Scam - how can they get away with it so easily ?

[Tdecha]

Hello all,

By being an ETH holder/investor/gamer (all these 3 adjectives are not mutually exclusive ^^), I have a hard time accepting that people can just make scam and get away with it.
Setting a part our feelings about Ponzi and pyramid scheme, we are facing the honest ones and the scams.

What I don't understand is why we can't just put a claim on them are get back the stolen - yes, I consider it to be a theft- coins ?

I mean, we can easily track down the transaction through etherscan and go back either to their desktop wallet (and get ip then address) or to an exchange (the exchange has the necessary legal information about individuals: in my account on Kraken, I had to provide my ID, electricity bills and so on)

Personnaly, I "only" lost a few coins but even that is way too much. Not being able to pursue these scammers throws a bad image on emerging cryptocurrencies and in the end it might prevent them from unlocking their full potential. ("Hey Mr BigBanker, did you heard about Ethereum/Bitcoin ? " -> "That scam shit ?")

All opinions welcome !

[Tdecha]

Is the absence of response a sign we cannot do anything about these scammers ? ^^

My opinion is that a first step would be to go to the local police and ask them for later steps ?

[vuduchyld]

Can you be a little more specific about the scam?

How were coins stolen from you?  Did somebody access your wallet and remove them? 

Or are you saying that you bought high and sold low because somebody perpetrated fraud on you?

My guess is that, if you're claiming fraud, this fraud happened in a totally unregulated market.  If you attempted legal action as recourse, the burden of proof would be pretty difficult to overcome.

[Tdecha]

I'm referring to general scams on smart contract on ETH.

My only experience is with the former piggybank where there was an intentional mistake in the code (the % fee was increasing at each deposit and in the end the fee was 100%). I "invested" and it all disappeared now :/

[jjacob]

I'm referring to general scams on smart contract on ETH.

My only experience is with the former piggybank where there was an intentional mistake in the code (the % fee was increasing at each deposit and in the end the fee was 100%). I "invested" and it all disappeared now :/

If ethereum and smart contracts are supposed to replace lawyers, then you should pay a premium to ensure that the contract is coded in a bug free way. There is a cost involved in everything.

[vuduchyld]

I'm referring to general scams on smart contract on ETH.

My only experience is with the former piggybank where there was an intentional mistake in the code (the % fee was increasing at each deposit and in the end the fee was 100%). I "invested" and it all disappeared now :/

Wow.  That sucks.  Sorry to hear it.

Not sure what your recourse could be in that situation, though.  My guess is that your local police wouldn't be particularly interested to hear about how somebody (maybe known, maybe not) who might be far away might have scammed you.  Put yourself in their shoes.  How much is it going to cost THEM to track all that down?  Probably quite a lot.  And how much did you lose?  If you were a billionaire who had invested hundreds of millions locally, and planned to do so again, my guess is that they might help you track down lost millions.  If you're a guppy, they are going to tell you that they have plenty of local crimes that need attention.

Where I live, if your loss was $4000 or less, you could file a civil suit in small claims court.  You'd probably win a judgment by default (because they wouldn't show up).  But you might have a helluva hard time collecting on that judgment.

I'd guess your options are somewhat limited.  At least you can probably write the loss off on your taxes.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

This is the wild west of cryptocurrency, and there aren't laws specific to ETH transactions or any other coin.  If you know who the counterparty is you can try a legal maneuver but most people who've been scammed don't do that unless the amounts are huge.  Like trendon shavers and those jamokes.