P2P Scams : Where does the government stand

[UmerIdrees]

These days there are a lot of P2P scams on Binance and other platforms. The P2P platforms are not be blamed but the scammers are coming up with new ways to scam people who are new to the crypto world.

Recently Binance did a P2P scam awareness session with our local community which was very informative.

The recording can be watched here   https://www.binance.com/en/live/video?roomId=2138115

Now my question is that in my country, crypto is not legalized, so in case if anyone is scammed through P2P, we can't take up this matter in the legal court because the country does not recognize the transactions of crypto in the first place.

Does this gives a free hand to scammers as they know that they cannot be punished by a court of law  

[Eternad]

Now my question is that in my country, crypto is not legalized, so in case if anyone is scammed through P2P, we can't take up this matter in the legal court because the country does not recognize the transactions of crypto in the first place.

Does this gives a free hand to scammers as they know that they cannot be punished by the court of law  

If you are the crypto owner and you want to exchange it on fiat via P2P then I guess your assumption is correct since crypto doesn’t have any value on a government that is not legal. It’s same when you are selling illegal items and the counter party didn’t pay.

If you knew that you are dealing an item that is not legal on your country then you should protect it  by all means.

Also P2P on Binance has a dispute function. No one will  scammed if they will just check carefully.

[Nwada001]

Now my question is that in my country, crypto is not legalized, so in case if anyone is scammed through P2P, we can't take up this matter in the legal court because the country does not recognize the transactions of crypto in the first place.

The government don't have any hand in this kind of scam especially in countries where crypto is Banned because taking a case like this to the authorities will create a red flag for you to be apprehended both you and the scammers will be in trouble.

Another thing here again is that the scammer can Denny this kind of case in court since your P2P other don't have any form of legal backing which could be used as evidence to file a case against your scammer.

Now their is only few option left for anyone who is scammed on any P2P platform this option is either you report the trade even when it's concluded you can go to the trade history and report the trade to the support team which they might likely look into but their is no guarantee.

Or you can click on the name of the person and see if they have other active orders their in the forum that's if they bought from you and refuse to send money, you can check if they have active buy order in the market, if they do, place exactly scammed amount as an active order and click on paid, then allow the seller to go to appeal, from the appeal you can explain your situation to the agent assigned to the case which will make them lock/restrict you both transaction till the issue is fully resolved.

[Adbitco]

P2p isn't something new were user could quickly get scammed in that manner, if someone get scammed the only place to resolve the issues is from Binance immediately the person's account would automatically get locked or frozen then the scammer may not be able to withdraw his assets all less the funds is being refunded to the original owner.

What you should do is that since the country doesn't recognize such trade or even legalized cryptocurrency you don't have to take it law where by you take law into your hands. It will be ideal you avoid taking up the case into legal way rather report such to the exchange probably when next  funding his or her account all funds are automatically frozen.

[Baofeng]

These days there are a lot of P2P scams on Binance and other platforms. The P2P platforms are not be blamed but the scammers are coming up with new ways to scam people who are new to the crypto world.

Recently Binance did a P2P scam awareness session with our local community which was very informative.

The recording can be watched here   https://www.binance.com/en/live/video?roomId=2138115

Now my question is that in my country, crypto is not legalized, so in case if anyone is scammed through P2P, we can't take up this matter in the legal court because the country does not recognize the transactions of crypto in the first place.

Does this gives a free hand to scammers as they know that they cannot be punished by a court of law  

It's all over Binance now, I recently experience this P2P scams, but it's Bybit platform, here is the thread, {Babala}: Mag-ingat sa P2P trading.

I think the only one that can do something right now is the exchanges themselves, I don't think that the government can go after this scammers, I mean it will take a lot of time and effort to track all of them.

The best thing for us to do is to report it right away to the platform and the best effort is to suspend or removed the account and try to mark it so that they can't open another account with them.

[Potato Chips]

Now my question is that in my country, crypto is not legalized, so in case if anyone is scammed through P2P, we can't take up this matter in the legal court because the country does not recognize the transactions of crypto in the first place.

Does this gives a free hand to scammers as they know that they cannot be punished by a court of law  

If crypto is banned in your country like they don't want you trading. I think it has more to do with people burying themselves along if they try to report the scam.

I wouldn't say they cannot be punished provided that there's a law that fits. Scams are scams at the end of the day. For instance, if someone used bitcoin for a crime, it doesn't mean their action would be un-crime'd, right?

But finding the perp would be no easy feat (unless they're dum dums) since buying and selling of exchange accounts are rampant + most small time scammers get little to no attention from authorities.

[logfiles]

I have made hundreds, if not thousands of p2p trades but never at any one moment did a scammer take any money from me. Of course once in a while, you will get those people that will try to scam you but if you follow all the p2p trading rules to the book, they will not have a single chance even during the appealing process.

I think sometimes people are too relaxed with their money

Having crypto is like having cash in your house under your personal control. In most cases, even Police won't protect you. If the money is stolen or gets lost in your house. It's very rare police will help you recover it.

[virasog]

Recently Binance did a P2P scam awareness session with our local community which was very informative.

The recording can be watched here   https://www.binance.com/en/live/video?roomId=2138115

This recording is not in English so it may not be useful for many of us. Perhaps you can pinpoint important things which you learned from this session, and it will be helpful for all of us.

I have made hundreds, if not thousands of p2p trades but never at any one moment did a scammer take any money from me. Of course once in a while, you will get those people that will try to scam you but if you follow all the p2p trading rules to the book, they will not have a single chance even during the appealing process.

Since you have done many P2P successful transactions, you're experienced and therefore you may not get scammed easily but as far as i know there are many newbies who get scammed because of fake transaction screenshots or by third party transactions and so on. If you follow the process with due diligence, i am sure it will be hard for the scammers to scam us through P2P.

[bittraffic]

The government made crypto illegal. Thats where they stand.

Binance will always remind P2p traders every transaction but if they are going to be a victim still, it really is the fault of the user.  Its also a problem because they know any user engaing in crypto in the country can not bring the police in the situation because they'll be in trouble. A smart strategy for scammers to hunt crypto users in the country.

[SamReomo]

These days there are a lot of P2P scams on Binance and other platforms. The P2P platforms are not be blamed but the scammers are coming up with new ways to scam people who are new to the crypto world.

Recently Binance did a P2P scam awareness session with our local community which was very informative.

The recording can be watched here   https://www.binance.com/en/live/video?roomId=2138115

Now my question is that in my country, crypto is not legalized, so in case if anyone is scammed through P2P, we can't take up this matter in the legal court because the country does not recognize the transactions of crypto in the first place.

Does this gives a free hand to scammers as they know that they cannot be punished by a court of law  

I have heard about such scams that were taking place on Binance platform. It's a common practice for some scammer to loot money from innocent users who would like to exchange their crypto with fiat local currency where they live. The scammers are doing editing works to share fake screenshots to innocent users and the innocent user releases the crypto without any confirmation.

The court and law won't be helpful in such cases because if a country and its justice system hasn't considered a thing legal in this case crypto-currencies than why would they even punish someone who's doing such transactions that the government warns its citizens to not do. They whole thing is on a persons own shoulders in such cases and the scammers know this thing, that's why they are doing such scams.

Only hope in such cases is the platform where users are doing such p2p transactions. In this case only Binance has the power to punish the scammers who are misusing their services for looting the money out of innocent users. But, I have seen that the ones who post their ads for either buying or selling crypto on the exchange are mostly favored by Binance platform.

I recommend everyone who trades using p2p to first check the past trades of a dealer and if a dealer has done more than 200 trades in the month and 99% of the trades went positive then you should trade with such dealers. Otherwise the dealers whose trades are mostly negative then a user should avoid trading with such kind of dealers because if ratio of negative trades is high then it's risky to trade with such dealers.

[yhiaali3]

The same here in my country, since crypto is illegal and there are no regulations, the responsibility lies entirely with you in case you get scammed when doing P2P.

On the contrary, you may be subject to legal accountability by the authorities for why you make this type of illegal financial transfer. So you have to be very careful and take the risk at your own risk because you cannot file a fraud complaint with the government in such cases.

The best thing is to use only P2P Binance or trusted exchanges.

[zasad@]

P2P is better not to use if you receive money on your bank card and do not declare income.
You may get a transfer of the money that was stolen and your police will question you and your accounts will be blocked by the bank. Scammers have accounts registered to other people, which are called "droops". Send money to your bank card only through verified exchangers that have been operating for a long time and will not send you criminal money. But you still need to open an account with another bank.

[UmerIdrees]

P2P is better not to use if you receive money on your bank card and do not declare income.
You may get a transfer of the money that was stolen and your police will question you and your accounts will be blocked by the bank. Scammers have accounts registered to other people, which are called "droops". Send money to your bank card only through verified exchangers that have been operating for a long time and will not send you criminal money. But you still need to open an account with another bank.

This is only true in regions where the crypto is legal or at least there is no objection to doing crypto transactions. Many countries do not have the privilege of depositing and withdrawing crypto using debit/credit cards. They have only option and that is P2P to convert their money from fiat to crypto and vice versa.

The same here in my country, since crypto is illegal and there are no regulations, the responsibility lies entirely with you in case you get scammed when doing P2P.

And if you ever happened to take your case to a court of law, they will first not only take your case but at the same time make you guilty of using the cryptocurrencies against the rule of law. The only way to remain safe in this situation is to make P2P transactions cautiously so that no one can scam you.

[Bureau]

In my country (India) our police cyber cell is way proactive than any cyber crime unit globally. If they find such a scam they not only freeze the account of P2P vendor and the user but all other accounts where the vendor has made payments in the past.

Thus freezing the accounts of those who are innocent and had zero clue about the scam. Then their is a hectic process of trying to unfreeze the account that involves visiting to the police station. Almost every cop in our country doesn't have a clue about crypto or will act like one.

The solution is to have a bank account dedicated for only cryptocurrency transaction. Always transact with verified vendors. Do check the feedback and rating and never fall for u realistic buy and sell price.

Overall to avoid any such issues in the future it would be wise to setup and entity in a crypto friendly country. Do all crypto to fiat and fiat to crypto transaction in that country. Then send your profits through wire transfer to your home country.

[joniboini]

And if you ever happened to take your case to a court of law, they will first not only take your case but at the same time make you guilty of using the cryptocurrencies against the rule of law. The only way to remain safe in this situation is to make P2P transactions cautiously so that no one can scam you.

Does your country explicitly state that trading crypto is illegal, or crypto is not allowed as a means of payment (like how fiat works)? If it is the latter, I think you won't get jailed as long as the government is not doing something behind the scenes. If it is the former then prevention is definitely the only way to protect yourself. Relying on somebody else is not a good idea, to begin with.

Overall to avoid any such issues in the future it would be wise to setup and entity in a crypto friendly country. Do all crypto to fiat and fiat to crypto transaction in that country. Then send your profits through wire transfer to your home country.

I don't think it is feasible for the average user to open a new bank account overseas. Not to mention it doesn't solve anything if they use a platform that doesn't support any dispute system, a multi-sig/escrow to prevent scams, etc. CMIIW.

[TravelMug]

The government made crypto illegal. Thats where they stand.

Binance will always remind P2p traders every transaction but if they are going to be a victim still, it really is the fault of the user.  Its also a problem because they know any user engaing in crypto in the country can not bring the police in the situation because they'll be in trouble. A smart strategy for scammers to hunt crypto users in the country.

I will only assumed that the OP is living wherein it's in the gray area, neither illegal because Binance was able to thrive and at the same time government are still in the middle as far as far as their support or not of crypto.

So everything lies on our end, we need to be very careful on who we deal with in their P2P platform. And Binance are not short of giving reminders though when you try to used their services. So the bulk of it all depends on us, we can see who can we deal with, in terms of trading volume, and then the reviews that being left by the sellers themselves.

[Helena Yu]

@OP I think if you're reporting P2P scam in legal court, both of you and the scammer will get punishment. So it's not a good choice because even if you win, you're still need to accept the punishment since you're using Bitcoin in illegal country. So my advice you should let the money if you get scammed, rather than following a complicate laws and stay in jail for a year.

I will only assumed that the OP is living wherein it's in the gray area, neither illegal because Binance was able to thrive and at the same time government are still in the middle as far as far as their support or not of crypto.

Incorrect,

China has permanently ban Bitcoin, but Binance employees' are helping their users to bypass Bitcoin ban in Chin., so there's a chance the Binance employee help users to trade in illegal countries.

[zasad@]

P2P is better not to use if you receive money on your bank card and do not declare income.
You may get a transfer of the money that was stolen and your police will question you and your accounts will be blocked by the bank. Scammers have accounts registered to other people, which are called "droops". Send money to your bank card only through verified exchangers that have been operating for a long time and will not send you criminal money. But you still need to open an account with another bank.

This is only true in regions where the crypto is legal or at least there is no objection to doing crypto transactions. Many countries do not have the privilege of depositing and withdrawing crypto using debit/credit cards. They have only option and that is P2P to convert their money from fiat to crypto and vice versa.

In Russia, for example, such exchanges will quickly lead to the blocking of a bank account. On average, 7-8 thousand dollars per month of operations on a bank card and the account is blocked.
It is difficult to use banks for arbitrage in many countries, because there are a lot of problems with blocking, and stablecoins can be used for storage.
I would try to use the European and American services that are on the website https://www.bestchange.com/
for purchase only. If you are blocked there, then there will be no problems in your own country. You can buy cryptocurrencies in small amounts of 300-500 dollars.

[Mpamaegbu]

~snipped~

People who trade on Binance do so because of the trade volume there. No one wants to be delayed getting their order filled. That level of traffic also attracts scammers. That's the reality. However, there's something everyone can do to reduce the level of scam attempts they encounter. My method of sieving through the murky water of scam has always helped me and that's simply never to be in a rush. Once it comes to financial transactions, I take my time to attend to it. I'm never in a hurry. That haste is where the mistake comes in. Scammers know that and they utilize it on their victims. Once someone is trying to hurry you up in a transaction, don't fall for it. Again, don't take the bait of high buying offer or low selling offer. If it's too good to be true, then it's a scam lurking. Another is to check the number of deals executed by traders before you patronize them. Read the feedback on traders also, that's very important.

[dansus021]

I would say yes if the country doesn't recognize the Crypyto or the p2p marketplace as legal companies or entities. There is nothing much you can do. But you can still probably make a report to the police but when the p2p is from overseas the gov help you is near zero