❓ Before you trade

How do I know the crypto is really locked before I pay?

Because you can see it in the trade, not in a chat. "It's funded on my side" is a sentence; locked crypto is a state you can check.

The most common trick in a P2P deal is the sentence "it's funded on my side" or a screenshot of an escrow page. Neither is evidence. The crypto is locked when the platform says so in the trade itself, in a state you can open from your own account, and when that state existed before you were shown the payment details.

What locked looks like on iEscrow

  • The trade is in your account, under your username, with the seller’s crypto shown as held in escrow. You did not get there through a link someone sent you; you logged in to iescrow.io yourself.
  • The payment details appear only after that. If you can see where to pay but the trade does not show the crypto as locked, do not pay.
  • The amount to pay is exact and unique to that trade. That number is the key that ties your payment to the locked crypto.
  • A 30-minute window is running. Locked crypto on iEscrow is not a promise for later; it is a timer that ends in release, dispute or expiry.

Signs that it is not locked, whatever they say

  • You were sent a link to the "escrow". Real escrow does not arrive by link; you open it from the site you typed yourself.
  • The escrow "will be funded after you pay". That is the opposite order, and it is the scam.
  • You are asked to pay a person, or to pay a "fee" to see the funds.
  • The only proof is an image. Images are edited in a minute; states in your own account are not.
iEscrow is custodial: the platform holds the crypto until release. Which is exactly why you can check it, in your account, instead of taking anyone’s word.
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