With the price of Bitcoin knocking on the door of $ 60,000 and more and more positive news, the number of new people entering the crypto market is increasing. This increase is important, but it requires attention, as there are also a large number of obscure characters who try to attract inexperienced investors to fraudulent schemes that have the sole purpose of stealing their money.
Therefore, for the sake of the healthy development of this market, it is up to us to alert beginners of the dangers they will encounter during the journey so that they are prepared not to lose money with scams that many of us already know.
Next, we'll look at the most common scams and ways to avoid them so you don't give your hard-earned money to them.
You may have already seen those advertisements on YouTube that use Vitalik's lecture, for example, with the image of a QR Code and a message to send BTC and receive double. Well, unfortunately many people have already fallen for this scam.
Due to the viral nature of how information spreads across the internet, scammers seek to take advantage of people by offering free gifts in bitcoin in exchange for sending a sum for registration. When you see this on a website or social network, it is best to immediately report the content as fraudulent, so that other people are not a victim.
Another example was the Twitter hack, which happened last year, where the accounts of several celebrities and companies were hacked and started to request the sending of bitcoin to the addresses of fraudsters, promising to send twice as much.
When faced with such a situation, always remember: there is no free money!
Some hackers have become increasingly creative and sophisticated in their ways of stealing people. One, which requires a lot of attention, is called malware, which is malicious software that, once installed on your device and has administrator access, can easily change Bitcoin addresses when they are pasted to the clipboard.
Since it is practically impossible to reverse a Bitcoin transaction once it has been confirmed by the network, realizing this after the fact means that it is too late to recover them. Always make sure to check the address to which you are sending BTC two or three times, checking all the characters.
Also be very careful with the software and applications that you install on your computer and smartphone and look for an up-to-date and reliable antivirus to help minimize the chances of this type of problem.
When buying or selling Bitcoins in person, a counterparty may ask you to meet in person to carry out the transaction. If you are not a reliable person with broad credibility in the community, this is a very risky way that can result in theft and even physically threaten those involved.
Opt for P2P trading to considerably minimize risks.
This is often the scammer's favorite type of trap. In a phishing attack, an attacker typically impersonates a service, a company, or an individual through fake websites, e-mail, or other text-based communication.
The goal is to trick the victim into revealing his private keys or sending bitcoin to an address owned by the scammer. Even if the site looks identical to the real one, you can still be directed to another payment platform. For example, you click on a link that looks like a legitimate website, but attackers have created a fake URL with some altered character that takes you to a fake website.
If there is no small lock icon indicating security near the URL bar and no "https" in the website address, think twice. Do not log in to a site unless you are 100% sure that it is a real site and if possible check the sites you use regularly and visit them only through that favorite address.
This type of scam is unfortunately very strong. The cases are not few, although the modus operandi is well known.
Basically, a pyramid scheme promises returns to participants based on the number of people they invite to join. This allows the scheme to grow quickly, attracting many people who believe in absurd returns and well above the average of real investments. The end of the story is one of frustration and loss, as the scheme is unsustainable, since the deposits of those who enter later are used to pay previous investors, until the moment when the scheme is closed, giving profit to those who created, who most of the time runs away taking the money with them.
Do not participate in offers where people offer you a guaranteed return in exchange for an initial deposit. The end result is often a lot of people losing a lot of money.
This type of scam is also known as social engineering scam, as it focuses on the standard behavior of human beings in times of threat. It occurs when a hacker sends an email claiming that he has hacked into the victim's computer, stating even a password he was able to access and threatens the exposure of photos, videos or private documents if Bitcoin is not sent to the scammer's address.
The sender says that a key logger was installed and that he had access to his webcam, from where he managed to record his privacy.
He then offers two options: send Bitcoin so that the material is erased or send nothing and have the content sent to all your contacts. Don't be fooled by this type of extortion. Calm down and take your time to examine all the details. Also avoid using common and standardized passwords, as they can be easily captured by malicious agents.
Although not exactly a scam, this type of situation is very common and generates a lot of losses for the unsuspecting and greedy. In a pump and dump scheme, a group organizes to buy a currency in advance when it is
very cheap and promote it as the next big hit on all social media.
They wait for the hype to happen, announce a date and time for the pump and what happens next is actually a sharp drop, with buyers who came in earlier selling to backward investors who give them liquidity and output.
In order not to fall into this type of deception, never negotiate using your emotions, always avoid FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and do not trust people who claim to know what the price of a particular cryptography will be in the future, inducing others to error. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
With the ease of issuing a token, countless scammers have discovered that they can create their own cryptocurrencies to trade them on the market and raise funds.
With that in mind, know that a considerable part of the existing tokens are nothing more than scams, which only serve to enrich the issuers, who collect money from inexperienced speculators and flee. Most new cryptocurrencies have no innovation or project behind them and exist only on paper, so be very diligent with new currencies and always carefully read the white paper of the project you want to invest in. Otherwise, be aware that it is only speculation.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, the scams on the Bitcoin network are necessary for its evolution because they identify vulnerabilities in your system. The continued attention of investors in Bitcoin means that scams and fraud are likely to become even more sophisticated in the future.
Remember: keep your private key secret, double-check each URL, and if something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
