Danger when buying/selling BTC in person

[DebitMe]

I am averaging about 100 trades a month in person with various people in my area.  99% have been nothing but a pleasure to work with, and are extremely nice people, the other 1% just seem to be having an off day.  No one has ever made me feel insecure or worried during a meetup.

[traderethereum]

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.

its a sad experience and we should take care again if we want to make a deal with somebody. but i am sure that in out there, still have many people that will be a good person, that willing to make a good deal with us and do not want to cheat with us. i hope this will be last sad experience for the OP and the OP will only get a good experience when dealing with other people.

[Rubberduckie]

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 always meet people in person when trading larger amounts but I make sure its under $1000
so it's not insanely risky. Just meet in public like starbucks. Also if your doing a transaction
for over $20k bring a body guard lol.

[Caladonian]

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 always meet people in person when trading larger amounts but I make sure its under $1000
so it's not insanely risky. Just meet in public like starbucks. Also if your doing a transaction
for over $20k bring a body guard lol.

thats right 20k$ is a huge amount better to make your self safe by bringing body guard instead of being robbed, we cant assured the people we are dealing with so make very extra careful.

[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.

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.

The ones that do face to face trades do so in order to retain some degree of anonymity, if you buy in an exchange then the exchange knows how much bitcoin you bought, however buying bitcoin face to face does not offer guarantees that the trade is anonymous after all there are cameras everywhere and the fact the trade could be a sting operation.

[DebitMe]

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.

The ones that do face to face trades do so in order to retain some degree of anonymity, if you buy in an exchange then the exchange knows how much bitcoin you bought, however buying bitcoin face to face does not offer guarantees that the trade is anonymous after all there are cameras everywhere and the fact the trade could be a sting operation.

If your not doing anything illegal, who cares if its a sting operation?  I do nothing illegal by selling bitcoins to people in KS.

[haankoammu]

I don't think it's reasonable to do a person to person exchange when buying anything more than $500 because there are other safer dealing options like bank deposits which are easily verifiable, and even if you do a big exchange you need to do it in a bank at least, since it's the most secure place possible and it's not illegal to use BTC.

[20kevin20]

I don't think it's reasonable to do a person to person exchange when buying anything more than $500 because there are other safer dealing options like bank deposits which are easily verifiable, and even if you do a big exchange you need to do it in a bank at least, since it's the most secure place possible and it's not illegal to use BTC.

I'd say a transaction person to person of over $100 is dangerous already. $500 is a big risk you have to take, and I'm not sure any of us wants to take it. However, you can do a safe person to person transaction only if you will take friends with you. In a group of 5 or more, nobody will try to steal anything. Taking any self-defense weapons with you might also help.

[dunfida]

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?

Thats  a really sad thing  for someone  that  are being robbed  because  of  these kind of transaction thats why its  important to take  precautionary measures  before transacting   person to person since the risk  of being  robbed is  high since we dont know completely to the person  which we are transacting to. For me i wouldnt intend to do  such thing since i could buy  amount of bitcoin online without risking  my self on accidents.

[~Bitcoin~]

I don't think it's reasonable to do a person to person exchange when buying anything more than $500 because there are other safer dealing options like bank deposits which are easily verifiable, and even if you do a big exchange you need to do it in a bank at least, since it's the most secure place possible and it's not illegal to use BTC.

However bank verification will take longer time as well as buying in person become easy if you can do face to face deal. So better to find local guy if you urgently need bitcoin without waiting for days. And also not in all country bitcoin exchanger are available to deposit with local bank.

[gkv9]

That's the reason why I always preferred to buy or sell my coins online through Bank Transfer or IMPS deals...
I never went for any in-person deals because I know the risks of such dealings can even be a threat to my life...

[bitbunnny]

When it comes to such big amounts maybe it's better to split them. So, instead of one big buying/selling transaction in person to do few smaller. Large amount of money always attracts dishonest and dangerous people so you can easily get into risk.

[sishendaoye]

Maybe the guy will threaten our coin with weapons, I don't believe those sellers with face to face trading except he is my real life friend

Yeah and best is to only go face to face with people you somewhat know or friends knows.
Going to just 100% strangers can be quite risky ofcourse if you do it do it in a public space maybe next to a police station on daylight so reduce to risk to minimum

[Red-Apple]

Maybe the guy will threaten our coin with weapons, I don't believe those sellers with face to face trading except he is my real life friend

Yeah and best is to only go face to face with people you somewhat know or friends knows.
Going to just 100% strangers can be quite risky ofcourse if you do it do it in a public space maybe next to a police station on daylight so reduce to risk to minimum

this is not a serious threat at all, although this has already happened to some people a couple of times as we have all read in the news about the guy in New York.

but you can easily avoid it by doing the transaction inside some place safe like a police station and police doesn't mind you trade there in the safety of their station at all.

[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.

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.

The ones that do face to face trades do so in order to retain some degree of anonymity, if you buy in an exchange then the exchange knows how much bitcoin you bought, however buying bitcoin face to face does not offer guarantees that the trade is anonymous after all there are cameras everywhere and the fact the trade could be a sting operation.

If your not doing anything illegal, who cares if its a sting operation?  I do nothing illegal by selling bitcoins to people in KS.

I was talking about the way in which you will lose anonymity on a face to face trade, if you are not doing anything illegal, you have nothing to fear about legal consequences, but a sting operation will without a doubt compromise the anonymity of those that do face to face trades, so if you care about anonymity you should care if the person in front of you is part of a sting operation.

[Nobitcoin]

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?

$28000 in cash and you wonder why he got robbed. He should have spent more time in the real world instead of in front if his computer.

[shinratensei_]

I don't think it's reasonable to do a person to person exchange when buying anything more than $500 because there are other safer dealing options like bank deposits which are easily verifiable, and even if you do a big exchange you need to do it in a bank at least, since it's the most secure place possible and it's not illegal to use BTC.

I'd say a transaction person to person of over $100 is dangerous already. $500 is a big risk you have to take, and I'm not sure any of us wants to take it. However, you can do a safe person to person transaction only if you will take friends with you. In a group of 5 or more, nobody will try to steal anything. Taking any self-defense weapons with you might also help.

If feeling so dangerous about that and what about some parties are already providing an online escrow like an exchange for did it?
and so easy fixed, but that is difficult because of some people argument.

[cakravothy]

if you want buy bitcoin with personal person
not exchanger only personal person you must use escrow

[OneUnderBridge]

BitCoin seems like a dangerous commodity. Are there safe ways to buy BitCoin anonymously? Or, should everybody be considered a crook until they are otherwise trusted? Is it even legal to buy BitCoin in person in the USA?

[goinmerry]

No such place is written in the article, just the city and the state. Question. Where exactly did they do the trade? Is it just in the street?

Whatever trade we does personally we should do it in a populated place. A park, a mall or other places with a lot people and policemen are easy to access. I do personal trades way back I was playing online games and it all goes well because they cant harm me with people looking at us.