Topic: My friend got arrested in a p2p scam (Read 858 times)

I’m not going to blame your friend for what happened, first he doesn't know who he was dealing with on the P2P exchange, so it's quite possible that anyone can fall into such problem.That is why I am always very careful with the people I deal with. Most of the people I have been buying and selling my cryptocurrency to are people that I know very well and I’m very sure of what they can do and what they cannot do.

I know a lot of P2P exchanges but I hardly make use of them,’ cause I have friends who are into Bitcoin trading and working as personal exchanges, so I usually do business with them. It’s really important to be careful when trading with anyone, because they can create problems for you.

This is the biggest problem for crypto.And we are really waiting for that time when our country will accept digital currency like Bitcoin,Litecoin and others.

For this crypto transections should be more secured and there should be no scammers.

The incident is very sad & disappointing. Now I'm feeling afraid to deal with P2P. Even that can happen to me. Anyone who is in such a situation will only understand how irritating it can be. However, from now on we have to deal with P2P very carefully.

There are different platforms that provide services of P2P (People 2 people). And big crypto community is using these service for exchanging crypto with cash and cash with crypto. When traders complete their transaction these service providing platforms charged a small fee. They are secure platforms and verifies users through their identity card. But they did not check that a user is involved in any illegal activity or not. That's why mostly traders face issues after making transactions.

Centralized exchange can be tracked by government in different ways and one of them is to make kyc a compulsory registration requirement to the exchange. But we can't stop such if we are cypto enthusiast as we may have it unavoidable for government who have ban bitcoin but a personal trading channel is not traceable. There are personal trading channels in our local environment.

Yeah, it seems currently P2P is serious threat for users in developing countries because they are not authorizing this crypto just because of this many users not able to use legal methods and platforms for this, and they faced these difficulties recently we also have few cases like this, but these was not much as like this hopefully now you and your friend will be use these very carefully even crypto is illegal in your country.

Second option is just tried to through few exchanges which allow your country for fiat because still we have few which are working but still need KYC because they also have few regulations which need to fill before doing any business from anywhere.

Every thing in this world is subject to being manipulated and exerted as a scam, and behold the financial system that banks are built upon, and unfortunaly for your friend he got the short end of the the stick, and probably this is all his fault probably he was trying to get some unreasonable deals that he went on to do a transaction with someone who does not have a reputation, and that is what you should be looking for with any p2p transaction because this guy is clearly have been exploiting this trick a lot of times.

There are major risks using central exchanges:

• They might block withdrawal
• They get hacked and your deposits are gone
• Their client database is hacked or a corrupt employee sells it. Then it's sold in the darknet to local criminals which knock on your door to get your coins
• your coins are trackable, so this is a privacy concern

So decentral peer to peer exchanges might be the better choice: Your keys, your bitcoin!

As always on where certain things becomes bad when theres something bad that do related into it and its normal for people to treat up the same thing or make it general which is really a very common
reaction or perception for most people so its not surprising but if we do really mind off about p2p then it isnt really a scam but only to those other users who are making those bullshitness
which do correlates with illegal transaction or on where those funds came from and to those who do able to engage or transact with it will definitely be having some problems
later on once get caught.

P2P Exchange is a lot of risk, where crypt is not legal. If the government wants to trap you in P2P, it can sue you for money laundering. They can easily catch you as a buyer or seller. Crypto is illegal in many countries of the world. But there will come a time when everyone will accept this crypto.

I use P2P but not face such type of problem. But we should all be careful. Because it has not been approved in our country yet, so the awareness is the only way. Thank you for sharing a new experience we didn't know before. However, I think that if use p2p with small amount of money then nothing will be happen.

In case the bitcoin being illegal in the country and investigation authorities showing leniency means the authorities did a good background check on the guy and didn't find anything suspicious with their activity since they're using an illegal resource.

but I'm curious did your friend gets to keep the money or it will be returned to the person who filed for the hacked transaction through their bank.

P2P is not bad as a whole but there are always some bad people due to which we assume that whole P2P market is bad.

I have traded many times on P2P and found many good persons too.

Beware of These P2P Scams

Below, we inform our users about common scams that happen during Bitcoin transactions such as P2P trading. We share this information in hopes that our users become wiser about the use of Bitcoin and trading platforms by avoiding these scenarios. Part of enhancing security for crypto is the task of boosting the security awareness for its users because ultimately, you have the most important role when it comes to keeping crypto secure.
Trade P2P Safely with Tips from the Pros

1. Romance Scams
The first of the three man-in-the-middle (MITM) scam scenarios we will feature, a romance scam preys on your emotions to distract you from a scammer’s true, nefarious motive. This may sound like something we will not fall for at first glance, but this scheme is more widespread than you think. In 2019, over 25,000 victims reported a total of $201 million in losses from romance scams, the second-most reported crime to the FBI that year, according to the U.S. Fair Trade Commission.

In this scenario, a scammer finds victims via dating apps like Tinder and forges online relationships with them, building trust over time. At one point, the scammer will manipulate the victim into helping him with his financial issues by sending some Bitcoin or other crypto. What the victim doesn’t know is that the scammer has provided the details of an unrelated crypto seller, who will then unknowingly send money from the victim to the scammer, thinking that it’s a typical crypto-to-cash transaction.

At this point, the scammer runs away with the money. The victim, realizing the scheme, will try to cancel the transaction and report the incident to the police, which will then proceed to reverse the transaction and punish the crypto seller without getting to the actual scammer.

How to Avoid: In P2P platforms with escrow services, like Binance P2P, this scenario can be prevented, as the seller and the buyer will know each other’s true details before proceeding with the transaction. However, this can be harder to combat if the scammer has manipulated you emotionally into believing everything he says. Ultimately, you should walk away from a financial transaction like this when things start to be a bit suspicious.

2. Investment Scams
If romance scams deal with emotions towards a fictitious “lover,” what drives this MITM scam scenario is an individual’s desire to quickly profit from an investment. Unfortunately, with the boom of crypto prices earlier this year, investment scams are on the rise. Between October 2020 and March 2021, the FTC received about 7,000 scam reports of this nature, 12x the figure a year ago, causing $80 million in losses.

In this scenario, a scammer finds victims who are looking for quick-profit Bitcoin investments and entices them with “guaranteed” gains that they should get into ASAP. It can involve fake apps and websites that pretend to show a person’s profits. At some point, the scammer will ask the victim to send money to his account, in exchange for the Bitcoin he earned. Unknown to the victim, the account is actually owned by a crypto seller unwittingly set up by the scammer to be the middle man in the scam. The victim sends the money to the crypto seller, who then unknowingly sends the Bitcoin to the scammer.

Similar to the previous scenario, after the scammer runs away with the money, the victim will report the incident to the police, who will then punish the crypto seller for a crime he did not commit.

How to Avoid: In this scenario, it is the responsibility of a person entering into an investment to verify if it is legitimate. The mentality here is that when something is too good to be true, it usually is, especially when it comes to money. On the crypto seller’s side, it pays to do due diligence on the people you transact with, which is made easier when it comes to platforms with identity verification practices like Binance P2P. Make sure the Binance name and Bank name are the same to avoid these issues.

3. Ecommerce Scams
This modified form of this MITM scheme involves e-commerce transactions on dubious platforms. As the adoption of Bitcoin as a global payment method is still underway, scammers can see an opportunity to entice unwitting victims with low prices on the things they want to buy.

For instance, a scammer finds a person who is looking to buy an item online. The scammer offers very low prices on that item to the victim, who then reaches out to inquire about the item. When the time comes for the victim to pay for the item, the scammer presents him with a crypto seller’s information, claiming that it’s his account. Once a victim pays for the item, the crypto seller then unknowingly sends crypto to the scammer on the other end. Once the scammer exits, the story ends badly for the victim and the crypto seller, as in previous scenarios.

How to Avoid: To add to the previous points raised in MITM schemes, we like to point out that there are legitimate payment options for buying items online using crypto, such as Binance Pay. Make sure the Binance name and Bank name are the same to avoid these issues.

4. Fake Receipt Scams
When doing P2P transactions online, it’s important to closely check the information being sent to you by your counterparty. Sometimes, scammers manipulate screenshots and other photos to claim that they have done their part of the deal and to pressure you into doing yours as well. Once you comply with a scammers’ pressure, without verifying yourself if you have indeed received the money he sent, you will end up losing money for nothing, and you will have a hard time correcting it.

How to Avoid: Always make sure to check your bank account or wallet to confirm that you indeed have received any money that’s supposed to come your way from a P2P transaction.

5. Chargeback Scams
Sometimes, a scammer can take advantage of the chargeback features on some payment platforms to defraud his counterparty in a P2P transaction. In other words, after a P2P deal is completed, this scammer will trigger this chargeback and claim the funds to cancel or reverse the initial payment he made. This happens especially if the seller rushes into approving the transaction without carefully checking that the money is already in his bank account or wallet.

How to Avoid: Make it a habit to keep screenshots of your transactions as proof that they were completed, to combat a scammer’s chargeback attempts, especially when contacting customer support about cases like this.

6. Wrong Transfer Scams
Sometimes, after a P2P transaction is completed, a scammer may pull off an attempt to void the transaction. This may involve calling his bank to cancel the transaction, claiming that the fund transfer is wrong or that his account was stolen. Once a seller loses his money this way, the scammer then scares the seller into not reporting the cancellation to the police, by saying that cryptocurrency is “illegal” or through some other claim.
I'm sure with this option here your friend might get involved in one of this action which is very bad.

Over the years I have used the p2p methods of withdrawing of Bitcoin and Etherium, it has been with the fear of something like this or similar. If we are patient and contented with what we have and what is ours, we won't fall into such event. Knowing very well what the actual price for exchanging is, why look for more profit? That moment when you know something is cost within the range of $20 - $22 for sale, and you see someone placing adverts at $35 above (for excess profit) or $3 below (loss of profit and almost all capital), then, you should be vigilant of such an advert. There is no businessman that wants to give out all of his profits for some sort of deal.
No matter how it is, the p2p system was made for a smooth transaction to take place with ease, giving room to byepass the restrictions made by the government of a particular country. It doesn't mean the scammers won't try to device some means of defrauding people, but if we play smart and use the available safe resources provided, we will see the beauty of it all.

Can you really trust anyone when doing peer to peer transaction with fiat involved, i highly doubt i will trust anyone like that unless it is a reputed person from this forum who is taking care of his account and has some successful trades. I did use other platforms purchasing cards and other things with cryptocurrency but i never tried to accept bank transfer from any strangers because it will end up creating issues if i am accepting funds from illegal sources.

I know about Binance P2P transactions and i want to know if anyone tried that and do they ask for mandatory KYC for everyone to make these transactions.

This is a very serious case and it can extend to another serious level if serious claim is found. We need to be careful about about running transactions out of the box cause this is how scammers used to accomplish there evil deed while the person involved will be unaware.
Although I have not had any problem with p2p exchange that requires kyc for one to run transaction.

I have always used P2P platforms to convert my crypto to fiat (and vice versa) and every now and then I face issues. Fortunately, so far I have avoided serious trouble, because I only sell my coins to the top buyers with good feedback. But this is not a 100% risk-free method. Recently a lot of accounts of inactive users are getting hacked and the criminals are using these accounts to do scams. So be careful when you deal with anyone new to you, even if he has good feedback and trust rating. Check his feedback score and see whether all of them are recent.

I also used binance Express P2P service which I feel is more secured and safe because I am sure binance must have scrutinized traders who engaged in buying and selling of coins, thus the issue of hacking wouldn't arises, of course once I placed a sell order on express it is binance that will match me with a credible buyer who must have a good feedback and reviews, I think the OP should advice his friend to utilize Binance Express P2P to avoid future occurrence, although KYC might be required which I think shouldn't be a problem as far as he freelances without fraud.

That's why it's always good to have KYC when it comes making transactions just to assure your safe from scammer.. Although your information is visible at least your safe and no matter what happen you have proof and identification as well everytime you make transactions with other people.
The sad thing with that freelancer is he used bitcoin for the transaction even though it's prohibited in his country. Wherein even he convinced that it was from the scammer he still have violation..

Damn, that reversal in transaction. That's why whenever I'm transacting online, I make sure that it won't from a p2p deal and if I do, it's from the exchanges.
I feel bad for your friend and as well you because you seem to be worried what if your friend started to talk about you to the police that you also own it.

That's the real concern during buying or selling Bitcoin peer to peer. Actually, it's not possible to determine bank transactions either it has been coming from any suspicious sources. The only way is a peer-to-peer deal should be done with a trusted person and we should get help from an experienced person. Of course, user ratings and feedback are something that we should notice before do peer to peer deals on any platform. I have seen many stories like your friends, they caught in the same way as well. Better if you can build a peer-to-peer network among your country and area with a few trusted people. That's what we have and I sell this way. So there are less chances to catch this way.

Rule number one is to look for users with more than 100 verified transaction and it is always better to look for sites that require full KYC, if not you will face issues like this and it is a big headache if it is large amount of money from hacked accounts. I went through similar situation in Paxful or similar platform which i do not remember exactly a few yeas back and the bank called me after a few weeks to inquire as part of an investigation about the transaction because i received money from an compromised account.  

Since i had a good reputation with the bank and local authorities, the matter is sorted with one phone call as part of that investigation when i explained them about how that transaction happened and that is a lesson i learned from my experience and i stopped dealing with strangers nor doing P2P transactions in paxful or LBC.

The online transaction like P2P was too risky and probably we are aware of that. I don't think if it is a need for a middleman but still, it never guarantees that a scam never happens as these scammers are too smart than most of us. That is why I'd never use P2P but instead, I used trusted exchanges. If that is only available at their place, I think that person never uses P2P but just because it was illegal in their place, it has become a big issue for the bank.

^ Any P2P will probably have a chance to freeze your money at the bank, at the very first beginning, OP said that BTC is strictly prohibited don their place, but why does Op still accept the offer as a trade. It is risky on your part and OP will be aught and the one who receives your BTC will fully anymous. There are too many factors that we must be careful always when the money that we deposit on our bank is connected to BTC activity, authorities will always have suspected if they will found out that your money was connected to BTC transaction. Nevertheless, p2p is good but it depend on how it will use.

Waw this is very surprising another experience again lot's of people are just out there after your money which is very bad. Seriously whenever am using P2P am always scared I believe there are lot's of scammers there but I believe it will be very nice if you can include the website name here so that everybody will be careful whenever they are using the website.

I think p2p transactions should be only made if you trust the other person. To transact like this with unknown, strange people it's too dangerous and it's not uncommon to end in a bad way. It would be better if your friend had used a middleman service at least to conduct this transaction safely. Also, someone dealing with crypto currency in a daily basis and sticking to it in order to earn a monthly income added to the fact your country doesn't accept bitcoin legally won't end well. Sooner or later your friend would face an issue with the local authorities for this reason. To move abroad to a bitcoin friendly country would be a good choice.

if talking about the scam that your friend has experienced until he goes to jail, I also a few days ago almost had the same problem but this hasn't happened yet.  During my time on Bitcointalk, I rarely used pm for personal matters and suddenly 1 notification appeared in pm from a newbie with the content "Please reply to my message quickly, this is important" and I ignored it because I didn't know him.  Two days later, another newbie pm me with the content "are you oHnK in the telegram with the username xxxx".  I was immediately shocked by the contents of the newbie pm because there were people who were impersonating.  I immediately replied, "it's not me, and if he asks for money or anything don't ever give it" then the newbie replied immediately "he borrowed money using your name, and will provide a guarantee in the form of a Bitcointalk oHnK account

Binance's p2p platform is trusted and has become the main p2p today compared to others.
I am using binance p2p since it was first launched. and i am also an official p2p trader on binance.
Binance is safer because it is required to apply KYC to conduct p2p transactions and if there is a problem with the transaction, everything will be resolved properly.

That is one possibility but on the other hand he could himself been a victim to the same scam.
We can never know that the money we receive from P2P transactions is coming from a genuine source or not.
In this case, it was difficult to determine that the incoming transaction was from a hacked account.
So I guess the same could have happened to anybody. It could have happened with the best of us.

Man,.. i know what happened as i have gone through this. I won't share my story as it might get me in trouble. But what i have learnt from that is that always trade with the person who has the same name on bank account and on the p2p trading site. Don't accept payment from third person on his behalf.

This is exactly what happened. Your friend accepted payment from 3rd person and sent the bitcoin/ether to the 1st person.
Your friend was made to believe that he is receiving payments from 3rd person and that 1st person and 3rd person are doing business and ur friend is just a transaction medium between them. So he has nothing to worry about.

Those parts were clear to me. What I'm asking is if the authorities filed another case against his friend after revealing the nature of the actual transaction since he claims that BTC is illegal. It appears that the friend was only charged with hacking.

The only detail that made me interested in checking further the story is the fact that your friend does not trust KYC and therefore did not have that chance to try the P2P feature on Binance. Of course, there are certain requirements that you need to ensure that you do before you will be allowed to sell or buy crypto but that is not the point, the point is he selected anonymity instead of KYC which is mandatory for legit businesses in our country. All our crypto related businesses require KYC and I am not breaking laws so no point going anonymous. Sorry for your friends loss, he better have a good defense counsel in case his case goes to court.

I do feel the same and I can feel the pain that guy must have went through because a few years ago I was struggling in life and I started freelancing work online. Trust me, people want your blood when they pay a few dollars so it's not easy earning money. After you somehow manage to earn this money there are retards who will cheat you in such brutal manner.

I hope your friend gets out of this problem Imran and help him find better buyers for bitcoins next time. You are part of the forum and you must be aware of some legit buyers and worth checking the local boards once.

I read the entire story and feel really bad for your friend. There are so many scammers who use hacked funds or carded funds to cheap innocent traders and to make matters worse, bitcoin is illegal in your friend's country.

To anyone reading this post, I have a simple solution for those who want to cash their Bitcoins without actually revealing their identity or getting scammed.

So, you make an account at PayPal and verify it normally.

Then you find a TRUSTED seller (be very careful, PayPal can be reversed) and sell them your Bitcoins

You get PayPal which can be easily withdrawn to bank accounts without any problems.

In the worst case, a chargeback is opened against you, then you won't get into legal problems at least because you can solve it within PayPal itself.

The moment when these transactions hit the Fiat system, where all the KYC regulations are required... you can run into trouble. The people who actually do the crime.. will look for ways to move those "dirty" bitcoins through platforms where they will not be detected. Your friend was part of that chain and he got burnt when he wanted to "cash out" through the Bank. 

We do not know if the bitcoins we receive or send, might be tainted.... so the moment when it goes through a platform where someone can be targeted.. then everything goes wrong very quickly. 

The funds he received were illegal or hacked transactions and then he had to provide all the details to the cyber officials which revealed that he sold BTC and selling/buying BTC is illegal in his nation. That's what I have understood so far from this case.

I had a friend who was called for a P2P deal in person for cash and then he was robbed and injured when he went to the place for the deal. And he can't even register a complaint against the person because he was someone unknown guy at LocalBitcoins and there was no proof that he was scammed. And if he tells police that he was robbed of cash, they would instead file a case against him for money laundering rather than catching the scammer.

damnn so th eproblem maybe is from p2p the man who gives the cash through the bank, why not using your account and do the transcation rather to choose p2p.

maybe this be one reason Binance upgrade their sytem and need to do KYC

The only big problem here is that your country prohibit the use of Crypto but other than that i think there is no really issue here instead your friend is very confident in dealing without assessing whom he is having a transaction.

you should not afraid of using p2p though if there is other option then just stay away in this kind of transaction .

It looks like the victim is going to experience way worse since Bitcoin is illegal in their country. If the scam is done differently, he could have been grateful even if his money is taken by this scammer as long as authorities are not involved here. This could lead to a thorough investigation that authorities might find out this isn't his first Bitcoin transaction.

Anyway, bailing out I guess is an option for him. Hope your friend will be able to work it out.

I feel for your friend where it's effed up in that situation and that he managed to be okay after all of that.

First of all, I think using a P2P service that doesn't have that kind of reputation of being safe, there's going to be trouble for sure. It's sad that he had problems with KYC in Binance but still did KYC on another service. It's kind of redundant that he had done KYC but saying that "He didn't want to provide KYC" to Binance.

I think that's the importance of having KYC in those P2P because you can check or verify whether it was from the actual sender. Checking if the name matches in the account in the exchange, just like in Binance.

I didn't experience any kind of problems in P2P because I'm exchanging with those highly verified and good completion rates in the platform.

I'm amazed people still ignore this and go and give advice on how to use p2p and avoid getting scammed, like that was the only problem!

You could avoid scammers, you could trade with an old account with a lot of good feedback just to realize that it was a honeypot operation and you were selling bitcoin to an undercover agent, and all those that left feedback can't erase it anymore cause they are sitting in jail awaiting trail!!!

Forget the scam, he used something deemed illegal by some moronic govern and he did with the help of a stranger, that's the real problem in this!


And when the trader with who he deals is caught because the banks are alerting the police a guy with no registered business is sending 10 wires a day to random people and they seize all the information from that bank guess whose name will be on one of those transactions?
Now I know why the police are able to seize that many coins and how so many people end up in court or jail, ignorance is truly bliss for some.

As of now, I also use the binance P2P services and not other p2p platforms. I feel more confident using this platform. For other p2p services, you don't know if their reviews or feedback are genuine. So you should really be very cautious transacting them as in this digital age, everyone can pull off a scheme as they don't care who they screwed, but the money that they can milk out.

this part that I considered extremely important:


if bitcoin is illegal in your country then you should be very careful because even in cases where you are a victim and present evidence that you have been robbed you can be arrested due to the fact that bitcoin is illegal in your country, your friends were lucky, i am not I know how far the laws in your country go, but I think it's still too early for your friend to feel safe because the government of your country can decide in court to punish your friend because he disobeyed the law when buying or negotiating bitcoin.

First time I know of a problem as mentioned by OP.
Binance has some recommendations to watch out for scammers, it might be worth taking a look and being cautious.
It's a shame the problem for P2P users where their bitcoin countries are banned.

I am a Binance P2P user in Venezuela and so far everything has gone very well with my exchanges and sometimes I usually trade with the same people.
The Binance system is safe for both parties, the problem is when the bank holds your money. I would have to dig deeper to find out how scams happen.

A few days ago I made two transfers to a Binance user to send money to Brazil and fortunately it was successful and I told myself that Binance P2P users are creating new forms of business and income and in addition to a crypto culture where our reputation is an endorsement to make an online deal like the one I did and other people often do.

So far i dont have any problems about P2P transactions and im currently using up Binance though which i dont have any problems even using up Express p2p and so far i dont have any problem with my Bank.
It is just your friend did really just end up on transacting with a scammer or hacker and this is why it isnt really just enough for you to stick on 100+ orders because everything could really be faked out.
Better to make some KYC in Binance and i wont really be tending nor planning to deal with other platforms aside on this one.

What an awful situation your friend find himself, see everything that has advantage also have disadvantage, people see p2p as one of the best decentralized way to trade crypto without kyc, imagine the massive situation, such kind of things cannot happen with centralized exchange. I feel sorry for the poor guy who is caught in the middle of this.

And to think that people say cryptocurrencies are unsafe... In this particular story, the flaw was on the bank's side, the scammer couldn't have pulled this off with crypto. But as I understand, in this case, the bank transfer was part of the deal and this couldn't have been done otherwise.

And I guess there are two sides to the same coin with KYC. On the one hand, you can choose options with no KYC and stay anonymous, on the other - be prepared for scammers like this one, that take advantage of it.

Well, it's quite tragic for your friend.
Even you can't be blamed for such a mistake because the situation was unaccounted for and the scammer using the Bank account of someone else to pay your friend and your friend sending him payment in BTC sucked.

I haven't used Binance P2P till now but on LocalBitcoins there's a trust system just like Bitcointalk has which indicates the trustworthiness of a trader who made their offer.

It's better to opt for trusted people rather than random strangers, the type of scam that was pulled off on your friend is quite normal in local places.

It's a fairly typical story and has happened thousands of times before. There is a reason that places like localbitcoins are so successful over a long time - because they allow you to see a long trading history of successful transactions. You don't have to rely on somebody who could turn around and scam you, which is easier to do because Bitcoin doesn't leave an easily recoverable amount. Unfortunately KYC is a requirement for most financial institutions who have a professional setup because it is one way to stop scammers and other criminals from operating. It sounds even worse in your friends case, because the money probably came from an innocent third party - so not only did your friend lose his money, but he received money stolen from someone else in return. Maybe next time he should stick with KYC or this will happen again.

This is what I was thinking actually. Why still hold cryptocurrency when it was indeed illegal in your country? Sure you can still do the p2p transactions, but when you get caught, don't expect any much of a defense because it is already written law in your country to not ever hold one.

It's a walk on a broken glass.

Well in the first place your friend already knows that it is illegal in your place but instead he accepts the deal. Your friend must tell the truth that it was a clean deal, show everything to lower the sentence will perhaps be possible because in the first place using bitcoin is already a mistake. It is a sad story that we must learn and not use crypto in a bank account, that is not safe at all. Even using crypto alone can be traced, how much more if also the banks involved that is a big problem. I think your friend must tell the truth to the authorities that he is not a scammer and he was a victim only here.

P2P is good, though you can't really be sure that the person you're dealing with is trusted. The first sign of scamming is if the rates are too good to be true, and far more generous compared to those established accounts who have been in the platform for quite some time now. Your friend should have known this, and you should have warned him of the possible effects of choosing the said buyer that offers such rates.

Or you should have helped him with just a small fee since you know your way around this. In any case, what's done is done, and that you guys learned your lessons. Even in transactions involving banks, scammers can still do their schemes—and it's easier for them, too—and you will even land in legal trouble if you don't know what to say in such circumstances.

Your friend must stop accepting physical cash transfer and use a reliable escrow services. I do escrow deals in a peer-peer group, and I put a limit to what I can escrow because my country is against crypto but want to launch her CBDC which is the height of hypocrisy. Using a reliable escrow is the best. I use binance for most of my bitcoin-cash transactions and histories are there.

This why it's always good to trade with an exchange that demand for KYC verification from their customers. Many do kick against this KYC stating it's bridging the anonymous nature of crypto currency but for the sake of cyber looters and scammers hiding their loots behind the blockchain network it's KYC should just be a necessity

Man, I never look at P2P that way, that kind of thing is really scary, being an unwilling accomplice to a crime that you have no idea have happened and it just so happens that you have the money moved to you, that's a scary one if you ask me. I think the platform doesn't force a KYC policy that's why OP's friend go there.

Use decentral exchanges (DEX) like bisq.network and deal only with signed accounts which have some months account age or with whom you dealt before. And better you do three trades with amount X instead of one trade with amount 3x. And accept the fiat payment only in case it's from the same person and account number as registered in the DEX. Otherwise return it immediately and don't release the coins.

Doing so you have no KYC and less risk to get involved into triangle scams where e.g.

A buys bitcoin from you for $ 500 and you give him your bank account number
A sells a washing machine at ebay to B for $500 and gives B your bank account number
B sends you $500 and you release the bitcoin
B then goes to bank and police because he never got the washing machine
Police comes to you because the first impression is you're the ebay fraudster
The outcome is you have $500 in bitcoin less, A has $500 in bitcoin more and for B it was just trouble but no money loss or gain.

But don't give up to get the bitcoin back from the fraudster. Check the "Bitcoin privacy score" of the scammers BTC address and if the score is low you have good chances to get the scammer traced to exchanges. If the score is high you need to be patient, usually it goes down over time when the scammer is doing more and more transactions.

That's why you shouldn't do any transaction with random people involving banks. I have heard many horror stories like this where criminals make you send them BTC and they send you cash. In the end, it turns out the money was from some illegal source. What happened over here is probably the seller was sending funds from a bank account that doesn't belong to him (elders are the victim over here in most of the cases) and the transaction was then reversed and reported by the original owner. Or it was the seller himself who reported that the transaction was unauthorized. If your friend explains everything to the cops, they should let him go. Aren't people from those p2p platforms verfied/KYCed?

Was your friend charged for transacting with BTC or was it just the hacking case? That part of your story wasn't clear to me. What kind of ban was issued in your country? Was it issued by your Central bank?

The friend could have made a deal with Imran to sell the BTC for him since he knows better and just need to pay a small service fee.

I feel too asocial for p2p exchanges, and I don't trust people enough, especially when it comes to dealing with finances. That's why I prefer centralized services that do the job for me, and I don't have to worry about meeting an unfair merchant. What is a big part of the problem your friend faces is Bitcoin being illegal in your country (sorry to hear that). Otherwise, it would have been just the risk of losing some money, but now it's the risk of losing some freedom if I understand correctly. I hope it works out, and your friend it cleared off scamming charges, but what kind of punishment is he facing for using Bitcoin?

I wouldn't say it's beyond their abilities, but even if we assume it is, it's false thought to go against the system just because you may not be checked by it.

If you've found a car with its door open and the keys left on the seat and ensure that no one will ever catch you, you become a criminal if you steal it; if some cops patrolled that moment they should arrest you. Same applies for this occasion. The guy used Bitcoin while its usage was illegal; whether he used a centralized exchange which would be quickly caught for doing or did it peer-to-peer, he's against the law.

When you ban cryptocurrencies, you aren't banning the way you'll send/receive them. You simply ban having them.

I'm sure that if some government decided to make Bitcoin illegal, they'd consider its original usage (p2p) illicit activity too.

your friend is a victim of a thing called a "chargeback scam"

this is where someone sends funds. gets the goods/services/coin. and then makes a fake claim that the funds were taken from their account without authorisation.

the account holder is the scammer. but is pretending he got hacked to get his refund

the scammer gets refunded and the victim gets accused of being a thief

Damn that's one terrifying case especially if you are new to crypto. But it's quite common in crypto. Scams like these have been going around since years.
We have to be very careful while dealing in crypto and especially when we are doing P2P transactions.
P2P is risky and can lead us to trouble just like your friend is in. It would have been better if he would have used some local exchange which supports their native currency.
You could have tried harder to find some way to get around KYC.
I think you and your friend don't need to worry here because you didn't do anything wrong.

It depends. Like in Nigeria, CBN ban cryptocurrencies but using P2P is beyond what they can ban, such ban should be from the legislative arm which would be signed by the president. So, we do not know how the ban is in their country. In Nigeria, we trade cryptocurrencies legally with a secondary school and a hotel even later accepted bitcoin for payment after the ban.

Even if cryptocurrencies are legal in their country, that will lead to loss. Assuming he used exchanges like Binance, it is possible for him to still be able to appeal that the money was sent from a scammer, but provided if the criminal has not withdrawn the Bitcoin. If they also make use of direct P2P, the transaction can not be reversed. So, it can still result to loss irrespective of Bitcoin legal or not in his country.

So far the name of the platform for the p2p is not mentioned, likely such platform are not recommended, and this is the risky/faulty part.

Sorry for your losses, but I'll have to agree with @NotFuzzyWarm here. Since it's illegal to use Bitcoin in your country and you do acknowledge that fact, no matter how much “liberation” you ensure with p2p trading, you're a criminal, because your country's government disagrees with what you do.

Whether that's against your ideal outlook or not, the arrestment is justified.

so your friend basically is the victim here but still got arrested for using BTC which the country declares it illegal. what a tragic situation. this is a very clever scammer. he probably target such user to make transaction with because he knew he is from a country that illegalized BTC.

p2p still needs kyc. you even provide bank details when using p2p platform.

The problem is that the use and any Bitcoin transactions are illegal. Maybe your friend was just caught with the authorities and that leads to an arrest for the said violation not because it was a P2P scam. Too sad but first we have to look into some instances that it will possibly be going to happen if we are not careful on this. That is very important to have some background check on the person we talk to online especially when it was new and most especially when it was illegal in our place. That is something we need to be aware of and this will happen to anyone, even at you OP. Well, I hope not.

you and your friends know bitcoin is illegal in your country still committing violations with bitcoin transactions, I think p2p is not a problem, only when the bank suspects that there is a large enough incoming fund, so the bank looks for info on the source of your funds, it could be that the bank is suspicious of your friend do money laundering,
My message is to avoid large and unnatural transactions if we don't have a real business such as a shop,

In the OP the poster wrote That, in a nutshell is the crux of his problem. Despite the fact that you and him know that is illegal in your country you still chose to use BTC and are now bemoaning the predictable results of your illegal activity?  

While I will agree that it is a shame that your government has declared crypto illegal, nonetheless you were knowingly breaking the law so no pity from here folks.

In P2P deals there is always risk of getting scammed.
If your money is too valuable for you then just complete the KYC in the exchange and get the money from the exchange itself.
Moreover if you are bound to do P2P deals, then find a trader who has a good reputation and offering normal deals.
I am praying that your friend will get justice soon.
And yes if possible keep us updated with the case.

You probably won't get arrested for your KYC getting rejected at least. The worst case is that the platform just never accepts your applications again.

I'm curious to know what are the names of the P2P sites you recommended to your friend. If I remember correctly, localbitcoins also cracked down with KYC recently as well, so I'm curious to know what P2P services people are using to exchange bitcoin for bank transfers these days.

If you read it, you would know that OP's friend doesn't want anything to do with KYC so he goes for P2P. This is a scary experience to be honest, I'm pretty impressed that you're friend's cool about all this thing and the arrest and interrogation, I would've pissed my pants if I was in that position.

Ok so the sender first send the money and once he got bitcoin, he calls to bank that this transaction is done by someone else and should be reverted . Not only this but bank thinks that the hacker is the one in whom account the money is sent to, so they arrest your friend. That's a sad story because you cannot file a case at binance too because nothing was wrong till the time of transaction.




Yeah, even if he gets save from the first case, he will be arrested for using bitcoin which is illegal. By the way can you tell me in which country this case happened ?

Well, I was always wary about P2P exactly because of this: some can too easy reverse even bank transfers and you will lose money and may even get into other troubles.
I guess that this kind of cases are rare, but they do happen now and then. Bitcoin being illegal in your country makes everything even worse.

@avikz list of rules is pretty good, but truth is, you can never be 100% certain (even feedback can be bought/faked, isn't it?)


But I am pretty wary/negative on this kind of stuff. The thing is that although you can never be certain/100% safe, people do use P2P successfully, hence the number of scams is probably not too big.

It's so sad to hear the story of your friend but I think he can show the evidence that he did a clean deal between that claimants he can show the message history between the deal and maybe it can help as his defense towards this case. I'm not expert in the law about this kind of incident so maybe they should get a good attorney to defend his case since its really unfortunate to get arrested by just doing a p2p transaction. And maybe this is a wake up call to anyone to not trust easily to any person you deal on internet.

There are certain thumb rules to deal in p2p trading websites. I have been using few p2p trading sites since last 3 years and by God's grace didn't have to face any issues. Let me list out the rules I follow,

1. Check the most recent feedbacks of the trader. See if any positive feedbacks are received in last 72 hours.
2. Now go to those people's account who has left a feedback to your preferred trader and see that they are genuine and has a good amount of trades registered in their name.
2. Check the negative feedbacks and their dates. If the negative feedbacks are recent, stay clear.
3. Never trade with newbie traders. It's a big no no.

If these thumb rules are followed, most likely we won't have to face any issue. It's sad that your friend had to face such issues for no mistakes at his end.

Yes sir you are right. We should always deal with good deals/feedback person. Here are the mistake what i have done that i didn't mention about the thing that which type of person he should deals what i forgot. And i thought he is freelancer and he can complete that deal easily. But i was wrong now i feels soo sad. And one more thing he didn't get his money back not from that p2p site and second the bank can't help im this case. The amount what is in hold in bank the amount will be return to the owners account. He lost $3k. Money dosen't a big thing but that case is a big thing. I feel so irresponsible.


Yeah i know and i mentioned him about that exchange but binance kyc was a pain for him.

And another thing if i mentioned him my dealer whom i deal then it will also be okay. But now what i can do the thing had occur which is a sadest part.

The sad truth is is that with bank transfers basically anyone can say 'my account was hacked' or that they didn't authorise the payment and the bank will probably take their word for it. Once the bitcoin has been sent then there's no way to recover it and that's the risk you take when you accept his sorts of payments so weigh up the risk when you're engaging in them.


I would be vary weary of anyone giving you a 'good deal' because they often end up the opposite like this case. You should stick to people with a long history of good deals/feedback and build up a rapport with a reputable one and stick to them rather than chancing it on others, but be aware many people can do a handful of smaller good deals to then scam at the first chance you trust them with a big amount. Check the Currency Exchange board here as there will be lots of reputable sellers.

My friend is a digital freelance marketer. He worked in marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork. He has been working for the last 3 years. He has some fixed clients who work without the marketplace because of marketplace fees. They work via skype and email. There was no problem recently. He got new clints through his personal website. And the Clints give him his payment through bitcoin and my friends approve it. Then he asked me to exchange it for cash.

I didn't have enough cash, otherwise I would have bought it. Thats why I suggested him some p2p services like Binance, Paxful, and local bitcoins, but he had a problem with KYC. He didn't want to provide KYC. That is why he can't use binance. Now I don't want to share the exact name, sorry for that, because I used that service but didn't fall into any problems. Though my friend knows how to use online sites, he tried his own account on a platform and did basic kyc. Though it has a limit, the limit is enough for him.

Now he is dealing with someone who gives a good return and is also our country's man. My friend fixed a deal with him and the deal will be a bank transaction. The scammer sent money to my friend and my friend got a deposit message from his bank.

Then my friend released bitcoin. Here is everything perfect. But the problem starts from now. After 5 hours in the afternoon, my friend goes to the bank to withdraw the cash because he needs it. The bank manager says the money is in hold because they got information from the sending branch of the bank that the account holder of the sender has filed a case about this transaction. This transaction is not made via the account holder. That means this has become a hacking case.

And after 1 hour, police came and arrested my friends for hacking. But my friends don't hack. After the introgression My friends tell them everything and show them proof, then they trust them. But my friend uses bitcoin and bitcoin is illegal in our country. He is a freelancer, and in our country, freelancers get priority from the government. Cyber experts got proof that he was taking payments in bitcoin because he had a problem with paypal. And the clints approach him. Then he was released on a bail basis. And cyber experts are now working on it and the case is running. 3 days ago, my friends came to me and shared everything. But the thing he didn't tell the police was that I suggested him about those sites and I also had btc. He understands that the site has no problems, but the scammers are bad people.

Now I feel worried about whether it is truly safe to use P2P. If we fall for such a kind of scam, Though I still didn't and I always verified and 100+ order completed people plus checked his review and 100% review gained people. And I want to know if you guys have any such experience on p2p? Please share your story.