I do face to face trades, meeting people in real life.
Be careful when you do face to face trades. It is very dangerous. Try to it in most crowded area.
i wouldn't lay it on too thick -- people are buying/selling on localbitcoins legitimately all the time, every day. but yes, just meet in a Starbucks or something. i mean -- why would you meet anywhere NOT in public?
Even if you do in public with less crowded area, there is a chance of robbery. There was a post earlier telling that some people tried to get BTC by force, luckily he escaped from there. That is why I told "most crowded area".
Keep a distance from the person you buy or sell.Kindly,
Muhammed Zakir
I believe you are talking about the thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=641160.0, and that person almost lost his phone.
Be careful out there if trading in person. Somebody just attempted to rob me of my phone after setting up a local trade.
I'm in a French city (not Paris) and somebody contacted me over localbitcoins for an in person trade.
He wanted to buy 500 euros worth of BTC.
We agreed to meet at a big open public square where there is a bar and lots of people milling around.
When we met up two people arrived and we started to talk about how the site works and how he can verify the transaction BTC.
I then whip out my phone and log in to my account stressing the whole time that I need extra passwords to release the funds. Then when I ask him for the moeny, one guy grabbed the phone while the other pulled out a tear gas canister and sprayed me. Luckily I had managed to grab back my phone and started to shout and swing a few punches and they ran off. I was glad that the place was quite full and people quickly helped me. I will be filing a police report but I'm not sure that it will do any good.
TLDR- Be careful when trading in person, criminals are starting to realise what bitcoin is about.
I'm in a French city (not Paris) and somebody contacted me over localbitcoins for an in person trade.
He wanted to buy 500 euros worth of BTC.
We agreed to meet at a big open public square where there is a bar and lots of people milling around.
When we met up two people arrived and we started to talk about how the site works and how he can verify the transaction BTC.
I then whip out my phone and log in to my account stressing the whole time that I need extra passwords to release the funds. Then when I ask him for the moeny, one guy grabbed the phone while the other pulled out a tear gas canister and sprayed me. Luckily I had managed to grab back my phone and started to shout and swing a few punches and they ran off. I was glad that the place was quite full and people quickly helped me. I will be filing a police report but I'm not sure that it will do any good.
TLDR- Be careful when trading in person, criminals are starting to realise what bitcoin is about.
To be honest, I forgot about the thread you gave, I was talking about another. Then it happened to 2 people. Check the rating of the Seller in Localbitcoins before you buy. You may thing it is pretty easy but it isn't. Sometimes it may cost you your life.
Kindly,
MZ