As with all investments, there is also a risk when buying and selling cryptocurrency. In this article, we will share some tips on how to protect yourself from fraud.
Before you start selling or buying cryptocurrency, it's better to get familiar with the environment by joining your local crypto community and knowing the local merchants on Binance. In our Binance groups on Telegram, you can ask questions to the community, learn about crypto trading, and get news about the latest, legitimate news from Binance. Meanwhile, in our Binance Support page, you can learn about the steps in doing transactions on Binance, get help from our Customer Service team, and more.
Common scams you should watch out for
If you are new to cryptocurrency, some ill-intentioned users may try to take advantage of you, just as they do with other kinds of investments. These are some of the most common types:
Identity fraud
Also known as triangulation fraud, it's a scam where your trading counterparty uses a third-party’s payment account for transactions. He or she pays you with the other's account before you release the crypto. Some may send you new payment account information through chat messages and ask you to transfer the money to that account. After you transfer the money, they will claim they do not receive the money and thus not sending you the crypto.
The best way to avoid this situation is to verify the user's identity. Before you start the transaction, make sure that the payment account details correspond to the person's identity. DO NOT transfer the money or release the crypto if the payment account is not the buyers’ or sellers’.
Reversible payment
Another common scam is the reversible payment. In such cases, a buyer first transfers the money to your bank account to make you release the crypto. Within 72 hours, the buyer calls the bank and tells them that he has not made the purchase, so the bank will cancel the payment, causing you a loss in crypto.
An easy way to protect yourself against reversible payment is to ask the buyer to send you a photo of the transfer record as proof of his or her purchase before releasing crypto. The user cannot claim that he or she did not make the payment.
What does Binance P2P do to protect your assets from scams?
Identity Verification
Before you can start trading on Binance P2P, you need to complete identity verification, also known as KYC (Know Your Customer). KYC assures that users trade with their authentic identities, and Binance reserves the right to investigate.
Escrow Service
In all P2P trades, Binance provides crypto escrow service to secure users’ crypto assets. When an ad is posted the amount of crypto for the ad is automatically reserved from the seller's fiat wallet. This means that if the seller runs away with your money and does not release your crypto, or forget to release your crypto on time, our customer support can release the crypto from the reserved funds in the seller’s wallet to your wallet.
Customer Support
When you have an issue during a P2P trade and cannot reach an agreement with your counterparty, you can ask our customer support team for help. Our customer support team will contact the users through email to investigate and handle the disputes.
You can also file appeals to report suspicious users and protect other users. If you believe that your trading counterparty is trying to scam you, make an appeal, and share your evidence, our team will take care of the dispute.
If a user tries to convince you to make a deal out of the Binance P2P platform, ignore the suggestion and open an appeal. If you trade outside the platform, we cannot protect you.
If you find this content useful and you would like to know more about security, don't miss out on our other security articles, such as #StaySAFU: 5 Security Tips From The Pros.
