[EDU] How to spot a scammer (Read this before lending your coins!)

[legendster]

What does BTCJam do if someone defaults on a loan?

I see a few that I know are from deadbeats on this board.

Will BTCJam attempt to recover the funds from the scammer(s) via legal action?

All they did was collect people's ID and facebook page and a utility bill etc.  What do they do with that information if someone defaults?  Do they call the authorities?

THEY DID NOTHING on the investments that I made.

[bernard75]

How to spot a scammer?
Just look at his Trust.

[hardinero007]

boss. here's a loan bennett616 failed to pay me.  doesn't respond to pm.  please put him a scammer tag.  thanks.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=226609.0

[Tomatocage]

boss. here's a loan bennett616 failed to pay me.  doesn't respond to pm.  please put him a scammer tag.  thanks.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=226609.0

Will update the list. Thanks for the update, and sorry to hear he didn't follow through.

[jesse11]

Great Thread, Thank You for this Tomatocage   Good Stuff

[Kiders]

hello . today i got a replay from a user called legitnick who hosted a 5 btc 4th of july raffle.  on the front page of the raffle Mod has added scammer / phisher note , and under that the message was approved by John .

I would like to know if the link he sent me is safe or how can I find out if its safe for the future


DO NOT CLICK THE LINK IN THIS QUOTE
https://bitcointalk.org/download/47200539/695bda9a161cd60bdecf43c2678229369eb3e48a/mtgox%20code.zip  this is the main link :S

 

Winners are as follows:
Kiders
Tranzistor
yayayo
AMDFun
humanizator
Obama
juronimo
albert speer
hurro
bachelor

Congratulations on becoming one of the winners!  
Below is a private key loaded with .5 btc.  I picked these up before mtgox cancelled code creation, so you can still redeem them.  
I've uploaded the key, password to open .com file is legitnickiscool

Private Key Download

Please post on the Winner announcement thread once you get your coins. Thanks and enjoy your extra coins!

[BCB]

you gotta put juneteenth on this list.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=127112

[voxelot]

All I have to say is let us not hate on noobs too much... I realize that being new begs the question.. maybe they just joined to gain something.. but some are new for legitimate  reasons like myself.. let hating others be done with =D

Utmost Regards,

Vox

[siennamar]

thanks for the info.

[alexmarkley]

Maybe this is the wrong place to post this question, but based on this list of scammer flags it is going to be very very hard for a newbie to establish him/herself as being trustworthy in the community.

So... how does a newbie prove trustworthiness? I've posted here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=342125.0 trying to stimulate some trades and I have done two successful trades with LocalBitcoins.com and received positive feedback both times. https://localbitcoins.com/accounts/profile/alexmarkley/feedback/unconf/

But again, based on this thread it seems like I have a long uphill climb.

3. Use of a seemingly realistic first/last name as their forum account name
4. Signs posts with full name

In particular, these two red flags seem like a pain in the butt to me. I totally get why a scammer would try to falsely establish trust by using a fake-but-realistic name. But what about those of us who have invested a lot of real world effort into building a trustworthy name? I value my name a lot.

Any thoughts or advice on this?

[Bitlend]

Was great to read this thread.

Great advice.

Cheers

[C10H15N]

Thanks, I have been considering peer to peer lending as a means to get more RoI out of my portfolio but this is making me think twice

Then you need to think about eighteen more times.   

From first-hand experience - The bigger the trust, the bigger the scam.

[Vod]

In particular, these two red flags seem like a pain in the butt to me. I totally get why a scammer would try to falsely establish trust by using a fake-but-realistic name. But what about those of us who have invested a lot of real world effort into building a trustworthy name? I value my name a lot.
Any thoughts or advice on this?

You value your name - no one else does.  You have to prove your value to us with your contributions to the community.  There are no shortcuts.

[alexmarkley]

I value my name a lot.

You value your name - no one else does.  You have to prove your value to us with your contributions to the community.  There are no shortcuts.

I agree. I'm not looking for shortcuts, just hoping to avoid getting red-flagged simply for using my real name.

Can you give any pointers on, "contributions to the community?" I've been doing some trades and I've put up some products for sale on coingig. I have a software development background but no time to contribute patches etc.. I've made some posts here on the forum, but I don't want to wantonly post all over the place.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

[hostmaster]

i most liked on thread "Newbies, NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH OTHER NEWBIES, EVER."
The other newbie might be bad guy... good point.

[BenAnh]

You're only 99.9% right as I'm a newbie and I'm trading in high volume without a problem; however I also attract lots of scams which I know how to fight back.

[CrackedLogic]

Very helpful,but I'm surprised dank is not on the list.

[Tomatocage]

Updated OP to include:

13. Any user who tries to get you to use escrow through Escrow.com is a scammer, PERIOD.

[Newar]

Some info here (BTCJam related): http://btcjamscam.com/

[Drazisil]

If this is still being updated, bitcoin212 https://btcjam.com/users/27023 seems to be trying to run a pyramid scheme. Not sure, either way posts don't make sense.

Just as a warning.