Buying $1000 in BTC

[The Madhatter]

He changed the deal in the email. He wanted to trade 5x the amount. "If it's too good to be true, it probably is."

He told me that he's not a "geek" so he wouldn't even know how to scam me. When I hear promises like that before a trade even begins I just walk away. I have a lot of experience in dealing with payment fraud. I've heard those promises before.

There is a chance he's not a scammer and I am just being overly cautious. In any event; I am not interested.

[db8393]

If he has $50K to spend, it might be best to do this deal in person.  You could write up contracts, get a copy of his passport drivers license etc.  You could use an escrow service also.  You would probably want to verify his place of work, home address etc.     

[jgarzik]

Escrow.com's fee for transactions over $25,000 is 0.89%.
Clearcoin's fee for large transactions is 1%.

With the BTC buyer using escrow.com and the BTC seller using clearcoin, I bet something could be arranged.

[Jered Kenna (TradeHill)]

Or he could do several smaller trades.
I agree with the too good to be true normally but curiosity would have kept me around until the fake cashier's check arrived.