Topic: Localbitcoins contributes to violation of its own rules (Read 428 times)

I do not think that they violated their TOS because feedbacks are mainly based on being decentralized, not amenable to edit or delete it, and thus gain little credibility.
There are some cases in which the platform can edit/delete those fake feedbacks but it needs judicial intervention or convincing reasons, according to the TOS:


Also, if the primary purpose of creating an account is to create fake feedbacks:


Therefore, it is best not to accept trading orders from unknown/new accounts or to ignore these feedbacks.

I posted this text on the official LBC subreddit on reddit.com where LBC community managers might read it. But they removed my post. That's why I would like to leave it here, too.

Localbitcoins forbids to send payments from third parties and to accept such payments. If I receive a fiat transfer from a third party, I open a dispute with the reason "I suspect the buyer made a fraudulent payment". But I guess that a lot of such disputes were not even examined by the LBC support team because buyers cancel trades after my refund.

As a result, a lot of accounts, whose holders send third party payments, still exist on LBC. Such users continue trading despite the violation of LBC rules. And some of them even write negative reviews about me. Why must my reputation suffer from people who do not follow LBC rules? Why their accounts and their reviews remain on the LBC website?

I believe that if a dispute was opened due to a suspicion of fraud, then the support team should in any case check the trade. Even if the buyer canceled it. Otherwise, it contributes to fraudulent activity of some users.

Moreover, sometimes the support team provokes violation of rules directly. Within one of the trades, I received a fiat transfer from a third party. I opened a dispute. The support agent checked buyer's documents in two days and required to release bitcoins from the escrow. "Otherwise the dispute will be resolved to the buyer", they say. First of all, if I release bitcoins, I loose money, because I was not allowed to accept the transfer two days ago, and now the market rate is much higher than at the time when the transfer was made. And second, third party payment is still third party payment. And any attempts to accept such payments are still forbidden. If I accept the payment, it will be against the LBC rules. Support agents shouldn't require sellers to do this.

I guess, there must be the only way to resolve such kind of disputes: refund the fiat transfer to sender. If support agents release bitcoins to buyers, they indulge violators.