❓ Before you trade

I sent a bank transfer or PIX for crypto and got nothing. Can I get it back?

Almost never by asking. This is the honest answer, what you can still try, and why the order of a trade is the only real protection.

We are not going to tell you what you want to hear. A bank transfer, a PIX, a Zelle or a wire that you sent voluntarily to someone else's account almost never comes back. These rails are designed to be final; that is why sellers like them and why scammers choose them. iEscrow cannot recover money sent outside the platform, and neither can any other escrow.

What you can still do, in order

  1. 1Call your bank’s fraud line today. If the receiving account still holds the funds, some banks can freeze them; this only works in the first hours.
  2. 2File a police report with the receipt, the chat and the account details. Banks and payment networks act on reports, not on messages.
  3. 3In some countries there is a formal procedure (in Brazil, the MED for PIX; in the UK, the APP fraud rules) that can order a return when the receiving account is identified as fraudulent. Ask your bank for it by name.
  4. 4Keep everything. Do not pay anyone who promises to "recover" your money for a fee; that is the second scam.

Why it happened: the order of the trade

A direct deal has an order: someone goes first, and whoever goes first can lose everything. An escrow changes the order. On iEscrow the seller's crypto is locked before you see the payment details, so by the time you pay, the coins already left the seller's hands. If the seller then goes quiet, the trade escalates to an arbiter by itself; your transfer receipt is the evidence, and the crypto is there to be released.

The one rule that would have prevented this: if a seller will not lock the crypto first, do not pay. Not on Telegram, not on Facebook, not to a friend of a friend.
If the trade did happen on iEscrow and the seller did not confirm, see I paid and the seller won’t release my crypto. That case has a different ending.
Was this article helpful?

Related articles

I paid and the seller won't release my crypto. What now?
What you can do when you already sent the money and the other side went quiet, is asking you to cancel, or says the payment never arrived.
The buyer sent a screenshot but the money isn't in my account. Do I release?
No. The only payment that counts is money you can see in your own account, for the exact amount, from the person you are trading with.
Which payment methods can be reversed after you sell crypto (and why PayPal and Venmo aren't on iEscrow)
Crypto leaves and does not come back. The danger for a seller is a fiat payment that can be pulled back weeks later. Here is which rails can do that.
Buying USDT from someone on Telegram or WhatsApp without getting scammed
The problem is not the chat app. The problem is paying a stranger first. Here is how to take that same deal somewhere the crypto is locked before you pay.
Still have questions?
The support team is here to help.
Contact support