The Risks Of Paying Peer To Peer

Finding a good hairstylist is hard, but finding a traveling hairstylist is even harder. As a splurge, I looked for someone who would come to my apartment to spend four or more hours braiding my hair. Thanks to social media, I succeeded.

- Rivan Stinson

My text exchanges with the stylist went smoothly. I described what I wanted, and she told me to send a nonrefundable $150 deposit—half of the cost—via PayPal’s peer-to-peer(P2P) payment function. The alarm bells didn’t go off until I couldn’t reach her on the day of the appointment. Was this stranger going to show up as promised, or did I just lose $150?

Fortunately, she did show up that day. I hadn’t been able to reach her because her cell phone battery had died. In hindsight, I realized she could have cat fished me—created an elaborate fake profile and passed off someone else’s work as her own—and then not shown up. I would have been scammed, with no recourse from PayPal.