One of the beauties of cryptocurrencies is their ability to be traded for local currencies and vice versa via P2P (peer to peer) methods on centralised exchanges. This method has the been the best method for converting cryptos to any fiat currency of our choice but recently it has been exploited by scammers trying to take advantage of the ignorance and inexperience of newbies.
I've fallen for some of these scams in my early stages of P2P trading and I'll be sharing some of the old and new tricks/gimmicks scammers use to exploit P2P tradering. I'm glad the experience I gathered were gotten at my early stage in the crypto world and didn't involve a large or significant amount of money. However, many folks haven't been so lucky trading P2P and so I hope you find the information in this post helpful.
Release Before Confirmation.
One of the biggest mistakes most newbies make when trading P2P is that they release their cryptos without confirming if in fact the transaction from the other end has been successful. It's sounds like the normal thing to do, but unfortunately, alot of people have been scammed when they receive a call or message from the other trader requesting that they should release their cryptos and that they completed the trade from their end. I think this is some emotional manipulation that works mostly on newbies. It puts them in a position of that they should hurry and get their done ASAP, and since many haven't fallen for this before, they tend to release the crypto without checking their local bank if infact it has been credited by the trader in the other end. This is the oldest trick in the boo and many people still fall for it date.
Precaution
Stay calm and confirm the transaction from your end before releasing the cryptocurrency you wish to trade.
Fake Rates
The second most famous trick is when a P2P trader advertises a certain rate for their trades and pays a lesser amount as a result of lesser rate than you had originally seen. This is also one of the tricks used that could sometimes make you doubt your sanity. The scammer advertises a certain rate originally but when they make the payment, you'd get a lower amount as a result of a difference in the rate used for trading. I've personally fallen for this trick and it was quite recent, but I didn't let the scammer get away with it. He called it a business strategy and tried to prove that he didn't scam me but I was lucky that he already had about three complaints from other traders on this matter else it would have been difficult to prove.
Precaution
Check, double check and triple check the rate of the trader throughout the process of trading.
Fake Receipts
Finally, fake transaction receipt is sent by the scammer to show that they've credited you while infact they haven't. They tend to emotionally manipulate you to thinking you're inexperience and too slow by sending several texts and calling for you to release the crypto. Even if you checked your bank to confirm the transaction and still didn't see that you've been credited, don't fall for their network excuse.
Precaution
Release crypto only when you confirm you've been credited by checking with your bank.
Most newbies fall for these scams because they feel quite comfortable with the cryptos space whereas these traders are total strangers and no one is truly our friend out there. Also, don't fall for the reputation attached to trader's profiles as even an those with good records may want to take advantage of the ignorance of others. I've personally witnessed this myself.
I hope you found this post helpful and hope it saves you from the tricks of the greedy folks out there.