Now I don't know german or the german sub-forum but I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than a few germans scammed and filling complaints with "localbitcoins" named out of frustration.
100% correct; there was massive scamming going on (buying with stolen bank accts, man in the middle etc.) and there are enough complaints inside and outside their forum.
In essence, to receive a bank transfer within the specified time limit, sellers had to list the acct info in the ad - which is an excellent target for criminals, who can hack accounts and when successful, buy coins from such an ad.
Probably, German authorities were fed up with all that and have now pulled the plug.
I have recommended to LBC to do some sort of bank account verification like bitcoin.de or Paypal does, to ensure the buyer controls the account, or introduce escrow. Those two options would stop most scammers without requiring KYC (and after all, people paying with bank transfers are not anonymous at all).
LBC did give a fat rats ass and now the shit has hit the fan.
Well, then i don't see their point, for p2p exchange in germany most people use bitcoin.de/kraken etc anyway - they could just remove that option
And there are good verification methods for german customer, better than in all other countries in the world, i.e. Postal identification service etc.
If they would just concentrate on what localbitcoins is all about - selling _locally_ via Euro, there aren't aren't many ways to get scammed if you meet in a public place like a bank and let them check the Eur bills directly.
