The photoshop work was excellent and once “cleared” they would unload various stolen credit cards in exchange for bitcoin. The amounts were small around $25-$50 but this scammer was persistent hitting nearly every single vendor on Paxful. Requisite was finally defeated by a combination of text pattern detection “They would always say the same things in trades” and device finger printing. Requisite taught us alot and lead us down the road of building our fraud detection AI Charlene, named after one of the people whose ID they would use. Believe us scammers have immense time to spend trying to scam what would be puny amounts for us.
Paxful prides itself on a nearly seamless user experience, making crypto accessible even to beginners. The platform is available via a mobile app and a desktop trading app. Security is a huge aspect of cryptocurrency; many people invest in it due to the anonymity and security it offers. Paxful is not regulated by any financial institution in any of the countries where it is available.
- Also, it’s best to go through Paxful all the way even if the seller finds a way to contact you and offers to cut out Paxful to save the fees.
- While Binance is famous for listing hundreds of cryptocurrencies, they are sorely lacking when it comes to payment methods.
- Are mods a group of scammers coming out with fake accounts and selling this stuff I cant really make out of anything.
- We receive compensation from the products and services mentioned in this story, but the opinions are the author’s own.
- In that type of environment Paxful has done very well as it’s a peer to peer exchange where crypto trade happens between users instead of through a centralized platform.
Users are also asked to set up two-factor authentication and provide ID verification to enhance security. This is especially important for frequent users or anyone looking to transact more than $1500. Additionally, there are normal Bitcoin network fees which are paid by the sender, in order to transfer money through the network. The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters.
Who owns Paxful?
For example, transactions on Paxful go through an escrow system, meaning funds can only be transferred once all parties have agreed to a trade. In case something goes wrong, you can open a dispute and the matter will be investigated and settled. Any users who continiously spam will risk being banned from the community. Discussions about other platforms are fine, but hard-selling is not tolerated. That’s a good deal already but here’s what is really cool, if your friend refers someone then you will receive 10% of that person’s trading fees. Like almost every other American based exchange Paxful has a KYC verification process.
This is why for some especially risky payment methods like PayPal, there are fees of up to 30% or more. The vendors need to cover themselves for scammer losses. The better the vendors get at scam detection the more profit they keep. Experienced vendors keep nearly 100% of their profit as they build a kind of sixth sense and always have a set of scripts to go by.
Top Paxful Alternatives – Websites Similar to Paxful (
What sets them apart from other exchanges though is that it is possible to trade on Paxful, up to a certain amount, without submitting verification documents. Given that trade sizes in Africa tend to be fairly small Paxful has decided not to charge any transaction fees for trades below $20. That’s a bold long term move which hopefully leads to greater Bitcoin adoption and an overall increase in profits as more people get into crypto. This is really what sets Paxful apart from the competition, the number of payment methods that they support.
Paxful Review and Comparison Guide
Low transaction fees are an attractive feature in financial platforms, and Paxful boasts of some of the lowest fees on the block. There is a 1% service fee on withdrawals from the wallet to your bank account and zero fees when buying crypto. Other negative reviews are about specific sellers which have scammed buyers and not about the platform itself. Avoiding scam on Paxful is indeed an issue that needs to be taken into account (more on that later in this post).
User Interface
To join, you create an account and go through a verification process. Unlike most crypto exchanges’ verification process, Paxful’s rolls out in tiers, meaning the more you trade, the more the platform seeks to know you. This is a really interesting feature of Paxful and it makes a lot of sense since many of the same people who are interested paxful bitcoin review in gold may also be interested in Bitcoin. Previously if you wanted to go from gold to Bitcoin you would have had to sell the gold into cash and then use that cash to buy Bitcoin. The whole time you would be paying exchange and commission fees. This new process is easy to use and really a great addition to the crypto ecosystem.
Peer to Peer Finance, Humanities Greatest Blessing
I have talked more about Noones in my earlier guide on best P2P exchanges. If the name shown is different from the one you’re asked to send funds to, that may be a red flag. Paxful also strives to keep its platform safe by constantly reviewing members’ conduct and kicking out bad actors. In short, if you want Bitcoins, you can trade tokens you already have in and receive BTC in return.
What is Paxful?
We were pretty chill with this in the beginning and in 100% of all cases they simply made new user accounts and scammed with those. We quickly learned that you never left a scammer off the hook. They simply do not stop once they get a taste of “blood” aka scammed funds. Lets keep in mind that $100 USD can be a fortune to some people. What may be an acceptable loss for us can literally feed an entire family for a month in some areas of the world.
Sellers can advertise their services to attract more buyers. They can even advertise on Paxful’s social media platforms. Additionally, in order to verify the accounts created, Paxful has a rating system, like a verification badge on social media, to help users rate sellers and buyers they trade with. Combined with the escrow service, this rating system helps users to identify if the person they are dealing with is trustworthy.
If you want to buy or sell one of those cryptos, you can check out offers people have posted — or post one of your own. On every trade, Paxful keeps the cryptocurrency in an escrow account. After the seller confirms that they’ve received the payment, Paxful releases the crypto funds to the buyer. Whether you want to use some old gift cards or Western Union, Paxful has a payment method that will work for almost anyone. It’s easy to get started too as all you need to create a trade account is an email address and a cell phone number.
Someone sells you a gift card but the card is already redeemed. Avoid headaches by only doing business with well-established accounts. It cost you $0 fees to buy because the burden is on the seller. What does “Questionable. Minimal Doubts. Controversial.” mean?