"Fixers", "verified" accounts and balance sellers: traps to avoid

Buying a "verified" account, paying a middleman to open an account abroad, or selling your balance for dinars: these services are all over Facebook and Telegram. All of them are illegal for a resident, and they’re also where scammers like to work.

These offers promise to sort out in an hour what the legal route sorts out in a few days (guide 4). Here’s what they hide.

The services you see online

Illegal

Buying or renting a “verified” account (Payoneer, PayPal, Upwork, Paysera…)

The account is in someone else’s name. Your clients pay a third party, and the money never reaches a declared account in your name.

Platform rules forbid it. Payoneer, for example, only pays out to a bank account in the account holder’s exact name. At the first identity check, the account is frozen, balance and all.
The real owner stays in control. They can change the password, empty the account or report it stolen.
For you, it’s a foreign exchange offence. Your earnings aren’t brought home to your bank, and good faith is no excuse (Ordinance 96-22, art. 1Ordonnance 03-01 modifiant l'ordonnance 96-22 (JO n° 12 de 2003), p. 14; Regulation 07-01, art. 57Règlement 21-01 du 28 mars 2021 modifiant le règlement 07-01 (articles 57 et 67), p. 2). The penalty: two to seven years in prison and a fine of at least twice the amount (art. 1 bis).

Illegal

Paying a “fixer” to open an account abroad

The fixer supplies an address in Europe, sometimes an electricity bill or a fake proof of address, to open a Wise or Revolut account, or a Paysera card meant for European residents. That’s a false statement to the provider, and assets held abroad, which article 8 of Regulation 07-01Règlement 07-01 du 3 février 2007 relatif aux règles applicables aux transactions courantes avec l'étranger et aux comptes devises (version d'origine), p. 2 forbids. These accounts are often closed after an address check.

This market can lead a long way: in October 2024, the Sidi M’hamed court in Algiers sentenced the managers of a company that ran Paysera services in Algeria without authorisation, for fraud, money laundering and foreign exchange offences, to up to five years in prison.

Illegal

Selling your balance for dinars, or buying a balance

Selling your Payoneer or PayPal dollars to someone who pays you in dinars means buying or selling foreign currency outside the official system: two to seven years in prison, a fine of at least twice the amount, and confiscation (Ordinance 96-22, art. 1 bisOrdonnance 03-01 modifiant l'ordonnance 96-22 (JO n° 12 de 2003), p. 14 and 2). Police regularly break up online currency exchange networks.

Illegal

Paying someone to “unblock” an account

After a bank, CCP or platform account gets frozen, middlemen promise to unblock it “through a contact” for a fee. You lose your money, and the block stays. Only the bank, the platform or a lawyer can deal with a frozen account.

Scams to recognise

Legality aside, deals between strangers are prime scam territory. The same patterns keep coming back:

The fake receipt. You get a screenshot of a BaridiMob, CCP or Payoneer transfer that never happened. A payment only exists if it shows on your own statement.
The copycat seller. A fake account copies the name and photo of a well-known middleman in a group. The real one never messaged you.
Money from a third party. You’re paid from someone else’s account, sometimes a stolen one. It’s your account that gets frozen.
The account taken back. You bought a “verified” account, got paid into it, and one morning the password has changed.
The recovery agent. After a scam, someone offers to get your money back for a fee. That’s a second scam.

If you’re already involved

Stop using the bought or rented account right away, and stop dealing with the middleman.
Keep the evidence: conversations, screenshots, payment references.
Set up the legal route in your own name: auto-entrepreneur status, a foreign currency account, a declaration to your bank (guides 4 to 7).
If money is frozen or you’ve been scammed, see a lawyer before doing anything else. Don’t pay anyone to “sort it out”.

Key points

An account that isn’t in your name isn’t your money.
Buying or selling foreign currency between individuals is a foreign exchange offence, with prison on the table.
The legal route takes a few days and lets you keep 100% of your earnings in foreign currency.

Sources

Ordinance 96-22 as amended: Ordinance 03-01, art. 2 (new article 1, offences), art. 3 (article 1 bis, penalties) and art. 4 (article 2, buying or selling means of payment), Official Journal no. 12 of 2003, p. 14; Ordinance 10-03, art. 1 bis rewritten, Official Journal no. 50 of 2010, p. 8, read on 22 October 2026.
Banque d’Algérie Regulation 07-01 of 3 February 2007: art. 8, assets abroad, p. 2, original text read on 18 October 2026.
Banque d’Algérie Regulation 21-01 of 28 March 2021 amending Regulation 07-01: art. 2, new article 57, p. 2, original text read on 18 October 2026.
Algérie 360, “Affaire Paysera en Algérie : le verdict tombe” (in French), 2 October 2024, read on 22 October 2026.
Horizons, currency trafficking network broken up in Algiers (in French), 1 February 2026, read on 22 October 2026.
Payoneer, withdrawing to a bank account: FAQ, read on 22 October 2026.