Topic: Trusting people with cash for bitcoin. (Read 1623 times)

Please do not send people cash in the mail (no matter how much you might trust them).  There's also the risk of it being stolen in transit.  There are much better alternatives (wire transfer & cash deposits to an exchange, BitInstant or others).  I hope it works out just fine for you, but there is no reason to go about it that way.

Yeah for individuals you want something like the bitcoin-otc web of trust.  Your first trades will still be risky because maybe everyone on #bitcoin-otc is in a big conspiracy, but as you establish connections with individual members you can see not only how trusted people are in general, but how trusted they are by people you trust, or people they trust.

http://serajewelks.bitcoin-otc.com/trustgraph.php?source=kgo&dest=silvercoin

I know Bitfloor used to allow a free deposit of cash into their bank account but I do not see it on their website anymore.

Yes, local transactions are always better and they remove a lot of the risk. I started the following thread to help address this issue and also the issue of relying on bank-based exchange services:

How and Why You Should Set Up Your Own P2P Bitcoin Currency Exchange
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/how-and-why-you-should-set-up-your-own-p2p-bitcoin-currency-exchange-83565

This discussion gave birth to http://localbitcoins.com and http://tradeyourbitcoin.com

They key take-away is to develop your personal, trusted network of trading partners so that you can assure yourself a reliable market of buyers and sellers without having to use the banking system.

I've taken this one step further and have closed all of my bank accounts. I use bitcoin (and prepaid visa gift cards if I have no other choice) for distance transactions and cash (bitcoin, FRN's) for local transactions. I love not having to deal with those blood-sucking banks and PayPal. Plus, they can no longer fractionalize (inflate) the money that I had on deposit since I have removed it from their system.

Rant Alert: If you're tired of being ripped off by bankster bailouts, thrown in to endless wars financed by inflation and debt, and stolen from in the form of taxation - stop using banks!

I'm selling some coins on LocalBitcoins in low denominations and have worked with one person who sent cash in the mail rather than meeting locally.  To be honest, I'm surprised they trusted me enough to do that when I had no reputation on the site, and so in an attempt to reciprocate that trust, I film myself opening the envelope and counting the cash just to be on the absolute safe side.  That said though, I would probably also accept a money order, or even a personal check as long as I'm allowed time to let it clear before releasing the coins, but again I'm dealing with less than $100 per transaction.

I truly hope your $560 transaction works out well.  When you're dealing with a currency in which transactions are irreversible, a healthy dose of paranoia and caution is always warranted.  

i've sent up to $200 at a time via usps to various people on #bitcoin-otc. 

also, don't tell your wife about bitcoin...

Or, you know, don't send straight cash in the mail to anyone at all.

You guys are getting way too conditioned to getting scammed if this plan is at all acceptable.

Hey,

If you are buying $100-$500 worth of BTC, I recommend Bitinstant.com (my company). We are not the cheapest, but def most reliable, quickest and trustworthy.

For higher, I also recommend LocalBitcoins.com

However, if buying anywhere between 1k-10k of BTC I highly recommend my competition Tangible Cryptography aka FastCash4Bitcoins https://fastcash4bitcoins.com/ You can retain your privacy as well.

If my word means anything to you (it does to many people here) I've done business with Gerald, CEO of Tangible, for a few months now and he is one of the most trusted and respected members of our community.

Good luck on your endeavors!

-Charlie

Or just wire money to an exchange?

If you're nervous break up the $500 into smaller amounts to reduce the loss if scammed. So send $100 and after a couple days after they sent the coins, send the next hundred.

Or if you really want to speed up the process, send $100 to 5 different exchangers all at once.

+1

I have a good exchange route set up, so I regularly sell bitcons to people who look me up there.

If you are looking to buy in cash with large amounts, i believe that https://localbitcoins.com would be a good recourse

This is more of a rant than a question. When I first started out in the bitcoin scene I tried selling a smartphone, a playstation 2, and a World of Warcraft account to get my first btc. I'd been signed up for a number of months with a reasonably high post count but no one would touch my stuff with a ten foot pole. The WOW thread was filled with, "don't trust this he can just take the account back." Same with even the smallest paypal transactions.

Alright well I accepted this, then recently asked what the easiest way to buy bit-coin money from other members are. Their answer? Just send cash in the mail. "what about a money order?" No, just straight cash.


We're talking about anywhere from $100-$5,000+ that I've seen. Sure they might have a high post count and have other members with high post count vouching for them. But really what's stopping anyone from signing up with a bunch of accounts, posting a few messages each day, then over the course of 6 or so months making fake vouches to a single "sellers" account, then advertising yours service? By timing it right you could scam a small number of unsuspecting people who may have made a large investment.

All I'm saying is, I love the idea of bitcoin. Can't wait for a more secure infrastructure to fall into place. And for the $560 I sent out today via USPS as my first investment, hoping it all goes good. If not it's going to be damn hard to convince my wife to let me try again.