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It's the fact that the author paid in bitcoin that made this work. Most other online payment methods can be easily reversed with evidence of fraud. We deal wit

It's the fact that the author paid in bitcoin that made this work. Most other online payment methods can be easily reversed with evidence of fraud. We deal with this sort of stuff all the time running cardforcoin.com. Social evidence is a great fraud deterrent. Edit: My mistake, I reversed the payment direction. All the author needed to do was call Apple to have the cards cleared and replaced.

reefoctopus 10y ago
PayPal is just as bad in my experience. I was sent pirated software. They ruled against me and let the scammer keep the money.
shkkmo 10y ago
Who did the author pay in bitcoin? The author received bitcoin from the scammer only after threatening to out the scammer to his parents. Your half-assed attempt at self-promotion is not contributing to HN
- mhluongo 10y ago
  My mistake, I reversed the payment direction. I'm obviously a scum-of-the-earth shill and not someone who's deeply interested in the space commenting lazily. Go through my profile and tell me I'm not a contributor.
  - tempestn 10y ago
    Regardless, bitcoin had nothing to do with it. It's the fact that he sent the item before being payed that allowed him to be scammed. Method of payment was irrelevant. I have to agree with the parent that this seems like self promotion without bothering to more than skim the article.
    - mhluongo 10y ago
      I've copped to making a mistake, and reread the article for good measure. What else do you propose I do to make you happy? We use paid acquisition to promote the site, and an HN comment certainly won't make a difference to our monthly numbers- I brought it up because I thought it was relevant, and don't think I need to apologize any further for that. > Method of payment was irrelevant. As someone who does trades like this all the time- of course the way the exchange went down is relevant. In fact,the most salient thing when exchanging digital goods wrt fraud is the difference in settlement time between the two. In this case, since the author sent Apple gift cards, he could've just called Apple, said he was scammed, and had the cards zeroed and replaced by the merchant.

reefoctopus 10y ago

PayPal is just as bad in my experience. I was sent pirated software. They ruled against me and let the scammer keep the money.

shkkmo 10y ago

Who did the author pay in bitcoin? The author received bitcoin from the scammer only after threatening to out the scammer to his parents. Your half-assed attempt at self-promotion is not contributing to HN

mhluongo 10y ago
My mistake, I reversed the payment direction. I'm obviously a scum-of-the-earth shill and not someone who's deeply interested in the space commenting lazily. Go through my profile and tell me I'm not a contributor.
- tempestn 10y ago
  Regardless, bitcoin had nothing to do with it. It's the fact that he sent the item before being payed that allowed him to be scammed. Method of payment was irrelevant. I have to agree with the parent that this seems like self promotion without bothering to more than skim the article.
  - mhluongo 10y ago
    I've copped to making a mistake, and reread the article for good measure. What else do you propose I do to make you happy? We use paid acquisition to promote the site, and an HN comment certainly won't make a difference to our monthly numbers- I brought it up because I thought it was relevant, and don't think I need to apologize any further for that. > Method of payment was irrelevant. As someone who does trades like this all the time- of course the way the exchange went down is relevant. In fact,the most salient thing when exchanging digital goods wrt fraud is the difference in settlement time between the two. In this case, since the author sent Apple gift cards, he could've just called Apple, said he was scammed, and had the cards zeroed and replaced by the merchant.