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[techman]

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[samspaces]

How exactly were you scammed? That is not clear, you got an email that asked you to wire the btc to an address, after which you would receive fiat via iban.

[SebastianJu]

How exactly were you scammed? That is not clear, you got an email that asked you to wire the btc to an address, after which you would receive fiat via iban.

I think he had send the coins to localbitcoins escrow and released them after he got a mail from localbitcoins that the funds he wanted are there.

Im not sure how they work but was the email fake or true? If true then localbitcoins would send you the money to your bank account.

Maybe i misunderstand.

[Soros Shorts]

As far as I know Localbitcoins can only hold BTC in escrow and not fiat. Therefore I suspect that the email is fake.

OP should only have released the coins after the money (Turkish Lira) is in hand.

[EcuaMobi]

As Soros Shorts said almost certainly that was a fake email.  OP can you share the whole email including headers?

[goosoodude]

As mentioned it is clearly a faked email address. Email providers like Gmail automatically flags any mail which comes from a fake account.

@techman - what is your email provider?

[seoincorporation]

Normally I don't use LocalBitcoins, 2 hours ago I opened account on LocalBitcoins and verified my account with SMS,Mail,ID. I wanted to sell bitcoin and it said if you want to create advertisement you must deposit at least 0.4 BTC.

Actually I wanted to try with 0.1 or less. Whatever I deposited 0.4 BTC and created advertisement. "stranenindivid " wanted to buy 0.4 BTC with 270 Turkish Lira.
He said that he paid money to escrow and I got mail from escrow@localbitcoins.com like this.

Hello dear xxxxx, We have got received payment 270.00 TRY and ready to send it to you. What do you need to do transfer successful? Release the coins and we will send you automatically 270.00 TRY to IBAN:TRxx
Best Regards, LocalBitcoins escrow !

Normally I search mail address on Google but I don't sleep almost 36 hours. (Why the fuck I opened account on LocalBitcoins in this situation, I don't know)
I checked my bank account but I think escrow will give my money on work hours. I released bitcoins and they're gone..He withdrawed bitcoins from LocalBitcoins immediately.

It was my first experience on LocalBitcoins, I am so sorry. I am student and 0.4 BTC is good money for me. Be careful guys..

I think as "Soros Shorts", the email you get must be a fake mail.

Why don't you contact support in that page? they must help you to recover your btc.

[OROBTC]

...

I have used localbitcoins.com only to arrange meetings in person in my city at a public place with wifi (typically at a Starbucks, hey, I'm a traditionalist).  I have done this about four times, all OK.  I give him the money, he sends me the BTC, we wait on a confirmation, and that is that.

I just like the idea of meeting my BTC seller in person.  Confidence building...  Later on I will work out depositing money in one of their accounts once I more fully trust my counterparty.

[Bralex]

Normally I don't use LocalBitcoins, 2 hours ago I opened account on LocalBitcoins and verified my account with SMS,Mail,ID. I wanted to sell bitcoin and it said if you want to create advertisement you must deposit at least 0.4 BTC.

Actually I wanted to try with 0.1 or less. Whatever I deposited 0.4 BTC and created advertisement. "stranenindivid " wanted to buy 0.4 BTC with 270 Turkish Lira.
He said that he paid money to escrow and I got mail from escrow@localbitcoins.com like this.

Hello dear xxxxx, We have got received payment 270.00 TRY and ready to send it to you. What do you need to do transfer successful? Release the coins and we will send you automatically 270.00 TRY to IBAN:TRxx
Best Regards, LocalBitcoins escrow !

Normally I search mail address on Google but I don't sleep almost 36 hours. (Why the fuck I opened account on LocalBitcoins in this situation, I don't know)
I checked my bank account but I think escrow will give my money on work hours. I released bitcoins and they're gone..He withdrawed bitcoins from LocalBitcoins immediately.

It was my first experience on LocalBitcoins, I am so sorry. I am student and 0.4 BTC is good money for me. Be careful guys..

I think as "Soros Shorts", the email you get must be a fake mail.

Why don't you contact support in that page? they must help you to recover your btc.

Firstly sorry to hear that it is never good when you get scammed what a horrible feeling    0.4 btc is enough of a loss for most people. I have used them for over a year and i have never received email from them and have never had a scam attempt that is horrible luck for you also it was 100% fake email.

To the post above he will not recover the bitcoin they are probably long transferred from there into the scammers wallet and as you know there is no reversing it once it is sent.

[fox19891989]

I think it must be a phishing email, localbitcoins is a well-known site, it is not a scam, dude. I am afraid that email is a fake email, it's a phishing email, are you sure you access the correct link?

[dothebeats]

Normally I don't use LocalBitcoins, 2 hours ago I opened account on LocalBitcoins and verified my account with SMS,Mail,ID. I wanted to sell bitcoin and it said if you want to create advertisement you must deposit at least 0.4 BTC.

Actually I wanted to try with 0.1 or less. Whatever I deposited 0.4 BTC and created advertisement. "stranenindivid " wanted to buy 0.4 BTC with 270 Turkish Lira.
He said that he paid money to escrow and I got mail from escrow@localbitcoins.com like this.

Hello dear xxxxx, We have got received payment 270.00 TRY and ready to send it to you. What do you need to do transfer successful? Release the coins and we will send you automatically 270.00 TRY to IBAN:TRxx
Best Regards, LocalBitcoins escrow !

Normally I search mail address on Google but I don't sleep almost 36 hours. (Why the fuck I opened account on LocalBitcoins in this situation, I don't know)
I checked my bank account but I think escrow will give my money on work hours. I released bitcoins and they're gone..He withdrawed bitcoins from LocalBitcoins immediately.

It was my first experience on LocalBitcoins, I am so sorry. I am student and 0.4 BTC is good money for me. Be careful guys..

Well you shouldn't believe in emails like this. AFAIK, localbitcoins doesn't offer an escrow service, so that could be created by someone who were you dealing with. It's easy to create that email and send you something like "Send this to X address and we will release the funds shortly". Next time, be careful. It's the person you're dealing with that often result into scam, and not localbitcoins per se.

EDIT: localbitcoins do have an escrow. Haven't read the first comments above me.

[Bizmark13]

...

I have used localbitcoins.com only to arrange meetings in person in my city at a public place with wifi (typically at a Starbucks, hey, I'm a traditionalist).  I have done this about four times, all OK.  I give him the money, he sends me the BTC, we wait on a confirmation, and that is that.

I just like the idea of meeting my BTC seller in person.  Confidence building...  Later on I will work out depositing money in one of their accounts once I more fully trust my counterparty.

Where I'm from (New Zealand), the major traders on LocalBitcoins accept only cash deposits without ID. If you want to send fiat via online banking, you have to submit proof of ID to prevent the risk of chargeback fraud/stolen bank details. After submitting these, you can then trade without the need for further verification up to a certain amount. Of course, all of this is not needed for trades that occur in person.

I think it must be a phishing email, localbitcoins is a well-known site, it is not a scam, dude. I am afraid that email is a fake email, it's a phishing email, are you sure you access the correct link?

I don't think the OP was suggesting that the site itself was a scam. LocalBitcoins is just a neutral platform that allows buyers and sellers to connect with each other. Scams can happen on LocalBitcoins just like the way scams can happen on eBay or Bitcointalk.

Well you shouldn't believe in emails like this. AFAIK, localbitcoins doesn't offer an escrow service, so that could be created by someone who were you dealing with. It's easy to create that email and send you something like "Send this to X address and we will release the funds shortly". Next time, be careful. It's the person you're dealing with that often result into scam, and not localbitcoins per se.

EDIT: localbitcoins do have an escrow. Haven't read the first comments above me.

They have escrow for BTC only. It's mainly to minimize the risk of the person who receives the BTC from running off with the coins before the trade is complete (and also probably because a fiat escrow is unworkable for OTC trades anyway). Hence the responsibility of ensuring that the trade is successful is up to the person receiving the fiat.

[Powerpuff]

You were probably a victim of phishing mail. Since you were just starting on the site and wanted to sell btc, you should have sold it to a buyer with a lot of feedback by sending a trade request using their advertising thread.

[Lorenzo]

I wonder if it's a better idea to just use the forums here to trade BTC for fiat rather than going through LocalBitcoins. The risk of being scammed should be pretty low if you're using escrow and aren't dealing with obvious scam accounts.

He said that he paid money to escrow and I got mail from escrow@localbitcoins.com like this.

I'm not exactly sure how they do it but isn't it easy to spoof email addresses? I've had emails that appeared to have been sent from addresses which I'm pretty sure they weren't actually sent from. Usually phishing sites can be spotted pretty easily by looking at the URL for mistyped characters but I'd imagine with emails this wouldn't work.

[odolvlobo]

I have used Localbitcoins many times. When you sell bitcoins, your bitcoins are placed in escrow, not the money. After you receive the money, you release the bitcoins. The site is quite clear about waiting until after you receive the money before releasing the bitcoins.

Also, there is no escrow@localbitcoins.com. Anyone can pretend to send an email from any email address.

[Kakmakr]

I prefer to use Localbitcoin ONLY for direct one-on-one buying and selling, with people whom I have built a trust relationship over time.
They offered me the "hook up" with local buyers and sellers and I started with small amounts to reduce my risk.
I now know these people on a first name basis, and I buy and sell any amounts. 
I prefer cash trades over EFT's and using 3rd parties. 

[pawel7777]

If the buyer knew the sellers email, then it's an obvious scam, bitcoin version of eBay's Nigerian scam, targeted at new accounts, since the newly registered users don't yet know how all the process work.

@OP, sorry to hear that.

You may consider changing the thread title, as right now: "and scammed 0.4 BTC" suggests you are the scammer (maybe change it to "got scammed")

[sana54210]

Normally I don't use LocalBitcoins, 2 hours ago I opened account on LocalBitcoins and verified my account with SMS,Mail,ID. I wanted to sell bitcoin and it said if you want to create advertisement you must deposit at least 0.4 BTC.

Actually I wanted to try with 0.1 or less. Whatever I deposited 0.4 BTC and created advertisement. "stranenindivid " wanted to buy 0.4 BTC with 270 Turkish Lira.
He said that he paid money to escrow and I got mail from escrow@localbitcoins.com like this.

Hello dear xxxxx, We have got received payment 270.00 TRY and ready to send it to you. What do you need to do transfer successful? Release the coins and we will send you automatically 270.00 TRY to IBAN:TRxx
Best Regards, LocalBitcoins escrow !

Normally I search mail address on Google but I don't sleep almost 36 hours. (Why the fuck I opened account on LocalBitcoins in this situation, I don't know)
I checked my bank account but I think escrow will give my money on work hours. I released bitcoins and they're gone..He withdrawed bitcoins from LocalBitcoins immediately.

It was my first experience on LocalBitcoins, I am so sorry. I am student and 0.4 BTC is good money for me. Be careful guys..

I feel sad for you, you should never release your bitcoins unless you have received cash in your bank account, scammers try all sort of tactics to make you fall for them, take this as a lesson and be more cautious to not do it again.

[Lethn]

Never deal with people on LocalBitcoins who don't communicate with you properly or demand lots of personal information, they're likely stalling and waiting for you to get impatient. I don't mind giving information on my personal account to prove I'm me and so on but I once got a guy claiming that he needed to see a photo of me and my bank card. Naturally I neg rated him and he tried to do the same to me, the guy claimed that it's standard practice to ask people for bank cards ( lol ) but in all the trades I've done this guy was the only one whoever asked for it.

LocalBitcoins is usually pretty reliable, but be very careful if they start veering away from the normal procedures of asking for a government ID, especially if they're asking for more than necessary bank information. The only time they should have to ask for that kind of information is if they're an exchange dealing with large volume which they're not, so to me they're just wasting time and being dodgy as hell.

Try checking this guy's username on LocalBitcoin and see if you can find any other people who have been scammed by this guy.

[umair01]

You should never release your bitcoins until you have received cash in your bank, you should learn from this mistake and make sure that you will not commit this mistake next time. Scammers go to all length to take the btc, i once got a mail from a guy saying he has send the funds and he is waiting for the releasing of bitcoins by sending me a spoof email, I told him to stop the scam tactics and get lost from there. Take great precaution in dealing with people in localbitcoins.