Getting Scammed: Go to Police or Cut Losses and Move On?

[21XO]

Someone in Europe messaged me through the Abra App to buy BTC. He sent me a pic of the money with the date and my name in the picture as proof. After he reassured me we could make the transaction in a bank, I told him I could only go to Europe for a 50% fee. He agreed.
Since Abra is KYC compliant I assumed making a transaction over $10k would be OK.
Then when I arrived, he told me to meet with his "brother", as he knew more about BTC.
3 guys met me at my hotel lobby and dismissed the idea of taking all the money to the bank and said that the bank would create a lot of problems walking in with a lot of cash.
With a few bills they asked me to take randomly from the cash, I walked in a FX exchange with 1 guy (while the other 2 were waiting in their car with the rest of the cash) to verify the bills were indeed valid.
We then went back to my hotel lobby and I sent the BTC to his blockchain.info wallet address (he said he wanted to use his Blockchain wallet and not Abra and I figured I could just fill out the Form 8300 later instead) and then they gave me the bag of cash.
Later in my hotel room I discovered that the cash had been swapped out for fake money (perhaps in their car at the FX exchange). FYI I don't have a lot of street smart.

If I go to the police could I get AML charges on me? Especially since I haven't filled out the 8300 form yet. And I just found out here in Italy the legal transaction sizes without ID is very small (like 3k). Lastly all I have is phone numbers (which could be disposable) and possibly security cam footage from my hotel.

Thanks

[21XO]

BTW it's less about getting the money back and more about trying to make the world a better place (but I don't want to risk my freedoms at the same time).

[botany]

Hmm... As a foreigner, trying to navigate the legal systems in another country might be tough. And if the hope of getting your coins back is slim, I would suggest just cut your losses and move on.

[Blocken]

Wow. You should have used an escrow service

I doubt the police would do anything except maybe try to fine/charge you. They probably won't find the other guys. They will probably assume money laundering/tax evasion/drugs/etc.

You could prove the BTC wallet is yours so long as you have the transaction saved, but it could still get really ugly.

While I'm not an EU citizen, my opinion... suck it up and live with it. But also I let others know your story. Find a 3rd party escrow service you can recommend/use.

[audaciousbeing]

Someone in Europe messaged me through the Abra App to buy BTC. He sent me a pic of the money with the date and my name in the picture as proof. After he reassured me we could make the transaction in a bank, I told him I could only go to Europe for a 50% fee. He agreed.
Since Abra is KYC compliant I assumed making a transaction over $10k would be OK.
Then when I arrived, he told me to meet with his "brother", as he knew more about BTC.
3 guys met me at my hotel lobby and dismissed the idea of taking all the money to the bank and said that the bank would create a lot of problems walking in with a lot of cash.
With a few bills they asked me to take randomly from the cash, I walked in a FX exchange with 1 guy (while the other 2 were waiting in their car with the rest of the cash) to verify the bills were indeed valid.
We then went back to my hotel lobby and I sent the BTC to his blockchain.info wallet address (he said he wanted to use his Blockchain wallet and not Abra and I figured I could just fill out the Form 8300 later instead) and then they gave me the bag of cash.
Later in my hotel room I discovered that the cash had been swapped out for fake money (perhaps in their car at the FX exchange). FYI I don't have a lot of street smart.

If I go to the police could I get AML charges on me? Especially since I haven't filled out the 8300 form yet. And I just found out here in Italy the legal transaction sizes without ID is very small (like 3k). Lastly all I have is phone numbers (which could be disposable) and possibly security cam footage from my hotel.

Thanks

Situations like this is very dicey and for me, I would drop it and move on because of the fact that you are a foreigner and the same time it will take series of explanation police officers to understand what you are trying to pass accross, another is to get the court order to have access to the footage and all this costs will be on you which you are also not sure your money will come back. In all, you have learnt your lessons in which if you ask anybody including myself, we get to learn everyday and most times by experience. Count your losses and move on is the next thing now.

[darkangel11]

I know it's spilled milk, but why didn't you take all the cash, but just 3 bills? I mean there were 3 of them and it was their country, they knew the hotel you were staying in, it was impossible for you to run with the money. If I saw a situation like that I'd tell them to give me the money and accompany me to a currency exchange and once the cash is checked, we'll go back to my hotel lobby where they'll get the coins.
Swapping is the oldest trick in the book, street peddlers were doing it with jewelry and watches all the time swapping real one for fakes and sometimes even stealing your wallet in the process

Do you know any of their names? If you were in a hotel lobby they should be video footage from the cameras.
If you want to get your money back go to the police, tell them to get footage from the hotel, describe those guys and the car they were in and of course tell them the value of coins you were exchanging. If they get caught you'll help all their future victims, because they won't stop with this scam, they'll keep going.

How much did you lose?

[dashingriddler]

^ ^ ^
He said he lost $10,000.
That is alot of money to almost anyone to lose if it were in USD (which i doubt it was) or in euros, which makes it worst being worth more than this same amount in the USD.

Which European country was this in?

If it was in France then you should of been wary since there are a lot of pick pockets there even walking in the streets of Paris in broad daylight you need to be wary of your surroundings so not to be a victim of theft from the people you pass by on the street.
AS I know I was there and know what to look out for.

All the best of luck to you getting the money back which would be hard since you are worried about AML evidence being not in your favor.

[countryfree]

This is one of the reason why I hope BTC will be sold and bought by banks someday.
You'll have to go the police to report the theft. It matters that the police knows that kind of theft can happen, but don't expect to see your money back.

[ninche]

i think if you tell police,things will be worse for you

[bit-freedom]

I guess letting it go will be better than getting into trouble. I am not too sure about the regulation in Italy but based on the $3000 threshold you mentioned.

[dejames]

If they're truly fake bills, you may want to report them to the police. It is a serious offence. Of course, ensure you won't get into any trouble. Hopefully, there's cctv, paper & digital trail etc.

[Blocken]

You know nothing about them. Do you really want to gamble with the police associating you with them? WHO KNOWS what other activity they are into, and you have no way to prove that they own a bitcoin wallet.

You think $10k is a lot? What do you think the fines/time are on money laundering, supporting drugs/terrorists, etc ?

[darkangel11]

^ ^ ^
He said he lost $10,000.
That is alot of money to almost anyone to lose if it were in USD (which i doubt it was) or in euros, which makes it worst being worth more than this same amount in the USD.

He said it was "over $10k, which could as well be 15, 20 or 50. That's why I asked how much it was.

You know nothing about them. Do you really want to gamble with the police associating you with them? WHO KNOWS what other activity they are into, and you have no way to prove that they own a bitcoin wallet.

You think $10k is a lot? What do you think the fines/time are on money laundering, supporting drugs/terrorists, etc ?

Did you even read his post?

We then went back to my hotel lobby and I sent the BTC to his blockchain.info wallet address

So yes, he owns a wallet and OP knows the address. How is that going to help according to you?

[orions.belt19]

Legally speaking, you would have to make a police report so that the criminals in question may be put to justice. But if you just want people to be aware of these kind of scams, then it would just be best to expose them as you did by posting here in this forum. Since you are not concerned in getting your money back, which is as well might be hard, then I don't think you need to go to the police.

The choice of course would be up to you. International law and jurisdiction is sometimes tricky, especially with cases pertaining to crimes and scams like this. With the evidences you mentioned, it may be hard to prove your case much less gather the security cam footage. My advice to you is to be cautious next time and to warn your friends and fellow btc users.

[GreenBits]

Someone in Europe messaged me through the Abra App to buy BTC. He sent me a pic of the money with the date and my name in the picture as proof. After he reassured me we could make the transaction in a bank, I told him I could only go to Europe for a 50% fee. He agreed.
Since Abra is KYC compliant I assumed making a transaction over $10k would be OK.
Then when I arrived, he told me to meet with his "brother", as he knew more about BTC.
3 guys met me at my hotel lobby and dismissed the idea of taking all the money to the bank and said that the bank would create a lot of problems walking in with a lot of cash.
With a few bills they asked me to take randomly from the cash, I walked in a FX exchange with 1 guy (while the other 2 were waiting in their car with the rest of the cash) to verify the bills were indeed valid.
We then went back to my hotel lobby and I sent the BTC to his blockchain.info wallet address (he said he wanted to use his Blockchain wallet and not Abra and I figured I could just fill out the Form 8300 later instead) and then they gave me the bag of cash.
Later in my hotel room I discovered that the cash had been swapped out for fake money (perhaps in their car at the FX exchange). FYI I don't have a lot of street smart.

If I go to the police could I get AML charges on me? Especially since I haven't filled out the 8300 form yet. And I just found out here in Italy the legal transaction sizes without ID is very small (like 3k). Lastly all I have is phone numbers (which could be disposable) and possibly security cam footage from my hotel.

Thanks

you didnt commit a crime, report this.

Some takeaways and observations:

1) always report theft to the police. at the very least you pay income tax; you are not liable for tax on money you dont have, and you may be able to claim this as a capital loss, lowering your tax footprint.

2) be wary of large amounts of fiat. this should be a red flag. when you seen this, assume you are facilitating money laundering, which you might be criminally liable for.

3) if you make up an id, will it really matter? they stole fizzy lifting drink, obviously they werent going to give you a valid id. hell, they brought monopoly money to the game, LOL. in the meanwhile, you tried to satisfy the reporting requirements. also, there is usually a "x days from transaction" caveat of reporting, they dont expect you to instantly file it. you are most likely fine if this just happened.

4) be quick. camera footage goes away after a while, and if the value is spent, even if they catch them there is no recourse.

5) be smarter than this in the future. im not talking about your money, Im talking about you life. these guys could have knocked a hole in your head very discreetly, and we would not be talking about this right now because you would be in a trashcan somewhere. whenever you transfer large value, play it uber safe. use fiat gateways for transactions of this size, reputable ones.

The easiest way to steal a bitcoin key (and your value) isnt a fancy malware program or confidence scam. Its a gun to your head, or a knife to your throat.

[fullhdpixel]

Legally speaking, you would have to make a police report so that the criminals in question may be put to justice. But if you just want people to be aware of these kind of scams, then it would just be best to expose them as you did by posting here in this forum. Since you are not concerned in getting your money back, which is as well might be hard, then I don't think you need to go to the police.

The choice of course would be up to you. International law and jurisdiction is sometimes tricky, especially with cases pertaining to crimes and scams like this. With the evidences you mentioned, it may be hard to prove your case much less gather the security cam footage. My advice to you is to be cautious next time and to warn your friends and fellow btc users.

But, wait, did the op leave country to go all the way to Europe just to buy Bitcoin? Wow, that was a good risk he took. Too bad it ended up this way, and I wouldn’t recommend going to the police, because he might even be arrested in a country doesn’t know much about (as a foreigner), they might say he was involved in money laundering or whatever trash they’re likely to say.

So, just forget about it and go on. But I won’t fly to another just to buy Bitcoin, I rather take the risk of buying online through sites localbitcoins.com that going to buy face to face. You may end up in the hands of deadly criminals.

[Netnox]

My advice would be to go to the cops. I know that it will be difficult to explain about why you did transaction above the 3K limit, but I hope that they will let you off with a fine. And as a victim of crime, they should be giving you a preferential treatment. Since you are having the camera footage as well, it won't be too hard to identify and detain these criminals.

[veleten]

you will never get your money back,forget about it and move on
you can report the scammers to the police,just to try and make this world a better place
do not expect anything to come out of this,there will be nothing bad for you,you didn't commit any crime
as long as trading bitcoins is not illegal there

[xJuturna]

Unfortunately due to the nature of this transaction you have virtually a 0% chance of getting any sort of compensation. I'm sorry that happened to you but you must be very wary when making these types of deals, especially in a foreign country where the law is almost certainly not on your side. Not to mention when dealing with Bitcoin (a basically non-existent thing as far as property goes). I hope maybe you could help others not fall for this same trap as it's likely these guys will try something like this again. Good luck

[Netnox]

you will never get your money back,forget about it and move on
you can report the scammers to the police,just to try and make this world a better place
do not expect anything to come out of this,there will be nothing bad for you,you didn't commit any crime
as long as trading bitcoins is not illegal there

As far as I know trading Bitcoins is not illegal anywhere in the European Union. And you can't say that he will never get his money back. The chances are low, but if he goes to the cops, then there is at least 20%-30% chance that he will get his coins back.