The transfer arrived, for the right amount, but from a name that is not your buyer's. The buyer says it is a relative, a business partner, a friend who owed them. Sometimes that is true. Often it is the triangulation scam: a victim somewhere was told to pay "for a phone" into your account, you release the crypto to the scammer, and weeks later the victim's bank follows the money to you. Your crypto is gone and your account is frozen while you explain. Do not release.
Why the name matters more than the amount
- Banks reverse and freeze based on who sent the money and why. A payment from the person you are trading with is a trade. A payment from a stranger is, from the bank’s side, unexplained money.
- The buyer who "cannot pay from their own account" is the one scammers imitate. A real buyer can.
- Even if the explanation is true, you cannot prove it later. The record that protects you is: payer = counterparty.
What iEscrow does with this
- The holder of every payment account on the platform is set by the platform as the account owner, never typed in; once the user has verified identity, it is the name on the document. The trade shows you who the counterparty is.
- If money arrives from another name, you simply do not confirm. The crypto stays in escrow.
- Open a dispute and say exactly that: the payment came from a different name. The arbiter sees the counterparty’s name on the trade and the name on your receipt. The crypto does not go to someone whose payment cannot be tied to them.
- The exact, unique amount of each trade also helps: a payment from a stranger for a figure that matches your trade is itself the sign that someone was told what to pay.
Never "return" a third-party payment in crypto or send the difference anywhere. If the money was stolen, you would be paying the scammer with your own funds on top. Let the arbiter and, if needed, your bank handle it.