Things that can happen on Localbitcoins.com

[mayday9]

A friend of mine has been selling bitcoins on localbitcoins.com for a few years without problems. He was selling mostly in Thailand, accepting bank wire transfer in exchange for bitcoins. One day his bank account was frozen and shortly after he was visited by the police in connection to a wire transfer he received. Apparently a scammer bought bitcoin from him and paid using someone else's stolen bank account.

My friend explained what had happened and was temporarily let go after paying the standard Thai bribe. The investigation was ongoing and my friend would be summoned when the time comes.

A month later my friend tried to get his bank account unfrozen and was told to wait a few minutes by the clerk at the counter. Shortly after the police showed up, taking my friend into the station for another round of questioning. Apparently there was a 'trap' set up - if the account owner shows up. So another round of the same thing, more bribe and my friend was let go again.

During the period of next several months my friend was periodically called in for questioning. He provided written explanation, screenshots of localbitcoins related pages, login details. He contacted localbitcoins.com to see if he can get some kind of written confirmation from Localbitcoins where they would confirm that this transaction actually took place through their service. They declined his request and said that if police formally requests information from them, they would oblige, otherwise no.

2 years later, the district attorney refused to drop the case and is pursuing trial which is due in september and october 2017. The complete story as my friend was able to find out from the court documents is this:

Two foreigners 'hacked' into a thai lady's phone and got access to her bank account. They wired money to my friend who is on trial as the scammer's accomplice in crime. The police got a hold of the the two foreigners but it's unknown if they were let go (bribe) or if they are in a thai jail.

When wiring money from a thai bank account, there is 2 factor authentication via sms, so the scammers had to have access to the account owner's bank password and phone. The same localbitcoins username who scammed my friend, also scammed 2 or 3 other people in the same period.

My friend made the mistake of allowing any new user to bid for his offer on localbitcoins. The amount was around 1300 USD worth at the time

[romero121]

Scammers are all around and localbitcoins is not an exception. During the starting days of this year i too got call from scammers who were trying to take control of my account. So it's our responsibility to keep the account secure with the best security features available.

[Xester]

A lot of things happened online and that is why we must be careful of the money coming from outside the country especially if we do not know the person personally. Thus it is always good to sell and purchase bitcoin on a trading site instead of a person so we can be sure that what we are buying are really legit and not coming from any illicit transactions.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Sounds like your friend was just extremely unlucky & I feel sorry for him. I've never had an issue with localbitcoins though. In my experience if you use a registered buyer/seller with many positive trade feedback's then you have no issue.

[shamzblueworld]

A lot of things happened online and that is why we must be careful of the money coming from outside the country especially if we do not know the person personally. Thus it is always good to sell and purchase bitcoin on a trading site instead of a person so we can be sure that what we are buying are really legit and not coming from any illicit transactions.

But in this case, the trading site didn't help either.
I guess it is quite hard and one really has to be lucky to survive the scammers, they are everywhere. But one has to be always too careful.

[algernonen]

Localbitcoins many cheats
I have been cheated

[szpalata]

Scammers are all around and localbitcoins is not an exception. During the starting days of this year i too got call from scammers who were trying to take control of my account. So it's our responsibility to keep the account secure with the best security features available.

Yes the onus lies on you the user to have a secured account and login details just like online banking, if you get reckless and scammers and social engineers get a hold of your account then don't blame localbitcoins BU yourself.

[infer]

WEll, we should always be careful because there are many scammer outside and we will not know when we will lose our money

[Kprawn]

Ok, what are you saying.... Localbitcoin should verify that all user using their service are the genuine owner of the 3rd party bank accounts they are

using? You cannot "police" all aspects of any service you offer. Localbitcoin is not like PayPal where you can get some assistance when things goes

wrong. You will just have to use common sense when you choose someone based on the feedback/trust system and remember verification is not a 100%

guarantee that the other party is "safe" 

[TrumpD]

Good luck with the court case, I hope the judge rules in your favour. It sounds like a harrowing experience and the way I read it, it seems to me that the police is hell bent on punishing you for something you may be innocent of. Make sure you get a good lawyer, an incompetent one could get you jailed. You need to find out what other evidence the prosecution have on you, from what you've posted, I don't think they have enough to secure a conviction.

[iamTom123]

This is in fact a very popular scam operation where the scammers took hold of stolen credit cards and identity to transact business. Unfortunately, your friend is just a little unknown and of course can be unlicensed to transact business in this nature. We must really be careful with this whole thing because the government is always watching us most especially if there would be claims of frauds.

[prieaji]

I am still there telephoned from scammers who tried to control my account, for the security of the account with the best security features in it.

[leopard2]

happens all the time on lbc...!

the story is weird though, because:
1. why would anyone wait a month to get his bank account unfrozen
2. lbc normally releases buyer details if they are given a police report

LBC should really verify people's bank accounts Paypal style; just transferring some small amounts over 14 days would probably exclude 99% of cases with stolen accounts 

Accepting bank transfers from a stranger is a very bad idea these days...note that bank accounts are very insecure, and you are in a bad position (non anonymous party receiving reversible transfer, while the bad guy is anonymous and accepts irreversible bitcoins) 

[Addisonbt]

Hey guys.

I move small amounts of $10-15
Or $50

All fine