Bitcoin Forum

Every day, a growing number of people adopt cryptocurrencies, and everyday additions to the population all want to use cryptocurrency exchanges to buy and sell tokens and coins. Due to its trustworthy p2p transactions, exchanges like Binance and Kucoin are among the most popular exchanges. However, many scammers continue to operate and utilize various p2p transaction cheating techniques.
Many buyers and sellers were involved in a peer-to-peer transaction; some of the cheaters among them will set a very high purchase price to entice the seller, but the seller falls for this and always pays less than what they agreed to.
https://i.imgur.com/PfwR2PY.png https://i.imgur.com/YZvBMjt.png

Most individuals tend not to notice this since we consider it to be the standard and are quite confident that nothing similar to this will occur. This week, a friend of mine told me that he was conducting a peer-to-peer transaction and that the payment was less than what he had expected. He also informed me that he had previously had the same problem from a different source. I write this to inform our newcomers and a few other colleagues because anyone may become a victim of such an act because of the complete faith we have in the exchange, thus we need to be really vigilant and always check our transactions.
Before releasing the coin, you can always Appeal to the exchange if something like this happens.

When conducting a transaction, be it on a p2p platform or sending to an individual address, the sender needs to verify a couple of information such as the wallet address and the amount of crypto to be sent or received. P2p exchanges have a set of rules and they always advise their client to confirm the figure and details of the senders and anything short of what appears on the exchange rendering the transaction invalid, and the buyer is at risk of losing funds if the case escalates and warrant proves. So the best advice is to always verify the sender's name and amount before releasing the assets.

I never experienced that thing on Binance p2p and I don't worry so much about this unless if you are dealing with unverified users or have no p2p trading history yet.

You can dispute if you do receive not the exact amount from what you agreed. Make sure every time you deal on P2P check the amount that you receive before you confirmed and release your payment because if you confirm and release there is no button to report or to dispute the transaction. That is why Binance added two options to remind you if the buyer sent an exact amount or not before you release.

I opened bisq a few days ago and it gave me a warning about charging penalty fees on users who send different amounts than what is promised (among other things) so I guess it is something places are trying to actively cut down on as scam.

P2p users should always pick a binance verified users. Dealing with non verified is likely transacting with a possible scammer. When Im using binance p2p,  I only pick those with large trades already to make sure that they are gonna give whats in the deal.

Try to appeal but I doubt that if huge transactions were in check then possible users might just run with it since he is not verified anyway.

I have experienced it before, but I thought it was a mistake and I thought I was the only one it had happened to, not until seeing this post. I sold my USDT and the buyer send me money that is not up to the money he is supposed to send and I thought it was a mistake.

I haven't experienced any of that cheating of the prices that is posted on the P2P exchange. I mean, how can you even cheat when the steps and the prices are clear?

1. You will select among the P2P sellers

https://i.imgur.com/8Q25oQP.png

2. You will then input the amount that you will purchase

https://i.imgur.com/orOREnM.png

3. There will be a fixed price on it. That's it. You will then agree on it.

It will also say that the price has changed on your current order so it needs to be refreshed in price. Are you sure there is cheating involved?

https://i.imgur.com/gaifkdP.png

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How can that happen?

My General rule of thumb is to transact in sellers that currently have a reputation. Transaction numbers, Transaction rate/score, Verified are such factors that I'm considering in choosing a seller and try to evaluate these factors if I can put my trust on it. Newbies should also be careful on details, There are scammers that take advantage on payment system. I've experienced one before, Scammer acted they sent me the payment for the transaction via text message. It looks legit at first glance but after examining the text and checking on my application, It's obviously a scam.

Scammers are on every platforms whether it's on binance, kucoin, bybit or any P2P platforms. Be vigilant.

Which text message do you mean? If I have understood your statement correctly, what you're saying is that the seller can send you an SMS notification while making it appear as though it came from the platform where you're receiving the money, such as Gcash, PH-based banks, and what not?

I mean that's pretty clever and alarming method that a scammer uses to confuse a P2P customer. I've been using Binance P2P a lot, and I oftentimes relied solely on SMS notifications to know whether or not money had been received and not thru the receiving application(e.g., Gcash, Unionbank)  :o

I still do not understand what you mean, how will the cheater make money while the other person will lose?

What I have noticed on Binance before is that some people that are buying and selling low amount will include a message that they will deducted certain amount of money that they are using it for bank charges and charges required to display ads. But in this case, better not just to make deal with them.

Or can you explain better if I am getting it wrong.

Same here, I have been doing P2P on Binance and so far the experience is smooth as I only deal with verified users and those that have like almost 99% of transactions being closed.


This or you can give a feed back on the users itself and let it known that you didn't get the exact amount and maybe Binance will flag this account first and verify everything before he can go and used their platform again.

I would never deal with users who are below 97% rate in Binance P2P. Anyone below than that is already a concern for me that would either give me a lot of headaches due to delays, possible scam, etc. This is why in Binance P2P, I am sticking to those buyers or sellers with at least 97% and above rate to be safe. So far, I have not been scammed in Binance P2P thanks to their strict escrow system.

They say to follow blindly after high rates will often lead one the way of scammers and cheats, these scammers and cheats know how enticing high rates are and use it to lure the greedy and unobservant individuals that want to sell their crypto. You should even still count yourself lucky if your case is a case of you were paid less, have you considered others who followed high rates and never received fiat after selling their crypto to some vendor even on binance p2p.

The overall lesson should be that we should as much as possible transact with only trusted and reputable individuals either online or offline.

Avoid trades with
- Offer is too good to be true
- With total newbie trade partner, without a single past trade
- Mark as Paid when you receive your money
- Else, click on Dispute
- To be safe, trader should have video recorder to record a video during the trade, it is useful for dispute.

When a trade opens, coin of seller will be locked in Escrow, and if seller receive enough (full) amount of payment from buyer, click on release and trade is done. Else, let's open a dispute.

I prioritize trading with trusted trade partners who have long history of trading. Their offers certainly are not too good to be true.

My bad, It's the buyer that is sending the message to me (I'm the seller). It's from Gcash, The text message is very real imo. The text message came from gcash also that's why it's so believable. Though I check my Gcash app and see no transaction or added balance to it that's why I confirmed it as scam. Be careful just relying on SMS notification, Scammers are very smart nowadays.

P2p transactions on binance or kucoin doesnt work like that unless you're a newbie who doesnt know how to read and understand what are the Notes and Warnings pinned on transaction window.

A user will always be safe even transacting to a non-verified seller that has an ad listed there as long as the payment method and best practice dealing on p2p is followed. If ever you did a wrong move, dispute is the only option, scam in p2p kn these two platform is rarely to happen imo.

This is not possible on binance because phone numbers of the buyer/seller are not visible to the other party. The only means of communication is the binance p2p chat box, which puts everything under the control of the exchange, and they can oversee the transaction successfully.  

Ok, so I don't get it!
It's a transaction on a platform where you see what you're paying for at what rate.
Thre is no such thing as you agree on 600/coin and he sends you only 500, it's not a bazaar, it's a damn simple transactions that show you the real numbers at every step.

Probably the heat got to me or I'm just dumb but where is the scam in this picture?

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/20/blob3ce3486370a6e2bf.png https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/20/blob3731510a53f36876.png


So let me get this right, you sell coins for $1000, you get $500 in your account and the cheat is that you don't check what you have received and you release the money? This is not about being a newbie to crypto, this is about not being able to buy a loaf of bread without getting cheated, why would you pay when he gave you less than agreed?


The scam can't happen in the actual exchange on the platform, it simply can't unless somebody is able to hack your computer and show different rates, as you mentioned those are set in stone when you initiate a transaction no user can change them as they see it fit.
My guess is that OP refers to guys actually paying less in the cash transaction, maybe "forgetting" a zero and hoping the victim will release the escrow, and if not they will claim it was a typing mistake and they send the full amount.

When you are about to sell your usdt on P2P, you will be the one to select who you want to sell to, so few among them always set high prices at the interface so that you are going to sell for them, then after clicking the user the price will change. For example the picture I posted above, if the the person you want to sell to wants to pay $621 immediately you click on the person the price will change from $621 to around $620, most people don't really notice that.

Sorry but this never happens on any platform on purpose!

What you might experience is that you leave your offer page opened for too long and when you finally click on that offer between those times the overall rates have changed, as most traders are offering automatically floating rates plus their own %, I'm not sure how that works on Binance but on localbitcoins you could set up stuff like : max(bitstampusd_avg, bitfinexusd_avg)*1.12*USD_in_EUR (https://localbitcoins.com/guides/equation-howto)

So yeah, if while you're waiting and looking at the rates the coins flash crashes the exchange rate will change, but it will NOT change after! you have initiated the exchange, once you hit the buy button that is set in stone.


In the picture you have posted the rate is unchanged, at exactly 621.02!

Yes on the image nothing changed because before I asked him for the image but he said he didn't make the screenshot, I decided to make that screenshot just to explain better so that people will understand, if I want to explain without image people might not really understand what am trying to say. also am just advising everybody to be careful whenever they are making transaction on the Binance and you should make sure you manually calculate the amount you are expecting to receive from the person you are selling to.

It's a P2P transaction, so it means there are option for buyer to pay. These includes several banks and other digital wallets that is available in your country. In my case, I use Gcash a digital wallet which is connected to your phone number. All of the transactions happened into the app, will be notified on your phone number. For example The buyer sent me $100 on my digital wallet, I will be notified on my phone number that there are someone who sent me $100. Scammer take advantage of this by sending text messages to my phone number without having real transaction. This is why I have a habit now of checking my Digital wallet app every time I have a transaction for me to verify it.

Of recent, I tried selling a few satoshies on an escrow exchnage site to satisfy an immediate need as it was pressing at the time and was met with one of these P2P scammer or should I say, not a genuine trader.

This user practically allowed the timer set for the transaction to elapse and at the last minute, the user notified the escrow exchange site to have complied with the payment and I was requested by the exchange to confirm if I've received payment to avoid a negative ratings.
Of course I went straight ahead to reporting the user then went on a live chat to continue the process.

The next was, this user proceeded with having a chat with me on the provided interface and went ahead to state that, the trade was already on a lose even after he has deducted about $40 from my original amount!

I was Furious and had to let the user know that, I was selling this coin in a bear market even knowing the lose I face and untop of that, he or she dares to cut trade by a $40 after going ahead to stale my trade by telling the site that he or she has credited my account when non of such has been done.

I told the user the exact amount the trade went for should he or she wish to continue otherwise, he or she should back out.
Knowing how determined and informed I was, the user backed out and I continued my trade with another user.

This guys arr just disgusting at times on the P2P sites.

The scammers are crazy and they always try to outsmart. Apart from the one noted by Op, setting a high price in advert and paying less without the seller knowing, I have had an experience with a scammer.

I opened to sell some sats, as I opened the trade it wasn't upto 5secs, the scammer had already marked payment made. Before the next 2secs he has reported me to customer service of not releasing coin. All these happened within 15secs. I had to follow up diligently with customer care to prove the scammer wrong.
I now learnt the lesson of not selling btc, I'll rather covert to stable coin before I trade because of volatility.

I am not quite sure about this, so correct me if am wrong here, but I don't think the buyer or the seller can change the rate while the order is still open and hasn't been paid. If such thing is possible then this is a bug and has to be reported to Binance so they can fix it.
As far as I know, when someone places an order to buy from you, the amount he wants to buy will be deducted from your initial order and any change you make (like changing the price) will only apply to the remaining amount (I'll check this when I get the chance to confirm it).

Wow, thanks to this information, really helpful and important to know.
It can't be denied that P2P is one of the favorite transactions moreover to cash out the money without any complicated rules of an exchange or bank.
However, if we cannot find trusted P2P sellers or buyers, this will also be very risky. This may also relate to our accuracy in conducting transactions. And this accuracy is very important because we must pay attention to every detail of the transaction. This is done to save our money to certain scammers or fake buyers or sellers in P2pespecially

I have several p2p on binance and all was smooth to be honest. but i hear also people like you have said that transfer lowering price and there is obvious scam also like didnt send any but said already send them.

I will give you a few trick to avoid

• make sure you pick seller with verfied seller, in binance there is some unverified seller
• transfer after they transferred to you, is must if you are using local bank
• if you have any problem don't hesitate to contact customer, because the platfrom want clean in p2p they will bannig scammer right away

- 6 Bitcoin Scams To Avoid When Using P2P (https://www.binance.com/en/blog/p2p/6-bitcoin-scams-to-avoid-when-using-p2p-421499824684902267)
- Binance P2P: Tips to Protect your Bitcoins and Avoid Scams (https://www.binance.com/en/blog/all/binance-p2p-tips-to-protect-your-bitcoins-and-avoid-scams-421499824684900709)
- Be careful of scammers on p2p exchanges (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5346670.msg57348843#msg57348843)

Trade with users have good trading record, good volume, good reputation. Avoid newbie and their good offers.

I get you correctly now. I do not joke when It comes to money, this has been one of the reasons I do not convert to fiat directly using bitcoin, I first convert bitcoin to USDT which is the stable coin with the highest p2p liquidity in my country, as I want to exchange the coin to fiat, I use calculator to manually calculate the amount I want to buy or sell and I make sure it is correct.

It can not be altered once the trade is opend already, but before the trade is opened, you can see changes in the price, but I noticed this on Binance only when I am using express and I think the reason is from Binance itself and not from the seller. But there h
have been sometimes I later do not convert bitcoin to fiat directly because I was thinking of manipulation. There was a day I noticed up to $6 difference that should have been a loss for me if supposing I did not manually calculate in USDT, I had to choose another buyer that time, not express but p2p this time.

Oh yes. But those non verified could have used fake identity or a remittance payment that is easy to dispose. He can claim back the scammed money cause binancr surely will reimbursed it but for sure binance could hardly get it if the person is really aiming to do a get away scheme.

There are some who raises prices which is totally far from the current range of prices. For sure some are gonna tempted for it but hesitant to do a transaction due to a possible scam.

This is not in control of the seller. The change of price depends on the price of the Bitcoin because most sellers choose floating price type which automatically adjust to the percentage seller set to the current of Bitcoin. There’s 2 option on P2P exchange to set buy price/sell price, It’s either fixed or floating type. The price of Bitcoin or tokens is just changing by the time you create order that’s why it keeps updating whenever you start creating your order.

The only scam on P2P is when you release your funds even the seller didn’t sent you the right amount.

But if you adhere to the established exchange rules, then even if something is not done as agreed, you have a 100% chance to get your money back. This applies to those exchanges that you write about, that is, proven exchanges that have a good reputation. That's why it's necessary to avoid shitty exchanges.

"How to Avoid P2P Crypto Scams and Fraud" - https://learn.bybit.com/bybit-p2p-guide/how-to-avoid-p2p-crypto-scams-fraud/

I wish the screenshots you posted in OP actually make sense and show different amounts because those two that are there now, don't.
It's of course essential that you pay attention to the amounts being traded. If you are supposed to receive $500 for your BTC, then that's the amount you have to receive. Releasing the coins for anything else is your own fault. It's the same as if you were to leave the store having only received $20 change, while you should have been given $50. Pay attention to your money.   

That's why it is important to always double check on the amount sent you if it corresponds with what you are expecting. And also, some merchant sometimes remove the add fees and send less. But, when dealing, I always ensure that I deal with a merchant who won't charge me for their add fees.

If the transaction happens into an exchange theres still assurance for the buyer afaik the seller's must need to submit a requirement before they can sell or buy to the p2p transaction and also that's the reason why theres a chatbox right there so they can transact and make an offer at the same time make an update with the transaction recent issue with this is the different name of the buyers information to the account they are using which is already a red flag most commonly this is the issue if you encounter the same don't transact this might have a change p2p issues.

The transaction is on an exchange, Binance to be precise and the last time I check the exchange already provide useful hints and guards to avoid people being a victim of the P2P trading scammer and only a greedy crypto trader can be their victim.
Meanwhile, there's a chance for the victim to get his/her coin by reporting the issue early.

Binance P2P has floating rate and fixed rate. It’s up to you. In floating rate, you can set everything as you want like % change etc. I don't see that as a problem ever, nor I have faced any on the platform though I don’t use the platform most often.

Not true. The price you set when you post an ad is the price you are going to buy/sell. You can't send lower amount than the amount shown on the image above posted by OP. If buyers send lower amount, you can appeal anytime.