Prevention is better than a cure. Please escrow.

[John (John K.)]

As a rule of thumb, NEVER pay for escrow services. Tipping someone doing it voluntarily is something different. If someone wants to be paid (usually a small amount), don't you think they'd be happy to take your "escrowed" funds as an additional form of "payment"? I say escrow ONLY w/mods or users with an extensive blemish free-trade history. I've posted somewhere else, but I will volunteer my escrow services. Do your due-diligence on me before you take me up on it though

I do require a fee for more substantial trades now (50+BTC) to deal with the extended risk. An escrow that requires no fees for bigger deals is either someone who's really good(as he is effectively looking at negative ROI with the risk) or someone who will run if any problems arises. (getting hacked etc)

[1715242023]

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[1715242023]

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[Stunna]

Good to know, bookmarked for future reference. I've been swindled quite a bit in the past in various communities and buy a variety of friends so when pre-cautions are possible you can count me in.

[uMMcQxCWELNzkt]

Newb/Jr's listen to this advice lol. I believe i have been scammed, I could have avoided the scam if I went with escrow. Unfortunately there are human beings out there who would rather take your money then attain enough intelligence to make their own money.

[Dougie]

Newb/Jr's listen to this advice lol. I believe i have been scammed, I could have avoided the scam if I went with escrow. Unfortunately there are human beings out there who would rather take your money then attain enough intelligence to make their own money.

Report him to the scammers thread. I was following your transaction because I almost sent the guy money too.

I believe his friend on the board is controlled by him too so I'd recommend reporting him too just so he can't use that account to scam someone else.

[uMMcQxCWELNzkt]

Newb/Jr's listen to this advice lol. I believe i have been scammed, I could have avoided the scam if I went with escrow. Unfortunately there are human beings out there who would rather take your money then attain enough intelligence to make their own money.

Report him to the scammers thread. I was following your transaction because I almost sent the guy money too.

I believe his friend on the board is controlled by him too so I'd recommend reporting him too just so he can't use that account to scam someone else.

I cant report him yet as the loan is still valid, it ends on the 6th and I would hate it if he was legit but go banned before paying back the loan lol. He has not been active since that day so I doubt he would be scamming anyone else with his account.

[Dougie]

I cant report him yet as the loan is still valid, it ends on the 6th and I would hate it if he was legit but go banned before paying back the loan lol. He has not been active since that day so I doubt he would be scamming anyone else with his account.

I thought it was due yesterday, sorry.

Hopefully he pays you back but it's not looking great. I got scammed recently too. It really sucks. Makes you lose faith in humanity.

[lophie]

2) They meet an escrow person, someone who's CANNOT to run with the amount transacted.

BTW it should be this way and not "unlikely", But for some reason no one likes 2 sig addresses!

I don't mind if it was 1 sig and John was the escrow  , Yes John you got a stalker now, Deal with it 

[Hfleer]

+1 Very good idea to use escrow.  Probably a good percentage of the recent new users are scammers, as well as some of the non-recent users.

[The Koolio]

Hya guys,

I have started a new escrow recently and I offering discounts to my customers for a good few weeks until the website is up. Please see the thread below, if you wish to talk live with me either PM or even chat to me in the BTC-E chatbox as I am one of the moderators on there. I am located in the Midlands, UK, and I am more than happy to meet in person for extra security and you can even have an ID proof.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=219412.0

AS THIS THREAD SUGGESTS, DON'T RISK BUYING ANYTHING WITHOUT AN ESCROW.... FOR THE FEE'S INVOLVED THIS IS A BARGAIN TO PAY FOR EXTRA SECURITY!

[CoinGuard]

Learn about cryptographic escrow!  Actual "How It Works" text from my escrow utility available at https://casascius.com/btcaddress-alpha.zip


How Three-Party Cryptographic Escrow Works

Escrow allows two people to transact in Bitcoin while leaving their funds visible to everybody and accessible to nobody until somebody releases them.  It allows the payer or the payee to release funds to one another, and also lets a third person decide for them if the two can't agree.  The third person never has access to take the funds, and is only needed to release the funds if the original two can't agree who gets them.  Whoever gets a copy of all three "invitations" gets access to the funds....

Casascius, the 3 party cryptographic escrow sounds like a neat solution. Who offers this service?

Kato, I've implemented Casascius cryptographic escrow into an easy to use web service that doesn't need any 3rd party intervention. So two people could transact between each other and handle escrows themselves without having to trust a 3rd party. I don't save the wallet addresses, payment codes, or private keys to the database. I don't want to highjack the thread just wanted to point that out.

[paraipan]

...

Kato, I've implemented Casascius cryptographic escrow into an easy to use web service that doesn't need any 3rd party intervention. So two people could transact between each other and handle escrows themselves without having to trust a 3rd party. I don't save the wallet addresses, payment codes, or private keys to the database. I don't want to highjack the thread just wanted to point that out.

Lol, how is that? Please enlighten us how your web service works.

[CoinGuard]

...

Kato, I've implemented Casascius cryptographic escrow into an easy to use web service that doesn't need any 3rd party intervention. So two people could transact between each other and handle escrows themselves without having to trust a 3rd party. I don't save the wallet addresses, payment codes, or private keys to the database. I don't want to highjack the thread just wanted to point that out.

Lol, how is that? Please enlighten us how your web service works.

Because the important part of the process is generated by the user client side. So say a buyer needs to setup an escrow, they would generate their escrow code A. Input that escrow code A into step 2 to generate a wallet address and payment code. hit complete the escrow transaction and send an email to the other party with the details of the transaction. Send another email to themselves with the escrow details. Originating user never sees the escrow code B, all we store is the two escrow codes and corresponding emails. Thats all we need it's based on a 3 key transaction to unlock the funds. Both users have 2 pieces of the puzzle (Buyer - Escrow Code A, Payment Code, Wallet Address) (Seller - Escrow Code B, Payment Code, Wallet Address) (Coinguard - Escrow Code A, Escrow Code B, Email1, Email2)

I designed the system so I can never see what the wallet address or payment code are. I knew this would be a sticking point for users and in general the safety of the site. Because if I stored everything it allow people to hack the site, and so I never can ever run with funds. I don't even know what the addresses of the wallets are, nor the private key. But that also means that if you lose a piece of the escrow I can't help you because none of that info was stored.  

I know many will be skeptical but if people don't test it out how will trust ever be established. People don't have to put btc in the test escrow account to kick the tires to see how the service works.

I can easily provide a screenshot of the db tables that are stored. I will even give a trusted member access to the backend to validate I'm telling the truth.

I would even invite casascius to try it out, and I think he would be pleasantly surprised.

[bernard75]

I can easily provide a screenshot of the db tables that are stored. I will even give a trusted member access to the backend to validate I'm telling the truth.

And what prevents you from changing the system once its validated?

[rimbit]

I see a few sigs denouncing Ripple... Im with you guys

escrow is fine, if you can trust them. The way the Govt. is hounding currency exchangers, it wont be long before escrow comes under attack... or am I missing the point?

[mrhelpful]

Thank you so much, I been meaning make a list of all the "trusted" escrow people on the forum.

+1

[Kluge]

I see a few sigs denouncing Ripple... Im with you guys

escrow is fine, if you can trust them. The way the Govt. is hounding currency exchangers, it wont be long before escrow comes under attack... or am I missing the point?

Ya - John offers the most popular escrow service as far as I can tell, but does not live in the US, doesn't have any physical or registered businesses relating to the escrow service in the US (AFAIK), probably doesn't have US bank accounts holding customers' USD, and has no US-controlled domain they can seize. That's practically complete protection from government interference. 

[John (John K.)]

I see a few sigs denouncing Ripple... Im with you guys

escrow is fine, if you can trust them. The way the Govt. is hounding currency exchangers, it wont be long before escrow comes under attack... or am I missing the point?

Ya - John offers the most popular escrow service as far as I can tell, but does not live in the US, doesn't have any physical or registered businesses relating to the escrow service in the US (AFAIK), probably doesn't have US bank accounts holding customers' USD, and has no US-controlled domain they can seize. That's practically complete protection from government interference. 

  Correct - and my country of citizenship does not have a history of giving in to the old States' demands. This may change though as I may need to live in the States for a few years.  Oh, and I would never do fiat-based escrows, just for the record.

[Kluge]

I see a few sigs denouncing Ripple... Im with you guys

escrow is fine, if you can trust them. The way the Govt. is hounding currency exchangers, it wont be long before escrow comes under attack... or am I missing the point?

Ya - John offers the most popular escrow service as far as I can tell, but does not live in the US, doesn't have any physical or registered businesses relating to the escrow service in the US (AFAIK), probably doesn't have US bank accounts holding customers' USD, and has no US-controlled domain they can seize. That's practically complete protection from government interference. 

  Correct - and my country of citizenship does not have a history of giving in to the old States' demands. This may change though as I may need to live in the States for a few years.  Oh, and I would never do fiat-based escrows, just for the record.

Need a place to crash? 

[John (John K.)]

I see a few sigs denouncing Ripple... Im with you guys

escrow is fine, if you can trust them. The way the Govt. is hounding currency exchangers, it wont be long before escrow comes under attack... or am I missing the point?

Ya - John offers the most popular escrow service as far as I can tell, but does not live in the US, doesn't have any physical or registered businesses relating to the escrow service in the US (AFAIK), probably doesn't have US bank accounts holding customers' USD, and has no US-controlled domain they can seize. That's practically complete protection from government interference. 

  Correct - and my country of citizenship does not have a history of giving in to the old States' demands. This may change though as I may need to live in the States for a few years.  Oh, and I would never do fiat-based escrows, just for the record.

Need a place to crash? 

Nah, I'm fine. Thanks for the offer though, can't wait to see other Bitcoiners over at the States!

[Lomus]

Does any service do computer game account escrow?