Scammers on the forum.

[olympick]

What happened::
I recently made a purchase after finding a forum post on google of something I was in need of.
After payment he simply deleted all telegram messages and blocked me.

Scammers Profile Link:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3415883

Reference Link:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5449161.0

Amount Scammed:
350,00 USDT

Payment Method:
USDT

Proof of Payment:
https://tronscan.org/#/transaction/252b5e625222036758575949b054e011a844ce37beaa41fd20fe85ceae04f473

PM/Chat Logs:
He deleted all messages and blocked me.

Notas adicionais: [ /cor]
Telegram from scammer: @smith4u

[1714963308]

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[acroman08]

I recently made a purchase after finding a forum post on google of something I was in need of.
After payment he simply deleted all telegram messages and blocked me.

typical behavior of scammers that uses telegram, deleting all telegram messages after getting the payment. just curious, did you use escrow? the forum has some reputable member that has escrow services that anyone could hire to prevent incidents like this.

How many other people did this guy hit without having any kind of punishment on the forum?

there's really no way to tell unless the victims came forward and tell their experiences and evidence. also, the forum does not regulate scams so no punishments are coming for the scammer from the admins, staff or mods. but members can leave the scammers negative feedback that can be reviewed on their profile by all members.

Another question that leads to this is why in this sales topic on the forum do you have the option to leave the post blocked for replicas?
This option had to be prohibited for buyers to report whether they received the product or not.

do you mean the threads being locked? the reason for that is because the thread is created by them and they have the capability of locking it but they cannot delete it.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

OP, first of all I'm sorry you got scammed--truly.  However it might have been advisable for you to have done a modicum of research about bitcointalk before trusting someone on it enough to make a deal, especially with bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency which I assume was your payment method.

What acroman08 wrote is true: scams aren't moderated here, though the community tries to put out the fires whenever there's smoke.  That thread isn't going to be deleted, but I'm going to red-tag him right now as a warning to everyone that there's a scam accusation against him. 

You really ought to make a proper scam accusation with all the info in case he comes here and defends himself.  If there's no evidence and you don't come back, I'll probably remove my tag.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

A seller making an advert and then immediately locking the thread is red flag number one. It means they don't want people they have scammed before to leave any feedback or review on their threads.

The mistake you did was to trust a stranger without asking or doing some research. I would love you to make a proper scam accusation with evidence so that DT members can leave negative feedback and a flag on the scammer's profile. That way, it will be easy for the guest users to see the warnings.

Use this format - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260073.0

[olympick]

What happened::
I recently made a purchase after finding a forum post on google of something I was in need of.
After payment he simply deleted all telegram messages and blocked me.

Scammers Profile Link:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3415883

Reference Link:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5449161.0

Amount Scammed:
350,00 USDT

Payment Method:
USDT

Proof of Payment:
https://tronscan.org/#/transaction/252b5e625222036758575949b054e011a844ce37beaa41fd20fe85ceae04f473

PM/Chat Logs:
He deleted all messages and blocked me.

Notas adicionais: [ /cor]
Telegram from scammer: @smith4u

[Mpamaegbu]

Another question that leads to this is why in this sales topic on the forum do you have the option to leave the post blocked for replicas?
This option had to be prohibited for buyers to report whether they received the product or not.

This feature and the fact that scam isn't  moderated here are some of the things everyone should frown at. Plagiarism is frown at as property theft, so how come the real stealing and robbery aren't sanctioned? This is complicated for me as it beggars explanation. It's a bunch of contradiction, to say the least. OP, sorry for your loss. You've learnt your lesson from that encounter and I believe perhaps next time you won't fall prey.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

>>snip<<

Thanks for taking your time to provide more details. $350 is quite an amount, and once again sorry for your loss. I am going to create a flag against his profile and also leave him negative feedback.

If you can, please, you might as well edit the original post and include that you just replied here for better visibility. I am going to use the OP link as reference for the flag

Edit:
You can support the flag: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=3165

[Zaguru12]

Sorry for your lose OP it is quite sad you have had to know about the forum this hard way. Just like what other members said, scam is not that moderated here, so to be on a safer side do not transact with any newbie account here or outside the forum. And should it be any member above then check there trust ratings, members that have transacted in the past with the user will have left a feedback on him. Sorry for loss once again

[boyptc]

Sorry with your lose OP.

When you're going to purchase such, there are P2P markets that have an escrow protection and just like in the forum. We've got the escrow where you can avail their service for a very low fee like 1%-5% and these escrows are reputable.

--> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2439910.0

You'll never go wrong with them.

Or, you should have just gone to an exchange and did the transaction there. Never do any transaction in Telegram, scammers live there.

[robelneo]

>>snip<<

Thanks for taking your time to provide more details. $350 is quite an amount, and once again sorry for your loss. I am going to create a flag against his profile and also leave him negative feedback.

If you can, please, you might as well edit the original post and include that you just replied here for better visibility. I am going to use the OP link as reference for the flag

Edit:
You can support the flag: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=3165

Supported the flag buddy this is one of the things that worries us here the majority of our posts here in Bitcointalk show up on Google search results based on keywords and a newbie without doing proper research will easily trust sellers of the community, and he is unaware that there are also scammers roaming here in Bitcointalk.
If a newbie is not up to checking details or the pin thread of warning he will easily trust all the sellers in the digital goods.

[Mr.right85]

OP, i don't know why you had to repeat or copy/paste whats in OP. I think the OP was enough to say what has been done to you by the said user.

Still, I would say you made a bad call at OP. Scammers are everywhere these days and bitcointalk is no limited to scammers. Where ever there is a potential victim or money, you could be sure to find a scammmer.

Don't really on bitcointalk trust system to be the last call to this though, it has served as some form of regulation but still, its always up to the scammer to see the worth in his or her account in contrast to how much that is in transit.
I guess that for the scammer in this case is $350 and its a member account at that.

OP, be sure to investigate next time or at least put the word out for others to help.

[SatoPrincess]

OP, i don't know why you had to repeat or copy/paste whats in OP. I think the OP was enough to say what has been done to you by the said user.

Read the whole thread, you will understand what happened. The original post did not have the details written in this format. Bitcoin_Arena was the one who suggested OP edit the post.

Still, I would say you made a bad call at OP. Scammers are everywhere these days and bitcointalk is no limited to scammers. Where ever there is a potential victim or money, you could be sure to find a scammmer.

Don't really on bitcointalk trust system to be the last call to this though, it has served as some form of regulation but still, its always up to the scammer to see the worth in his or her account in contrast to how much that is in transit.
I guess that for the scammer in this case is $350 and its a member account at that.

OP, be sure to investigate next time or at least put the word out for others to help.

I agree, it’s better to tag these accounts before they get the chance to scam somebody. Tagging an account with member rank won’t do much good because the scammer can create a new account on the forum again. $350 is a lot of money and the scammer wouldn’t mind losing a member account for that.

[coin-investor]

They will get another account again, create another moderated sales thread, and scam again and they only need one buyer,  so the cycle continues, I hope in the future newbies cannot moderate their sales thread so we can post and warn people that they need to escrow before buying anything to newly open account.

[rby]

A seller making an advert and then immediately locking the thread is red flag number one. It means they don't want people they have scammed before to leave any feedback or review on their threads.

And I wonder why such threads are not deleted by moderators when reported, especially when a newbie happens to be the OP.

The mistake you did was to trust a stranger without asking or doing some research.

In this case, I'm sorry to say that both the scammer and the scammed appear like strangers to me.

Edit:
You can support the flag: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=3165

Supported.

[Poker Player]

I agree, it’s better to tag these accounts before they get the chance to scam somebody. Tagging an account with member rank won’t do much good because the scammer can create a new account on the forum again. $350 is a lot of money and the scammer wouldn’t mind losing a member account for that.

Member rank? The scammer is a newbie, so if he wants to scam again on the forum it will be easy for him to create another account.

In any case, in general, you should take many precautions before buying anything P2P on the Internet. Contacting a stranger with unknown or no reputation to buy something you want and sending him the money first has a high risk.

Flag supported btw.

[Helena Yu]

There's no evidence, proof of payment, or the address is belong to @Smith_94 so I choose to leave neutral feedback here.

What make @Smith_94 looks suspicious is he lock all of his thread and there's no one user claim if he had done successful trade with @Smith_94, so it doesn't make me think @Smith_94 is a legit seller.

@OP account was created yesterday and suddenly created an accusation thread.

[olympick]

There's no evidence, proof of payment, or the address is belong to @Smith_94 so I choose to leave neutral feedback here.

What make @Smith_94 looks suspicious is he lock all of his thread and there's no one user claim if he had done successful trade with @Smith_94, so it doesn't make me think @Smith_94 is a legit seller.

@OP account was created yesterday and suddenly created an accusation thread.

My account is new because I'm new to the forum and from what I saw this was one of the reasons I fell for the scam, today with the help of the tips obtained here I wouldn't have fallen, but unfortunately it was too late for me.
I found the post using the keyword on google because I was interested in the product, I had no intention of creating an account on the forum.
I will have the product I wanted and the life that goes on.
Make no mistake, not everyone has experience in trading on the forum, this was my first and it was very bad by the way, with a loss of 350.00 USDT.
With regard to evidence of conversations, how am I going to have something since the scammer deleted all messages and blocked me? (then search how this works on telegram).
Of course I'm not gratuitously accusing anyone here, what would I get out of it? This placement of yours is biased to say the least.
The reason I created this topic is to help other people who may suffer the same financial loss that I suffered because of this scammer.
I know I will never get that money back....

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

I feels bad to loose money on nothing achieved, but if you can hear yourself well OP, you make a purchase from someone who made a post on the internet that they are from the forum and you believe? Make a purchase, and pay without receiving their service first, without knowing the person or their account on bitcointalk to be a reputable and trusted user of bitcointalk, this indicates that you're too simple yourself, you believe in people easily without making further necessary steps in knowing who they really are

[UserU]

just curious, did you use escrow? the forum has some reputable member that has escrow services that anyone could hire to prevent incidents like this.

Strangely the scammer did offer such option, but either the victim couldn't wait any longer or got baited with a fake one.

Available chrome Cdm 2557 with both private key & chrome extension, escrow available.
Contact Telegram

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Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5449161.0

[olympick]

just curious, did you use escrow? the forum has some reputable member that has escrow services that anyone could hire to prevent incidents like this.

Strangely the scammer did offer such option, but either the victim couldn't wait any longer or got baited with a fake one.

Available chrome Cdm 2557 with both private key & chrome extension, escrow available.
Contact Telegram

Also available widevine drm scripts, mpd to hls scripts, iptv pannels and iptv live channel mpd and keys for all regions

Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5449161.0

I was not a member of the forum so I was unaware of this secure payment method offered here.
I think that many people who come from google and do not know the forum must fall into this type of scam.
He even deleted his Telegram account.
today doing a better research I saw that he has other accounts here that were also reported as a scam in the forum and linked to him.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5424667.0

[Awaklara]

I was not a member of the forum so I was unaware of this secure payment method offered here.

OP, sorry about your loss. but how can you do online transactions with only a search on the internet? yes I know it is very possible nowadays. but why don't you see the reputation of the business he's doing? I mean, if you want to transact online, even when using a certain platform. we can first check how the reviews from the seller or even the rettings are given.

it is very possible that he is still running his illegal business. but still difficult to detect. this is a bad experience for you. I hope you get a meaningful lesson from this all.

[uchegod-21]

I was not a member of the forum so I was unaware of this secure payment method offered here.

OP, sorry about your loss. but how can you do online transactions with only a search on the internet? yes I know it is very possible nowadays. but why don't you see the reputation of the business he's doing? I mean, if you want to transact online, even when using a certain platform. we can first check how the reviews from the seller or even the rettings are given.

it is very possible that he is still running his illegal business. but still difficult to detect. this is a bad experience for you. I hope you get a meaningful lesson from this all.

These are the exact questions running in my mind but on the second thought, I do not blame the victim. When I newly joined this forum and discovered that Satoshi used to be here. I had some kind of comfort and trust in everything happening in this place until I saw somewhere that scam is not moderated and before moving with red tags. It was then I became skeptical and started treating this forum like any other Internet in terms of scam.

[acroman08]

I was not a member of the forum so I was unaware of this secure payment method offered here.
I think that many people who come from google and do not know the forum must fall into this type of scam.
He even deleted his Telegram account.
today doing a better research I saw that he has other accounts here that were also reported as a scam in the forum and linked to him.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5424667.0

sorry for your loss and I do hope this incident will be a lesson. the internet is riddled with scammers waiting for victims. when making transactions online always be cautious about who you deal with.

Strangely the scammer did offer such option, but either the victim couldn't wait any longer or got baited with a fake one.

I saw that too but looks like OP went ahead without an escrow, anyway, pretty sure if OP asked for an escrow the scammer will recommend either an accomplice pretending to be an escrow or the scammer himself pretending to be an escrow.

[suzanne5223]

I was not a member of the forum so I was unaware of this secure payment method offered here.
I think that many people who come from google and do not know the forum must fall into this type of scam.
He even deleted his Telegram account.
today doing a better research I saw that he has other accounts here that were also reported as a scam in the forum and linked to him.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5424667.0

It looks like the user in the subject has Ph.D. is scamming people but I will advise you to always do some background checks on people you wanted to do business especially if the means of communication is Telegram which is lately the paradise of crypto scammers.
There's nothing we can do about what happened to you since the accused user account is a throwaway.

[UserU]

I was not a member of the forum so I was unaware of this secure payment method offered here.
I think that many people who come from google and do not know the forum must fall into this type of scam.
He even deleted his Telegram account.
today doing a better research I saw that he has other accounts here that were also reported as a scam in the forum and linked to him.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5424667.0

Alright, so by the time you found out about this forum, it's too late.

Unfortunately such scammers use throwaway accounts, so the best thing the community could do is to red-tag and name and shame them.

The only takeaway is that you are now more cautious of strangers when it comes to dealing. Only look for reputable traders, including escrows

[Helena Yu]

Make no mistake, not everyone has experience in trading on the forum, this was my first and it was very bad by the way, with a loss of 350.00 USDT.
With regard to evidence of conversations, how am I going to have something since the scammer deleted all messages and blocked me? (then search how this works on telegram).

The reason I created this topic is to help other people who may suffer the same financial loss that I suffered because of this scammer.

That's why telegram is a very bad choice to make a deal because either one can delete all the messages without need to ask another person permission. When someone want to make a deal in telegram, usually they will capture all the conversations, when something bad happen, they can report it.

But yeah nothing you can do here and if it's true, all you can do is move on.

Still, I can't say @Smith_94 is a scammer due to lack of evidence.

[olympick]

>>snip<<

Thanks for taking your time to provide more details. $350 is quite an amount, and once again sorry for your loss. I am going to create a flag against his profile and also leave him negative feedback.

If you can, please, you might as well edit the original post and include that you just replied here for better visibility. I am going to use the OP link as reference for the flag

Edit:
You can support the flag: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=3165

Thanks for the support.
Thanks to you, he deleted his telegram and at least this post won't harm anyone else.
I found other profiles he uses to pull off the same scam.
This brandon6969 profile has complaints about fraud.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=3413799
brandon6969 gives a positive review to another profile used for scams selling the same product that uses the nickname batista6226:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=3517109
In other words, he created a network of fake accounts to give scams selling the same product here on the forum, which makes me think that he must profit just by giving scams on here.

[albon]

Thanks to you, he deleted his telegram and at least this post won't harm anyone else.
I found other profiles he uses to pull off the same scam.
This brandon6969 profile has complaints about fraud.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=3413799
brandon6969 gives a positive review to another profile used for scams selling the same product that uses the nickname batista6226:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=3517109
In other words, he created a network of fake accounts to give scams selling the same product here on the forum, which makes me think that he must profit just by giving scams on here.

If we look at the accounts that have made positive feedback, we will find their rank Newbie and Brand New, which are new accounts that do not contain posts, except for one post on the topic of this scammer. This indicates a large percentage that he used his alt accounts to publish false reviews and feedback to deceive potential buyers. I feel sorry for your loss, but again, you do not conduct any transactions on Telegram. It is possible through the messages of this forum and through an escrow service carried out by trusted people to guarantee your rights completely.

[Agbe]

It is not good to buy things from a newbie account because they have not gotten the reputation and there should be suspicious that they are here to scam. Op would have carefully look at the movement of the scammer. Because if your some how delay the payment he would have been showcase some of the scam characters which you would have use to know him. Because at that time they in in hurry to get the money so they also pressurized you to pay and that is a scammer. A genuine seller would never in hurry. Me, I have known third tactics so they can scam me again, because I have been scammed enough times.

[Frankolala]

Sorry for your loss OP, the good and bad are always together in the same place. Likewise this forum,the moderators and forum members have been working tirelessly to keep this forum clean but it can't be clean completely,because every forum users has their own reasons for been here. This is the reason why you shouldn't trust anyone on the internet when dealing with them.

That account is a newbie, and I know vividly that,his motive in this forum is to scam forum members. This is the reason why he doesn't care to rank up his account,which means he can create as many account as possible to carry out his dirty works. If you are new in a place,you should take your time to study and make enquiries about whatever that you need to do with money on the platform. There are reputable members in this forum with Escrows

[olympick]

The scammer is attacked again, could someone make a tag on his profile?
Profile:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3561796
Scammers post:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5459054.0

[Lucius]

The scammer is attacked again, could someone make a tag on his profile?
Profile:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3561796
Scammers post:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5459054.0

I just did this but another link led me to your post, unfortunately another person lost $200 from the same scammer. I hope that more DT members will join to at least try to warn others about this serial scammer.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5424667.msg62863436#msg62863436

[Bitcoin_Arena]

The scammer is attacked again, could someone make a tag on his profile?
Profile:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3561796
Scammers post:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5459054.0

Tagged and Guest flag supported.

Thanks for the vigilance. The truth is, the Goods board is plagued with scammers of all kinds. I remember there was a user who dedicated his time in busting their farms, and he did a pretty good job pissing them off, but then after some time he stopped. That board need proper cleaning.

[KingsDen]

The scammer is attacked again, could someone make a tag on his profile?
Profile:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3561796
Scammers post:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5459054.0

Before now I used to blame the forum for not moderating scam, but as I grow older in the forum I discovered that it will be near impossible to effectively moderate scam in the forum. When I discovered this, I alternatively made a suggestion that any newbie that sign up to this forum should be given a bold notification in their profile that scam is not moderated in this place.
Some newbies on knowing the historical background of this forum may ignorantly think that this place is free of scam.
In the other words, it seems that newcomers are easy to give out their hard earned money without adequate research.
The profile of the scammer was tagged, how did he manage to have another victim even with negative trusts score.

[Learn Bitcoin]

It seems the thread was bumped again after four months of creation.
OP did not return to the forum from the day he created this thread. The scammer has also been inactive since June 17. The scammer was tagged already, and I guess nothing is left to do.

Available chrome Cdm 2557 with both private key &amp; chrome extension, escrow available.

I wonder why OP paid him upfront while the scammer mentioned that escrow is available. I do not trust a newbie with a minimum of $5 if they do not have any trading history. If it comes to some reputed forum members, I would pay upfront. Sorry for their loss.