter (15th – 30th) Pre-Order possible. We will deliver the next delivery to you in the beginning till middle of October. If you want to get a miner guaranteed, you have to order now and pay within 3 days. If the payment has to be with us within three days after the order, otherwise the order will be canceled. NOTE: Ship-out to you is October the 1st till 15th!

The "delay" is there to prevent you from screaming scam while they bait more victims and steal more and more money. The "not in stock now" is meant to unsettle the victim, to prompt him to pay immediately before the miners are purchased by others.

October 1st to 15th. That's the crux of the scam. Delay delay delay. Steal as many coins quickly before the scam is discovered.

Criminals.

This can be a dilemma as one never knows what might or could happen when trading on exchanges. They can be quite unpredictable. In any case, you need to be prepared for the unexpected or the inevitable. If you mined the coins, you may be asked to substantiate that. If you purchased them from BTC-e and if they are tainted, then you might be asked to justify the purchase.

Bitstamp probably subscribes to Elliptic's forensic services which does an excellent job in blockchain analysis.

You have the audacity to complain. Being part of a signature campaign is a privilege one should be grateful for and appreciative of.

Why use a brand new account to complain? Are you scared of being removed from the campaign and replaced with other more grateful (and patient) members?

You forget that the campaign manager, like every other normal human on this planet, might have other things to do. A family perhaps. Work. Etc.

 

This reminds me of a certain Dank from years ago. I wonder what happened to him. Is he still here? Or is he serving time somewhere?

Once in a while we get a Dank revival here. It is sadly entertaining.


--
Edit
Looks like he hasn't been active for a while 
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=21728

I remember one case here where he was asked to provide proof of origin of coins or the fiat used to obtain those coins. They also have an uncanny habit of giving customers the silent treatment when they are investigating something. Very unsettling and worrying especially if it's all the coins or money you own. A hostage-taking situation.

Verification is almost always mandatory for fiat or coin movements to/from this exchange and isn't usually dealt with instantly. When KYC-vetted and verified there is still a chance that you might be asked for more information about your financial circumstances, sometimes extending to a point where it feels personally invasive and intrusive. Non-compliance will trigger the silent treatment thing I mentioned above.

They are regulated and properly licensed. They are jealously protecting their accreditation in Luxembourg so you should expect to be required to verify your account.

If the coins were mixed, I think obfuscation will severely impact the chances of prosecution or a successful trace. If the thief used a sophisticated mixing system (perhaps by anonymously trading the coins for an altcoin which would perfect the mixing process) and the theft having happened a long time ago, even the most revolutionary form of blockchain analysis will lead to a dead end. Not all prosecutors are endowed with a level of intelligence allowing them to understand the complex nature and structure of the blockchain. Some of them are relentless and good... really good, yes... and will keep digging in the name of adding a successful case to his career.

Even with advanced blockchain forensic tools, I believe the task of tracing these coins would be herculean.

 

I managed to successfully withdraw my entire balance on my MyChoice card today, Sunday morning. Never leave a big pile of money on the card. Card issuers are so unpredictable and the scary part is they don't say a word about policy changes until boom the ATM simply says no to your withdrawal request. Only then will you know that the shit has hit the fan.

This forum is to be thanked for being a platform and community where people can share important information about these exchanges and card providers. Some of them are as quiet as a mouse and will not say a word about impending disasters. Well, I withdrew my entire money on the card and will not load it with any bitcoins until I have solid assurance of the card's acceptance and solvency.

Stay safe, everyone.

I have a feeling you were expecting someone here to lend you those 0.02 bitcoins and use the picture of that phone as collateral. I don't believe for a second that you would send it somewhere when you know very well that the cost alone of sending it is beyond 0.02 btc.

Or perhaps you made this offer and hoped someone would call/whatsapp/email you and then you would try to convince the lender to send you the btc without the collateral by bombarding him with the usual "my friend trust me" "brother believe me" "my good sir have faith in me"... I know certain people from certain countries have this trait. All nice and cute and calculating in their approach. The phone is the bait and not a collateral (come on, admit it). The "contact me on..." is the strategy.

I withdrew my entire balance on my MyChoice card. I think my heart stopped that moment when it said "processing your request" on the ATM's screen.

Will order this Golden card on Monday and give it a try. If it works flawlessly I will use it as my only bitcoin card.

I would be very interested in how you intend to do this. Would you mind explaining how you plan to try to build trust?

Let me try to guess. Would it be something along the lines of asking the OP to send bitcoins first? Or perhaps discussing this on Skype? Perhaps by asking the OP to send half of the bitcoins first? Did I guess correctly?

Or is it something else?

Whatever the case, I am on fire here about how you want to build trust should OP decide to contact you as you requested. Help quell this fire by giving me some very enlightening answers about your intentions.

Waiting.

--
Apologies for reviving this thread. I just couldn't resist. I have the weed them out.

omg.. I'm nervous as heck. Good thing it's Sunday tomorrow and they're closed in Gibraltar so they won't be locking cards on that day. I have one last withdrawal to do and my MyChoice card balance will be zero. Then they can do whatever they want with my card. Just let me get the last $1400 out of my card.

I wasn't told anything about this. But I did get a hint. My card provider mentioned something about a new card with contactless functionality in beta stage.

0.2 BTC is not a "measly" amount. You might think it is but it is seriously big money for some if not most here. You are trying to make it look insignificant to attract offers and to brush off any (very valid) fears of not paying after you get the bitcoins.

So let me summarize this scam's modus operandi:

1. You want to use a risky and reversible payment method AND to top it off, you don't want to send first. Nice.

Next.

2. You ask... no, demand... that anyone taking up this offer must send the "measly" 0.2 bitcoins to you first. You seem to have just woken up after a long sleep.. this is August 2017 with 1 BTC valued at USD 4300 and not 2013 when it was $100 each in which case I would agree 0.2 would have been "measly" back then.

Reputation earned outside the forum is not transferable to the trust system here. You may have straight A's on other sites but they are null and void here. Escrow is a must (not sure if you forgot that in your post above or if you intentionally left that field blank).

Nobody should trade with this guy unless he agrees to transact more safely. If you value your bitcoins, send to him first at peril of losing them.

I am about to order and will pm you details in a few minutes as I need something clarified and explained.

Thanks and I hope this will be the start of a good relationship again. I did enjoy your services up until the Transforex issues.. then I was a bit disappointed but if this turns out to be a good hassle-free experience I look forward to using your exchange for all my future bitcoin transactions. I just returned from the ATM and started withdrawing my $3k on my Wave Crest card. My hand was literally shaking when I put the card on the ATM, fearing Visa International already blocked all cards for those card holders not residing in the EU. The card allows max $2k per day so I have to worry again if it will still work tomorrow.

I sent you a pm.

I admit your other post/thread about Wave Crest being acquired by Visa International scared me a bit. So yes, I am going to try your card. I just opened an account and will verify it after ordering the card. I hope this is a credible and trustworthy card. I had a not so nice experience with your company last year when you had operational issues with your card provider Transforex.

I do want some clarification though about this Golden card. It says ATM yearly limit is $25,000. What happens after one reaches that transaction amount after, say, 4 months? I'm assuming the card will become inactive and dormant after one reaches the annual limit and these fees will apply:

Inactivity Fee   
2 USD per month   
If there is no transaction within 6 consecutive months, a deduction will be conducted from the 7th month. If your balance is zero for more than 6 month, it will be cancelled automatically.

Or is it possible to order more than 1 card?

Sounds like a scammer plus troll combined in one. That useless poll, for one, is for his pleasure of seeing who actually polled his thread (or fell for it).

Then we have the phone story. First post, no pictures, no response to those showing interest in it. I think he prefers that you all pm him so he can give you his skype... every scammer's playground.

Or maybe he doesn't have screen shots with signed and named proof of the phone in his possession. This happens when one types before thinking so he ends up realizing this won't work and this first post basically killed the account and his credibility.

Given the silence, I can assume he is busy trying to "sell" something else. On another account.

The goal is to-the-point and simple: steal your bitcoins.

The strategy is one or a combination or all of the following:

1. Convince you to send the bitcoins first by providing false assurances to send payment for those coins later and/or

2. Asking you to send small amounts of bitcoins first if he detects you are paranoid about not getting paid (after all, something is better than nothing) and/or

3. Asking to check if you really are trustworthy and requesting to use teamviewer so he can try to steal your coins remotely and/or

4. Sending you fake ID and documents to give an impression of trustworthiness and/or

5. Asking you to provide sensitive information such as mnemonics or recovery phrases etc related to your wallet and/or

6. Offering to pay with risky reversible payment methods which are almost always reversed or charged-back after you send the bitcoins and/or

7. Offering to pay with stolen funds originating from hacked accounts and/or

8. Inviting you to Skype so he can financially rape you within the four walls of the chat room without being alerted or warned by vigilant members of this community.

 

This is what happens when you don't think of the consequences of your actions. It might sound unfair to you but this is a precautionary measure to ensure the community is spared the risk of exposure to frivolous offers.

Asking for a loan of USD 4000 and offering to secure it with worthless collateral was a reckless attempt to put certain naive people here at risk of parting with their bitcoins. Thus the red paint.

Always think before you type.

That's silver and doesn't look like you will get an appraisal value of $1.5k.

And the terms of lenders here are almost always 1) suitable and appropriate collateral worth 120% or more of the requested loan amount and 2) a believable intention to repay that loan.

If that's platinum or white gold, then that might work as collateral but it has to be appraised by an independent and knowledgeable appraiser acceptable to the lender. It looks like silver though.

How convenient that "it's been sold" after you were asked to post pictures with signed and dated proof of their existence.

And the online store... care to share a link? I know it's irrelevant now since you happened to have just sold the phones but it would help establish credibility if you intend to sell more stuff here.

Ok. I am interested. I will apply shortly.

I used to have a WageCan card (issued by Transforex) but you had problems last year and I was very much inconvenienced by your staff. I was told to submit more and more sensitive documents despite my account being KYC'd and fully vetted and verified earlier.

Let's see if we can rebuild this relationship again in a positive manner. I lost my faith in your company after the Transforex saga (operational issues with your card provider) but I do value trust if it is grounded on a common effort to sustain and maintain it. So I will give it a try again.

Expect my application shortly.

--
Edit. OK I just joined and will order the card tomorrow. I see the sequence of ordering is: buy the card first and then get KYC'd. No problem with that but if this turns out to be a sinister marketing ploy to simply convince people here to send $162 for the card and then you subsequently make it difficult for them to use or activate the card after payment, I will write and disseminate appropriate negative reviews consistent with previous reviews I made about my experience with your company.