Trust No One

[sgbett]

especially do not trust this post.

[molecular]

especially do not trust this post.

Gödel? Is that you?

[rohitrp]

I seriously got scammed on eBay last week. I know I was a complete idiot of trusting too much.  I purchased an iPad from eBay some time ago; the user claimed a friend shipped them out without tracking numbers. So I listened to his song and dance, and going on the belief that all people are good, I believed he would send me an iPad. Well, here I am 2 months later with no iPad and out $350. What a shame. The only thing I have is his phone number that he gave to me in an e-mail. I tried to search his number here just to check his identity. And no name is registered to that phone number.  That will be the last time that I'm gonna trust someone online.

Is there anything else I can do to get back my money? Should I contact ebay for this or paypal. I am not sure what am I gonna do now. I would appreciate your help guys.

[molecular]

I seriously got scammed on eBay last week. I know I was a complete idiot of trusting too much.  I purchased an iPad from eBay some time ago; the user claimed a friend shipped them out without tracking numbers. So I listened to his song and dance, and going on the belief that all people are good, I believed he would send me an iPad. Well, here I am 2 months later with no iPad and out $350. What a shame. The only thing I have is his phone number that he gave to me in an e-mail. I tried to search his number here just to check his identity. And no name is registered to that phone number.  That will be the last time that I'm gonna trust someone online.

Is there anything else I can do to get back my money? Should I contact ebay for this or paypal. I am not sure what am I gonna do now. I would appreciate your help guys.

Is this forum about scams of all sorts now? That's fucking sad!

You should contact ebay. If you payed using paypal, your chances of getting a chargeback done are good, I assume.

[zveda2000]

You can trust all ip addresses from Australia. We are all good peoples.

[BCDuke]

As always caveat emptor. However that gets a bit difficult with a currency which purpose is precisely to have as much anonymousity as possible.

[sgbett]

especially do not trust this post.

Gödel? Is that you?

Thank you for an interesting wikipedia entry point !

[bncbnc]

Trusting people has gotten me screwed many times, when it comes to bitcoins i refuse to trust people.

[jakeonfire]

Apparently PayPal is way too easy to scam with so I've made arrangements with someone to exchange Amazon gift card for BTC, since you cannot 'rescind' an Amazon gift card. Just an FYI for anyone else in a similar bind who might want to make an offer of a trade with someone 

[mizike29]

I have been selling bitcoins succesfully on EBAY and using Paypal through forums, or ebay for months and have only had one chargeback which was small.  There have been many scams though and is very risky.  We as ebay sellers are now trying to look out for each other, report the scammers, leave positive feedback but stating the user is a bitcoin scammer do not sell to them, since you cant leave negative feedback for a buyer which is so dumb.  Also I have been very proactive to help new sellers and other sellers in general of bitcoin, pointing out the signs of a scam, and ways to prevent being scammed via paypal.  A very easy method is to request an email from the users personal email account that is the same one linked with paypal.  If it is a hacked account, they would have to hack the ebay, the paypal and the users personal email.  Usually it is just the ebay, which is linked with paypal so the user can make payments and send a note through the paypal and ebay purchase.  I also wait a day or two to send, if I am worried it might be a scammer, a normal user will email and want to know where they are, once I get a personal email, and they request, I send, havent had too many issues following this platform.  Also you want to check the feedbacks of the buyers see what they have bid on, see if they have been buying up bitcoins over two or three days, contact other sellers that have sold to the buyer to see if they had chargebacks, and go with your gut.  Also dont sell more then 3 bitcoins per auction.  A coupe people got burned for big auctions of 25 bitcoins each auction, just dumb to sell that many using ebay.  NOTHING IS SAFE OR LOSS FREE BUT WITH BITCOINS AND VIRTUAL CURRENCY, THERE ARE STEPS THAT YOU CAN TAKE TO HELP IT BE AS SAFE AS ANY OTHER SALE ON EBAY

[seljo]

Crap... so it's like walking through a minefield.

[jacubo]

Can't be too paranoid, have to convert the btc to real currency at some point afterall

Well, there is always some risk. All we can do is to minimize it. Fiat currencies have its own issues. Some economists say US government will default in the future and value of USD will go down sharply. Others make pessimistic predictions about Euro. What else? You can buy gold, but unless you are going to keep it at your house you have to trust someone to store it for you. You can buy stocks but again you have to trust other people.

Being paranoid is also costly. If you keep all your money/gold/whatever in well secured vault in Swiss bank then you have to go there if you want to spend some money. The same applies to bitcoins. You can choose to trust no one but in such case it will be probably impossible even to buy single bitcoin because how are you going to buy it without taking any risk?

Too much trust is bad and can cost you money. But no trust at all is also bad. It also costs you - time and lost opportunities. In the end everyone should find his own golden mean.

[Skar3]

thanks

[FAtlas]

Thanks for the good info!

[coinslot]

Thanks dacoinminster...

It's an interesting tradeoff: Companies (exchanges / bitcoin startups) probably feel they should retain some secrecy or stealthiness as they embark on a Bitcoin endeavor due to questionable legal issues. At the same time, they must appear trustworthy and secure to their users, who also often go to great lengths to protect their identity. Here's hoping that the Wild West starts to self regulate itself as more people take the 'long view' and programmers stop rushing code that secures bitcoins.

[deathomen]

Thanks for the advice!  I was very cautious in buying my first btc but I made a leap of faith and bitcoinexchange.cc came through for me very fast with a transaction of 200 USD via WU to BTC.  Turn around was 24 hours.  I recommend them to anyone new who wants someone trusted to get BTC from.  They work fast, communicate well, and so have been very trustworthy with me.

[Puzzles]

I agree, I have done exchanges with bitcoins in the past, and I have been scammed for bitcoins in the past. That's one of the few downsides I see with bitcoin. If you're doing an anonymous transaction, it's not like you have their physical address, so you can't harass them or really do anything for that matter.

[metalmadnesstv]

Seriously. Don't trust the exchanges, don't trust online wallet services, don't trust your anti-virus software, and don't trust anybody online.

If you absolutely must trust someone with your bitcoins, for the love, choose carefully!

• Do you know their full name?
• Do you know where they are located?
• Have they demonstrated trustworthiness in the past?
• Are they asking you to trust them? (red flag)
• Do they have insurance?

> you are so right > ITS MADNESS OUT THERE

[offshoregenius77]

I would say do your research in a fast moving market like this. There is no way to fully verify people when we are in a market that is based on privacy and anonymity. The wallet fiasco's were quite obvious to me, in that there was no way you could trust a stranger to hold your cash in "thier" wallet. Trust AND smarts are imperative.

OG

[mizike29]

You wont have much problem or risk buying bitcoins and getting scammed, it can happen im sure, but 99 percent of the risk is with the seller.  Especially with ebay and paypal, or just paypal.  I have had a couple more succesful auctions on ebay again, seemed to have died down with the scammers for now, most got notified, banned, and people are communicating better and using some common sense warning signs and methods.  Less are selling on ebay though from the scams, but the rest of us on there are still doing pretty well.  Just be smart.