Apology for suggesting your name without asking first, John.

Thanks, Welsh.
Anyway, I don't want to act as an escrow. Too much risks and even concern. Every time someone trusts me, I wonder want can go wrong with this damn addresses or networks that can make me look bad and force me to compensate the person.

A honest person shouldn't say that he is honest. That is a judgment to be made by others. But it's impossible to make any judgment about his honesty based only on that. If he doesn't have a very good reputation, use bitmit or btcrow or send only very small tranches, waiting each time for his payment. Never send all in one, two or even three tranches even if he has some reputation. If he doesn't accept that, forget about the trade. Better loose an apparently profitable deal than all the capital you invested on the deal.

Never accepted any mining contract. It's nearly impossible to control how much coins are received, costs, etc., it's gambling with your money.

I think that if you thought about it you would reach the answer easily: the deposit is a guaranty that you don't run away with the money of people that trusted you as a escrow!

If you want to be trusted, talk with John K. Ask him to accept a deposit from you of about 5-10 btcs and ask him to post here saying that he received the deposit from you (better tip him, I would never accept the risk of mistakes, problems, etc., of being an escrow for free!). After that, members probably will be willing to trust you to the limit of the deposit. But be prepared to have to leave the deposit with him at least for a couple of months. I have some doubts that you will send the deposit, but prove me wrong.

Better use John. I have reputation, but nothing compared to the one of John.
Anyway, I doubt he will send the money to the escrow. His story doesn't convince me. I hope he proves me wrong.

Kurious, if you haven't, read this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=201461.0
Since MartinReynolds is Joshster, even if it's fake, you have nothing to loose.

Rules to avoid being scammed

1) Don't just trust the status of a member, anyone can write 500 posts and be a hero member in a short period. This just means that he invested some time on his membership. He can always decide that a profitable scam will be a good payment for his time.
2) Never deal with anyone without doing a search in the forum with his nickname, in order to check if he has scam accusations.
3) Ask for his coin address and always search it on blockchain.info or www.cryptocoinexplorer.com to verify if his address has the amounts he is claiming.[/b]
4) Be very suspicious about proposals well under market price or if he accepts your proposal under market price with no negotiation.
5) Look for the reputation of the member (his successful trades, in the form of vouches from the other party on the deal).
6) Even if he has some reputation, never send all the money in one transfer: send one first very small tranche (0.1 btc might be a good start) and wait for his payment. Send a second little higher tranche and wait again, etc. Small increments, because he might decide to pay you the first and second, to scam a bigger tranche. Always suspect if he doesn't accept to trade in small tranches.
7) If he has no reputation (including most cases when he is a newbie or a Jr.), even small tranches are a risk. Better use an escrow system, like the one of bitmit.net, or a trusted member, or you might need to send over 10 very small tranches. It can be annoying, but loosing your money will be more.
8] For big amounts always use an escrow system, unless the member has an excellent reputation.

Without evidence, all declarations of accounts hacked or on hold have little or no value.

There are still false accusations to remove, change or deny.

I will believe it when I see it. Who knows, it might help him get removed the scammer tag he just received.

By criticizing the victim and not the scammer, people might be compelling victims to avoid accusing their scammers.

This is not business, it's personal: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=197457.0
Theymos justifies the tag of CouragedOne saying that he impersonated John: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=112650
It seems this scammer doesn't learn easily. 10 minutes after getting his account CouragedOne tagged, comes again as Joshter and tries to do the same. If they are the same person, I hope Theymos will publish the IPs and all the emails of Joshter/MartinReynolds/CouragedOne.

The scammer Joshter got the contract from John is this occasion (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=200433.0). And if it's the same contract (except personal details) as the one used by this CouragedOne (he is claiming his account was hacked, but I saw no post from him in that sense and he is clearly in possession of the account: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=201265.0), that means the scammers Joshter/MartinReynolds/CouragedOne are the same person.

A scan would be better, because a text copy can be changed, but I think in this case it's enough evidence to have results. John will be so annoyed that this Joshter, finally, will receive the tag for which he (involuntarily) worked so hard. It seems that impersonating John is a capital offense that grants a quick tag from Theymos. Since Joshter and MartinReynolds are the same person (he confessed that here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=197430.msg2066486#msg2066486), I hope we will have two tags for the price of one.

It's not very important if he said that or not: the important is if he made a deal with the OP, received or not money from the Op and if he paid him his part on the deal. It's strange that he had time to answer you, but not to deny the charges of the OP and/or present evidence of his payment.

Vircurex just started trading novacoin today.

Be prepare for the worst.
If they don't pay you, open threads against each one of them  with their name in the subject here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0
Post your transaction id with a link to blockchain.info or http://www.cryptocoinexplorer.com/ and a scan of a PM where each one indicates you his address to where you sent the money.

Use an escrow like bitmit.net or http://btcrow.com/ . Read before trading: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=199658.0
With gift cards is impossible to send small tranches, so the consequences and the risk of being scammed when trading with newbies is too high.