Quote from: MAC on March 17, 2013, 12:36:19 AM

I really hate the amount of scammers here.
Am I wrong for assuming that it makes it harder for legitimate people to get loans?
A solution to this could be requiring ID checks.
Scammers will be only able to scam once.

MAC

Trendon Shavers aka Pirate is probably the guy on which we have the most information around here.

Quote from: Bitsky on March 16, 2013, 09:37:51 AM

I stayed away from Pirate for a long time, but at some point I decided to jump on too. Why? Mainly because of his #otc ratings and how this was supposed to help to protect one from scammers. Then many reported that they got paid, so whatever he did appeared to work to some degree. Of course there were warnings that it was probably a scam, but most of those ran similar projects so it wasn't easy to determine if those warnings were just part of a mud-fight. Also don't forget that Pirate met with a few of his investors face to face. Also I'm not sure if I was scammed by Pirate or paybtc.
Some might say that the promises were too good to be true; but look at the btc price development: from less than cents to around $45 now in 2+ years. People laughed at bitcoin at the beginning and said it's just a scam; but look at it right now.

Don't forget he was part-owner of GPUMax, a start-up similar to what Coinlab is trying to do. GPUMax was dominant in the mining market back then.

Shavers, even with his information, reputation and business on the line, still went on with the scam. It's just to show that some scammers are ready to lose a lot for their scam. There's no secret recipe against scammers, some will still be able to break the system. It's not a matter of "let's do that and problem solved". It's a job of constant vigilance and sharing of information.