More Filipinos Share Their P2P Scam Stories
After a report published by BitPinas that some crypto holders experienced P2P scams, more and more from the community shared their experience.
Editing by Nathaniel Cajuday
Following the new scam report of BitPinas, Filipino crypto holders have shared their own experiences with peer-to-peer (P2P) scams; they also shared some scam prevention tips.
Recently, BitPinas reported a new modus operating on Binance P2P, a popular crypto exchange method in the country, where it involves using a fake name and a GCash mobile number. For this scheme, the buyer tells the seller and indicates to the Binance system that they have already transferred the money via GCash, prompting the system to ask the buyer to release the crypto to the seller.
The problem is that the seller did not really transfer any cash to the buyer’s GCash account, but instead just faked a message from GCash fooling the buyer to believe that they have already done so. (Read more: Don’t Get Fooled by the Latest Binance Scam Using GCash)
“Yep, 2x nangyari sakin to, buti at chinecheck ko lagi ang transaction logs. Sabay cancel nila pag sinabi mong walang pumasok. Not sure how they do that pero mismong GCash na SenderID ang na spoof nila as sender ng tx notif,” a BitPinas follower commented on a post.
[Translation: Yes, it already happened to me twice; good thing I always check the transaction logs. They will immediately cancel when you say that the transaction did not go through. Not sure how they do that but their proof is the Gcash SenderID itself.]
He also included a screenshot of a Gcash SenderID text notification where, “the first message is a scam, and the second one is the legit one. Find the difference. These both messages came from the SenderID GCash itself.”
In another comment, a crypto holder shared that he also got scammed despite 10 years of trading experience.
“Just got scammed today, with 1.7k to this account. It was my fault actually, I was not able to check my account if he truly sent the money since nag mamadali ako. Been trading online for almost a decade now. [Just] one mistake [and] the most important one pa yung ni-neglect ko; checking if the money is received already,” he shared.
Apparently, the scam has been ongoing since last month as another shared that he lost 6,000 on his account.
Other Filipino crypto holders reminded fellow investors in the comment section to be cautious and always check their transaction logs in the app before actually sending assets.
“If you get a text or email tapos may link pa for sure scammer na yan kaya dapat maging aware tayo sa mga ganto dahil gagawin lahat ng mga yan para makuha infos natin,” a concerned netizen stated.
[Translation: If you get a text or an email that contains links, those are scammers. Always be aware of these schemes as thieves these days will do anything to get our information.]
Last month, GCash announced that it would no longer send text messages for each transaction on the platform. The change aimed “to help improve security & provide easier access to your transaction history, we’ll begin moving confirmation messages from your text message inbox to your App Inbox.” (Read more: Gcash to Remove Text Alerts for Each Transaction)
Currently, the country’s financial regulators Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are still seeking defined regulations to address these kinds of schemes.
Other scam reports:
This article is published on BitPinas: More FIlipinos Share Their P2P Scam Stories
Featured Image “IMG_4604“ by kenner116 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Disclaimer: BitPinas articles and its external content are not financial advice. The team serves to deliver independent, unbiased news to provide information for Philippine-crypto and beyond.
