Danger when buying/selling BTC in person

[ObscureBean]

I've never done it in person myself and I don't think I ever will either. No way I would transact money with a complete stranger especially since the person does not need to reveal his/her real identity when trading Bitcoin and cash. I think something like Localbitcoins is a much safer alternative and if you have a really big amount of Bitcoins maybe do it in small chunks. Best would be to just get a verified account with a trusted exchange like Bitstamp or Coinbase and get your money sent directly to your bank account. 

[Doms]

I have yet to try buying bitcoin on a person-to-person basis. I might try it if it's someone familiar with who I am transacting with, like a friend or an officemate. Or if it someone I just knew, I would do it in a crowded area, like the mall or in a cafe where there is a relaxed environment. That way, I wouldn't worry too much about being scammed right there by the person I am dealing with.

[morantis]

I don't think we have to get all cloak and dagger with these things, that only makes BTC look shady.  Like using craigslist or anything else, meet in a public place, with people there and do your business. 

[shinratensei_]

Yes there is always danger with strangers. We know each other online we deal online and whatever we do is all online so we can't trust any random user , he might be a good person, he might me a terrorist, he might be scammer or whatever, so it's really very dangerous to buy and sell bitcoin online with strange people

All of your said is a bullshit if, in fact, you're every for selling your BTC in a single person. and you're not giving a more explanation about it.

[Xester]

I don't think we have to get all cloak and dagger with these things, that only makes BTC look shady.  Like using craigslist or anything else, meet in a public place, with people there and do your business. 

Agree.  If you are going to sell your bitcoin to a strange person better to do the business in a public place like restaurants or places where there are lots of people.  Do not trust anyone because of how good looking he/she is on the picture  .  And you should always have someone to accompany you when you are into meet ups especially with strangers.

[maudevang]

When buying or selling bitcoin in person then ofcourse it can be very dangerous if you don't know the person in real life.
If you sell to a regular or buy from a regular then it's less dangerous since you know the person. But ofcourse for the person to become a regular you'll still have that first time meeting.

[Skaven]

I dont think there are allot o fpeople thinks like this because everyone i know and dealing with the bitcoins are always selling and never buying because tradings can make more profit than just buying and selling,

[JeanMcCoy]

It is always a danger to buy bitcoisn because you will never know what the price of the bitcoin will be in the future and if it crashes you will make allot of loss.

[morantis]

I don't think we have to get all cloak and dagger with these things, that only makes BTC look shady.  Like using craigslist or anything else, meet in a public place, with people there and do your business. 

Agree.  If you are going to sell your bitcoin to a strange person better to do the business in a public place like restaurants or places where there are lots of people.  Do not trust anyone because of how good looking he/she is on the picture  .  And you should always have someone to accompany you when you are into meet ups especially with strangers.

there is always another option if no one is available to go with you.  say you are meeting the person to sell your BTC and your friend is simply stuck at work.  tell your friend the time and they can likely get a break around then.  Make sure they have every bit of information that you have and the time.  when you are about to meet, call your friend and have them on the phone the whole time.  the phone can be in your shirt pocket of whatever, but if something goes wrong they can immediately contact the police and give them all the info they have. 

You can even have them on video call to see the whole deal go down, this is almost better than bringing them in person, as in person they might get killed right alongside you and no one calls the police, with them on call and somewhere else, they are safe to call the police.  maybe we should even start a service that does this for people, lol.  works like your home security system, but you carry us with you and we call the police when whatever half-assed deal you had going down goes south

[RodeoX]

Meet me in front of the police station, Ill be the one with a 1911 in my holster. 

it's that simple.

[Nowl1935]

So i was reading an article about someone who got robbed when he tried to buy in person 28000$ of Bitcoin
http://www.coindesk.com/florida-bitcoin-sale-knifepoint-robbery/
Personally i avoid dealings like this cause it is not easy to trust a random stranger.
How about you?do you buy or sell bitcoins in person?If yes have you ever had any bad experiences?

I had been done many transaction in selling and buying bitcoin, luckily i never had encounter such a damn scammer..  Nowadays there are lots of scamers so in order to avoid losing your bitcoin i recommend to use escrow in every transaction that you are planning to deal with an stranger person. Its better to make sure than to lose your bitcoin..

[Wendigo]

Meet me in front of the police station, Ill be the one with a 1911 in my holster. 

it's that simple.

Yeah mate I have heard that in the USA some special places for meeting and trading items between strangers have been popping up specifically in front of police stations. There is usually a sign saying that this area is safe for trading stuff haha  This is definitely a good place to choose to meet up when trying to trade some Bitcoins with complete strangers. Still you can add some extra protection like a fake beard and sunglasses for added disguise 

[potatopower]

One must not take any risk especially dealing with large amount of money. Since bitcoin has anonymity, it is almost difficult to trace the identity and even location of the scammer if trade is online.
When dealing offline (aka cash trade) one should make sure that the location for the deal is safe and covered by cctv cameras. It is recommended to meet strangers near police station etc. Always ask for identity while dealing offline because you will have the proof of deal.

thats right, it would be always risky to do it in person, it is the main reason why i always just do it on the exchange

[electronicash]

So i was reading an article about someone who got robbed when he tried to buy in person 28000$ of Bitcoin
http://www.coindesk.com/florida-bitcoin-sale-knifepoint-robbery/
Personally i avoid dealings like this cause it is not easy to trust a random stranger.
How about you?do you buy or sell bitcoins in person?If yes have you ever had any bad experiences?

When at first i didn't read the whole story, i assume its the bitcoin seller that got robbed lol
 if you take out the bitcoin deal apart from the robbery, its like a regular robbery from thugs on the corner of dogshit alley.

but yeah its possible that bitcoin seller on localbitcoin can orchestrate a meet up and rob a buyer. may be a buyer has too check whether its true that the seller has bitcoin on his wallet and sign message as well. and arranging a meeting near a police post.

[oceanriver]

One must not take any risk especially dealing with large amount of money. Since bitcoin has anonymity, it is almost difficult to trace the identity and even location of the scammer if trade is online.
When dealing offline (aka cash trade) one should make sure that the location for the deal is safe and covered by cctv cameras. It is recommended to meet strangers near police station etc. Always ask for identity while dealing offline because you will have the proof of deal.

thats true, if you dont know a lot about the person then dont take the risk because you might lose everything

[The_Dark_Knight]

So i was reading an article about someone who got robbed when he tried to buy in person 28000$ of Bitcoin
http://www.coindesk.com/florida-bitcoin-sale-knifepoint-robbery/
Personally i avoid dealings like this cause it is not easy to trust a random stranger.
How about you?do you buy or sell bitcoins in person?If yes have you ever had any bad experiences?

I have done face to face trades in the past, but carrying 28k in cash with you? Who does that? That is just asking for trouble, if you want to do a trade I think is better to do several smaller trades than a single big trade.

[Doamader]

So i was reading an article about someone who got robbed when he tried to buy in person 28000$ of Bitcoin
http://www.coindesk.com/florida-bitcoin-sale-knifepoint-robbery/
Personally i avoid dealings like this cause it is not easy to trust a random stranger.
How about you?do you buy or sell bitcoins in person?If yes have you ever had any bad experiences?

I have done face to face trades in the past, but carrying 28k in cash with you? Who does that? That is just asking for trouble, if you want to do a trade I think is better to do several smaller trades than a single big trade.

Even being just 500 dollars of cash the fact you are exposing the person might hunt you or follow you till your house, exchanges do the best service when we talk to buy or sell bitcoin soo why would we need to expose and risk our security this way.

[Hirose UK]

So i was reading an article about someone who got robbed when he tried to buy in person 28000$ of Bitcoin
http://www.coindesk.com/florida-bitcoin-sale-knifepoint-robbery/
Personally i avoid dealings like this cause it is not easy to trust a random stranger.
How about you?do you buy or sell bitcoins in person?If yes have you ever had any bad experiences?

I ever sold some bitcoins to a close friend and a bitcoin seller. Alhamdulillah I hadn't ever had bad experience when I exchange bitcoin to fiat. because I just sell it to the trusted people. probably the bad experience was when the confirmation of sending bitcoin to a wallet took long.

 just be careful and check how trusted the seller is before buying or selling.

[bravehearth0319]

So i was reading an article about someone who got robbed when he tried to buy in person 28000$ of Bitcoin
http://www.coindesk.com/florida-bitcoin-sale-knifepoint-robbery/
Personally i avoid dealings like this cause it is not easy to trust a random stranger.
How about you?do you buy or sell bitcoins in person?If yes have you ever had any bad experiences?

Well, in this experience this should be take a lesson to anyone here in bitcoin world. Sorry to hear that, for us to avoid such things of losing big money, We shouldn't sell/buy our bitcoin to the person which we do not him/her personally. Because in my experience it never happen yet since I joined in bitcoin community.

[jossiel]

If you wanted to buy bitcoins I won't risk myself for buying bitcoins to someone or any person that I don't know all over the internet.

It is a good decision if you are just going to buy to exchanging websites so that you are going to be safe and you are not going to be scammed.

Because most people who are buying bitcoins to person tend to be scammed.