No matter the pressure don't release

[The Cryptovator]

I am not sure about other exchanges, but Binance P2P always reminds you not to release funds unless you get confirmation from your bank. So this is a very important part when you are trading p2p. Faking payment proof is pretty simple; anyone can edit it. Usually I don't trust them, and very rarely have I been trading without verified merchants. I never release funds unless I get confirmation from the bank. It doesn't matter how hurryy the buyer is. A lot of scammers take advantage of fake proof. But we need to learn how to avoid such a situation.

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[SamReomo]

This type of delay can happen with the payments because sometimes banks may not be 100% functional on holidays and in some countries during the festivals. In such times the users should have to be patient until they receive they payment and they should not blame each other for anything. You both were smart enough to involve customer support of the exchange in your issue because none of you were responsible for it as it was issue from bank side.

Such things can take place in P2P trades but if the seller is aware of such issues then he/she could handle them easily because sometimes buyers aren't much knowledgeable about such issues and if the seller doesn't involve customer support then such cases can destroy someone's reputation because even after receiving the payments some buyers tend to leave negative feedback which isn't good for the sellers or you can say for merchants.

[KingsDen]

Anyone that is using P2P in the centralised exchange should be very careful dealing with other parties. Besides, such as changes as binance it is always on notice that customers especially the one releasing the coin not release until they had received their money in bank account. If the buyer have shown evidence that they have made payment and you that is the seller have shown evidence that no money has dropped into your account, the exchange customer care can not pressure you to release the coin. They always give such a note and they will support you to hold the coin until everything is resolved. It is fine that your own case went fine, and nobody was scammed. Anyone make deals in the cryptocurrency industry should be smart.

[BitcoinPanther]

It is always a practice to check if the payment went through and credited to you bank.  It is always been reminded  that before releasing our cryptocurrency, we should always verify and do not trust if they sent a screenshot showing they already sent the amount, it can be photoshopped.  I had an experience when I am selling Bitcoin and encounter a buyer that aim to scam me.  He sent a screenshot of the money being sent and even got a sms message that I received the amount.

I got suspicious because the message is not from the usual number that sent me notification whenever I received an amount, plus the amount is not credited to my account yet  so I send him the screenshot of the balance of my account and told him that it was not credited yet.  He canceled the trade when I told him that the number that notified me was different from the usual number that notify me whenever I received the amount.  

If I was careless and get easily fooled by the scheme of the scammer I could have sent my BTC without being paid.  Scammers are always looking for ways to fool its target so we better double to triple check everything before releasing our bitcoin when selling through P2P.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Even right in those p2p on CEX, there are just some scammers trying to cheat and sometimes succeed, because after you release your asset and the mark as paid, the agreement is finally successful and it will be very difficult to resolve the complaint to the exchange because they too specifically warn traders "Never release an asset until you have confirmed payment." I almost made the mistake of releasing the asset because the buyer marked it paid while he has not yet made payment. Sometimes, after you have received payment, make sure that you cross-check the amount because some can shortpay you without your notice, and if you're not smart enough, you can just release the asset to them.

[Learn Bitcoin]

Anyone that is using P2P in the centralised exchange should be very careful dealing with other parties. Besides, such as changes as binance it is always on notice that customers especially the one releasing the coin not release until they had received their money in bank account. If the buyer have shown evidence that they have made payment and you that is the seller have shown evidence that no money has dropped into your account, the exchange customer care can not pressure you to release the coin. They always give such a note and they will support you to hold the coin until everything is resolved. It is fine that your own case went fine, and nobody was scammed. Anyone make deals in the cryptocurrency industry should be smart.

Binance asks not to contact counterparties outside of the platform. I have seen some buyers/sellers ask other parties to contact via telegram / WhatsApp or phone in case of emergency. Unfortunately, I still use centralized exchanges and do not use my banks to receive my payments. Scammers attempted a couple of times by sending fake messages using masking SMS services, but I was lucky to constantly check my balance before releasing the funds. Even the scammer tried to scare me, saying he would report to Binance and they would block my account. But the opposite happened. The scammer was banned from their platform.

[NeuroticFish]

When you link your bank account with exchanges, banks know the money comes from our crypto transactions.

And while most do care (even too much!), afaik some few others don't. If I'm not wrong (I no longer know for sure, I think N26 was one of them), using those would be an useful direction, if available.
Another good practice can be to not use the same bank for the day job income and for crypto trades.

What I mean by getting payment in different payment methods is that if there are any Bitcoin ATMs, utilize them. Almost every country has some kind of payment method like Cashapp, Perfect Money or others.

Most of those come with extra costs some simply don't want to pay. Plus, lately Bitcoin ATMs ask more and more for ID. So your advise can easily become a trap.


My point overall was that in an ideal world we would be using Bitcoin without any interaction with fiat. In this imperfect world.. everybody has to find his way, just it's best if one makes sure he's careful and knows the pluses and minuses for the choices he makes.

[mvdheuvel1983]

Beginners should never make mistakes to release no matter how long it takes for them to receive payment.
 Hold on till everything is settled from both sides.

It is only people who don't pay attention to detail or those who are easily distracted that will click on release funds when they haven't received the funds. But I have heard about cases where this silly mistake was made and was resolved within 7 days after complain was filed and investigations was conducted by the CEX. Then what happened after the issue was resolved was that the individual's account was restricted. I don't know why but it happened. I didn't follow up with it to know if he was still able to sell his coins through that exchange again.

[Mayor of ogba]

When you open a P2P trading section the first thing you will see is never to release your funds if you have not received your money in your bank account, and even at the time you want to release it, there is also another statement if you received full payment or part payment.

The reason why these rules are made is to guide customers from losing their money to scammers because scammers have gone far in sending fake transfers during P2P trading, and their victims will receive payment messages from their bank, and the payment will also reflect in their total money in their bank account. When this happens the person selling will release his asset thinking that the buyer has made the payment because the exact amount of payment message was sent to the person by his bank, before the person could notice is a fake transfer he/she has already released the asset to the scammer.

Please when trading on P2P trade make sure you make use of your "bank APP" to be able to identify a fake transfer sent to you by a scammer, and never release your asset if you haven't seen your payment in your bank account through your bank APP.

[Outhue]

If you are a newbie in crypto space, you need to be guide on how to go with p2p transactions on exchanges, not all crypto exchanges give good guidance, I do like how binance do it's thing but still, Binance isn't a real peer to peer crypto exchange, since you will be asked to pass your KYC information, I don't like the idea but there aren't too many good p2p services online this days, most are centralized in disguise.

No one should have a problem with transacting online unless they don't follow the rules, I've never lost money on any p2p platform except for Paxful, they have bad customer service and their network sucks, I heard from a friend that they have improved, it's been several years that I used that platform last.

The most important tricks that people play online with P2P trades is wasting your time, making you lose your patience, or sending you fake alert, before you release crypto for anyone, make sure you log into your bank account and make sure they paid the expected fund before clicking on fund received or you will lose your money, p2p trades requires your patient.

[DubemIfedigbo001]

It is very common sometimes when we trade on exchange p2p payment delays,  these delay can be from the buyer's bank or seller bank's.  Many people have lose their money due to this delay of bank network thinking that the problem of the delay is from the network of bank which they will later get their money when the network of their bank becomes good and they go ahead to release the payment because of  evidence of payment that the other trader have sent to show as proof.

I had trade to sell bitcoin in an exchange and I was matched with a buyer, so after he did the bank transaction I was waiting to get bank alert and the amount of money in my account Balance.  We both complained to the exchange customer service to help how to go about the issue and the buyer was asked to submit his statement of account which he did,  he brought evidence of payment that made it looks as if the delay of payment that have not reached me was from me. With every I was still not ready to release the payment it reflect in my account,  this issue last about more than 30 hrs abd and the following day I sent him a message to contact his bank the delay which he said he did.

It wasn't up to 10 minutes after he contacted his bank I received the payment in my account.  If I had release the payment because of the pressure of customer service in the exchange,  the money wouldn't have gotten to me, which the buyer will be nowhere to find to make complains to his bank . Beginners should never make mistakes to release no matter how long it takes for them to receive payment.  Hold on till everything is settled from both sides.

I like this piece, it shouldn't be released until your cash is confirmed, because your coins would possibly never be returned and the buyer may cut off all communications when the coins have been released.
I'm thinking the guy didn't send the cash initially, until he saw your resistance to pressure and he went back and did the actual transfer of funds. Fraud is everywhere and we need every ounce of caution.
Well done once again and thanks for sharing

[Ever-young]

Bank network issue has been among the things which make many lose money not only in P2P trade but in other means of exchanging goods for cash which the buyer uses transfer payment option.

Base on the experience which I have had from crypto and other online sort of transactions, I have not been a victims to only transfer scam but I don’t need to wait to be one before I learn from it, so what anytime I want to do some P2P transaction is that I wait no matter the time that the buyer takes to pay or the time it takes to arrive I make use I wait and see that the money have dropped in my account, and I only don’t stop their.

I also make sure that I will transfer some of those money from that account I used to receive it to my other account making sure that the money I receive is not same as the buyer sent it in my account, and ones I have received it from my other account then I am be sure that the payment is not fake and I can move ahead in releasing the coin over to the buyer as I have now been convinced enough that the payment was throughly made and no form of scam detected.

[knowngunman]

He definitely didn’t pay the first time, he just came up with a fake transaction receipt, if OP had actually copied the transaction ID on the re receipt and contacted his bank with that information they would have told you that the transaction didn’t exist then. This case are very common on centralized exchanges so do not believe any documents sent to you with the fake promise that is bank error not allowing the transaction to reflect on your account. It is easier this days to get a fake transaction receipt of any bank

You're too judgemental in this case. It might be truth that he paid and the problem was from either banks due to network glitch. I'm talking from experience because it has happened to me as well just last month. Although mine was not in P2P exchange but it was a similar case. I sent money from one of my bank account to another different bank and it was successful while I was not credited in the receiving bank. At first, I thought it was network issue and I gave it some hours but unfortunately I still didn't receive it after 10hrs passed. I had to reach out to receiving bank for complain since the transaction was successful from the bank I sent from. I was told to wait for 24hrs and if I still didn't receive it after that, I should let them know.

To cut the long story short, I called back after 24hrs elapsed and I was requested to provide the transaction details which I did. The issue was forwarded to their technical support for checks and I received a response that "Dear Customer, sincere apologies for the delayed inward transfer issue, transaction can not be found, kindly reconfirm the transaction details from your bank." I was like ahhhh so this money has gone just like that? No, I contact the bank I initiated the transaction from and update them on what is happening and they confirmed to me that the transaction was successful from their end and if the receiving bank insisted it wasn't successful, I should request for a statement of account so they can check.

As instructed, I requested for account statement and sent it to the bank I sent the money from for checks. I don't know how they both do about it but I received the money after 14 days from the date of initial transaction. The transaction took place on the 25th of August while I reviewed the money on the 7th of September.

If it has to do with another person and I, I would have also assume the person didn't send it in the first place. Some time the problem is from banks actually. I will have to post about this in my local board as well for discussion.

[Issa56]

I like this piece, it shouldn't be released until your cash is confirmed, because your coins would possibly never be returned and the buyer may cut off all communications when the coins have been released.
I'm thinking the guy didn't send the cash initially, until he saw your resistance to pressure and he went back and did the actual transfer of funds. Fraud is everywhere and we need every ounce of caution.
Well done once again and thanks for sharing

Some people do end up releasing the coin even before they receive money, due to the pressure they receive from the buyer to release the coin. Whenever I notice that a buyer is pressurizing me to release the coin, I always think something is wrong. A real merchant won't disturb you if you tell them you haven't received an alert. Most of them have been in the business for a long time, and they know how frustrating bank networks are sometimes, so if I tell them you haven't received an alert, they will tell you to give it time if you are going to receive it.

Mostly, I notice that newbies are the ones that are mostly scammed, some merchant won't even send the money, they will claim that the money have been sent, and they will start pressuring the seller to release the coin. Since the seller is a newbie and might be scared if he does not release the coin, he might be reported and his account might be compromised. The seller might just end up releasing the coin, hoping it's bank network and money will be receive later, and immediately after the coin has been released, there is nothing that can be done about that again. Scammers are always using this strategy to scam people using P2P, and they are always targeting newbies that can easily be threatened.

[letteredhub]

I am not sure about other exchanges, but Binance P2P always reminds you not to release funds unless you get confirmation from your bank. So this is a very important part when you are trading p2p. Faking payment proof is pretty simple; anyone can edit it. Usually I don't trust them, and very rarely have I been trading without verified merchants. I never release funds unless I get confirmation from the bank. It doesn't matter how hurryy the buyer is. A lot of scammers take advantage of fake proof. But we need to learn how to avoid such a situation.

Sometimes what causes the delay in receiving confirmation alert from our bank is the means we use to receive our credit/debit alerts. If you're getting your alert through a SMS from the bank you'll usually experience much delays compared to someone that using the bank mobile app. It's faster receiving alert with mobile app than through SMS.

Also, it's risky confirming your alert only through bank SMS alert, because it's easy for scammers in p2p trading to use the means to scam . They can edit it all and screenshot send it to you claiming a receipt on their own end from the transfer they sent you. Always p2p traders should always ask for bank mobile app receipt in such scenario, and also hold your ground on receiving alert  through a mobile app.
Stick to trading p2p with traders that have trading reputation of 90% upwards in an exchanger.  Just as a way to avoid funny craps.

[Broadanbig]

I am not sure about other exchanges, but Binance P2P always reminds you not to release funds unless you get confirmation from your bank. So this is a very important part when you are trading p2p. Faking payment proof is pretty simple; anyone can edit it. Usually I don't trust them, and very rarely have I been trading without verified merchants. I never release funds unless I get confirmation from the bank. It doesn't matter how hurryy the buyer is. A lot of scammers take advantage of fake proof. But we need to learn how to avoid such a situation.

Binance do pop a reminder when ever one wants to trade using a p2p platform on binance exchange which is very good. At least there would be some level of security consciousness when trading p2p. Most people are always in a hurry to just deal and go without watching to see for themselves how the deal goes and at the entire end they find out the buyer has the potential of being a scammer after and in some cases they have lost their asset to the buyer as a result of impatience.

What I do advise people is that when trading on p2p platform, do well to ensure you receive your trade alert before you release your asset. If possible to do a transaction for confirmation, you can also try that by transferring funds to other bank account to see for yourself if the transaction is real or not.

[Fiatless]

Thanks OP for bringing this topic, I recently made a p2p transaction where the buyer was supposed to pay me a certain amount in naira, let’s say N562,000 and instead he sent N56,200 to my account. I wasn’t sure if it was planned or an error on his part, so I contacted him. He later made a balance payment through another bank account. This made me very suspicious, I believe this is a tactic scammers now use to trick OTC traders, they send an amount that looks like what they are suppose to pay, and tell the seller they have paid. Close inspection will show that the figures do not match, like OP said “don’t let the pressure get to you”, make sure you have the agreed amount in your account before releasing the coins.

You were able to dictate this scam because you paid attention to details. I assume that he intended to make you think you have received the correct amount which will make you release the coin. Getting back your funds after you have dictated the error would become a big problem. Thank you for this information. Another method of scam is fake alert. These scammers will use software to construct a bank alert that is similar to your bank. If you are not patient enough to scrutinize the alert you might be pushed to release the coin. An easy means of distracting this scam is to check your bank account balance after the transaction before sending the coin.

Bitcoin should eliminate the need for exchanges too. Bitcoin is best for going to the shop (physically) and pay for some goods you will take home with yourself. Best would be if fiat would be completely off this equation. But it's not.

Now, what you mean by getting your payment different? Best would be face to face, in cash. But we also know that this has issues, from the fact the one who may want to trade with you is probably 1000s of miles away to the fact that face to face money operations face at least the risks of robbery and counterfeit.

And.. yeah, this means we "are back to" exchanges and banks and all the hassle with the (lack of) privacy. And yes, this also means we're using Bitcoin in the wrong way. Sadly. Is there a better option today (apart of moving to El Salvador)? I doubt it..

I have suffered so many problems with bank transactions and when I saw Bitcoin, I was pleased that these network issues and delays have come to an end. Sadly, I still have to face a more complicated process for me to exchange my coins. I am still foreseeing a time when I will work in a shop and pay with bitcoin without any restrictions. This can be accomplished by the spread bitcoin education and adoption. I have considered meeting with people face to face in public places but this is not also good for privacy. I just hope that a better means of P2P trading will be devised very soon.

[Y3shot]

Another method of scam is fake alert. These scammers will use software to construct a bank alert that is similar to your bank. If you are not patient enough to scrutinize the alert you might be pushed to release the coin. An easy means of distracting this scam is to check your bank account balance after the transaction before sending the coin.

That is why when one receives an alert it is also needed for the payment to be confirmed by logging into the bank app to see if the money has entered into the bank account or just a mere alert. People do fake alert and it is very common, confirming payment with just alert can be very risky because scamners knows their way in making fake alerts. When dealing with an exchange people needs to be extremely careful because this scamners are always looking for way to scam people.

[Mr.right85]

It wasn't up to 10 minutes after he contacted his bank I received the payment in my account.  If I had release the payment because of the pressure of customer service in the exchange,  the money wouldn't have gotten to me, which the buyer will be nowhere to find to make complains to his bank . Beginners should never make mistakes to release no matter how long it takes for them to receive payment.  Hold on till everything is settled from both sides.

I have faced this issue many times while tracing on an exchange and I would say the best part to this is, most exchanges do give you both the leverage of time to try and resolve yourself and only come in when it seems to be taking too long. Which would require a statement of account and not history of transaction (note the difference).

It’s always a bad idea to release payment before you confirm a credit alert for the value on your bank and device with sender’s details and accurate amount. When these are not in other as stated in sales description, you can go ahead to dispute.

Always understand that, it’s neither your faults and you are the only one telling the absolute truth as, you never can tell what the other party to the transaction is capable of.
In cases of delays, you are at the most risk as bitcoin isn’t reversible and in a p2p trade involving an exchange, it’s locked to even you. Once released, it’s gone and sealed.
In the case of fiat banks, transactions not delivered could be reversed. Don’t fall victim of releasing before you confirm deposit. Confirmation is a vital part of the process.

[Chilwell]

Thanks OP for bringing this topic, I recently made a p2p transaction where the buyer was supposed to pay me a certain amount in naira, let’s say N562,000 and instead he sent N56,200 to my account. I wasn’t sure if it was planned or an error on his part, so I contacted him. He later made a balance payment through another bank account.

This seem suspicions because transact of ₦562000 and sending ₦56200 and have clicked the payment bottom, definitely it like a scammer, before someone can transact, one need to check his account balance before making any transaction, if really is claiming that the balance he has is not up to the amount then why his he sending similar figure and said it was a mistake, and ordered to release. If there is any issue he/she should had chat the seller that this what is going on, if this is done we will say it is a mistake but in this regard I will say it looks like scamming just he/she was not opportune. This will serve as lesson for everyone because almost everybody using p2p has face one or two challenges but we just have to keep learning everyday to avoid small mistake.