Fraud on bitmarket.eu (and probably other similar markets as well)

NetTecture

full member

Activity: 140

Merit: 100

Quote from: philipp on July 28, 2011, 11:46:02 AM

It seems like there are people using bitcoin volatility for fraud on bitmarket.eu.

For those unfamiliar with bitmarket.eu: It's an escrowed bitcoin exchange: When two parties agree on a trade the bitcoins are held in escrow by bitmarket.eu, until the former owner releases them (typically once the agreed-upon amount of flegacy currency has been transferred).

I've been trading bitcoins there. However quite often, the other party failed to "pay" (transfer legacy currency) - in all the cases of non-payment this was after the BTC/EUR rate dropped.

Thus escrowed trading offers risk-free profit to fraudsters: Buy some bitcoins on bitmarket.eu, wait for a few days, pay if the BTC/EUR rate has gone up, don't pay if it has gone down.

This seems like a significant probem to me. E.g. out of the 9 transactions I did on the 10th of last month (BTC prices did fall the next day) I only received payment for 5. For the other 4 transactions I never received the EUR.

Philipp

Welcome to one reas on I prefer exchanges to OTC.

defxor

hero member

Activity: 530

Merit: 500

... and those buyers will lose their accounts with the site, right? I thought that was the whole point of them having to "verify" everyone.

Quote

Is it possible to cancel a transaction?
Yes, it is, however you should not do this unless you have a VERY good reason (e.g. your bank is unable to send the payment to the seller's bank). Also, you cannot cancel the transaction by yourself, but you can request the other party to agree to cancel it. To send a cancellation request to the other party go to your Transactions and use the "Cancel transaction" button for the relevant transaction.

You will be asked to type in the reason for cancellation, that will be then emailed to the other party of the transaction. If they deem your reason fair, they will cancel the transaction. Otherwise the only way to cancel it is to email BitMarket. Please remember: buying coins is not a game, these are real people you deal with and by putting an offer out there you give your word that you will fulfill it. If you abuse the Cancel option your account will more than likely be suspended and you may be banned from the exchange.

nodemaster

full member

Activity: 176

Merit: 100

Please inform BitMarket Support about that issue. They'll at least close the account in question. Furthermore AFAIR they are working on a reputation system to address this issue.

philipp

newbie

Activity: 30

Merit: 0

It seems like there are people using bitcoin volatility for fraud on bitmarket.eu.

For those unfamiliar with bitmarket.eu: It's an escrowed bitcoin exchange: When two parties agree on a trade the bitcoins are held in escrow by bitmarket.eu, until the former owner releases them (typically once the agreed-upon amount of flegacy currency has been transferred).

I've been trading bitcoins there. However quite often, the other party failed to "pay" (transfer legacy currency) - in all the cases of non-payment this was after the BTC/EUR rate dropped.

Thus escrowed trading offers risk-free profit to fraudsters: Buy some bitcoins on bitmarket.eu, wait for a few days, pay if the BTC/EUR rate has gone up, don't pay if it has gone down.

This seems like a significant probem to me. E.g. out of the 9 transactions I did on the 10th of last month (BTC prices did fall the next day) I only received payment for 5. For the other 4 transactions I never received the EUR.

Philipp

Topic: Fraud on bitmarket.eu (and probably other similar markets as well) (Read 1362 times)