(Source)
I have recently stumbled across a website called Ethero. It pretends to mine Ethereum by showing us some coal and gold miners. At least that is what the looks of this website suggest. In reality it is a ponzi scheme.
(This is how the website looks; Source: Own screenshot)
This is how it allegedly works: You buy miners for your Ethereum that generate new Ethereum and you can cashout that and make a profit after breaking even. It is a very obvious scam, because the Terms of Service do not even mention how you can earn money on this site. Furthermore it is stated that you cannot really cashout what you like. That site has a weird system where maximum cashouts depend on account type, yesterday´s cashouts and cashouts on the current day. In other words you need to deposit Ethereum EVERYDAY if you want to maximize how much of the Ethereum you "earned" is being withdrawable.
(Point 4.8 of the ToS; Source: Own screenshot)
No wonder the forum of this site is full of people complaining about problems regarding cashouts. The alleged mining is not the only way to make money on this site however. You can also view ads and gain some cents. However this has it´s own problems. First my anti virus program blocked a trojan on one of the ads. Second you cannot cashout the Ethereum that you earned by watching the ads. You can only buy new miners with it or you can play in a lottery.
The website has other security issues beside of trojan attacks. Ethero does not offer 2FA, SMS verification, eMail verification or any other security measures if you log in. After you registered you have to fill in an Ethereum address where the cashouts can be received. Well, the site didn´t allow me to, because in order to confirm the Ethereum address you have to use your password. The input had problems with my password, because it had special characters and stuff like that.
This is not the only site that is like that. There are many more.
(Bitcomine that is obviously the same shit just for bitcoin; Source: Own screenshot)
(Cryptobirds a ponzi scheme just with birds rather than miners; Source: own screenshot)
And there are probably many more. What is interesting is that they all look like typical facebook/mobile games. Everything is really cute and colorful. Perfect to scam the naive user that has no clue what mining actually is. Since there are a lot of new people joining the cryptosphere I thought it would be a good idea to warn people.
For further reading have a look at this scam report about Bitcomine.
Thanks for reading through this mess. Feel free to resteem this article to warn as many people as possible.
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