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Comment by aphextron | Hacker News Reader

This seems so wacky to me. Are you guys seriously going to start sending thousands of dollars in currency through some random website with a marketing page and a blog?

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You just described 90% of online merchants.

...and you're right, plenty of online merchants rip people off. This is one reason that large trusted merchants dominate the space (overstock, amazon, newegg, etc..).

If a shapeshift clone exit scam [0] hasn't happened yet it will happen soon. People should do careful research on these sites before using them, just like people should do research on online merchants.

That being said I don't think evercoin is a scam. I'm glad to see competitors to shapeshift and innovation in this space. The website looks great! I wish evercoin all the best.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_scam

But aren't you protected by your credit card if the merchant fails to deliver?

>But aren't you protected by your credit card if the merchant fails to deliver?

Yes, among other legal protections. The reason this seems so crazy to me is because you have absolutely no recourse in the event of a mishap. The company doesnt even have a published address or phone number. I cant even find a support e-mail. A Google search yields nothing about the company but this announcement. The blog is run entirely by their "Chief Marketing Officer". I guess my skin is not thick enough for the crypto world.

Chargebacks provide some protection but in the final analysis it really depends on how scummy the merchant is. If they really want to cheat you they will find a way:

1. products that never arrive after long shipping delays (NYC camera shops are the masters of this technique),

2. keep delaying shipping the product, then as soon as they ask for a refund say you already shipped it and they will be billed for shipping cost (another classic NYC trick),

3. substituting inferior products (broken 2GB RAM module with a label that says 8GB, how easy is to make an NTFS drive look bigger than it is?),

4. playing games with receipts to make them harder to contest (wrong address, slightly different product),

5. threatening to sue or reveal personal information if you contest,

6. a refund process which involves onerous and never ending paperwork,

7. never send a receipt, cancel the order on the web form "sorry we are out stock" and then bill anyways, stealing money from everyone who doesn't read their credit card bill like a hawk.

etc...

Or they can just use your credit card to buy something for themselves for roughly the price of the product you thought you purchased.

thanks. we're working hard to earn trust from the community we want to serve.

Welcome to the "new normal" in crypto-currency. There's so much money floating around it ends up everywhere.

Generally I send $10s, then maybe $100s, and if all goes well I may do $1000s if they are still around in a few years.

Risk management 101.

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