Bitcoin expert scams a scammer, donates the money to charity(cbc.ca)
cbc.ca
Bitcoin expert scams a scammer, donates the money to charity
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ben-perrin-bitcoin-1.5238225
11 comments
Reminds me of a scam in a game called Ultima Online I saw where someone would pretend to be an NPC and say 'I shall double thy gold if ye trust me' and if you gave him 5 gold pieces he would give back 10. After a bunch of transactions someone would inevitably attempt to give him 100,000 gold and then he would stop working ha
Years ago when one Bitcoin was worth less than $20, individuals would run doubling games on shared Google spreadsheets.
The operator would publish a Bitcoin address and the spreadsheet. Participants would send whatever amount of Bitcoin they wanted to this address. The operator would add deposits to the spreadsheet in the order received.
Starting from the top of the list, as soon as the total deposited was enough to double the first deposit, the operator would send double the amount to that participant.
Then when total deposits grew enough to double the second deposit, it was paid out. This continued until there weren't enough new deposits to double the next in line.
Could be illegal, but it's definitely not a scam because everyone could see from the beginning that the pyramid must eventually collapse. Many of these games were actually called "Ponzi" in the name of the spreadsheet.
Some of these games ran a surprisingly long time, months in some cases.
And in the games I played, the anonymous operator never pulled an exit scam. They profited naturally when deposits eventually dried up and the remainder was their reward.
The operator would publish a Bitcoin address and the spreadsheet. Participants would send whatever amount of Bitcoin they wanted to this address. The operator would add deposits to the spreadsheet in the order received.
Starting from the top of the list, as soon as the total deposited was enough to double the first deposit, the operator would send double the amount to that participant.
Then when total deposits grew enough to double the second deposit, it was paid out. This continued until there weren't enough new deposits to double the next in line.
Could be illegal, but it's definitely not a scam because everyone could see from the beginning that the pyramid must eventually collapse. Many of these games were actually called "Ponzi" in the name of the spreadsheet.
Some of these games ran a surprisingly long time, months in some cases.
And in the games I played, the anonymous operator never pulled an exit scam. They profited naturally when deposits eventually dried up and the remainder was their reward.
The doubling gold is also famous in Runescape, but they don't pretend to be an NPC, just someone doubling gold for free. I usually did it once with a low amount and then stopped so I always came out on top.
Ah, Martingales, classic scam.
I got scammed once, in the early days of the crypto craze. I was selling a video card on Reddit, and the person sent me a forged btc escrow email. I was naive enough not to pay attention while in a rush, and promptly shipped the card. Days later, he messages me throwing it in my face how stupid I was, even posted images of the card in his computer.
Probably thinking I was too stupid to follow up, I began the manhunt. He used a lot of very similar aliases on Reddit, and the identical email around the internet tied to publicly displayed IP addresses while scamming others. Tracerouting those IPs all zeroed in on the same exact town. He also foolishly used a real mailing address(his friends). The images he posted showed the serial number of the card I had on file. During this time, he continued to berate and taunt me from all of his aliases, even asking me tech support questions on how to fix the undervolting mod I had done to the card. I remained silent.
My favorite quote. "being a scammer dosen't make someone a bad person, it just makes them smart for being able to outwit other people into handing over free money. Thanks for all your help I really appreciate it. Fuck you, and have a nice day. Next time you shouldn't throw your money around like it's a boomerang causes it's not gonna come flying back to you every time something dosen't go your way. i know my morals and taking money from people who have nothing better to do with it than throw it around like it's nothing on the internet dosen't seem like a crime to me."
At this point I was ready to board a plane and confront this punk.
Instead I compiled all of the information I could find on this dude, and created a 20 page document of evidence. That's when I contacted the police in his local hometown. It was met with a luke warm response, so I contacted the local news station and explained everything to a reporter. A day or so went by and I was contacted by a local officer that was friends of the reporter.
Fast forward a few days, the officer had visited the homes of both this kid, and his friend. The kid emails me crying, WHY DID YOU SEND THE COPS, why would you do this to me? Shortly after that I begin getting emails from his 'father', on how it's my fault that I didn't verify his age, and I'm forcing his child without permission to trade money for a video card, and contributing to video game addiction. How it's not their responsibility to pay for people selling "stuffs to child" without parent's knowing. "Are you still trying to finish trade with children?". On and on. So I press full charges with the police.
End of the story, Mom gets involved, apologizes, and sends me the full amount in Paypal + shipping and fees. Best part is I actually got WAY more than the value of the card, because I had set the original MSRP as a starting point. Done.
I wish you guys could read the entire email saga, and all of my documentation. But hopefully that's enough to get the gist :)
Probably thinking I was too stupid to follow up, I began the manhunt. He used a lot of very similar aliases on Reddit, and the identical email around the internet tied to publicly displayed IP addresses while scamming others. Tracerouting those IPs all zeroed in on the same exact town. He also foolishly used a real mailing address(his friends). The images he posted showed the serial number of the card I had on file. During this time, he continued to berate and taunt me from all of his aliases, even asking me tech support questions on how to fix the undervolting mod I had done to the card. I remained silent.
My favorite quote. "being a scammer dosen't make someone a bad person, it just makes them smart for being able to outwit other people into handing over free money. Thanks for all your help I really appreciate it. Fuck you, and have a nice day. Next time you shouldn't throw your money around like it's a boomerang causes it's not gonna come flying back to you every time something dosen't go your way. i know my morals and taking money from people who have nothing better to do with it than throw it around like it's nothing on the internet dosen't seem like a crime to me."
At this point I was ready to board a plane and confront this punk.
Instead I compiled all of the information I could find on this dude, and created a 20 page document of evidence. That's when I contacted the police in his local hometown. It was met with a luke warm response, so I contacted the local news station and explained everything to a reporter. A day or so went by and I was contacted by a local officer that was friends of the reporter.
Fast forward a few days, the officer had visited the homes of both this kid, and his friend. The kid emails me crying, WHY DID YOU SEND THE COPS, why would you do this to me? Shortly after that I begin getting emails from his 'father', on how it's my fault that I didn't verify his age, and I'm forcing his child without permission to trade money for a video card, and contributing to video game addiction. How it's not their responsibility to pay for people selling "stuffs to child" without parent's knowing. "Are you still trying to finish trade with children?". On and on. So I press full charges with the police.
End of the story, Mom gets involved, apologizes, and sends me the full amount in Paypal + shipping and fees. Best part is I actually got WAY more than the value of the card, because I had set the original MSRP as a starting point. Done.
I wish you guys could read the entire email saga, and all of my documentation. But hopefully that's enough to get the gist :)
This same thing happened to me except with two (2) Electric Forest tickets. Found the guy in Grand Rapids, Michigan; sent the police his way and was later sent 3 checks that equaled the amount I sent him for the tickets.
A total waste of time for the return of course, but it's satisfying just to read the story, it must have been even better for you. Nicely done.
Although you probably have better things to do than redacting a 20 page PDF for random internet strangers, it would've been an interesting read ;)
https://www.fwdeveryone.com and/or https://www.prettyfwd.com
If overcast was using Gmail this would take like 30 seconds to upload using PrettyFWD, or less than 5 min using FWD:Everyone.
If overcast was using Gmail this would take like 30 seconds to upload using PrettyFWD, or less than 5 min using FWD:Everyone.
Wow. What am incredible story. I assume he stopped after that? I can imagine someone like that holding a grudge for a long time too...
No idea, I contemplated trying to contact others who he had scammed, but I just wanted to be done with it. That little shit wasted way too much of my time. It was less about the money, and more of the point of not letting him win for being such a little arrogant asshole about it.
I would read a blog post about this!
If I may tell a "me too" story...
I used to run an IRC channel; it kept getting hacked. Every few days. None of the folks in my channel could stop it, nor could the IRC admins. I had no idea why this person was doing this or why he only seemed to attack us.
Someone knew someone at IBM security, he somehow got us the guys phone number and called it. It turned out our hacker was a 16-year-old. We talked to his father for a bit, and never heard from him again.
I used to run an IRC channel; it kept getting hacked. Every few days. None of the folks in my channel could stop it, nor could the IRC admins. I had no idea why this person was doing this or why he only seemed to attack us.
Someone knew someone at IBM security, he somehow got us the guys phone number and called it. It turned out our hacker was a 16-year-old. We talked to his father for a bit, and never heard from him again.
I wondered why this was in any way newsworthy when I found out it was a whole $50...then I read that this dude was the 'marketing director of a btc firm' and it all made sense. This is garbage PR bullshit.
Tangentialy related: allegedly, North Korea is behind attacks on Bitcoin exchanges, trying to fund its nuclear weapons: https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/10/26/report-north-korean-elite...
I wish I could have done that. I lost 33 btc.
Well, you may as well tell us how you got scammed.
He scammed a scammer for $50, that's it?
I wonder if he committed a crime himself? Would this be prosecutable?
Depends. In some places public prosecutor could take interest, but it's unlikely for a single act.
I was reading with baited breath, waiting for the large amount! Then... 50...
Do people actually use BTC to buy food in Venezuela, or do they just claim to, to beg for BTC donations?
The last time I tried to look into this, it seems like there are generally three things happening:
- Venezuelans using Bitcoin mining as a way to arbitrage their subsidized below-market electricity rates into money.
- People suggesting Venezuela as a hypothetical case for a flight to cryptocurrencies in a place undergoing hyperinflation.
- Bitcoin boosters confusing the two (perhaps deliberately) and claiming on thin evidence that Bitcoin use is widespread in Venezuela.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't found anything to indicate that real use of Bitcoin is widespread in Venezuela.
- Venezuelans using Bitcoin mining as a way to arbitrage their subsidized below-market electricity rates into money.
- People suggesting Venezuela as a hypothetical case for a flight to cryptocurrencies in a place undergoing hyperinflation.
- Bitcoin boosters confusing the two (perhaps deliberately) and claiming on thin evidence that Bitcoin use is widespread in Venezuela.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't found anything to indicate that real use of Bitcoin is widespread in Venezuela.
The Open Money Initiative [0] has done qualitative research to help pin this down- from what I remember of talks they've given, the answer to real usage in Venezuela is somewhere in between. Crypto has certainly been helpful for capital flight, since smuggling eg gold outside the country is quite a bit more difficult to get through customs than a private key seed.
[0] - https://www.openmoneyinitiative.org/
[0] - https://www.openmoneyinitiative.org/
Some more details
https://twitter.com/LorePach/status/1159459121722097666?s=19
https://twitter.com/LorePach/status/1159459121722097666?s=19
People in Venezuala wouldnt admit it out of fear
And bitcoin transactions can be relayed from any IP address, or used without the internet and broadcasted later, so we wouldn’t be able to know if transactions were originating there
Privacy feature undermining our ability to confirm our pre-existing biased, how quaint
And bitcoin transactions can be relayed from any IP address, or used without the internet and broadcasted later, so we wouldn’t be able to know if transactions were originating there
Privacy feature undermining our ability to confirm our pre-existing biased, how quaint
I recall seeing a thread sometime ago where someone claimed to be a Venezuelan who was using Bitcoin. I can't find it, but my recollection of the discussion was that
a) people in Venezuela are using anything they can get their hands on as hard currency, and
b) Bitcoin was one of those things, but it was negligible usage at best.
a) people in Venezuela are using anything they can get their hands on as hard currency, and
b) Bitcoin was one of those things, but it was negligible usage at best.
Here's a great podcast episode with folks from the Open Money Initiative talking about the reality in Venezuela: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/a-bitcoin-reality-che...
IIRC from listening, there are indeed some people who mine and those who use it as a store of value. And some people use it for remittance or as a portable non-hyperinflational asset. But in general, people are not really aware and dismiss it as a scam (it's understandable; even their own president tried to crypto scam them with the Petro).
IIRC from listening, there are indeed some people who mine and those who use it as a store of value. And some people use it for remittance or as a portable non-hyperinflational asset. But in general, people are not really aware and dismiss it as a scam (it's understandable; even their own president tried to crypto scam them with the Petro).
[deleted]
I sure they have their ways. With online digital currency trading (online games) I know crypto is generally the preferred method of payment. There probably exist unique ways to liquidate it into USD or Bolivars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Venezuela
It's highly probable - food or anything needed for daily life
It's highly probable - food or anything needed for daily life
It's far more probable that they use US Dollars.
>"In this case, every 24 hours, they guaranteed me a doubling of my bitcoin, and said that if I would just send them some bitcoin I could start seeing returns."
Flashbacks of ISK doubling in Jita
Flashbacks of ISK doubling in Jita
you send IT
*ISK
and i send double ISK no scam
*ISK
and i send double ISK no scam
I highly doubt this was $50 of the scammer's own money.
More than likely, it was money he received by scamming some other victim.
More than likely, it was money he received by scamming some other victim.