Could help you on this: Personal Security Checklist (note: treat it as a guide, you don't need to do everything and double check first)

It gets easier once it becomes a habit (kinda like muscle memory.) You could also use what happened today as a motivation whenever you hit a roadblock.

In case you missed it, the forum has an unofficial discord server, see: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5247383.0

I know it's not telegram, but at least in discord you can block DMs from strangers. I say it's a must feature since scams DMs from crypto communities are a lot more prevalent in my experience.


If you want the opinion of bitcointalk people, taking the discussions here is still a hundred times better. One, more people will see it. Two, you'll have less worries about scammers/trollers impersonating a member from here.

I'm assuming it's self managed judging from your situation. I did make a test account to be sure and was asked to setup a 2fa. It's kinda weird that there seems to be no way to decrypt the cloud backup unless you're logged in to your account. This is the only way I found, see: https://youtu.be/XhGIMGqyUlI

I suggest informing the customer support about this and see what they can do for you since coinbase commerce hold the decryption key.


Here's a bit of hope for you op: I found a thread with a similar situation and they were able to recover the account after talking it out with the support.

It doesn't look like everyone is losing judging from their ANN thread. In any case, You could let them know about your situation in detail by posting there, they're pretty active, see: Metaspins.com - Crypto casino - Up to 60% Rakeback Wagerfree. And if eventually you think you're being scammed as well as have enough proof to back it, you could start a scam accusation about them, see: scam report format

For the other websites, you could try searching if they also have an ANN thread/account in here by attaching "site:bitcointalk.org" when you search in your search engine.

I'd do a fresh install of the OS as a lot of things are not picked up by AVs. (EDIT: I was talking about the aftermath here, when you have to get rid of the malware.)

Storing sensitive information in a notepad is also insecure. I suggest using a better authenticator app like aegis (https://getaegis.app/) which allows you to encrypt your tokens/backup files and an offline password manager that also has encryption like keepass (https://keepass.info/). They're open source and feature-packed, visit their websites to see a full list of features.

If you're not from the said region, it could've been for an entirely different reason. Are you sure the email mentioned it's aligned with anything about EU compliance? can you share a screenshot?

For alternative centralized exchange with no mandatory KYC, also see: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5414539.0
Note that they can at any time request for you to verify your account. They're are also likely to get stricter over time.


I'd say it depends on the overall situation

People from the EEA needs to undergo the new verification and refusing to do so will restrict the account, see: Why Do I Need to Re-verify My Binance Account (EEA Countries)

As for holding it off, binance will give you notices before your account becomes restricted, you may refer to that. You may also check this thread for ppl's personal experiences: Binance asking for KYC, again

I doubt there's anything that could make you immune to this. In fact if these mind tricks suppresses your emotions for a prolonged period, you'll be increasing the risks to mental health issues.

That said, if you’re under extreme stress and/or is generally more vulnerable than others, you don’t really have to push yourself. Don’t get the hustle culture get into your brain so much, it’s not okay to grind until your soul get sucked out.

I don't think so. If op weren't able to connect with the live customer support, the bot will just assume one of the auto-responses solved their query. It would be best to get a confirmation from binance itself that the case has been escalated (or whatever solution they route op to).

If you don't need it, you can close your DMs from non-friends! you have the option to whitelist servers you trust as well, see: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/217916488-Blocking-Privacy-Settings-


Don't forget to also hit the "report spam" button on discord. When I can, I report to mods of mutual servers as well. Sometimes they do mass kicking of dm scammers and/or publish "be careful" announcements.

Can you try to boot from a flash drive and backup your files?

Delays in verification is something I see a lot unfortunately. To escalate your case, you would need to reach out to support. Note that the bot will try to suggest related articles first and if that doesn't solve it, you'll have the option to be redirected to a support agent, see: https://www.binance.com/en/support/faq/how-to-use-binance-support-7b0fd3ccb821483a99ff8f5cda374ee9

You can spend thousands of dollars to hire investigators for a chance they might be able to piece something out. Emphasis on "for a chance"... as you can guess, it's not advisable in most cases.

The most attainable thing you could do right now is to take precautions so this never happens again and maybe monitor the transaction in the blockchain to see if your scammer is dumb enough to send your coins directly to an exchange [unlikely chance so keep your expectations low]. You could use block explorers like oxt.me which labels known exchange addresses.

Were you able to see if your entry was received? there should be some sort of success message. If so, how long have you waited? I see contact information on their website, you can try sending them a message about it if you think you've waited long enough. 

or do you mean you can't access the website? it works fine on my end.

That’s unlikely seeing how $25k is no small amount scammers would give back. If you have only given them a much smaller amount than that, try your luck with this:


I would also suggest reading the whole reddit thread as some tips could be of some use to you in case the scam bait doesn't work.

I would suggest using the .com because if you try to login in both websites, you'll get:



Looks like what happened was they went from .com to .is years ago, see: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1fnvtt/perfectmoney_changing_from_com_to_is_following/

and later had access to their .com domain again:

News published on: 27.01.20

LBC has a list of their supported payment methods along with its official/main website, gonna leave this here as it might come handy: https://localbitcoins.com/guides/how-to-sell-bitcoins-online#toc4

If we're talking about no mandatory CEXes, take a look at: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5414539.0

Perhaps instant exchanges could be of some use for some quick swaps, see: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5218464.0
Speaking of swaps, there's also BrainbossXchange Service {BTC/NGN Altcoins/BTC/Stablecoins}

From their post, op has a business where they make plug and play exchanges. It's not surprising that they don't know how to run as I imagine people who actually know how to wouldn't think of such concept (provided that they have good intention). Took a quick look at the website and it has fake stats and reviews from stock images, no surprise there.

Have you tried resetting your password?

But before anything else, I advise you provide supporting evidence to back your claims, op. Threads without backing are already taken with a grain of salt but since most lbc scam accusations for the past months are also provided without supporting evidence, imagine how your thread will be perceived 

With technology rapidly improving, liveness/video verification can be bypassed e.g. deep fake, etc. It doesn't help that data breaches and average people are mindlessly sharing their information online are all too common of a happening. In fact, buying and selling of fraud accounts are already in high demand in the black market, see: