[Guide] Avoiding scams.

[CoinEnthusiast]

I've been trying to be a little more active on the forums. I've been troubled by the amount of scam accusations I've seen. So I've decided to write this in hopes to educate (hopefully) some early adopters of this great currency (or other ones who know better than the world)

Some quick tips:

• First and foremost. Do your research! Use goodle, search things. Use keywords like scam with whatever you are searching.
• Avoid paypal - There are some ok services like virwox(at least for me) trading person to person without escrow will most likely cost you money in the end.
• Cloud mining even if it's not a HYIP or something similiar will never return your ROI. They may be Ok if you don't want to purchase coins through an exchange but you will never profit.
• Never accept a buyers escrow. Again do your research. Listen to other peoples experiences and forumalte your own opinion.
• Don't rush. This will have you making questionable decisions that may bite you later on when you're out money.
• If it is too good to be true it is. Just like with fiat, would you give money to a pyramid or chain letter?

Longer winded explanations:

Reaearch:
This is the most important thing you can do. It helps you gain more understanding on different technoligies, scams, bad websites etc. It helps you identify known scammers. So much. The thing about Bitcoin etc is it is not going anywhere. If you feel the urge to give money to something because it seems really good, it will still be around tomorrow, next week. That is because businesses that have good business models typically continue to do well. You will not lose out by maintaining a little due dilligence.

Avoiding Paypal:
Many people have horrible experiences with this. Maybe the item you want to purchase doesn't accept Bitcoin? Maybe you could contact them and see if it's an option for them to consider including it in the future? This not only helps the community as a whole but potential future value as more and more companies begin to utilize this. Aside from that, if you really need to do this, there are providers out there with a proven track record, more than a couple posts with no reputation such a virwox. That said, Paypal has been known to suspend accounts dealing with Bitcoin due to a couple of reasons. If you note rule #1, you'll see this.

Cloud mining:
Lets face it. If you had 1000$€ whatever currency, would you give it away for 800? (If so, contact me ) First off, many of these companies are scams and will vanish soon. the others may be legit, but they are a business. They are in this to make money. PERIOD. If they can make more money mining than selling it to you, they will. You will be stupid to think otherwise no matter how much they tell you about how honest they are and want you to make money... Don't go spamming the scam accusations with garbage if you do not take this point seriously. You've been warned..

Escrow:
If you sell a car, would you sign the papers and let the buyers friend hold them before he paid you. I'm just going to take this car for a test drive with my friend to the bank and come right back to pay you. Seems stupid right? Again see rule #1. There are plenty of people on these forums with a large + trust rating that for a smaller fee than many escrows will help facilitate your trades, purchases etc.

Good comment from poster on enscrow:

I've just sold a domain name, and the buyer insisted on using escrow.com. I think that is a reputable service, and I'm happy to agree to using them. Especially as the buyer is paying the fees. Smiley I think it is important to do some research before using these services. Forum trust may not be sufficient to risk using the person for escrow. Memberships can be bought, and the trusted member may not be the current user of the account. It's best to check recent posts to see if the character and content has changed.

Rushing:
I think this gets people the most. They don't seem to think these amazing offers will be around if they don't act, buy etc right this very second. They can't wait for the confirmations so they can haphazardly spend spend spend. 9 times out of 10 you will lose because you again avoided rule #1. If the company etc in question is legit, worse case wait till next time this amazing offer comes. They're not going anywhere. Not unless they're a scammer, then you're better off.

Too good to be true
In all fairness I could have included this with Rushing, but felt it merited it's own little section. If a guy came to your house and offered to double your paycheck in one week if you gave it all to him would you?
Nothing comes for free in this world, you should know this. If not you probably still live under your parent roof. Don't get me wrong. Nothing wrong with that, but the world will teach you some harsh lessons...

The bottom line:
Due dilligence is the key and google is your friend. (you can also use tags in your searches like site:bitcointank.com thisguy scammer or "thisHasToBeInTheResult" "thisPotentialScammer") They will help filter down your results for ambiguous searches. If you're unsure of something after doing research and have a gut feeling. Go with it. You may not make your riches off that particular idea, but you won't lose either.

Hopefully this helps someone learn the lessons I've had to learn through trial and error the difficult way. If so than I've done my duty.  

[rio3233]

Nice guide man, for now i only trust on Escrow though. and i never using paypal because that you mention. But escrow not always safe though, as you can see escrow also can scam.

[CoinEnthusiast]

Nice guide man, for now i only trust on Escrow though. and i never using paypal because that you mention. But escrow not always safe though, as you can see escrow also can scam.

Thanks for the compliment. I agree on the escrow. That's why people should find what works best for them after doing research first.

[BCDS]

Nice guide man, for now i only trust on Escrow though. and i never using paypal because that you mention. But escrow not always safe though, as you can see escrow also can scam.

All these online scams got us to start up our own company .
We are opening in 2 weeks.
However it is a lot off work.
We are the first company in the Netherlands that is asociated with cloudmining.
Me and my partner lost money on several cloudmining websites.
So we wanted to do something for the people.
When the website is ready we want feedback from bitcointalk members.
To improve our service.

[notlist3d]

I would say common sense has a huge part to do with it.  Ask yourself does return sound to good to be true? Does item sound to cheap to be really sold at that?

Just by using common sense you can avoid most scams.   Also escrow when not known really is a great tool.   Should not be afraid to use escrow.  That is perhaps the best advice you can give is about it.

[CoinEnthusiast]

Nice guide man, for now i only trust on Escrow though. and i never using paypal because that you mention. But escrow not always safe though, as you can see escrow also can scam.

All these online scams got us to start up our own company .
We are opening in 2 weeks.
However it is a lot off work.
We are the first company in the Netherlands that is asociated with cloudmining.
Me and my partner lost money on several cloudmining websites.
So we wanted to do something for the people.
When the website is ready we want feedback from bitcointalk members.
To improve our service.

I wish you the best of luck. The costs in the NL are similiar to Germany. On a contract it's going to cost you about 12€ a day per S7. Not counting equipment cost this will net you approximately -4€ a day in profits. Even if you could secure half of that in a large wholesale type of account you would have 2€ a day profit, without costs like administration, insurance, location or co-location(which is a different ballpark) maintenance, managing wallets, web work, penetration testing and security services. At best doing it all yourself you could break even. Doing it to sell will lose you money. It will lose your customers money.

Also there is the weird fact you came in a scam warning guide to mention your service as your first post would send red flags for most.

[BCDS]

Nice guide man, for now i only trust on Escrow though. and i never using paypal because that you mention. But escrow not always safe though, as you can see escrow also can scam.

All these online scams got us to start up our own company .
We are opening in 2 weeks.
However it is a lot off work.
We are the first company in the Netherlands that is asociated with cloudmining.
Me and my partner lost money on several cloudmining websites.
So we wanted to do something for the people.
When the website is ready we want feedback from bitcointalk members.
To improve our service.

I wish you the best of luck. The costs in the NL are similiar to Germany. On a contract it's going to cost you about 12€ a day per S7. Not counting equipment cost this will net you approximately -4€ a day in profits. Even if you could secure half of that in a large wholesale type of account you would have 2€ a day profit, without costs like administration, insurance, location or co-location(which is a different ballpark) maintenance, managing wallets, web work, penetration testing and security services. At best doing it all yourself you could break even. Doing it to sell will lose you money. It will lose your customers money.

Also there is the weird fact you came in a scam warning guide to mention your service as your first post would send red flags for most.

No we are not mining ourselfs...
We are bcds ..bitcoin cloudmining distribution service.
We are not out to scam ... In the Netherlands you can go to jail for that.

[Quidat]

I agree with the cloud mining part largely. Most of them are scams or when they first provide the service, they did not want investors to get their money back.

[BCDS]

I agree with the cloud mining part largely. Most of them are scams or when they first provide the service, they did not want investors to get their money back.

Yes we lost over 10.000 euro spreaded over diverse websites.
All these websites turned out to be scam,s
So we felt that we as Dutch people , are being blocked to the bitcoin mining market.
Because in the Netherlands the electricity is too expensive for mining to be profatable.

[crairezx20]

This guide is good mostly for newbie's they should need to know this guide before they fight against scammers..
Also in cloud mining's and investment site. But for i don't believe in any investment and cloudminings site that can pay us without doing nothing..

[rikrikrik]

Please stop using "we" you don't represent The Netherlands, or the Dutch Bitcoin Community, and your high power costs (like ours in Belgium) are also why we have great social welfare. And I know of plenty of Dutch mining groups

[BCDS]

Please stop using "we" you don't represent The Netherlands, or the Dutch Bitcoin Community, and your high power costs (like ours in Belgium) are also why we have great social welfare. And I know of plenty of Dutch mining groups

Name 1 Dutch mining group that is mining with profit ?
We are from the Netherlands and in Belgium power is cheaper...like your healthcare,,,i pay 155,-euro a month for my healthcare..In Belgium it is like 50 euro a month so get your facts straight !!!!
There is 1 shop in the Netherlands that sells hardware an cloudmining however it is not registered legaly..it is registerd as a security company,,so yes indeed we are the first company to provide cloudming services in the Netherlands.

[Jet Cash]

Good guide. The only point I would comment on is the one re. escrow. I've just sold a domain name, and the buyer insisted on using escrow.com. I think that is a reputable service, and I'm happy to agree to using them. Especially as the buyer is paying the fees. I think it is important to do some research before using these services. Forum trust may not be sufficient to risk using the person for escrow. Memberships can be bought, and the trusted member may not be the current user of the account. It's best to check recent posts to see if the character and content has changed.

[CoinEnthusiast]

Good guide. The only point I would comment on is the one re. escrow. I've just sold a domain name, and the buyer insisted on using escrow.com. I think that is a reputable service, and I'm happy to agree to using them. Especially as the buyer is paying the fees. I think it is important to do some research before using these services. Forum trust may not be sufficient to risk using the person for escrow. Memberships can be bought, and the trusted member may not be the current user of the account. It's best to check recent posts to see if the character and content has changed.

Yes that's definitely true. Hope it's ok, but I added it as a sub-comment under the section: Thanks for the input.

[Pk880058]

I would say common sense has a huge part to do with it.  Ask yourself does return sound to good to be true? Does item sound to cheap to be really sold at that?

Just by using common sense you can avoid most scams.   Also escrow when not known really is a great tool.   Should not be afraid to use escrow.  That is perhaps the best advice you can give is about it.

Totally agree with you , common sense is must to use, because most of the scam happens when anyone offers a good at very discount price without thinking the user go for it after when they get cheated they start to think. First think that why he is offering this much discount and then try to use escrow like this you can also avoid the scam. And the main issue is dont ever use paypal for payment as their are large numbers of scammers with paypal offers.

[rikrikrik]

Please stop using "we" you don't represent The Netherlands, or the Dutch Bitcoin Community, and your high power costs (like ours in Belgium) are also why we have great social welfare. And I know of plenty of Dutch mining groups

Name 1 Dutch mining group that is mining with profit ?
We are from the Netherlands and in Belgium power is cheaper...like your healthcare,,,i pay 155,-euro a month for my healthcare..In Belgium it is like 50 euro a month so get your facts straight !!!!
There is 1 shop in the Netherlands that sells hardware an cloudmining however it is not registered legaly..it is registerd as a security company,,so yes indeed we are the first company to provide cloudming services in the Netherlands.

Your comparison of direct cost is not what I'm talking about, our income tax make you guys look like millionaires, your wages are higher your tax is less, and that 50 euros we pay is to come up even with what you get for free, if we want extra coverage it costs us

And cloud mining is a scam to make the company owners money not the people who pay for your services

[gkv9]

That's a very good guide for newbies as well as the ones who just come up here buying accounts but don't know the basics of the forum...
This will surely help everyone out here to get saved from scams to a greater extent...