Avoidable evil I must say, if only you can use and trade crypto freely and not under the radar, like in my country here and several other places around the world where crypto adoption still feels like a threat to the ultra corrupt government. Different policies and bans are stipulated to stiffle out any progressive technology or innovation s. To bypass this callous policies, the only way out to put the dying fiat(local currencies) to good use by investing and trading crypto is through P2P platforms.
Therefore, Peer to Peer(P2P) seems to be the only way out for now, that is if you also live in a region where the Government is still hostile to cryptocurrencies, my government still lacking foresight and there's a continuous ban on transacting Crypto with fiats through local banks. Hence, either use the only way out which is via P2P services, or get choked by the government. But if you get smart ans choose the former, that comes with some huge prices, at least to those who had fallen victims to the treacherous P2P bandits.
Binance, the world leading crypto exchange as always try to find solutions to problems around the world for Crypto users and it launched a P2P services immediately the government of my country increased its callousness to crypto users. Imagine a government claiming a globally used decentralized tokens is killing its local currency, isn't that a bogus claim?
Regardless of the excuses different government around the world uses to choke crypto adoption, its bigger than any country or civilization now. Therefore businesses minded companies like Binance creates avenue to foster users as well as increase their userbase. What Binance is oblivious about is the unending gamers, scammers, rippers flocking the P2P platform wrecking havoc continuously on unsuspecting users.
Though it's decentralized, that gives people freedom to do whatever they like, but the crime spree is spiralling out of hands if you have ever tried to use Binance P2P on any occasions.
How to Spot this criminals and not get swindled
The first red flag is an overly too good rates completely different from the actual trading rate, and you will see these users place Ads in many crypto options. They have the best rates(for sell) and imagine you seeing a sell Ad that's three times what you want to sell. That's how you get tempted to trade with these criminals, also you will be prompted to release your tokens to foster quick bank transfer.
Never fall for these gimmicks, while trading P2P(most especially selling) you must release your tokens when you get funds in your local bank account.
Also, endeavor to read feedbacks of your intending buyer or seller. You can easily catch a glimpse of who you are dealing with when going through feedbacks(reviews). Then, always try not to be too greedy which is why many have fallen preys to too good to be true offers that are not real but scammers baiting you to rip you off your funds/tokens. I believe you will yield to these warnings, its one of the prices we have to pay for being an early adopter of cryptocurrencies in developing regions of the world!