Topic: Something dangerous we do when using Binance P2P platform (Read 485 times)

Back then when crypto was banned in my country, I used p2p platforms (I usually sell) and it's my assumption they shared the phone number with the buyers, after receiving the payment, if I had not confirmed the payment on time I'd receive a text or phone (in rare cases) from the buyer to confirm the payment.

Never have I received phishing or anything scammy, it probably depends but this is my experience.

One thing about Binance P2P service is you can't get scammed, I have been scammed using a p2p website before and the customer services don't helps instead they supported the criminal that I was paid with, since that day I was scared to use any P2P services, until I started using Binance exchange, the way they handle transactions is very well planned.

If you don't worry about privacy I don't think there is another exchange that's better than binance exchange peer to peer service, I have used Luno and Kucoin in the past too but the feel of security is not like Binance, it's true that Binance is centralized, but securing my transaction is what they do really well.

About what OP is talking about, not all those who asked for phone numbers plan to take advantage of you, they want your number to alert you to release fund when you get your money credited to your account, have none of you on a single transaction for over 24hours? Especially when there is a network issue with your banks, so I don't really think it's wrong, but this is a matter of choice, you are free to say no to submitting your numbers.

That's the good thing with binance p2p, if you have complaints, you can easily file as they have buttons to report your tx.
And if you happen to use their p2p services, it means, you agree with the terms and conditions attached to it.
This is why if you have privacy issues, then, don't use this type of trading. However, it is hard to find trustworthy p2p services these days.
You can't avoid such privacy concern because it is hard to send funds to someone if you don't know their name and acct number, if you opt to send it to your bank account for instance.

You have attached a screenshot of one of the P2P merchants who have achieved a 99.9% positive rating and have received more than 3,000 reviews. This indicates that this P2P merchant has a high reputation and integrity, and it is unlikely that he is a scammer who wants to collect phone numbers to send phishing messages, as you mentioned. If he did such behavior, Binance would freeze his assets and ban his account. I expect that he placed this condition in his advertisement to confirm with the buyer and verify his identity.

You can search for another advertisement for another P2P merchant who did not mention this condition or use any other phone number that is not your primary number. It is also possible for one of the untrusted and low-rated merchants to create a SIM swap scam for the customer’s phone number, but if the customer is active on his phone, he will notice and recognize this type of scam. But of course, I do not like anyone to disclose their personal information and privacy, whether with phone numbers or the like, and the matter gets worse if it's in a country where laws prohibit crypto, and I generally do not prefer centralized exchange platforms.

In most transactions that do not take into account privacy aspects, there are many assumptions that can be said to be completely avoided. But this is one of the most important crises that crypto users suffer from in most countries of the world, including countries that adopt Bitcoin. People will prefer peer-to-peer transactions to avoid taxes and preserve privacy as much as possible.
One of the dangers of a system like Binance Peer-to-Peer is that it represents a record of all the user's financial activities, and this record cannot be erased except by closing the account permanently. This system does not take into account any privacy aspect.

If you don't want someone know your phone then you should avoid making trade with that person where providing phone number is a must or mandatory so that person will pay or release the funds. If you don't have a choice for example then when you receive a text with a link then you shouldn't open it no matter what happens and also be careful. It's not always safe to open links as scammers create new scam attempts and that's why there are many ways that they have used already.

I am not seeing any problem with the P2P service Binance providing even though you can not see your buyers or sellers name or identity. If the seller doesn't want to release the funds after you make the payments then appeal to the exchange with proof they will take a look at it and if your data is correct they will hand over the funds to you not to the seller. So I think it's simple and secure to use this kind of service on an exchange like binance.

When Binance started their P2P, I can still remember there was a future where you could see your buy’s and seller’s numbers when they started P2P in my country, but all of a sudden I couldn't see the future anymore, all what you can do is just to message each other, but you could no longer access each other’s phone number. But I am sure Binance did that just for security purposes. I am sure they were receiving some complaints, which is why they decided to disable the future. But to be honest, the future was also helpful, but maybe people were misusing it.
 
I'm sure scammers will definitely want to take advantage of it, which is why Binance decided to stop it. Maybe sometimes buyers are always pressuring sellers to release coins even if they haven’t made payment, which is why they decided to remove the futures, and I'm sure there are other illegal activities that they will be using it for.

I think I would agree with you in this particular aspect. When making payment, definitely one would make payment with buyer and seller account names revealed which one can easily trace them from. P2P can only be okay when it comes to the buyer and seller location from different places for which they have no contact but their names revealed which means their identity been revealed. This alone tells that p2p have some privacy violation too.

Literally, we can't expect complete anonymity from the other party since we have to share the payment mode with the other party even if the exchange is non-KYC so one who wants complete anonymity can choose the Face to face trade with complete stranger or go with other payment modes which doesn't expose your details like name, contact info etc.

I think converting Bitcoin or crypto currency to fiat currency always involves some privacy violation. And especially if it is in this kind of P2P service. However, the method you have adopted may work in some cases. If there is a way to use such a separate SIM for these transactions, it may be possible to protect some privacy.
If I talk about my country, if P2P trading is done there using mobile banking then mobile number must be given. A few days ago, during a P2P transaction, a buyer asked for my mobile number, but the banking system I was using to do the P2P transaction doesn't need a mobile number.  I also reported it as suspicious and asked him to contract for my Telegram ID.  I think it is better to avoid such traders

Whilst trading on Binance, the exchange locks the funds and you can only release the coins if you agree that you have received the money and everything went smooth, thus Binance is a third party in the trade and they can confiscate your funds, so it isn't really peer to peer. However, if you make a personal mistake of releasing funds without verifying if you've received payment, then it is on you.
I really do not get what you mean by "privacy policy" here, but mind you that there is really zero privacy when you trade with centralized exchanges.

In my country, the only way to perform transactions through Binance P2P is by using PostePay service which is a service provided by national poste in form of payment cards without the need to connect them to your other accounts. Those cards are only issued with your phone number which will be used later to receive funds into your card. It means that it is a mast to show your phone number (used to issue the card) in order to receive funds.
And because i care a lot for my privacy, the phone number i use with my card isn't an active number and different from the number i use in my binance account or other accounts. Unfortunately we have no other ways in my country as we have no access for international payment cards.

You are right, we don't know who we are dealing with, but the best practice is to make a deal with a dealer, who has got some trust, and has many trades already done (high completion rate). And just to clarify, I don't receive funds on my banks, i receive them on my phone number, which means, my phone number is automatically exposed to the dealer, who is going to send me money. But till now I did not receive any mail. But again, I got the idea to read policies from your topic.
I have not used express p2p yet, I am planning to, but don't know how that works, so I will look into it. Thanks for reminding me of this features.

Binance P2P also provides more warning messages for trading so that you don't get cheated by any counter party or third party. All these cautionary rules must be followed while trading on Binance P2P otherwise you will definitely get scammed. When making a transaction in your account, Binance P2p must give you a warning message about whether the money has reached the account and then a message to release your dollars. However, in order to trade on Binance P2P, users must have a privacy policy.

Thanks for the information  mate but anyone who is a frequent  user of p2p on exchanges  like binance or paxful already knows that they aren't supposed to trade outside of the platform as trades outside the exchanges aren't guaranteed and nothing will be done by the exchanges in case of casualties.
Just as op already stated that one of the reasons for this act of demanding for phone number by vendors is simply to be able to remind sellers after the money is been paid to them as sime sellers cab be crazy at times but there is absolutely no need to drop number if you're sure you'll  be active to seal the deal from your end.

OP your right about that. Most persons ignore the text there and drop their phone number. I feel that the intention of most traders a re fair some only needed to get your number incase you delay to release the asset or you have network issue then they will communicate with you to know the next step. Why some needed the phone number for bad reasons like scam or text you links that will lead to a place where they can scam someone. I have seen cases where during a trade the other person would call and pressure the next person to release crypto that he has send the payment when it is a lie. To stay safe and avoid all this is to be sure of receiving a payment before releasing crypto no matter the pressure. It is more best if you check the transaction history of the said buyer/seller to see if he had good reputation during the numbers of trade he has done. Once i see a low reputation I do not bother to trade anymore.

Lesson; we should not rush to place our order but rather take time to read and review to avoid missing the warning. Though I haven't experienced this yet but probably someday.

Usually, I check these things - rate, number of trades, status of the buyer (online/offline). I send a message after placing the order and waiting for their reply, if none, then the last option is to wait time is over and the transaction is canceled. I refrain from sending any alternative payment option nor sending my number. The platform is just a tool and it was not the problem but the seller/buyer itself that is why we should take extra caution. In fact, there is a warning to read...and we don't have to skip them.

OP, your observations are very correct. I have clicked on trades of that nature my few pay here trying to using the p2p platform on binance and I encountered buyers with that condition. I do not bother engaging much with them as I already know their intentions. And at the entire end they still pay without still requesting for my number.

Newbies are always the victim of these nefarious act buy hackers. Once their clients or seller drops phone number, they start sending phishing link to them and most of the newbies fall for such scam. Sometimes they call you to make trade offer which they do with ill intentions of scamming you because they already know you are a newbie in the system and as such do not have clues on how things works and if you are the desperate type, you can easily fall for their scam without you knowing they are not for real and you can not complain to binance irrespective of the fact that you gave them your number on their p2p platform as they already caution users of the p2p platform to trade safely.

Nevertheless, newbies should be able to read the terms and conditions like terms of service so as to be on the safe side. No buyer should coherse anybody to drop their number so as to facilitate their trade. Do not believe them as they are jackers and scammers as it is against binance policy. There are other buyers on the platform, if any buyer gives such conditions, skip the to another and do not bother about them. Trade wisely.

Don't trade with this merchant or if you must don't drop your phone number to them, not a big fan of Binance exchange (centralized exchange) but I'm sure there's a reason Binance Exchange removing the phone number features on their CEX P2P platform because of I can remember correctly, they had those there before. If you received your funds and are fast to confirm on the platform there'll be no need for communication outside Binance. Scammers can use your number for various scam like sending you messages pretending to be your bank or Binance saying you have received your deposit and asking you to confirm. They could also send you malicious links and hack your exchange account or other sites relating to cryptocurrency.

There are many marchant available so when you don't feel comfortable with one you can move on to another marchant by asking the previous marchant to cancel the trade or you allow the trade to cancel on its own. If your phone numbers get into the hands of wrong people they can cause you harm online or physically. Don't exchange contact with strangers that you meet online because you don't know what they might use that information to do. They can also clone your number and use them in scamming that'll point back to you without having any idea and yet you pay for the crime if you don't have a strong counter defends.