P2P Trading Scams: How to Take Care
We recently announced the introduction of P2P market inside your Telegram @wallet
Having recently announced the new P2P Market in the Telegram @Wallet bot, we thought it would be a good idea to take a look at many scams, and how to avoid them, where possible. This contains exclusive information from the @Wallet team.
First a short recap: P2P means “Peer to Peer”, or, think of it in this case, as “Person to Person” trading or swapping. So, you are swapping TON for “fiat” currency, USD, EUR, for example, or vice versa.
If you understand how P2P markets work, you can skip to the P2P Scam section further down this page.
A P2P market exists generally on “central exchanges” such as Crypto Bot, or OKX, which act as a third party to facilitate the exchange, and provide some level of protection.
In the case of @Wallet bot, the TON-Telegram team behind the service, provide a new P2P market feature as above described, with some safeguards: any Telegram accounts with verified phone numbers, or without suspicious activity, can participate.
The seller of TON (it could also be BTC but we’re not going to cover BTC in this article on P2P scams) has the TON frozen by @Wallet if their offer is accepted by a buyer. The buyer then sends payment to the seller’s bank account or whatever payment method they have offered, and presses a button to notify the seller that they have sent them payment.
The seller then checks their payment account to make sure that they have really received the exact funds required for the sale, and if so, they press a button on their side to tell @Wallet that they have received payment, and @Wallet unfreezes the crypto and releases it to the buyer.
This is why a seller should never confirm receipt, and never be pressured by messages from the buyer convincing them to do so, unless they have really received the money.
In the case of @Wallet P2P market, buyers who cancel payments after the seller has accepted, are penalized by a lowering of their rating. Sellers, currently are not penalized, for example if they are not watchful and do not monitor incoming orders, which can be annoying for buyers who will just wait while the seller is fast asleep, until the time to accept expires.
However, @Wallet will introduce more features to improve the system as time goes on, Crypto Bot still has many more features, although in a text-only command bot, unlike @Wallet which makes use of Telegram Web App “GUI”.
P2P Scams
Here is a list of many of the scams used by those cheating and tricking P2P traders, and how to avoid them where possible. This list will apply specifically to TON and not BTC which is more risky in some cases, due to the longer time it takes for a BTC transaction to appear.
As a general advice and important tip, always look at the trader’s profile before you buy or sell to them: you will see how many successful trades (swaps) they have made, and also their percentage success rate (%).
If you want to play safe, always go for higher scores and as close to 100% success rate as possible, even if the price is not best. Be wary of those selling below the trade price, as people generally don’t like to make a loss, this is a sign of a potential scam. Also be aware of those with extremely high prices, this is also a trick to play on greed and confusion.
1. The Pressure Scam
Here the scammer will pressure you with messages sent through the bot. Never fall for emotional blackmail or any form of pressure, take your time. Think clearly. Do not rush. Look at what you are doing, and never press any buttons in a hurry. This should be a simple swap, nothing complicated requiring lots of messages. If you have any doubts, click on the Contact Support button to message @Wallet support, they’ll be happy to assist you.
2. The Triangle
Here a scammer will trick two people. She’ll start by accepting your offer, to buy your TON, and then may just close it after getting your payment details, before you have a chance to accept the offer, or even afterwards.
The scammer will then trick a third person, pretending she is selling them crypto, and give that person, another honest victim, your payment details. The scammer will then accept your offer to buy your crypto, but you’ll be receiving the funds from the third person.
Later the third person, who doesn’t receive the crypto, will complain to their payment provider, and the money may be taken back from your payment provider, landing you also in trouble. The scammer received the TON for free.
So, how to avoid this nasty “Triangle” scam? There’s probably only one sure-fire way, and that is, if you are suspicious because this trader has cancelled a transaction in the past, don’t accept the trade, especially if their number of trades is low and their score is anything less than 100%.
In a future update of @Wallet you will be able to keep notes on traders, which have names of animals (to protect privacy, you don’t see their telegram usernames or accounts), for now, keep a note in a note book of past canceled orders and any suspicious activity - and report suspicious activity to support.
Another way, is to send a message to the buyer of your TON, asking them to send a photo of their payment method e.g. bank card or account screen showing that they really have immediate and direct access to this themselves.
Save any such information, in case they are working in a team and the second victim isn’t really a victim, but a co-conspirator. Because they could only pull off this scam, if the other victim is not a victim, but working with them.
3. Fake Receipt
In this type of fraud, the scammer sends a fake receipt after clicking Confirm Payment. You can easily fall victim to this scam if you verify the receipt and release the funds without confirming that the funds have landed in your receiving account. Never release your TON by pressing the payment received button until and unless you yourself have verified the money is actually in your account. A screen shot or receipt is just not good enough. Wait. And if the money does not arrive in your account, open a dispute.
Wallet team will look into it, and make sure that your TON isn’t released to the buyer unless they can prove they sent it, and then you may be asked to prove you did not receive it (via video or screen shots of statements etc.).
You won’t be in any trouble for not accepting such “proof” from the buyer. You are asked to only confirm receipt of payment when you actually have it.
4. Similar Amounts
Here a scammer may send you 1.00 instead of 100 for example, and in a rush you suffer from “confirmation bias”. In other words, to avoid this, do not simply look at your payment app, and see what you are expecting to see, but, actually look carefully and make sure it is really the exact same amount you are expecting from this sale. Take your time, do not rush!
And, if any such thing happens, report them to @Wallet support.
5. Wrong Currency
Again, look really carefully at your payment app when confirming a receipt. If it supports multiple currencies, the scammer could send you the correct amount (numerically) but in the wrong lower value currency. If it is USD, make sure it is USD and not RUB, EUR, or something else, for example.
6. Distraction
A scammer may try to engage you in conversation in the bot chat, during the transaction. Resist doing that. You may press confirmed by mistake, for example, if you aren’t focused. Remember, this is all about buying from you, or buying from them, nothing else. Don’t get distracted from the main task.
7. Trustworthy
After doing several transactions successfully you may build trust for the other party. Be careful not to ever trust. For example, don’t use a direct means without P2P, thinking you can save on the commission. Keep all trades in the P2P market using the @Wallet in this case, and do not communicate outside of it, if they give you their contact details. Never change the sequence of events, never confirm at any stage unless that stage has been completed.
8. Confusion between trades
If you are doing multiple trades simultaneously, take great care. Some scams can involve you being confused between a buying and a selling transaction. It may be best to only be doing selling, or buying, at one time, not to get mixed up, and don’t get mixed up between transactions, confirming the wrong one.
9. Fake bank notifications
If the buyer has your phone number they can send fake SMS that mimics the notifications from your bank. If you rely on SMS notifications, this could be a risk. It is better not to rely on SMS but your actual payment app for verification that you have received funds.
10. Fake Wallet support bot
Scammers pretend to be Wallet support and contact you. Don’t fall for this. In the Wallet P2P message bot only the seller and buyer can communicate, not Wallet support. There is only one real Wallet support bot. If you see another impersonation, contact Wallet support and report it.
11. Fake Wallet Bot in Telegram
This scheme comes from phishing sites that look just like the real thing, but are used by scammers to steal sensitive information, such as credit card data, passwords to mailboxes, personal accounts, and now cryptocurrency wallets.
This bot completely mimics a real one – only up to the moment when you are supposed to transfer money to your card or send coins to your wallet. So use only this bot: https://t.me/wallet.
12. Multiple transactions for the same amount
Two users reply to your ad at the same time. And if orders have the same amount of money, you can by mistake send crypto to the buyer who did not pay. Scammer A made the payment but did not mark the order as paid at the same time. Scammer B clicked “mark as paid” without paying any money and provided a screenshot (which was actually from Scammer A, because he is the one who made the actual payment), in an attempt to get you to release the funds.
The goal is to make you feel anxious enough to release the funds right away without verifying the transfer. It can be easy to release funds without verifying the user who initiated the transfer. Later, Scammer A will provide the same payment proof and request that the tokens be released. If you are not careful, you’ll end up releasing tokens 2 times, but only receiving ½ of the assets being bought.
13. Chargeback or payment reversal
A buyer and seller agree to trade crypto on a P2P platform. The buyer then transfers funds to a seller’s account to get them to release their crypto. However, once the crypto has left the seller’s wallet, the buyer calls their bank within 72 hours to report they never authorized the transfer. They may claim the transaction was fraudulent or a mistake, so the bank cancels the payment and reverses the transaction. The seller loses their crypto, as well as the proceeds from the sale.
There’s no easy way to protect against this. If trading larger amounts, do so only with those who have conducted many successful trades, and with a 100% rating. However, until @Wallet also include the trade volumes, remember that these ratings can also be scammed, see next scam.
14. Dealing outside of the bot
Never go onto other platforms, convinced by the trader who share you a link, or encourages you to go direct communication or onto some other “more profitable” platform. You are only protected by @Wallet for trades that take place within the @Wallet bot, and all communications must also take place within the @Wallet bot.
15. Scammed Rating
A scammer could build up a high number of successful trades, by working in a team with multiple accounts, buying and selling to build up a high score with 100% rating. Do not simply assume a trader with a certain number of transactions and 100% rating is not a scammer.
They could wait for a big hit, and scam you on a large amount. Even if volume (amount of money successfully traded) is added as a metric to the trader’s profile, this could also be scammed by a scammer team making large transactions between themselves, to make them look good.
Do not go by the number of trades and % rating alone, always take precautions not to fall victim to any of the scams mentioned above.