What do you have to say about this

[Cryptomultiplier]

This makes me want to think that those who have chosen to not use mixers are the controlled ones, because they have to provide proof, state source of income, fill KYC and AML requirements just to use the network and be visibly accountable. While those who still use mixers are above this making such policies quite unfair.

I heard about the story too and well, the fraudster had his cup full already because I don't believe that's the first time he has been successful at using Bitcoin to accept money for fraudulent activity.
Am still sure that mixers would meet a more sophisticated innovation that helps to identify users who use it and we would see more persons including top leaders be held accountable for using such mediums to launder funds.

[Boldfx]

The fact that scammers are using mixers for their transactions doesn't mean its bad to use mixers for some of us from nations where tax is like 20% of every transaction you make, also other criminals like kidnapers track peoples transactions in other to carry out their operations it is advised to use mixers in bulky transaction depending on your transaction safety based on your country

[Easteregg69]

Newbies sometimes uses mixers because they got nothing better to do with their bitcoin?

From experience.. Puff puff pass. Lost 0.4 eth on zk-znark testing. The exchange got it now..

It's like with bitzler. Could be solved if people was not dense.

[Antotena]

The fact that scammers are using mixers for their transactions doesn't mean its bad to use mixers for some of us from nations where tax is like 20% of every transaction you make, also other criminals like kidnapers track peoples transactions in other to carry out their operations it is advised to use mixers in bulky transaction depending on your transaction safety based on your country

I hope you know that tax evasion, if you hide from your government and doesn't pay tax and caught, know that you are going to pay all that tax you have not paid and there is law that guide tax. The best way to do this isn't through mixing because doing that alone will rise suspicious for the government to investigate you if you have been doing something illegal with mixers even though mixers are for privacy and are not completely illegal to use.

What you said about kidnappers is real, some people use public wallet to do transactions with their business and since it's a public transaction, there is no way to know if someone is trying to steal money from you by tracking your wallet. Using mixers to break the transaction is one of the way to improve your privacy, this way there is no way for people to know where you sent your Bitcoin and if you have some left on your public wallet.

[Bryan jessy]

It is really funny how they all sounded so disappointed with the criminal for not using a mixer to carry out his fraudulent act, imagine how unreasonable it sounds like generally advising scammers to start utilizing  mixers for crime, the bad news is anyone can be unfortunate and encounter this scammers, and I am very sure that there are some of this scammers out there that does not know about the existence of the mixer. From Op's thread is more like the people were in support of such act else they would not have been giving such advise. I noticed some persons are against the use of mixers, but this is for private purposes especially in countries that have issues with Bitcoin transactions, and so far humans operate it they are surely going to use it in a negative way regardless of its positive resolution to privacy.

[ZAINmalik75]

People use gun isn't? Bad people use it and good people use it too, just because one bad person use it to rob another doesn't make the rest of people with gun criminals, that said.

Let's look at what happened and why he was identified after using a mixer.
Using mixers alone doesn't give you privacy alone, there are many things that might have gone wrong while using a mixer or after using a mixer.

He did not used the mixer in the first place that's how he got caught and it is good that he did, otherwise authorities would have spent more time and resources to catch him. But eventually he will be caught, because using a mixer alone does not guarantee privacy. But the shocking thing is, how many people in OP's country know about Bitcoin mixers? I bet not so many people know about them in my country. Although it also depends on the usage of crypto because if people uses bitcoin for daily expenses that mean they are using it for some time and they must have used several btc related tools too.

And it is wrong to say that mixers are for criminals alone, a lot of people use it for privacy as well like you said. One fish is polluting the whole pond.

[uchegod-21]

The fact that scammers are using mixers for their transactions doesn't mean its bad to use mixers for some of us from nations where tax is like 20% of every transaction you make, also other criminals like kidnapers track peoples transactions in other to carry out their operations it is advised to use mixers in bulky transaction depending on your transaction safety based on your country

In the eyes of the government, if you try to evade tax by using mixers, you are not in any way different from criminals who use mixers to hide their tracks. It is because this mixer tool is being misused by criminals and citizens trying to avoid paying tax that governments consider mixers illegal.

Back to the story on the ground. My major concern is about the comments from people on Tiktok regarding this issue. It is quite unpleasant that people are recommending ways the scammer can keep his transactions private without leaving a trace. This shows how rotten society is becoming. They will make Bitcoin critics confirm their claims that Bitcoin is used to aid illegal transactions.

[Mahiyammahi]

Why the hell will you transaction the bitcoin without using mixer they said, I mean the whole comment section was full with this same blame that mixers is the way to scam and escape without getting caught.

Some will say why is this post necessary, it's for those who thinks that mixers are only for people who want privacy in their lives, but this just prove to me that criminals are possibly using mixers more than those who just want to stay private.

- He probably used a centralized mixers, most of the centralized mixers claimed not to keep logs but you can't say for sure, there is a point failure with your privacy. What if the money was big amount and the government collaborate with the mixer to identify the logs? You can't say for sure what happened behind even though it's unlikely, the point of failure brings doubt.

 If the amount is large enough it doesn't matter if it mixed or not, it can be trace anyway by chain analysis. Cause id your amount is small no on ain't gonna pay attention towards it. Government always looking for siege the bitcoin. Especially US government. Their Treasury is full of these seized bitcoin.

- The guy must have misused post mixing step, it's possible he might have combined the mixed Bitcoin together and probably joined previously used addresses.

Maybe he was not clever enough to escape , that's why caught. Btw I'm glad that original user got refund or issued a refund by seizing their property. No matter how clever a theif would be , he will keep a trace anyway.

[goldkingcoiner]

The numbers of criminals that have understood the possibilities of evading capture through the help of mixers is alarming, I don't know about your country, this is about mine.

Few days back a guy was arrested and all of his properties were seized, he scammed a foreigner (woman) in romance scam using a popular figure in my country, he cashed out using Bitcoin and he was traced easily, caught and sentenced.

Few amounts was recovered while his seized properties are on sale to refund the women, what is shocking to me was what people said on tiktok, and almost all of them are from my country since they are using dialect signals and some had their flag up there.

Why the hell will you transaction the bitcoin without using mixer they said, I mean the whole comment section was full with this same blame that mixers is the way to scam and escape without getting caught.

Some will say why is this post necessary, it's for those who thinks that mixers are only for people who want privacy in their lives, but this just prove to me that criminals are possibly using mixers more than those who just want to stay private.

The smart criminals use fiat to obscure, launder and hide their money. Using Bitcoin is far too dangerous because of how traceable it is. This story underlines this quite clearly.

Most criminals use fiat. Like over 95%.

Using mixers will not keep you safe either. You can untangle anything even the messiest of tangles. 

[Sandra_hakeem]

Some will say why is this post necessary, it's for those who thinks that mixers are only for people who want privacy in their lives, but this just prove to me that criminals are possibly using mixers more than those who just want to stay private.

You're right, I don't understand the point of this post. You're writing about fraud, but if you read very old stories about fraud, you'll probably find even very ancient ones, dating back to the 18th century BC, even to ancient Babylon. If you think a mixer has become (or could become) an aid to fraud, you're mistaken. Fraud has been around for 40 centuries or more, and the presence of a mixer has no bearing on it.

Like seriously, what's the point of this post? It never ceases to amaze me how shallowly some people think. Without the Mixers, even in those times, we still had cases that were untracked and untreated.

Using mixers will not keep you safe either. You can untangle anything even the messiest of tangles.  

In actual sense, what exactly is the point of mixing them dirty coins then??

[JoyMarsha]

Why the hell will you transaction the bitcoin without using mixer they said, I mean the whole comment section was full with this same blame that mixers is the way to scam and escape without getting caught.

Some will say why is this post necessary, it's for those who thinks that mixers are only for people who want privacy in their lives, but this just prove to me that criminals are possibly using mixers more than those who just want to stay private.

OP, what is the advice then? Should we avoid using mixers because we found criminals using them more than the genuine people who prefer to stay private in their transactions with Bitcoin? You know that's not gonna happen because no single thing that is invoked today that doesn't have bad actors in it, using it in a bad way to discredit them.

The fact that remains with mixers is that, they have come to stay, it won't be abolished globally because we find some criminals using it in a bad way

[Myleschetty]

The fact that so many people are aware of the advantages of using a mixer is commendable, but regrettably, their recommendation was intended for illegal purposes, which is also one of the reasons the mixer was prohibited on this forum. Having said that, I believe that everyone who makes comments about someone using a mixer doesn't realize that not all mixers are successfully at cleaning coins.

[GeorgeJohn]

The reason why you're emphasizing on a mixer on this way, it's due to, you haven't understand the reason why mixer was made, mixer wasn't made for easier way to escape scam, but the way you understood it, is that with a mixer a scammer can escape investigation...

With a proper investigation and time, someone who used a mixer to mix a coin can also be figure out, if the investigators are really strong..

A scammer can't be protected, even though they used another method, an exchange can also expose them if the kyc is been done in the exchange they use to cash-out the coin to a fiat currency...

The thing is that, we should keep off our hands from scam, and venture in legitimate things that has no crime.

[goldkingcoiner]

In actual sense, what exactly is the point of mixing them dirty coins then??

To placate centralised platforms to avoid them arbitrarily freezing your coins because they themselves placate overbearing regulators who in turn placate the government that placates uneducated voters and their uneducated opinions on "controlling Bitcoin".

[Felicity_Tide]

~snip

Some will say why is this post necessary, it's for those who thinks that mixers are only for people who want privacy in their lives, but this just prove to me that criminals are possibly using mixers more than those who just want to stay private.

I don't think there is a stats for that or are there any ?.
No one is disputing the fact that criminals don't use these platforms, but that doesn't change he facts that such criminals have existed long before crypto mixers, and have relied on other means of cleaning dirty money. Let's not start acting as if only mixers are used by criminals while the other means of cleaning dirty money are legal. People with other intentions will always want to take advantage of every system. People clean their money through fake businesses, buying of properties, and so many other ways.

[bhadz]

That is a common knowledge there but they shouldn't generalized people who are using mixers. If someone thinks that mixers are wholly for scammers, that's maybe he's got some basis. But as we know, mixers are in general for all of the users and it doesn't chooses anyone. Because of the feature of it that increases someone's privacy, it's being used negatively by these cons to their advantage. We have an idea who uses them the most but that shouldn't be taboo about these services because anyone can use it as per the service is giving.

[Mia Chloe]

~snip

Mixers are in place for the reason of decentralization and privacy. You can't call them all scams or  services aiding scams because anyone using a mixer is responsible for the choice of if they really are trying to kill trave to stolen funds or just trying to make their coins disappear.

We've seen countless versions of this kinda Argument like saying bitcoin is bad because scammers use it and the people pushing this agenda forget that fiat is one of the biggest theft routes till date too.

[NurseHub]

Abusers will always be abusers, just because mixers are designed in the first place to help people who are privacy oriented stay private in their transactions doesn't mean that criminals won't use it, so what in saying in essence is as much as their is a good part of a project there is also a bad part of it which mixers bad part is the fact that it's vulnerable for scammers to make use of it.

while if we are to discuss what you're trying to point out, most people will think that mixers are mostly used by people who know bitcoin usage too well or has some kind of privacy motivation while in the other hand mixers could be popular for it's role that it plays in the day to day scams, however it's the reasons why governments hold it captive for trying to centralise crypto with some laws.

[Hamza2424]

Why the hell will you transaction the bitcoin without using mixer they said, I mean the whole comment section was full with this same blame that mixers is the way to scam and escape without getting caught.

Some will say why is this post necessary, it's for those who thinks that mixers are only for people who want privacy in their lives, but this just prove to me that criminals are possibly using mixers more than those who just want to stay private.

Hmm the TikTok comment section you described is really disturbing but also incredibly revealing about how normalized financial crime has become in certain communities, I don't mean to judge you because you are the one who openly said this and that takes courage.

But the comment section that was actually guiding him about mixers and not asking why he did this tells us everything about a cultural problem underneath the technical one.

I won't dive deep into this, as a lot has been explained already, the debate is a serious one though, but still it will never be cleanly resolved because the technology itself is neutral but the user distribution is not. They are easy to use for any kind of purpose, like for good and bad.

[Sammye3]

The numbers of criminals that have understood the possibilities of evading capture through the help of mixers is alarming, I don't know about your country, this is about mine.

Few days back a guy was arrested and all of his properties were seized, he scammed a foreigner (woman) in romance scam using a popular figure in my country, he cashed out using Bitcoin and he was traced easily, caught and sentenced.

Few amounts was recovered while his seized properties are on sale to refund the women, what is shocking to me was what people said on tiktok, and almost all of them are from my country since they are using dialect signals and some had their flag up there.

Why the hell will you transaction the bitcoin without using mixer they said, I mean the whole comment section was full with this same blame that mixers is the way to scam and escape without getting caught.

Some will say why is this post necessary, it's for those who thinks that mixers are only for people who want privacy in their lives, but this just prove to me that criminals are possibly using mixers more than those who just want to stay private.

Because a good tool is used for the wrong purpose does not make it entirely bad. I want to believe that mixers were created with good intentions to ease user's privacy and reduce the risk of being tracked but it seems that its purpose has being misused for illegal activities now.

There is no other alternative to eliminate the use of mixers regardless of its illegal use, there could be a means of restriction for large sum transactions and verifications for future references.