Does anyone see a pattern here yet? There are reasons that the protections exist with Visa and Western Union. The transfer of wealth is very prone to fraud.

I understand but Bitcoin isn't attempting to be a local replacement for cash. It's trying to be a long distance value transfer system that's faster with a lower fee. If you lose your money who gives a shit if it's free or fast! That's why I said it's got a long way to go to replace Western Union or Visa. I've had Visa save my ass from an online scam purchase multiple times. The only time I've lost money online was using Bitcoin. Sad but true.

Just out of curiosity how do you see using western union as being fraud protected?

What happened with the Sheep Marketplace heist? Anyone have a link to updated info? Haven't heard anything about it since.

Person to person transfers of Bitcoin use no ID. You will be transferring the Bitcoins to someone but you will never be able to tell who. You can trace the transaction in the blockchain but that info will do absolutely nothing for you. Don't believe me? Ask anyone that used Inputs.io, MyBitcoin, Bitcoinica or any of the many other scams listed here. Western Union if used properly avoids fraud. I do agree Visa is better and insured/capped for liability but you can avoid fraud better if you take their advice. http://www.westernunion.com/sites/us/consumer-protection/FraudTypes.  This page reads like a Bitcoin business directory.

I'm not comparing it to Western Union at all and I understand Bitcoin and all it's flaws quite well. I've been using it for three years now. I'm saying Bitcoin will never compete with Western Union or Visa for international funds transfer unless it is drastically improved. The only two benefits I ever saw to Bitcoin was the ability to transfer large amounts of money over great distances securely with the absolute fungibility of cash and (taking the proper precautions) with relative anonymity. Blacklisting, red listing and the current pool of exchanges are threatening to destroy that concept. The other one is micro payments (tips) to people online. The current difficulty obtaining Bitcoins without thousands of dollars of mining equipment or an account at an exchange make that hardly worth the effort just to give someone a quarter because you like what they said in a post. The big problem that I see with Bitcoin today isn't the scams surrounding it. It's the fact they most people mining it or buying it are using it as an investment vehicle hoping for extreme profit in a short time instead of using it as the functional currency that it is. 

inputs.io - Well, I can't say I am surprised - It seems TF's technique or pretending to be hacked and then pretending to give some money back worked a treat!

Some users didnt get a single penny back (most) and nobody seems to mention the 10,000 20,000 coins he "forgot to pay back" from his other site coinlenders.com

Anybody?

No?

It's mentioned:

https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/83794.0#post_toc_34
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/83794.0#post_ref_24

Though there is no evidence Makhul took any part in this.

Yeah, I know he was jointly running it with M4v3r at the time, and him leaving probably had something to do with the BTC being lost, but the way it happened suggests that M4v3r was gambling with the users' funds without Makhul's knowledge. Why else would he take the blame only upon himself and make (as lousy as they are...) efforts to repay his creditors? It's not like the BTC ended in his pocket.

Please add the coinlenders scam. 20,000 BTC.