| There's apparently a similar type of fraud currently popular over here (in Poland). It works like this: 1. You order a product, preferably something expensive and easy to sell. You request delivery to a package locker and payment via standard bank transfer. The site you're ordering from gives you an account number to transfer to, as well as an ID to put in the reference field. 2. You list something at the same price on our local equivalent of Craigslist. 3. When you find a customer, you tell them that you only accept payment via standard bank transfer. You give them the account number and reference ID from step 1. You never ship the offered item. 4. The customer makes the transfer and the item ordered in step 1 is delivered to a locker of your choosing. You can retrieve it and sell it legitimately. 5. When the customer from Craigslist doesn't receive the item they paid for, they go to the police. However, there's nothing linking you to their transaction, the seller of the item in step 1 is the primary suspect, as they're the ones who took their money in the first place. Even if they discover that there was a third person involved, they're usually extremely hard to find, as the footage from any CCTV equipment near the locker will be long gone. |
Fraudsters would setup a Cash -> Bitcoin transaction on local Bitcoin. Scam someone else into fulfilling the payment, then run off with the Bitcoin.
Then the victim looses their money, the Bitcoin seller is now in possession of effectively stolen funds. You don’t want to be the seller in this equation because from the banks perspective you look like the fraudster, and it’s likely you have bank accounts closed.