Need help: How do I report a scammer/ cheater using bitcoin

[dioscuri]

Hi all, I am totally new to this so bear with me.

My overseas friend's facebook account got hacked and the hacker used her account to communicate with me, pretending to be her and asked for my help to purchase bitcoin as the seller located in my country does not accept foreign currency.  To cut a long story short, I believed that it was really my friend as we had always been communicating via FB (since sh'e based overseas) and our last conversation was just a week ago.  So I agreed to do her this 'favor'.  I purchased 5 bitcoins, which was sent into the hacker's address instead.

I've made a police report, but I would like to know if there is anywhere that I can make a report to 'bitcoin' organisations about this fraud?

Thank you!

[franky1]

Hi all, I am totally new to this so bear with me.

My overseas friend's facebook account got hacked and the hacker used her account to communicate with me, pretending to be her and asked for my help to purchase bitcoin as the seller located in my country does not accept foreign currency.  To cut a long story short, I believed that it was really my friend as we had always been communicating via FB (since sh'e based overseas) and our last conversation was just a week ago.  So I agreed to do her this 'favor'.  I purchased 5 bitcoins, which was sent into the hacker's address instead.

I've made a police report, but I would like to know if there is anywhere that I can make a report to 'bitcoin' organisations about this fraud?

Thank you!

obviously you have no known username this hacker ses in the community, no real name, no bank details.. so there is not really anything that you can report, which would help prevent other users from being scammed in the future.

however, if you do find something valuable info, post it here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0

one thing you can do is post the bitcoin address of the scammer so that people can watch out for th scammer and maybe an exchange could freeze an account of anyone depositing using that address.. but the scammer can simply move funds through a few addresses, so a slim chance.

i would however ask some questions.
how did this scammer get access to your friends facebook.
how did the scammer think that out of 1 billion FB users, that you knew about bitcoin, to even attempt this extortion on you specifically
how did the scammer know your location to have come up with the story that involved using your location to extort you
how did the scammer know that you had enough FIAT to do such a transaction EG that you were not a student with only $100 to your name.
how did the scammer know you had enough trust with your friend to even attempt such a conversation, and that you were not just some random FB friend add request
did the scammer ask you to deal with a certain person to give your FIAT to

usually stuff like this works out if it was just luck or that you were well researched into your wealth and relationships and that you were targeted. usually meaning someone in your friends list or someone that personally knows your friend done it.
my 2 cents are on a targetted attack on you by your friend or someone that knows your friends maiden name, favourite pets name and date of birth....

[Bitcoin Casino Directory]

Nothing you can do, really. The only ones that could help a little would be facebook that have the scammer's IP number. If they didn't use a proxy/VPN that is. I would consider the money lost.

By the way, maybe you lost the judgement because you have the hots for the girl?

[dioscuri]

No idea how he hacked into my friend's facebook.  He only targeted her overseas friends, maybe hoping that we won't be calling each other all the time.  He just started the message with asking if I know anything about bitcoin.  I only vaguely know it's online currency but not sure how it works.  He tried to make himself sound legit by mentioning her husband's name too.  I was just having a conversation with her on fb last week so he'd know I'm not a random friend.  He was just trying his luck with her overseas friend, one of our mutual friend was in a meeting and too busy to reply.  Another one almost got scammed and was still conversing with the guy when my friend noticed the conversation happening right in front of her PC screen and she jumped in to type that it's not her.  After which the hacker deleted all previous messages.

The only address the hacker gave me to send the bitcoins to looks like this "1A5km5FwKzw8eWhMrMZTHQixR9XFgGTRuq".  He was giving me this other address initially "1Jj5YTgDxfzgXKe8n2ms3X1XAFhf47Tikt" but later decided to change to the first address.  No idea how the address thing works.

btw, we're both females and married, so definitely no 'Hots' for each other.

I don't expect to get the money back, but this could be a new way to scam money online.  It's not like the nigerian scam which preys on people's greed, nor some sob story to prey on people's sympathy, they pretend to be like a friend asking for a favor so it seems more 'believable'.   

[aBITfedUP]

I don't expect to get the money back, but this could be a new way to scam money online.  It's not like the nigerian scam which preys on people's greed, nor some sob story to prey on people's sympathy, they pretend to be like a friend asking for a favor so it seems more 'believable'.  

Oh yeah, that money is gone.  It's kinda like handing $3,000 USD to a total stranger (but you can't see his face or even his location!).  Sorry about your luck :-(

Here are a few ways people are committing extortion with bitcoin  Check out:

This one encrypts all your data and makes you pay in bitcoin to get the key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker
I believe this may have been the first major extortion attempt with bitcoin: http://www.coindesk.com/man-charged-after-demanding-bitcoin-for-mitt-romney-tax-returns/
And I just saw this one this morning on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/28decy/bitcoin_used_for_extortion/

In summary since bitcoin is the future, some criminals are early adopters too, so be careful.  Its a jungle out there.

[Lucky Cris]

i would however ask some questions.
how did this scammer get access to your friends facebook.
how did the scammer think that out of 1 billion FB users, that you knew about bitcoin, to even attempt this extortion on you specifically
how did the scammer know your location to have come up with the story that involved using your location to extort you
how did the scammer know that you had enough FIAT to do such a transaction EG that you were not a student with only $100 to your name.
how did the scammer know you had enough trust with your friend to even attempt such a conversation, and that you were not just some random FB friend add request
did the scammer ask you to deal with a certain person to give your FIAT to

usually stuff like this works out if it was just luck or that you were well researched into your wealth and relationships and that you were targeted. usually meaning someone in your friends list or someone that personally knows your friend done it.
my 2 cents are on a targetted attack on you by your friend or someone that knows your friends maiden name, favourite pets name and date of birth....

franky1, you LE? Cuz this seems spot on! I'd be suspect of the people that are in my immediate presence. If anything the friend was just a catalyst... OP, don't be surprised if you find out it's someone you keep in your company.

[cech4204a]

We need base of scammers and list of all IP's that ever scammed, so they never get another chance again. We need that list online and updated frequently. Something like trust on this forum. I will donate 0.005 for that project myself!

[aBITfedUP]

We need base of scammers and list of all IP's that ever scammed, so they never get another chance again. We need that list online and updated frequently. Something like trust on this forum. I will donate 0.005 for that project myself!

scammers can just change their IP.  The only solution is to smarten up.

[jamestown2035]

Sounds like maybe your friend scammed you.

[cech4204a]

Sounds like maybe your friend scammed you.

I would go with that option if i were police officer. But if i were you i'd learn a lesson here. Allways double check every detail about big transactions, 5 BTC is like 3000$ today, so you might have just paid a very expensive lesson.
Good luck in solving that situation.

[KimNam]

too bad, why you didn't verify your friend before send bitcoin to her
maybe using skype or another webcam communication
sent $3000 to "overseas friend" is too brave.
there's no place to report scammer in internet, especially using bitcoin as payment since hard to search scammer information from bitcoin address only

[Harley997]

We need base of scammers and list of all IP's that ever scammed, so they never get another chance again. We need that list online and updated frequently. Something like trust on this forum. I will donate 0.005 for that project myself!

scammers can just change their IP.  The only solution is to smarten up.

Not only that but most people's IPs are dynamic, meaning that their IP changes every so often. This would essentially result in a lot of people who have not scammed being labeled as a scammer and a lot of people who have scammed not being labeled as a scammer.

[Gimmelfarb]

when dealing with such an amount of money, you should really take it a step further to verify who you are talking to. a phone call should have been in order. generally, there is nothing to do but file a report with the local police. and nothing will likely come of this.

[Harley997]

when dealing with such an amount of money, you should really take it a step further to verify who you are talking to. a phone call should have been in order. generally, there is nothing to do but file a report with the local police. and nothing will likely come of this.

You wouldn't even need to make a phone call. You could just bring something up something that you have experienced together and change a minor detail. If they don't say something about that detail then it is likely an impersonator.

For example if you went to the same high school but different colleges, you would bring up school and say something about having the same college classes/professors or something specific to college that wouldn't apply to highschool.

[Gimmelfarb]

when dealing with such an amount of money, you should really take it a step further to verify who you are talking to. a phone call should have been in order. generally, there is nothing to do but file a report with the local police. and nothing will likely come of this.

You wouldn't even need to make a phone call. You could just bring something up something that you have experienced together and change a minor detail. If they don't say something about that detail then it is likely an impersonator.

For example if you went to the same high school but different colleges, you would bring up school and say something about having the same college classes/professors or something specific to college that wouldn't apply to highschool.

sure, something like that could work. i just feel like -- my friends are unlikely to ask me for money over Facebook, and vice versa. so, at least in my situation, it would feel strange not to talk on the phone/skype.

[cryptolaw666]

Hi all, I am totally new to this so bear with me.

My overseas friend's facebook account got hacked and the hacker used her account to communicate with me, pretending to be her and asked for my help to purchase bitcoin as the seller located in my country does not accept foreign currency.  To cut a long story short, I believed that it was really my friend as we had always been communicating via FB (since sh'e based overseas) and our last conversation was just a week ago.  So I agreed to do her this 'favor'.  I purchased 5 bitcoins, which was sent into the hacker's address instead.

I've made a police report, but I would like to know if there is anywhere that I can make a report to 'bitcoin' organisations about this fraud?

Thank you!

Please tell, how did the police respond to you reporting the theft to them?

I hope you get your money back

[Chemistry1988]

I know there has been more and more media stories about people who post things in chats or facebook or craiglist etc... and the real world law has gotten involved more and more.  it might be, if you can copy all the writing from the thief, or if facebook saves that writing, then maybe that might be useful, as well you will want to try and find out who the thief is in real life, so need a detective or internet detective to find that for you, if you cant find it your self. seems there is a fair amount of work to catch these thiefs over the internet, and we should be paid for all the work we have to do to go after them, so keep all receipts and keep notes about how much time you spend/waste on trying to get your money back. you will need proofs for everything likely.

In fact, there are people providing and seeking doxxing service in the service section here on bitcointalk.