tldr:
They is currently at least one bad actor on BTC/EUR market trying to scam you and he’ll be signed for more than 30 days tomorrow.
You’re selling btc and want to avoid getting into troubles, then avoid mediation and take your losses no matter what.
I’ve traded on bisq actively since 2017, mostly BTC/EUR pair, and have never had real issues until this week.
On my last trade, am selling BTC as a taker. BTC buyer provided no name and when I raised this issue, he even admitted he’d sent money from a different IBAN than the one displayed in the trade.
That was suspicious enough for me to ask advice on the keybase support chat. Following those advice I requested mediation and explained my case.
I also decided to reject the transfer as soon as it would land my account to avoid having my whole account frozen in case of MITM attack, ie when someone take control of an unknowingly sender bank account or using social engineering to make the account holder send money in exchange of something he’ll never receive.
Next day, I got a phone call from my bank who wanted to know about that incoming transfer. They asked about the relationship I had with the sender and how I knew about him (we are in different countries). Not willing to speak about my bitcoin trades, I simply stated I wanted to reject that incoming transfer because I didn’t know that person. I also had to explain myself about why I suspected something.
The simple fact my bank had frozen that transfer and requested invasive information about it confirmed that my trade peer did something very suspicious.
I obviously explained all of that to mediator.
Looks to me that my peer providing fake information should be enough to tilt balance in my favor.
But am now asked to provide proofs of what my bank said “otherwise I have no way of proving what am saying” according to mediator’s own words.
This raise several issues that are even more important than those btc now locked in bisq:
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I cannot contact my bank about this without taking more risks regarding my undeclared btc trades. Why are we all using bisq if not to hide those trades from governments and banks eyes, for something called privacy ?
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What good will do that alledgely proof ? I could easily forge an email for example and mediator would have no way to tell it. My peer could easily do the same and forge “proof” of having sent euros to my bank account.
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The same way a victim in real life will be threatened and put at risk by the justidicial system, bisq mediation is knowingly putting me at risk just for having requested mediation.
BTC sellers, be aware that that peer account has been signed 29 days ago (account created 31 days ago), meaning he’ll have his 0.01 btc buying limit lifted next day.
Something that mediator denied as being true as well.
Conclusion: one cannot trust mediation when they easily put you at risk with your bank just to prove something which shouldn’t even need to be proven.
Good luck to all of you, we’ll need some to avoid pitfalls
