theft/scamming way more profitable (and riskless) than legal businness

[flower1024]

what a shame...

as a friend and me decided to offer a new bitcoin service: should we steal the coins?

seems to be more profitable: and i am not able to see any risks.

(btw: no we won't do that. we'll just make sure its impossible to steal us a huge amount. but damn morality... if you would shut up i'll be rich!)

[FlipPro]

what a shame...

as a friend and me decided to offer a new bitcoin service: should we steal the coins?

seems to be more profitable: and i am not able to see any risks.

(btw: no we won't do that. we'll just make sure its impossible to steal us a huge amount. but damn morality... if you would shut up i'll be rich!)

Sad but true..

Don't loose faith though. There are many good people in this community who believe in this project and what it truly stands for.

[Bitcoin Oz]

what a shame...

as a friend and me decided to offer a new bitcoin service: should we steal the coins?

seems to be more profitable: and i am not able to see any risks.

(btw: no we won't do that. we'll just make sure its impossible to steal us a huge amount. but damn morality... if you would shut up i'll be rich!)

Its more profitable than any other bitcoin  business for sure.

[flower1024]

i have an idea

whenever i say i use a service you all should leave it immediatly.. i am the perfect scam detector

(sorry... just in a bad mood today...)

[Graet]

i have an idea

whenever i say i use a service you all should leave it immediatly.. i am the perfect scam detector

(sorry... just in a bad mood today...)

I feel your pain
If I was an outsider looking in I'd be running in the opposite direction atm
great advertising we haven't been giving out lately :/

* Graet ignores Bitcoin Discussion and Newbies and slinks back to the mining subforum

[benjamindees]

It is a shame.  But it is also part of the learning process that all economies must go through in order to discover the true rate of growth.  With Bitcoin, this will be especially difficult due to a number of unique factors.  Many of the scams we have seen so far have been shocking.  And it is shocking that people keep falling for them.  But the important thing is that the economy keeps growing regardless.

In fact, one of the unique reasons for so many scams is something that I've been saying for a while, that Bitcoin needs to develop local economies in order to really flourish.  It's much more difficult to steal from customers who know where you live.

[ice_chill]

What is the scam exactly ? I never encountered any ? maybe because I am not greedy ?

[kwukduck]

"theft/scamming way more profitable (and riskless) than legal businness"

Wow, it's just like in real life! With dollars and euros... i'm sure that now that's cleared up, bitcoin will flourish!

[Gareth Nelson]

I disagree - theft (even if you disguise it as a breakin at your service) just puts a blackmark on your reputation and thus limits future legit income.

So apart from the obvious ethics issues (which I hope I don't need to spell out), theft is actually not that profitable.

[drrussellshane]

I disagree - theft (even if you disguise it as a breakin at your service) just puts a blackmark on your reputation and thus limits future legit income.

So apart from the obvious ethics issues (which I hope I don't need to spell out), theft is actually not that profitable.

For it to lack profitability, theft sure is a thriving industry.

[greyhawk]

I disagree - theft (even if you disguise it as a breakin at your service) just puts a blackmark on your reputation and thus limits future legit income.

This is only possible in an environment where you are not a mostly anonymous entity. In an environment like here you just take off that blood soaked nickname, done a new pristine squeaky clean one and you're all set up for the kill of your next juicy victim.

[stick_theman]

Too shortsighted.  There are too many risks being a thief.

[N12]

Agreed.

As I recently posted,

Well, I can't say that the most successful bitcoin ventures haven't consisted of hacking, stealing and defrauding people. It's easy, risk free and extremely lucrative. Kind of too good to be true. Grin

If it's true and people don't find a way to make it more risky (find and punish some of the criminals, for instance), I guess Bitcoin would constitute a negative sum game in which all honest participants lose. I wonder how long such a thing could last.

I think I said similar things back when Bitcoinica was hacked. If the winners of a systems are those that destroy value, the system will not last.

[kokojie]

Not if your customers start demanding minimum verifications. I see often in the bitcoin community, people are too easy to trust someone, without demanding
minimum level of verification. I think you better be putting up your government ID, your name address, and have them verified etc... before anyone would be willing to
do business with you.

[justusranvier]

I disagree - theft (even if you disguise it as a breakin at your service) just puts a blackmark on your reputation and thus limits future legit income.

So apart from the obvious ethics issues (which I hope I don't need to spell out), theft is actually not that profitable.

I agree with this from a theoretical perspective but recent events have shown the existing online reputation systems are wholly insufficient for the task.

The cost-benefit ratio for scamming is skewed at the moment because the cost of obtaining a good reputation is too low so losing it doesn't provide a sufficient deterrent.

I've got a plan for fixing it though.

[Gareth Nelson]

I disagree - theft (even if you disguise it as a breakin at your service) just puts a blackmark on your reputation and thus limits future legit income.

This is only possible in an environment where you are not a mostly anonymous entity. In an environment like here you just take off that blood soaked nickname, done a new pristine squeaky clean one and you're all set up for the kill of your next juicy victim.

That only works for the little guys or for the thieves who break into other people's services - if you're well-known and meeting people in-person etc it'd be difficult to get a whole new identity and maintain it at the same level.

So basically, if you're a public figure, theft is more difficult.

[greyhawk]

Not if your customers start demanding minimum verifications. I see often in the bitcoin community, people are too easy to trust someone, without demanding
minimum level of verification. I think you better be putting up your government ID, your name address, and have them verified etc... before anyone would be willing to
do business with you.

True enough, although you know that this doesn't happen here.

Here it's:

  : "Hi, i have an offer where..."
  : "Ya? Who you think you are? Huh?"
  : ".... where I will give you 7% weekly and...."
  : "Here's the key to my safebox. Take as much as you need."

[moocow1452]

On a strictly pragmatic view, you can steal coins, get away, and no one would know the wiser, but the exact same thing can happen to you and you can't come back to the community for help. The thing you would want to do is get crowdfunded for something you are absolutely passionate about, since all the money in the world can't really make someone happy unless you're doing something with it. You get a system worked where the Bitcoin is just motivation or icing on the cake, and you can go a lot farther than anything you'd put your mind to on your own.

That, and on an ethical viewpoint, you are a douche-bag if you see your customers as resource to be farmed and nothing else. Don't be a douche-bag, or else three spirits will tie you to your bed and beat the living crap out of you come Christmas Eve. Or something.

[Gabi]

From my EVE experience i know that even after 5 and more years ppl keep falling for scams. Fun fact: everytime they lose more and more money

Same apply for btc 

[evolve]

This is exactly why people look at bitcoin as a scam. Con artist roam free and their victims run around supporting them, shouting down reasonable discourse with a chorus of "troll".

Even now, obvious scams are operating openly, right on the heels of the pirate fiasco, and very few people are speaking out against it (unsurprisingly,many more are actively supporting the scammers)

Its sad.

I think I need another forum break.