Dear bitcoin buyer,
You recently sent me cash to
purchase bitcoin. Your note said you have an account on Paxful and wanted to
buy bitcoin. I assume you were honest. It's
a smart thing to do for lots of reasons. However, I am aware of the
possibility that you only buy bitcoins because someone else asked you to do so,
and you get something out of it.
Perhaps
someone else asked you to write that note you wrote and send me cash. If there
is a third party involved, you are certainly helping them. I LOVE helping
people, and I'm happy if that's what you're doing too. There are few
things I want to prevent: A) Scams involving bitcoin, B) conversion of stolen
cash or proceeds from the sale of stolen goods into bitcoin, and C) people like
yourself expecting something they will never get. I even like to help
someone who lies about their situation in order to get someone else to buy
bitcoin, but I want to help them become honest. I hope you aren't the victim of
such an operation, and if you are, I hope this letter will help. I want
to help scammers realize that they are probably smart enough to make honest
money, and with a little patience, honest bitcoin trading can be more lucrative
than their scam, and it has massive staying power, whereas scamming creates its
own limits along with bad karma.
Hopefully, you buy bitcoins for
yourself, and if someone else wants them, you sell them some of yours and then
buy more to replace the ones you sold. That's what I do. I write a newsletter
about it (which you can find at https://goo.gl/ZNjWe9) to encourage and show people how to do it too. It can be a
profitable hobby and it helps decentralize power.
Here is some information from some
other bitcoin traders I know:
The scammers, largely Nigerian but
from some other regions as well, are getting much better at what they do. These
are primarily romance and work from home scams. The scammers in the middle can
work their victims like puppets, they can pass any level of verification
because the scammer is telling the victim to do whatever you tell them to do.
They think it is part of a legitimate job or that they are helping out their “fiance”.
Even if you call them they will go along with it. The furthest I have got from
calling the people to verify, questioning them, and explaining romance/work
scams, is a reluctant admission that a 3rd party is telling them what to do.
They still want to go through with the transaction though.
They are at the point in the scam
where they believe everything they are being told, and will do anything they
are asked. But when they eventually realize it was a scam all along, they want
to go after you because the scammer vanishes from existence. I have seen this
in every payment method I offer, online and offline. It's only getting bigger.
Internet scammer must be the most popular career path among young people in
Nigeria at this point.
Many people just have to suffer
until they learn to do things differently, but I like to provide information so
that they can learn without having to suffer so much.
If you’re buying bitcoin for
yourself, that's great, and thanks for buying from me! I look forward to
our next trade. However, you might be upset, confused, or angry if there
is some doubt in your mind that the bitcoin you bought from me actually went to
the purpose for which you wanted to spend that cash. You can blame
yourself if you want, but how does that help? Maybe you’ll remember not
to write down anything that isn't true.
I think a better way is to leverage
your relationship with “that scammer.” Be gentle as you express your doubts.
Invite them to explain things that you openly admit made you suspicious.
There may come a time when you clearly see that they are lying, if you
really want to know. If you discover such a deception, you have the opportunity
to turn someone who lied to you (at least once) into someone better. How
could that happen?
Be mad with me, that's how. I
do get mad, but being mad AT someone doesn't often turn out to do a lot of good
for any relationship with them. It's good to say, “I'm feeling angry
because ...” and then finish it without blaming anyone. Gee, I'll take
that advice myself (instead of repressing my anger). Let that feeling of
anger be the motivation to demand a more open and honest relationship.
Direct your anger at the thing that caused them to lie in the first place, and
work with them to identify it and then resolve it if possible.
Thanks!