As a seller, that is my problem with escrow: It adds an unnecessary layer of trust for me. Granted, my reputation is nowhere near as strong as some others on this forum, but at a certain point, the need for escrow becomes blurred. As a buyer, do you wish to trust one person with a positive reputation, or do you wish to trust two?
Also, ironically, the buyer who agreed to send 4 BTC because he is "convinced" the seller is legitimate has come under my microscope. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a trusted member going to great lengths to create a seemingly-credible alt account in order to use it to scam others. For example: Step 1) Establish, build, and maintain credibility of primary account, Step 2) create alt-account at a future date, Step 3) act suspicious toward alt account and stage a transaction in order to establish credibility of the alt account, Step 4) use alt account to scam in future without raising suspicion against the primary account, Step 5) Profit.
I wouldn't normally assume this as a possibility, but when the first transaction is for 1 oz. gold, I have to raise an eyebrow. The general outcome of a successful first transaction of this nature is that many people will likely assume that the chances of being scammed by the same account for any amount less than 1 oz. gold is low. This gives the account free reign to scam up to the value of ~1 oz. gold at which the precedent was set.
I really can't blame you.
If it ever does come down to it, I would be willing to share my correspondence with GoldBits, minus my address with some trusted member. (which I suppose I could have faked with great effort..)
I almost backed out of the deal, but since GB was willing to pre-purchase the Canada Post mailing slip which provided me the tracking info, I am confident that he can be tracked down by it should a fraud investigation be launched. I know he used a credit card to pay also, for example (all traceable). The post office where he dropped it off would also have cameras, aiding in identifying the fraudster. Had the seller been located outside Canada, I would not have done the deal.
I never suspected that I myself would go under the microscope for doing the transaction; frankly if I knew there would be this much chatter, I wouldn't have gotten involved beyond the initial advice I gave.
Please don't take it personally. As we all know, none of us really have the luxury of giving anyone here the benefit of the doubt. I expect others regard me similarly. It speaks volumes about the conduct here that I'm even entertaining what is admittedly a tin-foil hat consideration in almost any other setting. I'm actually glad you read my post and responded to it in the way that you did. I was certainly wondering what you might think of it.
