The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing has issued a comprehensive public advisory addressing the growing incidence of commercial bank account freezes linked to fraudulent peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency transactions across Pakistan.
The most pervasive threat involves 'Third-Party Payment Scams'. In this scheme, bad actors dupe unsuspecting citizens in online romance or investment scams, instructing victims to transfer funds directly into the bank account of a legitimate crypto seller on Binance or Bybit. When the victim files a police or FIA complaint, the automated banking fraud grid freezes every downstream account in the transaction chain, leaving legitimate crypto sellers with locked funds and frozen accounts.
To safeguard against this threat, crypto traders must adhere strictly to identity verification protocols: never release crypto until the buyer's bank account sender name identically matches their verified exchange KYC name. In the event of an account freeze, traders should proactively furnish order logs, chat histories, and platform dispute confirmations to bank compliance officers to establish good-faith merchant status.