How To Avoid P2P Scams In Pakistan

Peer to peer trading is one the most famous ways of buying BTC in Pakistan. However, we can’t avoid the fact that it comes with a risk. Even though the exchanges use escrow systems and try very hard to prevent these but still scammers can always find a way. The scams mostly happen because of Human errors and your own faults, let’s discuss some things we can avoid to prevent these scams from happening. The most important thing to do is to know how a scam works. Scams usually involve a lot of persuasion and persuasion tactics. So when you are in a transaction, make sure you evaluate the deal from all angles. Let’s discuss the possible p2p scams and their prevention in Pakistan.

1. Never ever discuss details or anything to the peers outside of the exchanges’ chat boxes.
2. Always send the payments on the account details that are provided by users on the P2P exchange or that the user provided you via the chat box in your trading screen. Also, its better to make sure that the name of person is same as on their accounts.
3. If you’re buying, try to send money with account details that you mentioned on the respected exchange.
4. If the seller gives you any incentive like “I will provide you with more amount of Crypto if you deal with me via WhatsApp” etc.  Avoid them, because when you deal outside the exchange, the seller’s crypto is not at hold with the escrow system. They will run with your money. Vice-versa for buyers.
5. If the seller shares some website, where you have to put your credentials in order to verify the payment, avoid that. It might be a phising attack to steal your credentials.
6. Always Always mark your transaction as completed when you have sent money to the seller’s account. Different sites have different buttons for this. Like paxful provide you with a “Paid” button. When you pay the seller, you can click on that button, so your transaction will be marked as paid and the site will keep the BTC of seller locked even if he receives the payment late due to banking issues. But don’t do it to scam, because sellers can show their bank statement to un-hold their BTC, but your account will surely get flagged as scammer.

We’ll keep on expanding the list as we find other ways to avoid scams.