Law Enforcement Attending Bitcoin Meetups Undercover?

[jimbobway]

They sure keep quite.

[crazy_rabbit]

It's well known that law enforcement has been attending Bitcoin meetups since the beginning. Gavin has even been to the CIA to give them a talk about bitcoin.

Don't freak out about it, they've been around here since the beginning, everyone knows.

[genjix]

I've been questioned by police, solicited by undercovers into doing stuff, been black listed from banks with my accounts closed and they tried to recruit me once to join them.

[BurtW]

they tried to recruit me once to join them.

You could have been a cool double agent ...  or are you?

[TTBit]

As everyone knows law enforcement is all over these forums. 

proof?

Maybe we are all talking ourselves up and that in reality, no one gives a damn about us, including law enforcement.

[VforVictory]

The paranoia is strong with this one.

[malevolent]

I've been questioned by police, solicited by undercovers into doing stuff, been black listed from banks with my accounts closed and they tried to recruit me once to join them.

Any interesting stories to share?

Do you think you could provide more specifics?

[OleOle]

This should be interesting


*listens*

[rpg]

where's money that are criminals and there a few of them in this community. Money laundry is for sure a concern of them but not sure if they can find them at the meetings or even here. I assume it would be easy to buy bitcoins with illicit money and cash it elsewhere. Local buys are for sure an opportunity where the fiat leaves no paper trace and shows up as a bitcoin in some country where it can be converted back into fiat. Would not be surprised if local bitcoin sales are done by undercover cops posing as a miner

[justusranvier]

Anyways, it dawned on me that law enforcement is attending bitcoin meetups undercover.  The FBI, state of NY, etc have tons of money to run such an operation.

It just feels weird to have people pretend they know bitcoin and then try to be friends with you even when you know you have not broken any laws.  Makes me paranoid to mentally play, "Spot the fed", while at a bitcoin meetup.  It also feels like an invasion of privacy.

Thoughts?  Am I paranoid?  Should everyone be?  Maybe I have been watching too much breaking bad.

I'm pretty there are agents of various kinds attending meetups, and acting as both buyers and sellers on LocalBitcoins.

I was at a public park on Tuesday and ended up in what I thought was just a random conversation with a stranger, but after thinking about the kinds of questions he was asking I'm not sure how random it really was.

[allthingsluxury]

It's well known that law enforcement has been attending Bitcoin meetups since the beginning. Gavin has even been to the CIA to give them a talk about bitcoin.

Don't freak out about it, they've been around here since the beginning, everyone knows.

This is true. I wouldn't worry about it. Most people in the Bitcoin community are trying to build an honest, decent economy.

[smoothrunnings]

As everyone knows law enforcement is all over these forums.  They sure keep quite.  Maybe because they dont't want to taint evidence with forum posts which could be used against them in the court of law.

Anyways, it dawned on me that law enforcement is attending bitcoin meetups undercover.  The FBI, state of NY, etc have tons of money to run such an operation.

It just feels weird to have people pretend they know bitcoin and then try to be friends with you even when you know you have not broken any laws.  Makes me paranoid to mentally play, "Spot the fed", while at a bitcoin meetup.  It also feels like an invasion of privacy.

Thoughts?  Am I paranoid?  Should everyone be?  Maybe I have been watching too much breaking bad.

They are probably looking for drug dealers!

[BadAss.Sx]

From a country as the US i always get the creeps. Not because i am doing something wrong, but just that they decide if you did something wrong even when the law tells us we didn't. Just look at the NSA. They count everyone as a terrorist

[Cryddit]

Yay for the police. 

I have lived in bad neighborhoods.  When the number of police officers on the beat went up enough, they quit being bad neighborhoods.  The troublemakers, thieves, scammers, dopeheads, gangbangers, and dealers all decided they would have better odds pursuing their chosen professions in other areas, leaving the law abiding citizens happy and satisfied and owning property that tripled in value as that element was finally driven away.   Seriously, three cheers for the cops!

The only thing I'm even remotely upset about is that the ladies of negotiable affection went away too.  They were harmless.  Some of them were savvy businesspeople entirely happy with their choice of profession or paying their way through college as independent operators (hey, it beats the hell out of fast food jobs), and some of them were essentially slaves and victims of coercion, not allowed to keep their earnings, and ought to have been regarded more as the victims of criminals than as criminals themselves.   But that's the way it's gonna be until the law changes. 

Still, you know how to change the law, right?  If you live in an area with democracy, you change it by participating in the process and voting!  You do not change it by making trouble for the cops, because believe me when I say that no matter where you live, they can make far more trouble for you than you can make for them, and besides making trouble for the cops gets in the way of their very valuable work keeping the nasties out of the area. 

Bitcoin can use some serious police efforts, IMO.  Keep your damn nose clean and celebrate a little victory and a better world every time they take a dangerous criminal away. 

[tvbcof]

This reminds me that at the 2013 conference in San Jose, a male and female team were making the rounds in the common area with a very high quality piece of video gear.  They got the nicest mug-shot of me imaginable.  If they were LEA or working with them, 'the feds' have a pretty good idea of every pore on my face.

For my part, I decided to go the extra mile in terms of acting within the law and hope beyond hope that if the worst happened, at least I could rely on the principle of 'ex post facto' to cover my ass.  If that is tossed out the window I believe that violent revolution would not be far behind.

[peonminer]

Who cares. Don't break laws when using bitcoin. You should be fine.

[greyhawk]

Time to come clean. Everyone in this thread but you, OP, is a cop.

[Alpaca Bob]

I'd like to hear more from Genjix please...

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

The paranoia is strong with this one.

Don't mistake paranoia with rational thinking.

Of course feds are all over the forums. Haven't you read the story of Silkroad ? How they got to the guy running it ?
They found one of his veeeeeeeeeeeeeery old topics on this forum and followed the trail further.

It would be just moronic/extremely naive to think that feds are not all over the forum after Silkroad case. Obviously they are around. Maybe even in this very topic, who knows.

[tvbcof]

I'd like to hear more from Genjix please...

Especially if his comments on this forum come at the expense of mainstream media outlets.  I may have never been so embarrassed of Bitcoin as when he proposed that the solution to theft in the community was that other participants would feel sorry for the victim and make him/her whole via charity.  That was some interview on RT IIRC.  Opposite some Indian guy who had his shit together.

I lost a lot of respect for Taaki when he seemed to think it acceptable to take out a hit on someone who threatens one's business (a-la DPR.)  To me the guy is a fixture in the community in the same vein as Atlas, Bruce, Wright, etc...though he writes more code I suppose.  Thread-safe even!