Topic: Getting Scammed: Go to Police or Cut Losses and Move On? - page 2. (Read 3452 times)
That's an eye-opener, hope anyone who read your story have learned the lesson for not making that move in the future and don't wait to be the one posting it. If I have been the one on that terrible situation I will be hesitant to live my country again for the same purpose. We can't do about the funds and the enforcement to be on your side just dont do it again and be careful next time.
Curious, anyone know why the BTC is moving to a smaller and smaller amount on the blockchain? Does this mean it's being sold slowly for cash 
Original address of the con artist is 1DY7qNGa9q4jBCxzDTbNni7NgwwWLz2Bww. I sent 3 transactions (totaling 16.48).
Original address of the con artist is 1DY7qNGa9q4jBCxzDTbNni7NgwwWLz2Bww. I sent 3 transactions (totaling 16.48).
^ ^ ^
Which European country was this in?
Which European country was this in?
Milan, Italy
Here's another recent Bitcoin story of someone being lured to Milan
: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/05/british-model-kidnapped-milan-captor-tried-auction-online-for300000/ 
To be honest, op has very little chance of recovering their funds at this point, statistically. But when you lose this much money to misadventure, it is usually worth the opportunity cost to at least try everything in your power to get your money back, even if it's a long shot. Contacting the police at this point is a no brainier; there is pretty much no additional cost to do so vs what he could possibly gain on. Also, to make the space safer for anyone else that might run into these guys, better to at least let the cops know that there are criminals out there operating with this particular modus.
Again, so sorry op dude. But, that's them changes. (that's purposeful, it's a song title).
This things are the worst way to be on a situation with. Ask if you chase them by going to the police, the idea of it is good but the Bitcoin or money that will be returned to you depends on how your police system works. Normally the chances of your money being retrieved again is how much is the money taken away and how important of a person for you to them, a 10,000$ worth of cash is a pretty big amount so you need to tell them all the details in order to increase your chances of ever retrieving your money again.
Someone in Europe messaged me through the Abra App to buy BTC. He sent me a pic of the money with the date and my name in the picture as proof. After he reassured me we could make the transaction in a bank, I told him I could only go to Europe for a 50% fee. He agreed.
Since Abra is KYC compliant I assumed making a transaction over $10k would be OK.
Then when I arrived, he told me to meet with his "brother", as he knew more about BTC.
3 guys met me at my hotel lobby and dismissed the idea of taking all the money to the bank and said that the bank would create a lot of problems walking in with a lot of cash.
With a few bills they asked me to take randomly from the cash, I walked in a FX exchange with 1 guy (while the other 2 were waiting in their car with the rest of the cash) to verify the bills were indeed valid.
We then went back to my hotel lobby and I sent the BTC to his blockchain.info wallet address (he said he wanted to use his Blockchain wallet and not Abra and I figured I could just fill out the Form 8300 later instead) and then they gave me the bag of cash.
Later in my hotel room I discovered that the cash had been swapped out for fake money (perhaps in their car at the FX exchange). FYI I don't have a lot of street smart.
If I go to the police could I get AML charges on me? Especially since I haven't filled out the 8300 form yet. And I just found out here in Italy the legal transaction sizes without ID is very small (like 3k). Lastly all I have is phone numbers (which could be disposable) and possibly security cam footage from my hotel.
Thanks
It will be better to cut the money lost and move on. Due to anonymity, it will be hard to know who you are having transactions with. And besides, Bitcoin is decentralized which means that it is not under the Governments authority by means of laws, especially if it is not legal to a certain country. You'll only be charge because of complaining. It is much better to learn from what happened and put your feet back into business. Since Abra is KYC compliant I assumed making a transaction over $10k would be OK.
Then when I arrived, he told me to meet with his "brother", as he knew more about BTC.
3 guys met me at my hotel lobby and dismissed the idea of taking all the money to the bank and said that the bank would create a lot of problems walking in with a lot of cash.
With a few bills they asked me to take randomly from the cash, I walked in a FX exchange with 1 guy (while the other 2 were waiting in their car with the rest of the cash) to verify the bills were indeed valid.
We then went back to my hotel lobby and I sent the BTC to his blockchain.info wallet address (he said he wanted to use his Blockchain wallet and not Abra and I figured I could just fill out the Form 8300 later instead) and then they gave me the bag of cash.
Later in my hotel room I discovered that the cash had been swapped out for fake money (perhaps in their car at the FX exchange). FYI I don't have a lot of street smart.
If I go to the police could I get AML charges on me? Especially since I haven't filled out the 8300 form yet. And I just found out here in Italy the legal transaction sizes without ID is very small (like 3k). Lastly all I have is phone numbers (which could be disposable) and possibly security cam footage from my hotel.
Thanks
you will never get your money back,forget about it and move on
you can report the scammers to the police,just to try and make this world a better place
do not expect anything to come out of this,there will be nothing bad for you,you didn't commit any crime
as long as trading bitcoins is not illegal there
you can report the scammers to the police,just to try and make this world a better place
do not expect anything to come out of this,there will be nothing bad for you,you didn't commit any crime
as long as trading bitcoins is not illegal there
As far as I know trading Bitcoins is not illegal anywhere in the European Union. And you can't say that he will never get his money back. The chances are low, but if he goes to the cops, then there is at least 20%-30% chance that he will get his coins back.
Unfortunately due to the nature of this transaction you have virtually a 0% chance of getting any sort of compensation. I'm sorry that happened to you but you must be very wary when making these types of deals, especially in a foreign country where the law is almost certainly not on your side. Not to mention when dealing with Bitcoin (a basically non-existent thing as far as property goes). I hope maybe you could help others not fall for this same trap as it's likely these guys will try something like this again. Good luck
you will never get your money back,forget about it and move on
you can report the scammers to the police,just to try and make this world a better place
do not expect anything to come out of this,there will be nothing bad for you,you didn't commit any crime
as long as trading bitcoins is not illegal there
you can report the scammers to the police,just to try and make this world a better place
do not expect anything to come out of this,there will be nothing bad for you,you didn't commit any crime
as long as trading bitcoins is not illegal there
My advice would be to go to the cops. I know that it will be difficult to explain about why you did transaction above the 3K limit, but I hope that they will let you off with a fine. And as a victim of crime, they should be giving you a preferential treatment. Since you are having the camera footage as well, it won't be too hard to identify and detain these criminals.
Legally speaking, you would have to make a police report so that the criminals in question may be put to justice. But if you just want people to be aware of these kind of scams, then it would just be best to expose them as you did by posting here in this forum. Since you are not concerned in getting your money back, which is as well might be hard, then I don't think you need to go to the police.
The choice of course would be up to you. International law and jurisdiction is sometimes tricky, especially with cases pertaining to crimes and scams like this. With the evidences you mentioned, it may be hard to prove your case much less gather the security cam footage. My advice to you is to be cautious next time and to warn your friends and fellow btc users.
But, wait, did the op leave country to go all the way to Europe just to buy Bitcoin? Wow, that was a good risk he took. Too bad it ended up this way, and I wouldn’t recommend going to the police, because he might even be arrested in a country doesn’t know much about (as a foreigner), they might say he was involved in money laundering or whatever trash they’re likely to say. The choice of course would be up to you. International law and jurisdiction is sometimes tricky, especially with cases pertaining to crimes and scams like this. With the evidences you mentioned, it may be hard to prove your case much less gather the security cam footage. My advice to you is to be cautious next time and to warn your friends and fellow btc users.
So, just forget about it and go on. But I won’t fly to another just to buy Bitcoin, I rather take the risk of buying online through sites localbitcoins.com that going to buy face to face. You may end up in the hands of deadly criminals.
Someone in Europe messaged me through the Abra App to buy BTC. He sent me a pic of the money with the date and my name in the picture as proof. After he reassured me we could make the transaction in a bank, I told him I could only go to Europe for a 50% fee. He agreed.
Since Abra is KYC compliant I assumed making a transaction over $10k would be OK.
Then when I arrived, he told me to meet with his "brother", as he knew more about BTC.
3 guys met me at my hotel lobby and dismissed the idea of taking all the money to the bank and said that the bank would create a lot of problems walking in with a lot of cash.
With a few bills they asked me to take randomly from the cash, I walked in a FX exchange with 1 guy (while the other 2 were waiting in their car with the rest of the cash) to verify the bills were indeed valid.
We then went back to my hotel lobby and I sent the BTC to his blockchain.info wallet address (he said he wanted to use his Blockchain wallet and not Abra and I figured I could just fill out the Form 8300 later instead) and then they gave me the bag of cash.
Later in my hotel room I discovered that the cash had been swapped out for fake money (perhaps in their car at the FX exchange). FYI I don't have a lot of street smart.
If I go to the police could I get AML charges on me? Especially since I haven't filled out the 8300 form yet. And I just found out here in Italy the legal transaction sizes without ID is very small (like 3k). Lastly all I have is phone numbers (which could be disposable) and possibly security cam footage from my hotel.
Thanks
Since Abra is KYC compliant I assumed making a transaction over $10k would be OK.
Then when I arrived, he told me to meet with his "brother", as he knew more about BTC.
3 guys met me at my hotel lobby and dismissed the idea of taking all the money to the bank and said that the bank would create a lot of problems walking in with a lot of cash.
With a few bills they asked me to take randomly from the cash, I walked in a FX exchange with 1 guy (while the other 2 were waiting in their car with the rest of the cash) to verify the bills were indeed valid.
We then went back to my hotel lobby and I sent the BTC to his blockchain.info wallet address (he said he wanted to use his Blockchain wallet and not Abra and I figured I could just fill out the Form 8300 later instead) and then they gave me the bag of cash.
Later in my hotel room I discovered that the cash had been swapped out for fake money (perhaps in their car at the FX exchange). FYI I don't have a lot of street smart.
If I go to the police could I get AML charges on me? Especially since I haven't filled out the 8300 form yet. And I just found out here in Italy the legal transaction sizes without ID is very small (like 3k). Lastly all I have is phone numbers (which could be disposable) and possibly security cam footage from my hotel.
Thanks
you didnt commit a crime, report this.
Some takeaways and observations:
1) always report theft to the police. at the very least you pay income tax; you are not liable for tax on money you dont have, and you may be able to claim this as a capital loss, lowering your tax footprint.
2) be wary of large amounts of fiat. this should be a red flag. when you seen this, assume you are facilitating money laundering, which you might be criminally liable for.
3) if you make up an id, will it really matter? they stole fizzy lifting drink, obviously they werent going to give you a valid id. hell, they brought monopoly money to the game, LOL. in the meanwhile, you tried to satisfy the reporting requirements. also, there is usually a "x days from transaction" caveat of reporting, they dont expect you to instantly file it. you are most likely fine if this just happened.
4) be quick. camera footage goes away after a while, and if the value is spent, even if they catch them there is no recourse.
5) be smarter than this in the future. im not talking about your money, Im talking about you life. these guys could have knocked a hole in your head very discreetly, and we would not be talking about this right now because you would be in a trashcan somewhere. whenever you transfer large value, play it uber safe. use fiat gateways for transactions of this size, reputable ones.
The easiest way to steal a bitcoin key (and your value) isnt a fancy malware program or confidence scam. Its a gun to your head, or a knife to your throat.
Legally speaking, you would have to make a police report so that the criminals in question may be put to justice. But if you just want people to be aware of these kind of scams, then it would just be best to expose them as you did by posting here in this forum. Since you are not concerned in getting your money back, which is as well might be hard, then I don't think you need to go to the police.
The choice of course would be up to you. International law and jurisdiction is sometimes tricky, especially with cases pertaining to crimes and scams like this. With the evidences you mentioned, it may be hard to prove your case much less gather the security cam footage. My advice to you is to be cautious next time and to warn your friends and fellow btc users.
The choice of course would be up to you. International law and jurisdiction is sometimes tricky, especially with cases pertaining to crimes and scams like this. With the evidences you mentioned, it may be hard to prove your case much less gather the security cam footage. My advice to you is to be cautious next time and to warn your friends and fellow btc users.
^ ^ ^
He said he lost $10,000.
That is alot of money to almost anyone to lose if it were in USD (which i doubt it was) or in euros, which makes it worst being worth more than this same amount in the USD.
He said he lost $10,000.
That is alot of money to almost anyone to lose if it were in USD (which i doubt it was) or in euros, which makes it worst being worth more than this same amount in the USD.
He said it was "over $10k, which could as well be 15, 20 or 50. That's why I asked how much it was.
You know nothing about them. Do you really want to gamble with the police associating you with them? WHO KNOWS what other activity they are into, and you have no way to prove that they own a bitcoin wallet.
You think $10k is a lot? What do you think the fines/time are on money laundering, supporting drugs/terrorists, etc ?
You think $10k is a lot? What do you think the fines/time are on money laundering, supporting drugs/terrorists, etc ?
Did you even read his post?
We then went back to my hotel lobby and I sent the BTC to his blockchain.info wallet address
So yes, he owns a wallet and OP knows the address. How is that going to help according to you?
You know nothing about them. Do you really want to gamble with the police associating you with them? WHO KNOWS what other activity they are into, and you have no way to prove that they own a bitcoin wallet.
You think $10k is a lot? What do you think the fines/time are on money laundering, supporting drugs/terrorists, etc ?
You think $10k is a lot? What do you think the fines/time are on money laundering, supporting drugs/terrorists, etc ?
If they're truly fake bills, you may want to report them to the police. It is a serious offence. Of course, ensure you won't get into any trouble. Hopefully, there's cctv, paper & digital trail etc.
I guess letting it go will be better than getting into trouble. I am not too sure about the regulation in Italy but based on the $3000 threshold you mentioned.
i think if you tell police,things will be worse for you
This is one of the reason why I hope BTC will be sold and bought by banks someday.
You'll have to go the police to report the theft. It matters that the police knows that kind of theft can happen, but don't expect to see your money back.
You'll have to go the police to report the theft. It matters that the police knows that kind of theft can happen, but don't expect to see your money back.
^ ^ ^
He said he lost $10,000.
That is alot of money to almost anyone to lose if it were in USD (which i doubt it was) or in euros, which makes it worst being worth more than this same amount in the USD.
Which European country was this in?
If it was in France then you should of been wary since there are a lot of pick pockets there even walking in the streets of Paris in broad daylight you need to be wary of your surroundings so not to be a victim of theft from the people you pass by on the street.
AS I know I was there and know what to look out for.
All the best of luck to you getting the money back which would be hard since you are worried about AML evidence being not in your favor.
He said he lost $10,000.
That is alot of money to almost anyone to lose if it were in USD (which i doubt it was) or in euros, which makes it worst being worth more than this same amount in the USD.
Which European country was this in?
If it was in France then you should of been wary since there are a lot of pick pockets there even walking in the streets of Paris in broad daylight you need to be wary of your surroundings so not to be a victim of theft from the people you pass by on the street.
AS I know I was there and know what to look out for.
All the best of luck to you getting the money back which would be hard since you are worried about AML evidence being not in your favor.
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