Avoid buying Bitcoin from someone all because you know them.

[KiaKia]

If anyone offers to sell their Bitcoin to you simply because they know you one way the other, don't buy from them.

This days it is getting harder to trust anyone.


There are so many reasons why it is wrong to buy Bitcoin from someone you know but I want to talk about a particular one that landed a 25yrs old in trouble.

In today's world, you can't tell what anyone is doing for a living, how they make their money even if they claimed to be making money through web3 and crypto trading.

Some people are just using this as a cover up.

So this friend of a friend sold some Bitcoin to the 25yrs old guy that I know and the Bitcoin was stolen, I am always against the idea of  seliing Bitcoin to someone face to face normally but when he told me about it I was like you guys are friend so no problem, until he said he sold to him in discount.

Bitcoin is massively high in value and someone decide to sell to you in discount?

What will cost them to sell on exchange?

That's where I knew something isn't right, they were all apprehended because the 25yrs old guy moved the Bitcoin back to a centralised exchange where he already passed his KYC.

They will be charged to court I heard, and the case is still on, the parent are now finding every means to save their son from the mess, and truthfully he is not a part of the criminal activity, all he did wrong was buying the Bitcoin, he was the first to get arrested and he led the agents back to the other guys.

This should serve as an example to all beginners, if someone can't buy or sell their digital assets on exchanges, you have the right to be suspicious, teach them how to if you can but don't ever buy from them, it can be stolen digital assets.

[Charles-Tim]

Is there any local news that talked about it? I will like to read from a site about it.

This is very possible.

But the reason I do not like face to face sales of bitcoin is that it can lead to physical attack. We have read on different news about different people that were physically attack all because those that attacked them know that they have bitcoin. Attack can come from anywhere, even from someone that you will not expect.

[knowngunman]

I read this When your kid talk about Bitcoin don't assume it's all good some days back and it's somehow similar to this thread. People can not longer be trusted when they offer to sell any assets because it's possible they obtain such assets through illegal means.

I will blame the victim here for not being smart or for being greedy. How will someone offer to sell Bitcoin for you at discounted price and it won't ring a bell in your head? It's either he's too dumb or intentionally want to be greedy to make high profit. I feel sorry for him though but this is a silly mistake from him.

[Sim_card]

It's good to know the person very well and what he does for a living before selling bitcoin face to face to the person. I only sell bitcoin to family members or very close friends who don't know how to buy from an exchange because they're new to the cryptospace. However, bitcoin is becoming valuable overtime and physical p2p should be discouraged in order to keep your bitcoin involvement a secret and safe from attackers.

[TravelMug]

Ok if I get it right, someone sold him a stolen Bitcoin? So in that case, it's like he is the one who have stole this Bitcoin. And in country, we call it anti-fencing law. In any case, there is already a red flag as you have said because he is selling it at a discount. Nevertheless, he could really be trusting the other party, that's why he didn't hesitate to buy even though at first glance there is already some suspicions on it. Just very hard to understand why it is that he goes to this person. If he is really a friend then he wouldn't do that. So he is not a friend at all and so sorry for the victim and now his family will have to do everything to save his son from jail.

[Popkon6]

Yes, such an incident happened in my country but the matter is different, a child was kidnapped and Bitcoin was demanded as ransom. The victim had Bitcoin deposited with the child's father, from which he demanded a significant amount of Bitcoin, which the victim's father was obliged to pay.
Because his child has to be rescued with this Bitcoin, such an incident happened in my country, yes, I believe that attacks can occur from different directions. Only those who are known do such incidents, because Bitcoin is a secret resource, other people should not be informed about this news.

[KiaKia]

Is there any local news that talked about it? I will like to read from a site about it.

This is very possible.

But the reason I do not like face to face sales of bitcoin is that it can lead to physical attack. We have read on different news about different people that were physically attack all because those that attacked them know that they have bitcoin. Attack can come from anywhere, even from someone that you will not expect.

The case is presently in the hands of the anti graft agency that investigates financial crimes like this one, they are already locked up and the investigation is still ongoing, I am not sure it's going to the local news right now, and there are many cases like this happening in my country as we speak, I don't know where you are from though, sadly such news don't always go worldwide here unless its a very bigger burst like if high numbers of scammers are raided at once.

[Peanutswar]

Base on my understanding the bitcoin sold to the other party are a dirty bitcoin or a tag wallet address have an incident of stolen bitcoin and then that person charge or accused because he bought a bitcoin which is came from a flag wallet, well actually if your country has a care with the crypto reports and illegal activity on it its a good move to them they knew this kind of illegal action happens and just sad to the other party accused because of committing transaction only instead a problem he got. This is the reason why still vigilant and anonymous in terms of bitcoin because no one knew who you will transact with.

[notocactus]

If anyone offers to sell their Bitcoin to you simply because they know you one way the other, don't buy from them.

This days it is getting harder to trust anyone.

You can trade peer to peer online with an Escrow service for securing a trade for both the buyer and the seller, while you can do it offline, and trade in-person. The second type is offline and you can do it with people you know well, and surely do it at public places. Let's understand it right, you trade in-person at public places but the trade is private between you and your trade partner. No other people know about the trade, and you choose public locations to make sure that nothing like physical attacks can happen to you.

Surely if you can trade peer to peer, online, it's best method.

• https://github.com/jlopp/physical-bitcoin-attacks
• https://github.com/demining/Physical-Bitcoin-Attacks

[mrust_mobile]

True. As much as I like all that p2p trading stuff, it doesn’t come without its own risks.

Other than getting scammed, there is a chance that you are receiving tainted coins that has connection to a past crime.

If that’s the case, the moment you send these coins to an exchange, they will lock your account and start asking questions about how and where you got these coins. It is a never ending chain of headaches from there. You’ll explain the same damn thing for a hundred times and there won’t be any progress on the matter for the next 2 years probably.

If you are doing p2p don’t even think about using exchanges unless you somehow find a way to mix them coins.

[Slimzeee]

If anyone offers to sell their Bitcoin to you simply because they know you one way the other, don't buy from them.

This days it is getting harder to trust anyone.

Proper verification for offline trades is my must. You might not know what your friend is passing through sometimes and the extent he can go to resolve those challenges. But then if we cant trust friends for common transaction then who should we even trust.

This should serve as an example to all beginners, if someone can't buy or sell their digital assets on exchanges, you have the right to be suspicious, teach them how to if you can but don't ever buy from them, it can be stolen digital assets.

As you have rightly stated here, if they intentionally don't want to sell on any exchange and are looking for any means to disburse their coins, then it should be noted as a skeptical move.

[Marykeller]

This is sad. Someone whose crime was to buy Bitcoin from someone he knows, will suffer what he doesn't know about. This will be unforgettable lesson he will learn in a hard way, never to trust anyone when is about buying digital assets from someone without buying it from verified exchange.

I hope those who know about this case will learn from it, that in crypto space you don't trust anyone even when you know them because they might be scammers projecting themselves as genuine Bitcoin investor

[Hewlet]

This should serve as an example to all beginners, if someone can't buy or sell their digital assets on exchanges, you have the right to be suspicious, teach them how to if you can but don't ever buy from them, it can be stolen digital assets.

why will you agree to  buy bitcoin from someone directly when you can easily get it through an exchange? the fact that the person does not want to sell it through p2p option but rather wants to sell it to you at a subsidized rate makes it more suspicious and there is no way i am going to buy into such idea. there are a lot of implication of doing physical buys and sells of bitcoin with some one you know physically. one of such implication is that you tend to expose yourself to the person to know that you own such worth of coin and with the numbers of bad people we have around, same person that sells you the coin can still be the same person that will rebel you later and send thieves and hackers at you.

[Catenaccio]

why will you agree to  buy bitcoin from someone directly when you can easily get it through an exchange? the fact that the person does not want to sell it through p2p option but rather wants to sell it to you at a subsidized rate makes it more suspicious and there is no way i am going to buy into such idea.

What is sort of exchanges you implied?

Exchanges can be Centralized Exchanges or Decentralized Exchanges and I know there are many exchanges are there from both CEX and DEX. People have many options to buy or sell their bitcoins, on either CEX or DEX, and if they don't like CEX or DEX - like they are doubtful about whether DEX are truly decentralized and respect user privacy - they can choose to buy and sell bitcoins directly with other people.

Doing this, they will leave no trace online and no trace with bank transfer.

[pawanjain]

So this friend of a friend sold some Bitcoin to the 25yrs old guy that I know and the Bitcoin was stolen, I am always against the idea of  seliing Bitcoin to someone face to face normally but when he told me about it I was like you guys are friend so no problem, until he said he sold to him in discount.

But how? I get that he did a face to face trade with a person he knew and got the bitcoins from him at a discount.
But how can the bitcoins be stolen if the person was holding it in his wallet ? except if the bitcoins were not truly hold in his non-custodial wallet.
There's something missing here and it doesn't make sense until we get to know how exactly he lost his coins.

[Macro Exchange]

If anyone offers to sell their Bitcoin to you simply because they know you one way the other, don't buy from them.

This days it is getting harder to trust anyone.


There are so many reasons why it is wrong to buy Bitcoin from someone you know but I want to talk about a particular one that landed a 25yrs old in trouble.

In today's world, you can't tell what anyone is doing for a living, how they make their money even if they claimed to be making money through web3 and crypto trading.

Some people are just using this as a cover up.

So this friend of a friend sold some Bitcoin to the 25yrs old guy that I know and the Bitcoin was stolen, I am always against the idea of  seliing Bitcoin to someone face to face normally but when he told me about it I was like you guys are friend so no problem, until he said he sold to him in discount.

Bitcoin is massively high in value and someone decide to sell to you in discount?

What will cost them to sell on exchange?

That's where I knew something isn't right, they were all apprehended because the 25yrs old guy moved the Bitcoin back to a centralised exchange where he already passed his KYC.

They will be charged to court I heard, and the case is still on, the parent are now finding every means to save their son from the mess, and truthfully he is not a part of the criminal activity, all he did wrong was buying the Bitcoin, he was the first to get arrested and he led the agents back to the other guys.

This should serve as an example to all beginners, if someone can't buy or sell their digital assets on exchanges, you have the right to be suspicious, teach them how to if you can but don't ever buy from them, it can be stolen digital assets.

This story just proves it again - if someone’s selling you Bitcoin at a discount, especially off-exchange, you’re probably not buying Bitcoin… you're buying risk.

Why would anyone part with the hardest money on earth for less than market price, unless they are hiding something? 

[albon]

But how? I get that he did a face to face trade with a person he knew and got the bitcoins from him at a discount.
But how can the bitcoins be stolen if the person was holding it in his wallet ? except if the bitcoins were not truly hold in his non-custodial wallet.
There's something missing here and it doesn't make sense until we get to know how exactly he lost his coins.

The seller obtained the bitcoin through illegal means and deposited it into his wallet, then sold it  to the buyer at a lower price than the market rate to make the deal more attractive. Later, the police went after the buyer because the source of the bitcoins was suspicious after he deposited it into a CEX..

I don't see anything illogical in what happened, and it can happen to anyone. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each person to verify the source of the Bitcoin they purchase, and to rely on trusted exchanges for buying rather than peer-to-peer deals. The Bitcoin may have been acquired through illegal means such as theft, hacking, or similar activities.

[348Judah]

Here are some advise or tips to consider when you're about to make a physical p2p.

1. Don't rely on their buying or selling rate, make sure you check the actual rates on exchanges or any other reliable sources before making a transaction.

2. Don't use familiarity in p2p, because you might regret your action when they take advantage of that over you to manipulate price you're buying or selling.

3. Also ensure that you verify and confirm the reception of the actual amount into your bank account or in physical to be complete and accurate.

4. Make use of a reliable escrow service provider, to ensure transparency during the transaction and don't trust either for anything, preferable, use a reputable escrow.

[BABY SHOES]

But the reason I do not like face to face sales of bitcoin is that it can lead to physical attack. We have read on different news about different people that were physically attack all because those that attacked them know that they have bitcoin. Attack can come from anywhere, even from someone that you will not expect.

There have been many reports of people being stabbed because criminals knew they had a lot of bitcoin, so they could stalk you in any way possible. Once you let your guard down, they would take action to steal your coins.

So, after many incidents like this, I never talk about owning bitcoin because it would invite criminals to approach us in any way possible.

A year ago, friends or relatives often asked me about my bitcoin holdings, which eventually made us uncomfortable. However, I responded by saying that the bitcoin had been sold and used to purchase property, so they would not ask about the coins I owned.

Answering their questions about the amount of bitcoin I owned... could invite crime at any time.

[Trêvoid]

But the reason I do not like face to face sales of bitcoin is that it can lead to physical attack. We have read on different news about different people that were physically attack all because those that attacked them know that they have bitcoin. Attack can come from anywhere, even from someone that you will not expect.

There have been many reports of people being stabbed because criminals knew they had a lot of bitcoin, so they could stalk you in any way possible. Once you let your guard down, they would take action to steal your coins.

So, after many incidents like this, I never talk about owning bitcoin because it would invite criminals to approach us in any way possible.

A year ago, friends or relatives often asked me about my bitcoin holdings, which eventually made us uncomfortable. However, I responded by saying that the bitcoin had been sold and used to purchase property, so they would not ask about the coins I owned.

Answering their questions about the amount of bitcoin I owned... could invite crime at any time.

That’s really smart.

Keeping your bitcoin ownership private helps protect you from unwanted attention and potential threats.