What do you have so against people trying to buy Bitcoin with Moneypak?
What does Green Dot (MoneyPak's issuer) have so against people trying to buy Bitcoin with Moneypak?
1.) Never give your MoneyPak number to someone you don’t know.
2.) Never give receipt information about your MoneyPak purchase to another party.
3.) Use your MoneyPak only to reload your prepaid cards or accounts you control.
[If you give your MoneyPak number or information about the purchase transaction to a criminal, Green Dot is not responsible for paying you back.]
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https://www.moneypak.com/ProtectYourMoney.aspxSo Green Dot recommends (strongly) against making this type of trade.
In addition to the simple fraud in which the bitcoins are never delivered in exchange for a MoneyPak, there is a more complex faud. MoneyPaks are bearer codes -- whomever knows the code can spend (or sell) the code.
These codes get siphoned from websites that accept bitcoins but aren't secure. There are a number of other methods as well:
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http://www.wivb.com/dpp/money/4_your_wallet/woman-loses-1000-on-walmart-moneycardAbout the only way the person accepting the MoneyPak code can have a halfway decent chance of knowing the MoneyPak can be successfully redeemed is to have the receipt showing the card was purchased, with a cash payment.
This offer didn't suggest that a receipt showing the purchase would be provided as well.
Why should people pay higher fees with bitinstant?
The fees are pretty comparable, but I can see how transacting person-to-person using MoneyPak can be cheaper:
To use BitInstant at a Moneygram location (the most expensive method), entering $100 actually gets just $96.01 after the 3.99% fee. After the $3.95 Moneygram/zipzap fee, the amount paid is $103.95. That is an 8% fee, overall. Then you still need to buy the coins at an exchange. So add another 0.6%.
To use MoneyPak person-to-person: a $100 gets a $4.95 charge totalling $104.95. Thus the fee is 4.95%. Since you are trading over the counter, there is no exchange fee. So the fee is half, using this method -- you saved $4. And the counterparty saved by not having to trade at the exchange either.
I sell for moneypak all the time
The OP didn't list previous trades and didn't offer to send bitcoins first. Again, MoneyPak is a non-reversible payment method so both sides are at risk of getting cheated. A trader wishing to do frequent trades might consider registering on the #bitcoin-otc Web of Trust (WoT). This would at least then lessen the risks of doing a trade using these non-reversible payment methods.
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http://www.Bitcoin-OTC.com -
http://bitcoin-otc.com/viewratings.php
