Scammed 75 Bitcoins by Skype Scammer 'BankerBTC' - Community Beware

[Marbit]

Hi,

We are a company in IT industry and we have setup an operation to trade in LocalBitcoins primarily in India and Dubai with several LocalBitcoin accounts, most of which involve bank transfers to buy and sell Bitcoins.

Last month, one of our senior member in our company who was handling one of our LocalBitcoins accounts was approached by a guy named BankerBTC who asked to trade outside the LocalBitcoins platform in Skype. He got in touch with BankerBTC in skype and after few conversations, BankerBTC said he wants to buy Bitcoins through bank transfer and was ready to send first. Our company person was not fully aware of the various scams and tricks which could play in when trading, BankerBTC's clients sent about 20,000$ in several batches through bank transfer to buy Bitcoins from us, where BankerBTC acted as their broker.


Our company member accepted the bank deposits and after few hours sent him Bitcoins around 10 to 20 btc at a time for a total of 75 btc. Only to wait for about a  week and Law Enforcement calling up that we were involved in a Facebook scam The people who have send us money through BankerBTC all 4 of them chargedback from their bank and about 3 of our bank accounts in 2 countries have been frozen. This was a targeted scam who feed on normal people like you and me who wanted to spread the news of Bitcoin by involving in trades and spreading awareness of it.  Now we also have charges pressed against us in Dubai as one of the people who chargedback us also pressed charges against us.


As per the people what they say is how they got scammed through facebook , as per one of the person who chargedback us, his statements(all of 4 people chargedback us said the same story to Law Enforcement with little variance):


My sister's facebook account was hacked and she contacted me in Facebook saying she was in urgent need of 10,000$ and she gave me a bank account to deposit funds and i send the money to it. After few days i found that my sisters facebook account was hacked and i file  a chargeback.


How can someone send 10,000$ to someone without confirming via any other means phone, relations etc, and all 4 people use the same story as Facebook relation need money and i send money to them and later found that i was scammed.


Many of the people suggested that it is a coordinated scam between the people who charged us back and BankerBTC so they all get their cuts in the scam, but we don't have evidence in hand to back it up as we think it can be a possibility.

Even Law  Enforcement does not understand what Bitcoin is and turns a blind eye towards us and we are robbed of 75 BTC and this can happen with anyone, as Governments and Judicial system should get more knowledge and understanding of what Bitcoin is.


Yesterday we found a great evidence to prove that we were scammed by a serial scammer and we are innocent of what had happened, the same BankerBTC has scammed another LBC trader ( https://localbitcoins.com/accounts/profile/duguerre/ ).

DuGuerre was scammed about 6000$ (SGD) by the same guy about an year back.




https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=838945.msg9366588#msg9366588



https://muut.com/i/localbitcoins/fraud:skype-scammers



Bitcoin news sites make some articles about how government is unaware of Bitcoin and with the lack of their knowledge and understanding can turn a blind eye towards Bitcoin related issue. This kind of issues should raise awareness of bitcoin amongst people and government as we believe it is the future of money.


No we have evidence that BankerBTC is a serial scammer and we want to alert the community to beware of such scammers. And if anyone has encountered him and or have any details about his identity it will help us a lot and any advise on how to tackle this legally will also be helpful. This is cold calculated scam which others should  beware of and hope others don't fall for it.

[Yoga4]

This is the exact reason I stopped selling sadly. I am sorry to hear about your story and wish you the best in the future.

[Nobitcoin]

Feel much better after losing around 1 BTC gambling after reading your story. Sorry for your loss and I can't believe the law is on the scammers side.

[greBit]

This looks like a calculated scam and this guy should have scammed more people, and if all people can speak out and give some lead we can catch this guy, and  i also think the people who chargedback you also were involved with him and they are a team.

[koshgel]

BankerBTC who asked to trade outside the LocalBitcoins platform in Skype.

I know you said your coworker didn't know the scams but that is a massive red flag. The whole point of an escrow site is to trade through there to prevent scams.

LBC may be able to help with more of his information if you give them proof.

[HarHarHar9965]

This scam is now a global menace across all the continents. Whether it’s Americas, Asia or Australia, the modus operandi is the same. BankerBTC traps the BTC seller and negotiates a buy deal over Skype conversation, and his accomplices in various parts of the world transfer the money to the seller’s account, and after receiving BTCs, claim a charge back from the financial institutions alleging a Facebook hack. While BankerBTC plays safe by remaining behind the scene, his accomplices take some risk in claiming the chargeback as they front the scam and pose as victims.  As financial institutions don’t want to get involved they mostly allow the charge back threatening the seller with criminal consequences. So scam accomplices mostly succeed in receiving the chargeback, which they share with BankerBTC.  Even if in rare situations they don’t receive the charge back, they have their money returned from the BTC sale anyway. So it is a win-win for the scam accomplices.

[edric]

That's insane! Sorry to hear about that.  How is the court system in Dubai?  Do you think you stand a good chance at clearing yourself of the charges?

[Zorrocoin]

In a similar situation I filed a police complaint against the bank, and the scammer / scammer accomplice just disappeared and bank released my money. That’s the best approach because banks would do little to help the situation.

[Cryptology]

Selling coins is a very risky proposition whatever the payment method. I've been trading for quite some time and have seen my fair share of scam attempts. I think that your mistake was to put an inexperienced person to manage such a risky operation. This type of banking fraud is particularly vicious. You not only end up losing your coins but also your bank accounts get frozen and you find yourself having to demonstrate that you're not a criminal. Really sorry about your situation. Good luck.

[Phrone]

Hi, I am very new here. I am neither a regular bitcoin trader, nor a bitcointalker. But, for my love of the blockchain technology as a tech innovator, I got caught up in one of bankerbtc scams as a bystander. I signed up on this forum just to join this discussion, as input from member community might help resolve my case and compensate the pain that I’ve gone through. 

In my case, the so called Facebook hack victim (bankerbtc accomplice if you may) who claims a charge back of USD 6,800, also made up the same “sister” “friend” “Facebook hack” story to the banks & law enforcement, threatening me with dire consequences. He actually met me face-to-face twice. As a good will gesture, I even shared with him all the real-time evidence of a perfectly legitimate bitcoin transaction as it actually happened, and even offered to share some of his losses. But now, on the hindsight, after reviewing the evidence, and looking at the pattern of this scam and its modus operandi shared by others on this and other forums, I have very little doubt in my mind that either this guy is an accomplice of bankerbtc, or definitely an accomplice of an accomplice. Otherwise why would an honest man transfer money on a Facebook chat to a lady and actually send it to the account of an unknown male, and do it not once, but twice (by adding an unknown person as a beneficiary on his account)? As this dispute is still live and on-going, I would appreciate more feedbacks/leads from members of this community who have any info on similar scams.

[smoothie]

maybe the lesson here is not to trade on Skype?

[KWH]

maybe the lesson here is not to trade on Skype?

Or out of LBC since escrow protection was just squandered. Are you sure your employee wasn't in on it? Since your company was scammed so easily, you may want to rethink your profession, it was way to easy.
Sorry you got taken but all the classic scammer signs were written all over this deal.

[Marbit]

maybe the lesson here is not to trade on Skype?

We have taken it as a lesson, and still looking for clues on the scammer. His skype id is :  bankerBTC

[Marbit]

maybe the lesson here is not to trade on Skype?

Or out of LBC since escrow protection was just squandered. Are you sure your employee wasn't in on it? Since your company was scammed so easily, you may want to rethink your profession, it was way to easy.
Sorry you got taken but all the classic scammer signs were written all over this deal.

I'm certain it's not the employee, checked everything myself, the employee himself is a reputed and man of position in the company.
It wasn't as easy as it seems, it was an elaborate plot actually, we have a good reputation on localbitcoins and this guy spoke over the phone, and seemed good for it.
Yes, it was a big mistake on our part, but the scam turned out to be more elaborate than we had conceived.
Lesson learned.

[Marbit]

Selling coins is a very risky proposition whatever the payment method. I've been trading for quite some time and have seen my fair share of scam attempts. I think that your mistake was to put an inexperienced person to manage such a risky operation. This type of banking fraud is particularly vicious. You not only end up losing your coins but also your bank accounts get frozen and you find yourself having to demonstrate that you're not a criminal. Really sorry about your situation. Good luck.

I'm glad you understand, it's a bad situation to be in. Accounts frozen, btcs gone.

[amazonrefunder1]

sorry to hear that from you :/

[Zorrocoin]

Hi, I am very new here. I am neither a regular bitcoin trader, nor a bitcointalker. But, for my love of the blockchain technology as a tech innovator, I got caught up in one of bankerbtc scams as a bystander. I signed up on this forum just to join this discussion, as input from member community might help resolve my case and compensate the pain that I’ve gone through. 

In my case, the so called Facebook hack victim (bankerbtc accomplice if you may) who claims a charge back of USD 6,800, also made up the same “sister” “friend” “Facebook hack” story to the banks & law enforcement, threatening me with dire consequences. He actually met me face-to-face twice. As a good will gesture, I even shared with him all the real-time evidence of a perfectly legitimate bitcoin transaction as it actually happened, and even offered to share some of his losses. But now, on the hindsight, after reviewing the evidence, and looking at the pattern of this scam and its modus operandi shared by others on this and other forums, I have very little doubt in my mind that either this guy is an accomplice of bankerbtc, or definitely an accomplice of an accomplice. Otherwise why would an honest man transfer money on a Facebook chat to a lady and actually send it to the account of an unknown male, and do it not once, but twice (by adding an unknown person as a beneficiary on his account)? As this dispute is still live and on-going, I would appreciate more feedbacks/leads from members of this community who have any info on similar scams.

You say the dispute is ongoing and you are in communication with the scammer’s accomplice who is claiming the charge back by pretending to be the victim. Well, just see if you can get the transcript of his Facebook chat. I am damn sure you will find clues that will establish exact same scamming pattern as in other Facebook scams reported on this scammer.

[Phrone]

maybe the lesson here is not to trade on Skype?

Well, it actually turns out that Skype was indeed a blessing in disguise in my case. Fortunately, logs of live text chat documenting every step from receiving the buy request to piecemeal deposit of BTC to buyer's wallet addresses over a period that extended to almost 10 hours with time stamps unequivocally prove that the buyer indeed received the goods in a genuine provable transaction for which buyer made the payment. With this evidence in place the scammer's accomplice is finding it very hard to make his Facebook hack story compelling.  But, of course in any legal system the complainant always has an initial first-to-complain advantage, and burden shifts to the defendant. Without the Skype evidence and my diligence in investigating the scam, the burden would have definitely been much heavier.

[Phrone]

Hi, I am very new here. I am neither a regular bitcoin trader, nor a bitcointalker. But, for my love of the blockchain technology as a tech innovator, I got caught up in one of bankerbtc scams as a bystander. I signed up on this forum just to join this discussion, as input from member community might help resolve my case and compensate the pain that I’ve gone through. 

In my case, the so called Facebook hack victim (bankerbtc accomplice if you may) who claims a charge back of USD 6,800, also made up the same “sister” “friend” “Facebook hack” story to the banks & law enforcement, threatening me with dire consequences. He actually met me face-to-face twice. As a good will gesture, I even shared with him all the real-time evidence of a perfectly legitimate bitcoin transaction as it actually happened, and even offered to share some of his losses. But now, on the hindsight, after reviewing the evidence, and looking at the pattern of this scam and its modus operandi shared by others on this and other forums, I have very little doubt in my mind that either this guy is an accomplice of bankerbtc, or definitely an accomplice of an accomplice. Otherwise why would an honest man transfer money on a Facebook chat to a lady and actually send it to the account of an unknown male, and do it not once, but twice (by adding an unknown person as a beneficiary on his account)? As this dispute is still live and on-going, I would appreciate more feedbacks/leads from members of this community who have any info on similar scams.

You say the dispute is ongoing and you are in communication with the scammer’s accomplice who is claiming the charge back by pretending to be the victim. Well, just see if you can get the transcript of his Facebook chat. I am damn sure you will find clues that will establish exact same scamming pattern as in other Facebook scams reported on this scammer.

I actually tried to get Facebook chat evidence from the bank and also asked him a couple of times, but without any success. May be there was no Facebook hack at all, it's just a made up story by bankbtc and his accomplice. In any case the scamming pattern is the same as reported is similar scams across the world, which should be enough circumstantial evidence.

[stingers]

Are you sure that the guy who scammed you wasn't the guy who was dealing with that transaction?
Maybe the scammer and the buyer were the same people and you got scammed by someone you know.