Cases of members with massive positive Trust that ended up scamming?

[boumalo]

I was wondering if there have been cases of bitcointalk members that had a massive positive trust but ended up scamming themselves?

Maybe cases of the account being hacked or sold?

[siameze]

Well, there was TradeFortress .... I can't recall any others right off hand. A lot of in-and-out scammers here though.

[SaltySpitoon]

Tradefortress is the big one, Pirateat40 and Nefario would have had a lot of positive trust, if the trust system was around back then. Possibly MtGox (MagicalTux) depending on how you view that.

[Window2Wall]

From what I have read, Tradefortress aka $username aka TF was on the original default trust list (level 1) and was probably one of the most trusted people in the bitcoin community.

While it has not been definitively proven it is generally accepted that he stole ~4.4k BTC from his investors and claimed it was a hack

-snip-
Pirateat40
-snip-

I would think the only reason people trusted pirateat40 was because he initially paid out "dividends" to his early investors in his ponzi. It is my understanding that people were calling him a scammer from the beginning

[hilariousandco]

Of course. That's why you shouldn't just assume people with lots of green feedback are trustworthy. All it means is that they've successfully completed a trade. These feedbacks can also easily be faked so you need to look at who they're left by and what they're generally left for. Someone could build up very high positive trust just for taking out small loans, selling tiny amounts of bitcoin for Paypal or giving away dust in a giveaway or something etc.

[Window2Wall]

Of course. That's why you shouldn't just assume people with lots of green feedback are trustworthy. All it means is that they've successfully completed a trade. These feedbacks can also easily be faked so you need to look at who they're left by and what they're generally left for. Someone could build up very high positive trust just for taking out small loans, selling tiny amounts of bitcoin for Paypal or giving away dust in a giveaway or something etc.

This was no the case with TF. He was running a business that held money from many investors totaling millions of dollars. He was paying for advertising throughout the forum (via signature advertising) and had a long track record of paying on time

[Fernandez]

TradeFortress, I lost there too. The scam was worth almost 6-7k Bitcoins.

He is now here with the name $username. He probably has the biggest negative trust in Bitcointalk.

[redsn0w]

TradeFortress, I lost there too. The scam was worth almost 6-7k Bitcoins.

He is now here with the name $username. He probably has the biggest negative trust in Bitcointalk.

No , I don't think . These two users have the biggest negative trust here in the forum :


- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=44366
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=8198

[Kluge]

I would think the only reason people trusted pirateat40 was because he initially paid out "dividends" to his early investors in his ponzi. It is my understanding that people were calling him a scammer from the beginning

Pirate was initially trusted because he was well-known in IRC/WoT for a high volume of successful currency exchanges. The ponzi (or whatever it was supposed to be) came significantly later. A fair amount of the initial scammer accusations came from butt-hurt lenders (including yours truly) who were being negatively affected either because lendees were arbing by pretending to take out loans for something reasonable and instead just dumping it in Pirate's scheme (causing us to put all our eggs in one basket without knowledge) or because they offered deposit programs and couldn't come anywhere near the rates Pirate was offering while Pirate was well-trusted. Eventually, the lending and securities sections (there was no LTO subforum back then, IIRC) turned into one big cascade of Pirate Pass-Throughs. Once things started hitting GLBSE and MPEx, the scammer accusations were much more numerous and loud, growing each day until...

[DiamondCardz]

Yes, TradeFortress is easily one of the most memorable. While Trust is a good indicator, it's a bad idea to use it as the sole point for which you base trustworthiness off of. Checking post histories to see if it seems like the account has been hacked/sold, or just following your gut instinct is usually a good idea. If one member starts massively branching off into high-risk endeavours like running a HYIP, there's going to be a risk of a scam.

[Silverspoon]

Well, there was TradeFortress .... I can't recall any others right off hand. A lot of in-and-out scammers here though.

All of the major scams were orchestrated by members with high trust ratings.*  Those ratings eventually fell, just like TF's, but only after the traps were already shut.

*The trust system is about a year old, so I'm talking about the scams which happened with the trust system in place.

[Madness]

I was wondering if there has been cases of bitcointalk members that had a massive positive trust but ended up scamming themselves?

Maybe cases of the account being hacked or sold?

A Trusted member is a trusted member & Scammer stays a scamme . he can't be Trusted to turn into a scammer unless he is a Scammer on the first place and he just want to scam high amounts of money .
But Basically and most of them people either sells their accounts on the forum or simply get hacked

[Muhammed Zakir]

I was wondering if there has been cases of bitcointalk members that had a massive positive trust but ended up scamming themselves?

Maybe cases of the account being hacked or sold?

A Trusted member is a trusted member & Scammer stays a scamme . he can't be Trusted to turn into a scammer unless he is a Scammer on the first place and he just want to scam high amounts of money .
But Basically and most of them people either sells their accounts on the forum or simply get hacked

So what about TradeFortress, his account wasn't stolen or hacked AFAIK. If the was hacked, he would definitely post here about it. Try not to post things which you don't know but humans do make mistakes.

   ~~MZ~~

[LOBSTER]

Goat...mybitcointrade...etc

[Silverspoon]

So what about TradeFortress, his account wasn't stolen or hacked AFAIK.

Nor was Ukyo's, nor cryptocyprus' (Danny Brewster/Neo Bee), Garr255, KSlaughter, etc., etc.  All the major scams were done by trusted members as long as the trust system was in place.

[Muhammed Zakir]

All of the major scams were orchestrated by members with high trust ratings.*  Those ratings eventually fell, just like TF's, but only after the traps were already shut.

*The trust system is about a year old, so I'm talking about the scams which happened with the trust system in place.

So what about TradeFortress, his account wasn't stolen or hacked AFAIK.

Nor was Ukyo's, nor cryptocyprus' (Danny Brewster/Neo Bee), Garr255, KSlaughter, etc., etc.  All the major scams were done by trusted members as long as the trust system was in place.

Are you trying to conclude it is due to TRUST SYSTEM? You are probably an old user or you are an alt of ... ?

   ~~MZ~~

[Silverspoon]

All of the major scams were orchestrated by members with high trust ratings.*  Those ratings eventually fell, just like TF's, but only after the traps were already shut.

*The trust system is about a year old, so I'm talking about the scams which happened with the trust system in place.

So what about TradeFortress, his account wasn't stolen or hacked AFAIK.

Nor was Ukyo's, nor cryptocyprus' (Danny Brewster/Neo Bee), Garr255, KSlaughter, etc., etc.  All the major scams were done by trusted members as long as the trust system was in place.

Are you trying to conclude it is due to TRUST SYSTEM? You are probably an old user or you are an alt of ... ?

   ~~MZ~~

I'm not trying to do anything.  What I am doing is pointing out that "All the major scams were done by trusted members as long as the trust system was in place."
Not sure why this needs to be explained.
My being an alt of another user is irrelevant - having alts is a standard practice on this forum.  Because freedoms.  If you feel alt accounts should not be allowed, petition Theymos/mods.

[Madness]

I was wondering if there has been cases of bitcointalk members that had a massive positive trust but ended up scamming themselves?

Maybe cases of the account being hacked or sold?

A Trusted member is a trusted member & Scammer stays a scamme . he can't be Trusted to turn into a scammer unless he is a Scammer on the first place and he just want to scam high amounts of money .
But Basically and most of them people either sells their accounts on the forum or simply get hacked

So what about TradeFortress, his account wasn't stolen or hacked AFAIK. If the was hacked, he would definitely post here about it. Try not to post things which you don't know but humans do make mistakes.

   ~~MZ~~

Read again what I said mate , so basically I wouldn't call him "Trusted" member , he just got trust from a lot of people . maybe he was simply pretending that he is trusted to he scam higher amounts of money later .

[DiamondCardz]

You can't predict a trusted member's breaking point. Let's not lie, most people would break if they had $1 million trusted to them and could scam anonymously. Some would at $500,000. Some would at $100,000. And some do at $1,000. All you can do is not trust someone with more than you'd be comfortable to lose. Obviously more trust makes the breaking point higher, and there are a few people who will never break, but a lot of people will unfortunately.

[Quickseller]

You can't predict a trusted member's breaking point. Let's not lie, most people would break if they had $1 million trusted to them and could scam anonymously. Some would at $500,000. Some would at $100,000. And some do at $1,000. All you can do is not trust someone with more than you'd be comfortable to lose. Obviously more trust makes the breaking point higher, and there are a few people who will never break, but a lot of people will unfortunately.

I think Douglas had 50 million dollars worth of Bitcoin in just dice cold storage at one point.

You are right though. Most people have a point where they will not be honest when trusted with a certain amount of money. This point is usually lower when their identity would not be associated with the theft however the irreversible nature of Bitcoin makes it so any stolen money cannot be recovered even if the person is caught