Wow - bitcoin to real cash meetup sounds dangerous!
It's not honestly, you just can't be retarded about it. I've traded quite a bit through localbitcoins, always in person to person trades. The online trades are the ones that scare me, due to paypal chargebacks and such.
I always do the trades at flying-star or starbucks, or any other public place with cameras and free wifi internet. The people on Localbitcoins have track records of transactions with written reviews, most of them having 100+ $1,000 dollar transactions with good reviews. They are registered as a business, my local bitcoin trader pays taxes and all. He follows guidelines and is registered as a money transferring service and charges 7% sales tax and everything. He is not required to get my identification, only required to charge sales tax. There's also Bitcoin ATM's if you'd rather deal with a machine.
They are making quite a bit, around 15% or more depending on arbitrage opportunities from buying from one exchange and charging another exchanges price. They have plenty of incentive to be legitimate. The site itself acts as an escrow system. You send the BTC to LocalBitcoins, then you have to release the coins once the cash is in hand. If you really feel unsafe, I know it's legal to open carry in my state.
Use your rights to arm yourself. But honestly, I've never had a problem. Just trying to help. Just don't be stupid about it kay? Don't invite the guy in for tea and pancakes and you should be alright.
As long as you trade with people that have good reviews, and I mean more than 10... and you meet in a public place you should be fine. I've exchanged quite a bit worth of bitcoins this way (over $10k) after the last rise. I even made my trader show me his business license. Hes "Abqbitcoins". I've traded for paypal and other things but I always felt safest doing cash transactions. I also rarely did more than $1,500 per transaction. Hedge your risk.
This way there's no way the payment can be reversed. I'd rather have a nice stack of bengy's in a bank envelope and know its over, than to wake up to a paypal payment that says "reversal" a week later.
Or a fake cashiers check that only the person that cashes it can get in trouble for.
Yes there's risk, but if you do it correctly, and protect yourself from obvious threats, you should be fine. I've never had a problem. I've always felt there was more risk in online Bitcoin trades due to ways of charging back after the transaction is complete. Alot of the payment styles used by those guys could be charged back after you leave a review, Whats to protect you from that? You can't even knock the guy if you've written the review already.
Once you find your guy you build a relationship with him. You trade with him locally and for cash only. You are much safer than accepting Paypal and putting your identity out there. 15% is cheap when looking to hide your Identity. Treat it the same way as using craigslist. Don't be too friendly or put yourself in a situation you don't want to be in. Be smart about it.
