If i miss something guys feel free to post and i will add what i missed.
I found few different sources that are legitimate and decided to share them with the community for safe trading.
It is long guide and will go even longer but believe me, its worth the time reading and its for your own good!
*Full credits giving to the real owners of this off-site guides which help all of us to stay safe
Credits to:
R2Pleasent from Sythe.org
LooneyToon from Sythe.org
Cfrey from Sythe.org
Shoop from Sythe.org
HappyFace01010 from zybez.net
*I am the creator of this modified and edited thread for bitcointalk but not the original owner of those guides
** My only part here is to edit and combine them to help bitcointalk users
*** This thread is self moderated to prevent any spam.
Disclaimer: This guide will not guarantee a successful trade. This guide simply shows you how to trade safer.
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Big 1. Basic knowledge.
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Read the forum rules!!! ->
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=703657.0Always use forum escrow!!! ->
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2439910.0Never Rush A Trade!!!
Search their contact details on Google and their bitcointalk name for more info.
Too good to be true? It is!
[1] Precautions
Look up the user's profile on bitcointalk!
Post count
If he has posted a lot in a short period of time, you should check the quality of his posts carefully - he might be posting just to fake activity!
Join Date
* If he's been registered on bitcointalk for at least 1-2 years and has a fair amount of posts, it shows that he's dedicated and should know the bitcointalk community to a good extent.
* If he's been registered for 6-11 months, he's been with the community for a while and may have done a few trades already.
* If he's been registered for less than 6 months, you should inspect his activity more carefully.
Look up the user's trading history.
Always check the trust score on the person you going to trade with.
Make sure you find the difference between the feedback he received and this which he send because many people make the mistake to watch the negative feedback which people send to others as their own.
Click also "Ratings" to see the person "Untrusted feedback".
This feedback is not really untrusted but send from normal persons like you who are not in the "Default Trust" website score and that doesn't mean this feedback is fake or it means nothing.
It means that the source of those feedbacks are not from the "Default Trust" people on the website.
There is many high trusted persons here with many "Untrusted" feedback but from another also trusted sellers/buyers.
Scam reports
Make sure that the user has no scam reports on him. If he does, show extra caution or leave it!
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Big 2.Avoid payment methods that can be chargedback.
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2.1 Paypal
Be realistic.
If someone is using THEIR money, realize that they are going to very careful. If the buyer is offering an abnormal price (6-7 dollars per Mil USD), then that's a good sign they're fake. Also, if they publicly say they'll go first, be very cautious. People using their money usually are very hesitant about going first, unless you have a great reputation.
Ask for some Paypal information
Before your customer even pays you, make sure his account is VERIFIED. Also, it's extremely important that their ADDRESS IS CONFIRMED. These two factors are extremely important if you wish to protect yourself. Also ask them if it's their account, or their parents. Also make sure the address on their account is listed in the phonebook, and is their current place of residence. If your customer hasn't passed each criteria here, you leave yourself prone to chargebacks. Also tell them you will be calling their house, to verify their location, with the address you get from their Paypal account.
Have them include a note with their payment
With every payment you make on Paypal, you can include a Note, or a Memo. This can help you prove that your customer received their item. Have them include a message like "Thanks for fixing my site for me!" or just "I received my item before this payment was made - I promise not to chargeback". This is a good little measure to help protect yourself. Try to avoid using the word Bitcoin, because Paypal does not like people trading virtual currency.
Call their listed number.
After the customer has paid your Paypal, click the Details on his payment. Make sure they included their Confirmed Address in the payment, which is displayed.
Call them up. If the account is under their name, their consent is all you need. If it's under their parents' name, tell them you need their consent for the payment to be accepted. This is extremely important. This step proves that the account being used is not stolen, and therefore an Unauthorized chargeback can not be filed.
By following these 5 steps, you have eliminated the vast majority of Paypal scams. The most devastating scams usually involve people paying you from stolen accounts. This guide aims to prevent these scams, and in turn, keep you out of the red.
Remember though, Paypal will always carry SOME risk.
Types of Chargebacks:
1. Unauthorized Transaction/Stolen Paypal Account
Let me make this simple. If you accept a payment from a stolen Paypal account, YOU WILL GET CHARGEBACKED. So how do you know if the Paypal account is stolen? If there address is confirmed with paypal, and you call their home, odds are the account is not stolen. Follow this guide for more information.
2. Item Dispute
A buyer can file an item dispute if an item is not given to them. It is rare, but sometimes a buyer may file an item dispute in an attempt to get their money back even if you have already given them the item. To protect yourself against this type of claim you must have your buyer make it clear that he/she is buying intangible goods.
Paypal does not have buyer protection for intangible goods, so all you have to do is let Paypal know the trade was for intangible goods and the dispute will be closed. Follow this guide for more information.
The Process:
1. Buyer Sends Payment Confirming Address
2. Seller Calls Buyer
3. Buyer Sends Full Payment With a Note
Simple as 1-2-3
1. Buyer Sends Payment Confirming Address.
To do this, the buyer should send $0.01 to the sellers Paypal Account including a confirmed shipping address.
If the address is unconfirmed I highly suggest not doing business with that buyer.
If the address is not provided the buyer did not send the $0.01 with an address. Tell the buyer to send it again and refer him/her to this guide if he/she does not know how to include an address.
If the address is Confirmed move on to the next step.
2. Seller Calls Buyer
Once you have the buyers confirmed address, ask the buyer for his phone number registered with his/her address including the area code.
After you have the buyers telephone go to
http://www.whitepages.com (Or
http://www.bt.com/phonenetuk/ for the UK) and click 'Reverse Address' and enter the buyers telephone number. Then Click 'Search'
Compare the results with the confirmed address from the buyer. If the address match then the paypal is most likely not stolen. So far I have not come around any problems using this method.
3. Buyer Sends Full Payment With a Note
Now that the Buyer has proved his paypal is not stolen, its time to finalize the deal. Have the buyer send you full payment including a note saying:
"I have received the intangible goods and they are exactly as described. Thank You."
Including the above statement is VERY important to avoid an item dispute.
If you want you can ask the buyer to include their bitcointalk name and what they are buying in the note.
4.How to Deal With An Item Dispute/Claim:
There is nothing more heart stopping, nerve pounding...cant find the words. There is nothing like waking up to see an Item Dispute for any amount of money. Many people will file an item dispute because they think that you cannot prove that you gave them an intangible object. Guess what? If you followed my guide you shouldn't have to worry about a thing.
Paypal has something called 'Buyer Protection Policy'. It protects buyers from scams and such, and allows them to file an Item Dispute or claim if something goes wrong with a transaction. Paypal however, does not protect buyers if the trade was for intangible goods.
So, if you have an Item Dispute/Claim you need to email paypal at
resolution@paypal.com and for the subject, add the dispute or claim ID. You can find the ID by clicking 'Resolution Center'. Then Copy and Paste The Case ID.
In the email, let paypal know that the trade was for intangible goods, and the that there is proof that the trade was for intangible goods in the transactions note (If you followed my guide). Tell them that the dispute/claim is fradulent. I advice you make the email long as possible and use as many words as possible.
Paypal should reply within 1-3 days and close the case.
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3. Western Union
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1.How To send Money
First thing ,you need to go to Western Union site,then click on Find agent location,and then select your country and put on your city name until you find the agent address the nearest to you
NOTE:WU agents doesnt have to be on special shops,they can be everywhere like Post office,Supermarket,Exchangers...
after you find the nearest agent,go there
then tell the agent your correct full name and the reciever's Correct full name[/B ]and give the agent the money and a small sending fee which varies from each country,then give him your ID so that he writes your ID number.
After you fill out the paper the agent will give you an MTCN number which will be explained on the next part
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2.How to recieve money
In this part you need the sender to provide you the MTCN number,the MTCN number is a 10 digit numbers which is needed when you go to the agent and recieve the money,you Must give the agent that number and your ID so that the name is correct and is for the right person
In some cases the agent could require infos about the sender such as first name,last name,country,city and why he's sending you money.
After everything is ok this part the agent will give you the money
3.Western union Common scams
Recently, many Sellers have pretended to sell expensive items (usually, jewelery, computers or sports tickets) which they DO NOT Actually have.These Sellers almost always are located in Europe (typically England or Italy, but they could be elsewhere, too!) and Almost always require the high bidder to pay by Western union and no other of payment methods are acceptable
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NOTE: Western Union payments are virtual untraceable, which means that -- if a Seller is a fraud -- there is virtually no chance that a Buyer will be able to get his/her money back.
In some cases the Western Union sender sends money in first place and providing valid MTCN number which can be tracked online as available for picking.
After he provide the MTCN for proof of sending to the Escrow, all of the party's including buyer, seller and escrow can track the payment is ready to be picked.
And here comes the tricky part Smiley
Just before the receiver pick his money and right after the sender gave the infos to the party's to verify that the money were send, the sender can go back to the same Western Union office and claim his money back before they were collected with any reason they want.
So in this case everything going messy because the receiver and escrow have seen already that the payment is ready to be picked up but once the receiver go to Western Union office to collect the cash there won't be anything to be collected.
In this part the sender can claim that the receiver collected his cash and that's some sort of bug or just the receiver is trying to scam him after collecting his money.
Be really aware of that type of scam because its really smart and only a smart escrow will catch whats going on !!!
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4. Skrill/MoneyBookers
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Well the cases here of chargebacks are not so often as PayPal but it is possible!
In most cases MoneyBookers turn back the money to the sender and close the receiver account.
Sadly you can't dispute that decision taken from Skrill team and your money is gone...
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5. MoneyGram
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Everything about sending/receiving money is almost the same as Western Union.
Also the methods which scammers using are also the same as Western Union.
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Big 3. How to avoid being hacked
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The Team Viewer scam
Team Viewer is one of the most insecure types of software I've ever come across. It's only good in case you want to help a friend fix their computer or something similar to this. If you really want to view their screen ask for a screenshot or use the function through MSN.
Team Viewer allows the other party to have almost full control over what is sent to and sent out by your computer. Most people will infect you with a keylogger or a RAT using this method and you won't even realise you have the keylogger unless you scan your computer.
The email phishing scam
There has been plenty of threads like this of people going around asking if these emails are legit and from Jagex, they are not.
Host File Editing
This happens very rarely and you would have to be infected by a program such as a RAT before this happens. Editing website to a phishing site makes it so you will not even notice that you are on another website other than the correct website until your password has been changed. Check the page source if you suspect that it isn't the real site for anything related to hosting or a free host such as t35.
Phishers
Most phishing is done by posting threads to something that people would generally like to see on forums like these. It's pretty easy to know what is real or fake because all you have to do it scroll over it or copy the link into notepad and make sure it's the right website. If you spot a phisher, it's good to report it to it's host so it is taken down.
Java driveby
Java Driveby's are one of the hardest to detect. You won't actually know that it's infecting you and you won't be able to tell if it is a clean applet or not. Generally you shouldn't go on any website that you do not trust or any IRC channel. If you want to use a IRC channel then download mirc which is a piece of free IRC software. Generally Java driveby's place a Keylogger/Rat onto your computer.
Keyloggers / Rats
Keyloggers / Rats are the worst of all. Thousands of people get them and most virus scanners will not detect them. Most people get them from downloading off non-trusted sites or off a YouTube video. The file could be of any format because I have even seen someone bind a Keylogger to a text document. Most keyloggers market their video's on Youtube.
What should I do if I fall for one of these hacks?
The Team Viewer scam / Keylogging / Rats / Java driveby's: Keyloggers / Rats are very hard to detect and I've even had one before. Virus scanners like AVG, Norton and Adaware will not detect keyloggers. There is only one program that I found successful which is MalwareBytes. To prevent getting Keyloggers / Rats in the future, I would recommend Comodo Firewall. Even if you don't think you have one and you have not re-installed windows recently, I would recommend doing a quick scan with Malwarebytes anyway. If you have entered your recovery information for your account at any time before you removed the keylogger / rat then read the recovery section below.
Phishers / Email Phishing Scam: Falling for phishers isn't such of a big deal unless you enter your recovery information as well (Read the recovery paragraph below). All you need to do is change your password on the
website.
Host File Editing: Firstly read the method on how to get rid of a Keylogger / Rat and make sure that it is gone. Read This webpage for the location of your host file and open it in notepad. Search for bitcointalk or something similar and delete that line.
Email hacking
If you suspect that someone has access to your email and it is connected to your bitcointalk account, I'd recommend to changing it at least temporarily to a email provider like hushmail straight away. Generally, people will go straight for your account but if they are able to hack it once and obtain your information, they are able to get it back again. Remember that it's probably better not having a email connected to your bitcointalk account. It's easier for you to recover but it's also easier for others to recover. If you have a email on your account already, it's not such a big deal but keep the email secure.
Always use a hard to guess password, on every website try to use a different one, be very careful while using Facebook, nowhere use the same password.
Do not click on links which you do not know, check if a link is hidden, maybe it is a phishing link, do not download the files from untrusted websites/from the topics made by newbies.
Use a Kaspersky/Nod32 Antivirus program, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware program, every few months run a full scan especially if you suspect something.
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Big 4. How to always catch a scammer
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Step 1 - Gather all information
It is very important you know who you are trading with.
Make sure their email is correct (always triple check this)
Google their email (this is to see if they are a ban evader or if they use other forums)
Look for other information you might want to find
Step 2 - Save any evidence that confirms it is the person you are talking to
You want to save the PM, which is most important, this is the main indicator that proves it is who they say they are.
Report the PM to moderator as proof so it can be found by Moderators/Admins.
You can also check their profile to see if they have their email on there.
Step 3 - Save all chat logs (conversation screens)
This is when talking to the person you are trading on any chat program. You want to make sure you always print screen the whole conversation window, this is because the persons msn is at the top and it proves they are indeed the chat logs of that person.
You should save all chat logs and keep them in folders in case you need them later on.
You may trade with someone more than once so try to keep each trade separated.
Remember to always follow these steps and you will always catch your scammer!!!!
