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  • 18 Sep 24

There's a new scam in P2P crypto exchanging

Changing crypto via P2P on exchanges has always been a risky, but today we will tell you about a new type of scam in Russia - it became possible due to amendments in the Russian law 161-FZ.

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Changing crypto in P2P mode on exchanges has always been a risky business, as your transaction agent may give you assets of criminal origin (for example, stolen fiat), and you will unwittingly be the end point (beneficiary) of this chain when investigated by the state authorities.

But this is about traditional risks. Today we will warn the degens about a new danger in the Russian crypto market. So in local P2P-exchanges there is a new type of scam — it became possible due to recent amendments to the Russian law 161-FZ on payment systems from July 25, 2024.

Recall that under the new law, the central bank of Russia can block all your accounts in all banks — all it takes is one online complaint from a fraudster that you are allegedly engaged in financial fraud. The law was adopted for a more rapid response to the actions of fraudsters, but the fraudsters themselves began to actively use this law, but in a completely different and unexpected way.

And here is the first case: a Russian decided to withdraw crypto from Bybit via P2P as usual. The next day he gets a call from his Russian bank saying that the money was sent to his card by mistake — that’s what the fraudulent sender told the bank after the P2P transaction was completed.

The hero of the story refused to return the money and tried to prove to the bankers that everything was honest. Predictably, the bank support did not want to get into the mechanism of P2P with crypto, so in two days all bank accounts in all banks were blocked in accordance with the law, then the guy was put on the «central bank black list», and finally, he is refused to give cash from his accounts. The money from this P2P transaction is automatically returned to the attacker.

The situation is a dead end. The attempt to fight illegal transactions on the P2P market in Russia has so far led to contradictory results. There are still few such cases, but it is clear that the first version of this law will be tweaked.

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