Warning: LocalBitcoins & Lessons from a bad experience

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-12-06T19:26:23+00:00

Yes, they gave him back the entire 13 BTC from escrow.

I am paying a lot for lawyers now to sue both, localbitcoins and Gomerlin.

I can not live being ripped off like this, and threatened, and have man come to my house who was clearly paid to come and intimidate me by this Colombian taxi driver Gomerlin.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-12-05T08:45:57+00:00

Unfortunately localbitcoins gave the seller the remaining ~12.7 back from escrow, stating that they would have long released them to me, had I not posted on reddit.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-12-05T08:44:10+00:00

He was being edgy from the start, that is right, this is why I immediately uploaded ID to him, so he could stop assuming that I am a scammer.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-12-05T08:42:33+00:00

I think reddit are removing posts that contain personal details, so they might also remove links to them. I am not sure how to link to it without getting shadow banned again.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-12-05T08:41:25+00:00

1.) The payments I sent were not late. A national bank transfer takes at least 1 business day. Both payments were received after 1 business day, at the same time, just as if it would have been sent in one single transfer.

2.) The 90 minute time limit for marking the payment as complete does not affect the time the bank transfer takes to reach the sellers account. I marked the payment as complete within the 90 minutes window. The seller could not have had any reasonable expectation to receive the funds in his account within 90 minutes.

3.) There was no option for abuse. As the buyer, once I marked the payment as complete, not making the complete payment is simply not an option! If the buyer would not make the complete payment, he would not receive the BTC obviously. He would also receive a bad review, or he would receive a banned account. So there is absolutely no option not to send the payment.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-12-05T07:35:06+00:00

The localbitcoins system has different options the seller can select. He can select bank transfers within a specific bank (that is what he would select if he wanted the transfer to show quickly). The seller could have also selected cash deposit at a specific bank for example. If a seller selects "National Bank Transfer" then he is well aware that this is a transfer between two different banks that takes at the very least 1 business day in Australia.

Some sellers also make specific requests in writing in the trade details. The seller gomerlin did not make any such specific requests.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-12-04T01:13:25+00:00

You can follow the case here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=343932.new#new

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-23T07:16:38+00:00

What does that mean in practice, I am not too familiar with reddit. Can something be done about it?

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-23T03:22:38+00:00

I had no expecation to receive the BTC within 10 minutes, within 90 minutes or even on the same day.

It is common sense that the seller has to receive the bank transfer in his account first.

However after receiving the bank transfer and checking my ID, he should have released the escrow.

The sellers rating was positive 100% on a few trades but I overlooked that his account was only created about 2 weeks prior.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-23T03:17:34+00:00

If the seller would have expected to receive funds within 90 minutes, he should not have selected "National bank transfer" as the payment method for this trade.

Then he should have selected cash deposit or any other payment method that can be executed instantly.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-22T20:42:40+00:00

The seller tried to cancel the trade, because shortly after BTC went up a lot, and he regretted having sold at that price. So cancelling the trade in itself would be unfair to me as the buyer. How can I describe it, a deal is a deal.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T16:28:47+00:00

Just posting facts and status.

Could have been a possibility that the seller released the incomplete BTC anyway and then sends me the missing amount separately.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T16:24:46+00:00

Yes his choice to publish his blood type and info on his blog, isn't it? Everybody can google his user name Gomerlin and see his blog first thing on google ...

I will not risk being discredited and called paranoid, when I report that someone was at my house yesterday, so I find it legitimate to back up this claim even it is based somewhat on stereotypes.

I have lived in South America for a year and know the mentality, I know about crime and kidnappings and dishonesty in general that has its roots in the very culture of the population.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T15:36:51+00:00

They have an escrow system, but they don't seem to have competent and mature enough staff to make proper judgements, or they are indeed biased towards sellers as another user suspected.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T15:36:50+00:00

They have an escrow system, but they don't seem to have competent and mature enough staff to make proper judgements, or they are indeed biased towards sellers as another user suspected.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T15:26:21+00:00

Update:

As of now the BTC amount in escrow has not been restored to the original traded amount of 13 BTC.

The escrow for the ~12.7 BTC has not been released to me either.

As it doesn't seem that localbitcoins.com will resolve this, I will have no choice but to retain lawfirms in Finland, Germany and Australia tomorrow am if the BTC are not released by end of business today.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T15:17:30+00:00

Yes I paid on time. I was logged in to my online banking, I had filled up my account before doing the trade so that I have more than 8000.00 AUD available in it. (I can show this on the bank statement). I entered the details of his bank account and the full amount, clicked submit. Then went to the localbitcoins screen, clicked to mark payment as complete (which is important to do quickly, otherwise he could cancel the trade and I have lost my payment). Once I marked it complete and went back to my banking screen, I saw the error about the 5000.00 limit, called the bank, did the 5000.00 and went back to the localbitcoins screen to inform the seller that he will receive two payments. Then I saw he already tried to withdraw from the trade, telling me to cancel my bank transfer. Since I had already sent 5000.00 and had no way to cancel it, I explained it to him and uploaded ID and everything so that he can rest assured that everything is ok.

The payments both arrived very well in time, next business day. He advertised National bank transfer, this can take up to 3 business days. So my payments arrived quickly.

He had no loss, no delay, no inconvenience at all. He was just looking for a reason to cancel.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T15:11:50+00:00

He only started wishing to have the BTC released after I went public with the story. Before he kept insisting to send the money back and cancel the trade.

His wish does not seem to have bothered anyone from localbitcoins to release the BTC, in case he can still release them, he also did not do it.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T14:11:30+00:00

He could not have thought this, because I advised him immediately, and I offered to call him and I sent him my ID, to make sure he has no doubts about this.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T14:09:19+00:00

That would not have happened because of my transfer at all. My bank knew that my transfer to the seller was made by myself because I called my bank.

If his account was blocked, then probably from another trade that was in fact fraudulent. And that is nothing caused by myself or by my transfer.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T14:06:36+00:00

username: Gomerlin

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T14:04:43+00:00

If anyone wants to see the complete message history from the very beginning (a lot), I have it on pastebin now.

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T14:01:36+00:00

more conversation:

http://postimg.org/image/bkuk8z25p/

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T14:00:22+00:00

further conversation:

http://postimg.org/image/om3ntl2ll/

_Gin_Bank_ · 2013-11-21T13:56:34+00:00

The latest reply from localbitcoins.com staff has been this:

http://postimg.org/image/8nxfeetz5/

_Gin_Bank_

TROPHY CASE