Topic: Scammed 75 Bitcoins by Skype Scammer 'BankerBTC' - Community Beware (Read 3162 times)

Since there are so many scams on bitcointalk and in the bitcoin world in general, are you able to sign a message from an old address that your account has posted a long time ago in order to prove that your account has not been sold/hacked?

Please read my response to Fortify regarding escrows. We’ve come to conclude that these types of scams are thriving not because of any negligence on the part of the seller, but because of the fact that almost all fiat transfers are REVERSIBLE and bitcoin transfers are IRREVERSIBLE, so the scammer transfers money and claims charge back after receiving the bitcoins.


Yeah, the current state is sad and unfortunate not only for our company but the community in general.

Scam, scam, scam its all I ever hear. You literally can't trust anyone in this game.

I can count on 2 hands members that I know on this forum I'd trust with more than 1BTC of my money.

The company is developing new technologies in cryptocurrency, and bitcoin trading isn’t even a minor part of the company’s business model. It was taken up to understand the bitcoin ecosystem. One may think the escrow system like the one in LocalBitcoin.com would be fool proof, but it isn’t. We even had a couple of charge backs coming from LBC trades claiming that the funds for purchase of bitcoins were transferred from a hacked account. The worst part is the banks and cops buy that ridiculous theory.

From the reported scams it is clear, in each of his scam, BankerBTC has an accomplice. He does the BTC deal on Skype and his accomplice (or accomplice of accomplice) makes up the Facebook hack story and claims the chargeback from the bank/victim. They both profit from the scam. But, if the victim still has access to the accomplice who claimed the chargeback he possibly can save himself.

i dont know why u guys believe on skype traders...watching their doesnt means that u got the face and you can catch him....it will obviously will be difficult...so take escrow in that kind of deals....

I am sorry to hear you got scammed, it is never easy. That said, if your whole business revolves around bitcoin you SHOULD have known about all the tricks that people will use to take your money. You are not a "normal person" who may not know otherwise - it is your business to know or you will inevitably end up in a situation like this. Whether it was sent directly by the scammer through hacked online banking or other people were fooled into sending money - the whole point of an escrow service like this is to reduce or limit risk. I would be highly suspicious of the person in your company who commenced the trades - they are either part of the scam or too naive.

Are you sure that the guy who scammed you wasn't the guy who was dealing with that transaction?
Maybe the scammer and the buyer were the same people and you got scammed by someone you know.

I actually tried to get Facebook chat evidence from the bank and also asked him a couple of times, but without any success. May be there was no Facebook hack at all, it's just a made up story by bankbtc and his accomplice. In any case the scamming pattern is the same as reported is similar scams across the world, which should be enough circumstantial evidence.

Well, it actually turns out that Skype was indeed a blessing in disguise in my case. Fortunately, logs of live text chat documenting every step from receiving the buy request to piecemeal deposit of BTC to buyer's wallet addresses over a period that extended to almost 10 hours with time stamps unequivocally prove that the buyer indeed received the goods in a genuine provable transaction for which buyer made the payment. With this evidence in place the scammer's accomplice is finding it very hard to make his Facebook hack story compelling.  But, of course in any legal system the complainant always has an initial first-to-complain advantage, and burden shifts to the defendant. Without the Skype evidence and my diligence in investigating the scam, the burden would have definitely been much heavier.

You say the dispute is ongoing and you are in communication with the scammer’s accomplice who is claiming the charge back by pretending to be the victim. Well, just see if you can get the transcript of his Facebook chat. I am damn sure you will find clues that will establish exact same scamming pattern as in other Facebook scams reported on this scammer.

sorry to hear that from you :/

I'm glad you understand, it's a bad situation to be in. Accounts frozen, btcs gone.

I'm certain it's not the employee, checked everything myself, the employee himself is a reputed and man of position in the company.
It wasn't as easy as it seems, it was an elaborate plot actually, we have a good reputation on localbitcoins and this guy spoke over the phone, and seemed good for it.
Yes, it was a big mistake on our part, but the scam turned out to be more elaborate than we had conceived.
Lesson learned.

We have taken it as a lesson, and still looking for clues on the scammer. His skype id is :  bankerBTC

Or out of LBC since escrow protection was just squandered. Are you sure your employee wasn't in on it? Since your company was scammed so easily, you may want to rethink your profession, it was way to easy.
Sorry you got taken but all the classic scammer signs were written all over this deal.

maybe the lesson here is not to trade on Skype?

Hi, I am very new here. I am neither a regular bitcoin trader, nor a bitcointalker. But, for my love of the blockchain technology as a tech innovator, I got caught up in one of bankerbtc scams as a bystander. I signed up on this forum just to join this discussion, as input from member community might help resolve my case and compensate the pain that I’ve gone through. 

In my case, the so called Facebook hack victim (bankerbtc accomplice if you may) who claims a charge back of USD 6,800, also made up the same “sister” “friend” “Facebook hack” story to the banks & law enforcement, threatening me with dire consequences. He actually met me face-to-face twice. As a good will gesture, I even shared with him all the real-time evidence of a perfectly legitimate bitcoin transaction as it actually happened, and even offered to share some of his losses. But now, on the hindsight, after reviewing the evidence, and looking at the pattern of this scam and its modus operandi shared by others on this and other forums, I have very little doubt in my mind that either this guy is an accomplice of bankerbtc, or definitely an accomplice of an accomplice. Otherwise why would an honest man transfer money on a Facebook chat to a lady and actually send it to the account of an unknown male, and do it not once, but twice (by adding an unknown person as a beneficiary on his account)? As this dispute is still live and on-going, I would appreciate more feedbacks/leads from members of this community who have any info on similar scams.

Selling coins is a very risky proposition whatever the payment method. I've been trading for quite some time and have seen my fair share of scam attempts. I think that your mistake was to put an inexperienced person to manage such a risky operation. This type of banking fraud is particularly vicious. You not only end up losing your coins but also your bank accounts get frozen and you find yourself having to demonstrate that you're not a criminal. Really sorry about your situation. Good luck.

In a similar situation I filed a police complaint against the bank, and the scammer / scammer accomplice just disappeared and bank released my money. That’s the best approach because banks would do little to help the situation.