Has anyone heard of Bitcoin

janer1967

Just wanted to know if anyone has heard of bit coin

My friends son has been victim of fraud through somebody on there 

He was very foolish and gave this person all his details eg bank , id being told they could make him money 

The person has taken out 7 payday loans in his name and all now charging my friends son 

I don't need comnents about how stupid he was that is obvious 

Just interested to know if anyone is aware of the company 

It has all been reported to police and they have cctv of them drawing money out of his bank so fingers crossed they may get caught 

MarkM88

I thought Bitcoin was a type of online currency not a company? 

66Mustang

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and is legitimate - I think your friend's son maybe must have been scammed by someone claiming to trade Bitcoin for him, not by Bitcoin themselves?

Sorry to hear about what happened. I hope he manages to get the loans cleared and his bank secured, and the criminal gets caught.

janer1967

Sorry yes it wasn't the company it was someone on there that he befriended 

These scammers get everywhere 

66Mustang

I can't argue that it does indeed facilitate crime as does other forms of wealth like cash or diamonds but I don't think there's anything underhand with the currency itself?

rubin16

Never heard of Bit Coin the company, but bitcoin itself is a cryptocurrency and is opensource, its used becuase its untraceable and secure. You can make alot of money on bitcoin, I made lots of money when it first came out and became popular as I bought into bitcoin and then they went up in price. Dealing in bitcoin works the same as any comodity on a stock market, and goes up and down in price, but can be profitable.

I know with this there is alot of scam companies out there promising alot of money to do it on your behalf, but with anything you should just do your homework and buy them yourself. Was it one of these companies that scammed your friends son?

If he used his bank hopefully he can recover the money, also payday loans taken out without his consent he can get cancelled, just need to prove it wasn't him. But if he took out the money himself, bought bitcoins and sent it them. Then its a problem as bitcoin can't be traced.

Hope this helps and he gets his money back and they catch them.

janer1967

I don't know what crypto currency is 

It all started by them putting money in my friends sons bank 

They then demanded he take it out and deliver the money somewhere he refused and they started to threaten him so he did what was asked 

Then came all the payday loans in his name 

janer1967

Thanks for that Mike get it now 

rubin16

Sounds like money laundering more than anything to do with cryptocurrency. Hopefully the police will be able to track them down using their account details, and your son providing as much info as possible to the police and fraud team.

Once your friends son has given the information to the police and actionfraud https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ he should be able to put a claim into his bank and the loan companies to recover his money.

janer1967

Thanks everyone 

Yes they are trying to get the loans stopped but not having much luck with the lenders so far 

rubin16

l didn't know payday loans were a thing anymore to be honest, I thought they were all stopped and banned in the UK as they were offering unrealistic charges and interest rates back to the lender. I had a bad time with them when I was 18, they were advertised everywhere back then and now you never hear of them.

rubin16

woodbine said:

Some people who got into Bitcoin in the early days made some serious money, but more recently it has become more volatile, there are profits to be made if you can avoid the scammers.

Yeah I bought some bitcoin when it first came out, and it shot up in price and I sold them for alot of profit. Nowadays though its just flooded by people trying to hope that it does the same thing again which it won't. You can make money on bitcoin still but its not much and takes alot of studying like any commodity on the stock market. Trouble is so many people and companies promise profit if you let them do it for you which are all scams.

Cher_Alumni

@janer1967 Blimey, the internet has certainly done lots to improve our lives but this just shows some of the risks out there too.  Your friend did absolutely the right thing in reporting the fraud to the police, and for anyone in a similar circumstance, here are links to:

• Report fraud and cyber crime to the Metropolitan Police
• Useful contacts for advice about fraud and cyber crime

Please let us know how she gets on and thanks to everyone for offering such sound advice.

Lisatho11987777

Thete is alot of scamming going on with bitcoin there is one going around saying  they are amazon saying you have to put 250.00 into their account to start trading when they start trading they then say you need to add more funds and then they take it all 

Alot of scams going round if it looks to good to be true it probably is 

My friend has just lost alot of money doing a similar thing and her bank details have been used to buy furniture and mobile phones 

janer1967

@Username_removed do you know where they could get advice on this fraud other than cab 

The loan company are saying it isn't fraud and he is liable for the 10k debt 

Sandy_123

I have heard of bitcoin, but not looked into it any further.
I hope your freinds son can get it solved soon

janer1967

The issue isn't really Bitcoin that's just where the scammer came from 

It's about them taking out loans in his name 

He is a lot to blame himself for giving them his id under threat 

calcotti

janer1967 said:

The issue isn't really Bitcoin that's just where the scammer came from 

They don't come from Bitcoin - it's not an organisation. Bitcoin is simply this scammers chosen fraud vehicle.

rubin16

woodbine said:

In the USA and other more switched on countries you can buy and sell bitcoin in what are effectively ATM's.
There are literally hundreds of crypto currencies, I recently purchased a book on them from Amazon and other than knowing there are a couple of reliable platforms you can trade on i'm not that much wiser, certainly not enough to dip my toe in the water and invest.

I've used a bitcoin ATM in the UK once, they used to have them around, not sure if they still do. But you could buybitcoin for cash, or sell bitcoin for cash. I used to have quite abit of bitcoin when it first came out, and you used to be able to mine it through servers for more, but those days ended and nowadays I wouldn't suggest buying into any cryptocurrency or trading it as the money is hardly there anymore. and Bitcoin mining became harder/impossible due to massive companies having server farms that constantly mine bitcoin.

The only real use for bitcoin is for ilegal activities and is like the goto currency for any scammer or for money laundering.

janer1967

@calcotti I get that I didn't explain properly Bitcoin is just where it all started 

calcotti

janer1967 said:

@calcotti I get that I didn't explain properly Bitcoin is just where it all started 

It's fine, I understand. I feel for your friend's son. It is shameful that people are prepared to exploit people in this way. Sadly the world seems always to have been thus - but the mechanisms change and today's technology makes larger scams easier.