I am underage and having extreme difficulty buying Bitcoin. Help a kid out!

[gotminer]

Yeah most of those companies need to verify identity.  I've had to take a picture of myself holding my ID for some exchanges. 

[FractalUniverse]

sorry to hear that. I was scammed many times when i started with bitcoin, i know that feeling :/

did you try to look up that transaction on block explorer? do you know how high was the transaction fee they set?

[bitcoinkid_yo]

sorry to hear that. I was scammed many times when i started with bitcoin, i know that feeling :/

did you try to look up that transaction on block explorer? do you know how high was the transaction fee they set?

I thought about that but since they probably never made the payment I have nothing to look up. I have pretty much nothing. No wallet ID, no transaction ID.

[FractalUniverse]

ok,  did you try to contact them after that, to tell them nothing came to your wallet?

[ikilledcobain]

Sorry, man, that sucks. Your other option would be to hang around here and build your account up to participate in some airdrops of alts that you could swap to bitcoin.

Otherwise, I'd probably go with getting a gift card and trading it on localbitcoins or paxful - but they are rife with scammers as well.

If it makes you feel any better, about 6 years ago or so I was scammed out of 20 btc. Worth a whopping $80 at the time, lol. Oh, to have those back in my wallet...

[bitcoinkid_yo]

ok,  did you try to contact them after that, to tell them nothing came to your wallet?

We communicated through facebook messenger. I blasted them on messenger till yesterday until a point when it looked like the account does not exist any more. I am contemplating about going to the police but that would also mean that I am in big trouble. Although the hotel had cameras I am pretty sure the probability of getting my money back is close to 0.

[FractalUniverse]

ok,  did you try to contact them after that, to tell them nothing came to your wallet?

We communicated through facebook messenger. I blasted them on messenger till yesterday until a point when it looked like the account does not exist any more. I am contemplating about going to the police but that would also mean that I am in big trouble. Although the hotel had cameras I am pretty sure the probability of getting my money back is close to 0.

may i ask the amount? i dont know how it works in  your country, but here where I live its almost pointless to go to police if the amount is less than ~$500 equivalent in our local currency

[bitcoinkid_yo]

ok,  did you try to contact them after that, to tell them nothing came to your wallet?

We communicated through facebook messenger. I blasted them on messenger till yesterday until a point when it looked like the account does not exist any more. I am contemplating about going to the police but that would also mean that I am in big trouble. Although the hotel had cameras I am pretty sure the probability of getting my money back is close to 0.

may i ask the amount? i dont know how it works in  your country, but here where I live its almost pointless to go to police if the amount is less than ~$500 equivalent in our local currency

3800.- Euros (Been saving it up for a while) I am sure the police would investigate and maybe even catch the guys but I am probably not the only one they have scammed and owe money to. If I had to guess they looked like they live a "fast" lifestyle and burn money quick. Usually in the end the police or the courts have nothing to confiscate.

[bitcoinkid_yo]

Sorry, man, that sucks. Your other option would be to hang around here and build your account up to participate in some airdrops of alts that you could swap to bitcoin.

Otherwise, I'd probably go with getting a gift card and trading it on localbitcoins or paxful - but they are rife with scammers as well.

If it makes you feel any better, about 6 years ago or so I was scammed out of 20 btc. Worth a whopping $80 at the time, lol. Oh, to have those back in my wallet...

How long did it take to get over the loss and get back on the horse?

[FractalUniverse]

I would probably go to police, but its pain and lots of time.+ Im not sure what they do when people are underage (would they call for parents to be present as well.? i have no idea)
Those scammers probably know very few people would go to police, so they count on it.

[bitcoinkid_yo]

I would probably go to police, but its pain and lots of time.+ Im not sure what they do when people are underage (would they call for parents to be present as well.? i have no idea)
Those scammers probably know very few people would go to police, so they count on it.

Yeah... The police will definitely get a adult involved. I dont want to go into detail here on why I dont want to involve my parents/guardians and why I would be in trouble. The net damage of going to the police might be higher than the gain.

[FractalUniverse]

You can get over the loss of money, probably when you get some cash again or the amount of bitcoin you planned to get; but you will likely remember how you were scammed for very long time.
I still remember how I was scammed some 5 years ago - and it wasnt that much in $

[figmentofmyass]

One guy scanned my QR code with his Ipad and told me to hand over the cash. I did. It looked like he had sent the bitcoins my way. They said that due to heavy traffic the transaction time was 30min to 1h (I had also read about long transaction times and it sounded logical). I made the mistake of not demanding that we wait together for the transfer to hit my wallet before I handed over my money. I asked if they could wait with me but they refused. My pleading did not work. They left.

Since the whole deal was pretty intense for me I sat there looking into infinity for the next 5 minutes. I started my journey back home refreshing my wallet every 30 seconds. By the time I was home it was clear there was no payment coming. I was and still am mortified.

that's unfortunate. the network congestion is all the more reason not to accept payment without confirmation. low-fee transactions can be double-spent pretty easily. in a situation like this, you should always have your wallet open. if you don't see an incoming transaction, don't take their word for it. and if you do, but the transaction is unconfirmed, don't pay until it's confirmed.

3800.- Euros (Been saving it up for a while) I am sure the police would investigate and maybe even catch the guys but I am probably not the only one they have scammed and owe money to. If I had to guess they looked like they live a "fast" lifestyle and burn money quick. Usually in the end the police or the courts have nothing to confiscate.

wow, that's awful. sorry to hear that. over that amount, i'd probably go to the police, but you're right. even if they get caught, the chance of recovery is small.

the lesson here: take baby steps. 3800 euro is quite a lot to risk when you've never done this before. facebook is a bad venue for this as well. localbitcoins, which has a good reputation system, is a better way to go.

[soll-moll]

If you are still a child and not yet a teenager, I suggest trading bitcoin in the care of your guardian, after all, all investments are risky.

[bitcoinkid_yo]

If you are still a child and not yet a teenager, I suggest trading bitcoin in the care of your guardian, after all, all investments are risky.

I am a teenager and as I mentioned my situation with parents/guardian are not standard.

[uberproteam]

It is true that the transaction takes time to confirm. After 5-10 block confirmation you should see it in your wallet. Now due to high costs the network is more delayed than before. I hope you did not get scammed. If they scanned barcode and did transaction, you should get the btc. If not, use someone as a escrow provider in future. You can look for btc trading groups in telegram or watsapp. Dont forget to use some trusted member as a escrow.

[gotminer]

If you are still a child and not yet a teenager, I suggest trading bitcoin in the care of your guardian, after all, all investments are risky.

I am a teenager and as I mentioned my situation with parents/guardian are not standard.

Didn't anyone try to talk you out of doing this?  Anyone could have seen that scam coming from a mile away, so I'm not sure why you didn't.  Hate that it happened to you, but damn man.  You have to be smart about stuff.

[bitcoinkid_yo]

If you are still a child and not yet a teenager, I suggest trading bitcoin in the care of your guardian, after all, all investments are risky.

I am a teenager and as I mentioned my situation with parents/guardian are not standard.

Didn't anyone try to talk you out of doing this?  Anyone could have seen that scam coming from a mile away, so I'm not sure why you didn't.  Hate that it happened to you, but damn man.  You have to be smart about stuff.

Yeah... Looking back I realize that now. I got excited about the tanking prices...

[gotminer]

Not trying to kick you while you're down or anything.  Just please don't go the shady route again.  Those guys could have just as easily been honest people, but unfortunately there are probably way more dishonest people than honest ones out there. 

I wish I would have thought of this before you got scammed, but you should have just bought hardware and got into gpu mining.  No age restrictions on mining into a pool and no age restrictions on setting up wallets.  Your investment would have been in the hardware, but you would be getting paid back for that investment in the coins that you mined.  You would have the coins you mined in your own cold storage and there are even some legit exchanges that don't require verification until you start doing high dollar amount trades.  I'm kicking myself for not suggesting that to you, because it's a decent way for someone under 18 to get into the crypto world, especially if they have tech knowledge.

[bitcoinkid_yo]

Not trying to kick you while you're down or anything.  Just please don't go the shady route again.  Those guys could have just as easily been honest people, but unfortunately there are probably way more dishonest people than honest ones out there. 

I wish I would have thought of this before you got scammed, but you should have just bought hardware and got into gpu mining.  No age restrictions on mining into a pool and no age restrictions on setting up wallets.  Your investment would have been in the hardware, but you would be getting paid back for that investment in the coins that you mined.  You would have the coins you mined in your own cold storage and there are even some legit exchanges that don't require verification until you start doing high dollar amount trades.  I'm kicking myself for not suggesting that to you, because it's a decent way for someone under 18 to get into the crypto world, especially if they have tech knowledge.

Could you point to a few legit exchanges that dont require verification? Thanks.