Stay Away from F2F trades if you are from Delhi or nearby!

[pakhitheboss]

I am not an advocate of P2P trade nor I think F2F selling should be encouraged. Recently the news of ED arresting a few F2F traders has proven that a lot of money through cryptocurrency trade is suspected to be money laundering.

I have not used any of these ways to sell or buy my cryptocurrencies but it is something that is new to me and as suspected by me it is against my loyalty to the Indian constitution.

An article published by ET came to my feed while I was reading threads on reddit. The thread was indeed deep but didn't explain or I must say created confusion to my understanding about F2F pay. The mods have been sleeping as there is a lot of propoganda about shit coin on the sub. I know the owner of that sub will not come up now as he has already banned me.

Coming back to the topic and the title, which makes me undt how bad can F2F become for someone not knowing. Please read this article to avoid getting arrested.
 
Source

[Bitcoin Smith]

F2F aka face to face trading exists in all over India especially since government imposed 30% capital gains on crypto assets just to evade these which doesn't mean it's money laundering until they prove the source of the funds are coming from illicit activities whether it's ED or IT. But it's not recommended cause mostly it is going to put ourselves in these kinds of situation sooner or later.

I just want to share my experience as well, many people approached me for f2f trading from LBC when it was operating now in Paxful and they are  even tempted me with over 20% price from market price that makes it obvious that these are not just tax evaders but involved in some kind of illegal stuff which I avoided completely.

[Bureau]

P2P is common in India after all it is kind a ways to prevent the tax burden. After rampant bank account freeze due to P2P trade these crypto traders have now started using F2F trade. Revealing identity just for the sake of getting good rates doesn't always help as sometime a trader might be dealing with a criminal. Reading the article does give that hint that how much risk is involved when doing a F2F trading.

[pawanjain]

F2F aka face to face trading exists in all over India especially since government imposed 30% capital gains on crypto assets just to evade these which doesn't mean it's money laundering until they prove the source of the funds are coming from illicit activities whether it's ED or IT. But it's not recommended cause mostly it is going to put ourselves in these kinds of situation sooner or later.

I just want to share my experience as well, many people approached me for f2f trading from LBC when it was operating now in Paxful and they are  even tempted me with over 20% price from market price that makes it obvious that these are not just tax evaders but involved in some kind of illegal stuff which I avoided completely.

20% off from market price ? That's interesting. Why would somebody do that ?
One thing I can make out of this is if a person has obtained bitcoins from illegal source like scamming or hacking or something.
What else could be the reason for someone offering a 20% discount ?

[avikz]

Guys, read the article. It's not a simple F2F transaction. The scale of the scam is much much bigger, around 3000 crore INR. So it's a much complex situation than a simple F2F trade. The problem here is that a lot of people are willing to not disclose their crypto transactions to the tax authorities so that they can save on 30% tax mandate. So the F2F or P2P crypto transactions are on the rise.

If we are staying at the right side of the law and disclosing the details in our tax forms, I don't think we need to worry at all. I always keep on saying that doing your taxes diligently will save you from a lot of future hassles. In India, it's better to pay up than to get an income tax notice. 

[kentrolla]

What do P2P traders do? How will they make profit when their profit margin is lesser than tax implied, why would trader want to lose out money ? These are the affect of tax and I don't think ED can even control this as this practice is spread across. I think they can fix this only through removing the draconian tax which has pushed people to take such steps.

[Parvati_j]

P2P is common in India after all it is kind a ways to prevent the tax burden. After rampant bank account freeze due to P2P trade these crypto traders have now started using F2F trade. Revealing identity just for the sake of getting good rates doesn't always help as sometime a trader might be dealing with a criminal. Reading the article does give that hint that how much risk is involved when doing a F2F trading.

Certainly, we should be careful with the kind of person we leak information to that we have anything to do with crypto. Most of these F2F trader could be cyber criminals. And when you see rates that are too good to be true, your instincts should tell you, except you are too blinded by greed to to accept thinking you're making more profit but unknown to you that you might be implicating yourself by just associating yourself with them. When it comes to crypto I prefer to keep my identity private and anonymous for security reasons. Even your closest friend could snitch on you.

[pakhitheboss]

Certainly, we should be careful with the kind of person we leak information to that we have anything to do with crypto. Most of these F2F trader could be cyber criminals. And when you see rates that are too good to be true, your instincts should tell you, except you are too blinded by greed to to accept thinking you're making more profit but unknown to you that you might be implicating yourself by just associating yourself with them. When it comes to crypto I prefer to keep my identity private and anonymous for security reasons. Even your closest friend could snitch on you.

P2P transactions from all international exchanges have been a pain in the wrong area. The next option these scammers, black to white, money launder came up with F2F and they got royally fucked. This is the truth, which means following the routine, that is liquidating crypto to INR on a local exchange. I fear we would see some more constipation when anyone is trying to get fiat without getting detected by the government of India.

[pawanjain]

Certainly, we should be careful with the kind of person we leak information to that we have anything to do with crypto. Most of these F2F trader could be cyber criminals. And when you see rates that are too good to be true, your instincts should tell you, except you are too blinded by greed to to accept thinking you're making more profit but unknown to you that you might be implicating yourself by just associating yourself with them. When it comes to crypto I prefer to keep my identity private and anonymous for security reasons. Even your closest friend could snitch on you.

P2P transactions from all international exchanges have been a pain in the wrong area. The next option these scammers, black to white, money launder came up with F2F and they got royally fucked. This is the truth, which means following the routine, that is liquidating crypto to INR on a local exchange. I fear we would see some more constipation when anyone is trying to get fiat without getting detected by the government of India.

It's a pain in the back to liquidate. Transactions of low value are still not an issue as we can rely on P2P transactions.
But what if you want to exchange a huge amount let's say 10 lakhs or more. Paying 30% i.e. 3 lakhs is a pain in itself and using P2P or F2F is a risky trade in itself.
We need to have some kind of Indian crypto circle of trusted members in order to solve this issue and who are willing to buy when we want to sell.
This is the only way out of it but you know how difficult it could be to create such a circle from scratch.

[Parvati_j]

It's a pain in the back to liquidate. Transactions of low value are still not an issue as we can rely on P2P transactions.
But what if you want to exchange a huge amount let's say 10 lakhs or more. Paying 30% i.e. 3 lakhs is a pain in itself and using P2P or F2F is a risky trade in itself.
We need to have some kind of Indian crypto circle of trusted members in order to solve this issue and who are willing to buy when we want to sell.
This is the only way out of it but you know how difficult it could be to create such a circle from scratch.

Certainly this is a good idea but as you have stated, creating such association at first may seem a bit difficult. As trust issues would be problem at first and aside that, just as you have said we'll be having more persons trying to sell off their coins so the ratio to sell and buy would be unbalanced. I fear if this is ever going to work, as some persons don't have any other thing that can generate money for them outside this forum. I think sticking to p2p or F2F is the only way forward for now but we should be careful who we make transactions with. And be sure not to expose your wallet address too much, or you can make use of mixers to, keep your transaction anonymous from you main wallet address, so its untraceable to your main wallet.

[pawanjain]

It's a pain in the back to liquidate. Transactions of low value are still not an issue as we can rely on P2P transactions.
But what if you want to exchange a huge amount let's say 10 lakhs or more. Paying 30% i.e. 3 lakhs is a pain in itself and using P2P or F2F is a risky trade in itself.
We need to have some kind of Indian crypto circle of trusted members in order to solve this issue and who are willing to buy when we want to sell.
This is the only way out of it but you know how difficult it could be to create such a circle from scratch.

Certainly this is a good idea but as you have stated, creating such association at first may seem a bit difficult. As trust issues would be problem at first and aside that, just as you have said we'll be having more persons trying to sell off their coins so the ratio to sell and buy would be unbalanced. I fear if this is ever going to work, as some persons don't have any other thing that can generate money for them outside this forum. I think sticking to p2p or F2F is the only way forward for now but we should be careful who we make transactions with. And be sure not to expose your wallet address too much, or you can make use of mixers to, keep your transaction anonymous from you main wallet address, so its untraceable to your main wallet.

F2F might sound like a good option but my major concern about is the legitimacy of the currency note.
What if you make a deal in lakhs and get the cash and then later you find out that the currency notes are fake.
Raising a police complaint will put yourself at risk because firstly you are evading taxes and secondly you are holding fake currency notes.

[Parvati_j]

F2F might sound like a good option but my major concern about is the legitimacy of the currency note.
What if you make a deal in lakhs and get the cash and then later you find out that the currency notes are fake.
Raising a police complaint will put yourself at risk because firstly you are evading taxes and secondly you are holding fake currency notes.

You're on point. Having considered how easy one can get scammed off F2F transaction, it's better off to pay the taxes or have a trusted dealer to trade with. There are still reputable and honest traders out there, we just have to find them, maybe by connection from friends but as we do so, it's important you know who you leak information to about trading F2F, not until you get snitched on before you realise some persons you call your friend are actually back stabbers.

[pakhitheboss]

F2F might sound like a good option but my major concern about is the legitimacy of the currency note.
What if you make a deal in lakhs and get the cash and then later you find out that the currency notes are fake.
Raising a police complaint will put yourself at risk because firstly you are evading taxes and secondly you are holding fake currency notes.

You're on point. Having considered how easy one can get scammed off F2F transaction, it's better off to pay the taxes or have a trusted dealer to trade with. There are still reputable and honest traders out there, we just have to find them, maybe by connection from friends but as we do so, it's important you know who you leak information to about trading F2F, not until you get snitched on before you realise some persons you call your friend are actually back stabbers.

The reason why everyone within the Indian cryptocurrency community is trying to avoid the tax is because they are unrealistic. They as in the government never thought what will happen in the real world. They got a suggestion from the bureaucracy and these fools implemented it as it will increase their revenue.

Coming back to 2024 they used tactics to solve the TDS problem by getting popular cryptocurrency exchanges FIU compliant. Then they got the P2P market infested with scammers. I cannot prove it but it is what it is, sudden infestation of scammers surrounding P2P transactions is questionable. Don't you think it? In the end the solution was F2F and we now know where it is now heading.

Stay away from any kind of trade except Indian exchange trading. This is the only solution for the problem everyone is facing in the Indian community.