Localbitcoins is one of the largest p2p exchanges for exchanging Bitcoin for alternative currencies \ money. For example, through it you can withdraw Bitcoin to a bank card, and the rate will (was) better than on the same bestchange.
For many years, this exchange functioned normally, giving people the opportunity to exchange Bitcoin for QIWI, WM, poison and something exotic, such as AliPay.
But, when the rise of cryptocurrencies began in the first quarter of 2021, Bitcoin broke the record of its price, and cost a little more than $ 60,000 for 1 BTC, at that moment (March-April 2021) mass blocking of Localbitcoins accounts began, without the ability to withdraw their funds from account.
In the beginning, the blockages were in two main directions:
1) Confirmation of the origin of funds. Accounts with a deposit went to the block, and had to document the origin of their BTC.
2) KYC on the left data. Accounts that indicated inaccurate information were identified and sent for video verification.
An important point! The administration did not give the opportunity to change the data, and go through KYC, for example, on yourself. Even if your surname and first name were sdf sdf in your account (in the early years, passport photos could not be uploaded to go through formal verification), the support does not care, it is necessary to re-verify this information, but you cannot change it.
This was around the end of March 2021. Even then, indignation began in the crypto communities, in the telegram crypto chats, in the VK publics.
After that, the Localbitcoins administration made a little tactful move. Now accounts went to a block with the wording that the funds on their account were seen in transfers to Hydra.
In addition, accounts began to appear en masse in crypto chats, which began to furiously defend the position of Localbitcoins that they were doing everything right, and those who could not confirm the funds, or indicated the left data, or even more so are a "drug addict", deserve it. These accounts had a pre-prepared argument for many points. It can be seen that they were well prepared for all the dissatisfied in order to argue - you yourself are to blame for the blocking, but not the Localbitcoins administration.
If we recall the classic exit-scam projects, exchanges (for example, wex, former btc-e), when the administration simply closed the project, running away with users' money, then the situation is completely different in its impudence.
The Localbitcoins exchange has taken funds from a bunch of users, and wants to continue working as if nothing had happened, repeating the same scheme from time to time.
The calculation in their scheme is very simple. Most of the thrown users will not be able to oppose anything in the legal field (to sue), since they themselves formally violated the AML \ KYC regulations, and in general, some points of the rules. Well, to get the administration in Finland, or to interact on them outside the framework of the law, is a rather difficult and financially costly business - few people will do it.
But there is one BUT. Not all Localbitcoins administration is located in Finland.
For example, many Russian-speaking supports (the same administration) may not necessarily be located somewhere outside the Russian Federation, but they very carefully hide any data about themselves, do not appear in support chats, do not follow the links, and very carefully conduct a conversation ... It is impossible to agree with them on a refund, although technically they can provide an opportunity to withdraw funds with the subsequent blocking of the account, but they will never do this - not in their interests. They answer exclusively with unsubscriptions, and with the same prepared template phrases. Humanly, they do not understand, no matter how they are asked, because many people have a difficult situation, some people need this money, and some have lost their business. They also do not react to threats, being confident in their anonymity and impunity.
One of the leaders of Localbitcoins, Vladislav Alimpiev, who is also the face of the company, maintains the official Localbitcoins channel on Youtube, and a blog on Medium. He does not hide his name, pretending to be a public person, and is not hiding from anyone. True, even before moving from St. Petersburg to Helsinki (Finland), he retired from all social networks, erased all the information about himself, and had only a hidden page in VK without an avatar, and any data.
But the Internet remembers everything, and it was not difficult to recover the information.
In a blog on Medium, Vladislav describes the implementation of the KYC platform, and the fight against unwanted elements, which they worked on when he joined the company in 2019.
And after the massive bans, he released a video on Youtube, where he announced to all the banned "zero tolerance for crime", formally calling those blocked by criminals: He prefers to keep silent about the withdrawal of funds from "criminal" accounts. And in the comments under each video on YouTube, you can see what people think about Localbitcoins. The same comments were on their Instagram account, but now all the negativity has been cleaned out from there. On YouTube, comments have not been touched yet.
According to Vladislav Alimpiev, all his relatives in St. Petersburg have been identified, several breaks - and mom, dad, grandmother, sisters, nephews and nieces with addresses, phone numbers, places of work, viber accounts, VK pages were found.
We tried to settle everything peacefully, wrote in VK, viber to his relatives, politely, tactfully, they say, return the money to people, no one needs extra problems. At first, his relatives answered that they did not know any "Vlad", after the demonstration of information from the punched-out data, they realized that they would not be able to excuse themselves, and they simply blocked everyone, not entering into any dialogue.
Vlad apparently thinks that no one will get him in Finland, and no one will dare to touch his relatives (the mother is holy), though they do not think about the mothers of those from whom he and his accomplices took money away.
Another Localbitcoins employee, Anna Gamaga, is featured on Instagram photos from their office:
All information about her is also available. But what position she occupies, and what she does in general, it was not possible to find out. They also wrote to her and her relatives in VK, but they did not answer anyone - all who wrote were thrown into an emergency.
Apparently, Localbitcoins has already given instructions to all of its employees what to do if victims contact you.
Unfortunately, we cannot reach other Localbitcoins administrators and Russian-speaking supports.
We tried to break through at the place of work, but we could not find a person who could break through such information.
We studied social networks who have Localbitcoins in their place of work, but there are also left-wing people who have nothing to do with this scam exchange
Although we know what OSINT is, our knowledge is not enough here. If suddenly someone can help with information on other scam partners from Localbitcoins, where and how they can be found, we will be grateful.
A news channel has been created in the telegram, where information is posted on the Localbitcoins admins, the appeal of the post-sellers and just a discussion, as it is found, it is updated:
There is also a regular chat in order to try to cooperate with all the victims, there you can drop some information about the supports, admins, or the owners of this scam exchange:
Let's be realistic - they are unlikely to return the money, but options to influence them, and to do everything so that they choke on this money in the literal sense of the word is enough.
For many years, this exchange functioned normally, giving people the opportunity to exchange Bitcoin for QIWI, WM, poison and something exotic, such as AliPay.
But, when the rise of cryptocurrencies began in the first quarter of 2021, Bitcoin broke the record of its price, and cost a little more than $ 60,000 for 1 BTC, at that moment (March-April 2021) mass blocking of Localbitcoins accounts began, without the ability to withdraw their funds from account.
In the beginning, the blockages were in two main directions:
1) Confirmation of the origin of funds. Accounts with a deposit went to the block, and had to document the origin of their BTC.
2) KYC on the left data. Accounts that indicated inaccurate information were identified and sent for video verification.
An important point! The administration did not give the opportunity to change the data, and go through KYC, for example, on yourself. Even if your surname and first name were sdf sdf in your account (in the early years, passport photos could not be uploaded to go through formal verification), the support does not care, it is necessary to re-verify this information, but you cannot change it.
This was around the end of March 2021. Even then, indignation began in the crypto communities, in the telegram crypto chats, in the VK publics.
After that, the Localbitcoins administration made a little tactful move. Now accounts went to a block with the wording that the funds on their account were seen in transfers to Hydra.
In addition, accounts began to appear en masse in crypto chats, which began to furiously defend the position of Localbitcoins that they were doing everything right, and those who could not confirm the funds, or indicated the left data, or even more so are a "drug addict", deserve it. These accounts had a pre-prepared argument for many points. It can be seen that they were well prepared for all the dissatisfied in order to argue - you yourself are to blame for the blocking, but not the Localbitcoins administration.
If we recall the classic exit-scam projects, exchanges (for example, wex, former btc-e), when the administration simply closed the project, running away with users' money, then the situation is completely different in its impudence.
The Localbitcoins exchange has taken funds from a bunch of users, and wants to continue working as if nothing had happened, repeating the same scheme from time to time.
The calculation in their scheme is very simple. Most of the thrown users will not be able to oppose anything in the legal field (to sue), since they themselves formally violated the AML \ KYC regulations, and in general, some points of the rules. Well, to get the administration in Finland, or to interact on them outside the framework of the law, is a rather difficult and financially costly business - few people will do it.
But there is one BUT. Not all Localbitcoins administration is located in Finland.
For example, many Russian-speaking supports (the same administration) may not necessarily be located somewhere outside the Russian Federation, but they very carefully hide any data about themselves, do not appear in support chats, do not follow the links, and very carefully conduct a conversation ... It is impossible to agree with them on a refund, although technically they can provide an opportunity to withdraw funds with the subsequent blocking of the account, but they will never do this - not in their interests. They answer exclusively with unsubscriptions, and with the same prepared template phrases. Humanly, they do not understand, no matter how they are asked, because many people have a difficult situation, some people need this money, and some have lost their business. They also do not react to threats, being confident in their anonymity and impunity.
One of the leaders of Localbitcoins, Vladislav Alimpiev, who is also the face of the company, maintains the official Localbitcoins channel on Youtube, and a blog on Medium. He does not hide his name, pretending to be a public person, and is not hiding from anyone. True, even before moving from St. Petersburg to Helsinki (Finland), he retired from all social networks, erased all the information about himself, and had only a hidden page in VK without an avatar, and any data.
But the Internet remembers everything, and it was not difficult to recover the information.
In a blog on Medium, Vladislav describes the implementation of the KYC platform, and the fight against unwanted elements, which they worked on when he joined the company in 2019.
And after the massive bans, he released a video on Youtube, where he announced to all the banned "zero tolerance for crime", formally calling those blocked by criminals: He prefers to keep silent about the withdrawal of funds from "criminal" accounts. And in the comments under each video on YouTube, you can see what people think about Localbitcoins. The same comments were on their Instagram account, but now all the negativity has been cleaned out from there. On YouTube, comments have not been touched yet.
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According to Vladislav Alimpiev, all his relatives in St. Petersburg have been identified, several breaks - and mom, dad, grandmother, sisters, nephews and nieces with addresses, phone numbers, places of work, viber accounts, VK pages were found.
We tried to settle everything peacefully, wrote in VK, viber to his relatives, politely, tactfully, they say, return the money to people, no one needs extra problems. At first, his relatives answered that they did not know any "Vlad", after the demonstration of information from the punched-out data, they realized that they would not be able to excuse themselves, and they simply blocked everyone, not entering into any dialogue.
Vlad apparently thinks that no one will get him in Finland, and no one will dare to touch his relatives (the mother is holy), though they do not think about the mothers of those from whom he and his accomplices took money away.
Another Localbitcoins employee, Anna Gamaga, is featured on Instagram photos from their office:
All information about her is also available. But what position she occupies, and what she does in general, it was not possible to find out. They also wrote to her and her relatives in VK, but they did not answer anyone - all who wrote were thrown into an emergency.
Apparently, Localbitcoins has already given instructions to all of its employees what to do if victims contact you.
Unfortunately, we cannot reach other Localbitcoins administrators and Russian-speaking supports.
We tried to break through at the place of work, but we could not find a person who could break through such information.
We studied social networks who have Localbitcoins in their place of work, but there are also left-wing people who have nothing to do with this scam exchange
Although we know what OSINT is, our knowledge is not enough here. If suddenly someone can help with information on other scam partners from Localbitcoins, where and how they can be found, we will be grateful.
A news channel has been created in the telegram, where information is posted on the Localbitcoins admins, the appeal of the post-sellers and just a discussion, as it is found, it is updated:
There is also a regular chat in order to try to cooperate with all the victims, there you can drop some information about the supports, admins, or the owners of this scam exchange:
Let's be realistic - they are unlikely to return the money, but options to influence them, and to do everything so that they choke on this money in the literal sense of the word is enough.
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