The crypto industry is not standing still. New trends are emerging regularly, the latest being DeFi and NFT. Sad as it may be, new types of fraud are emerging with them. As a result, new investors in the crypto market are losing funds. Digital assets are now extremely liquid, and tracking their movements is difficult, which is what intruders use. In this material, we’re going to talk about five kinds of cryptocurrency fraud.
Social network
This type of fraud is common on Twitter and Facebook. It is drained as follows: a media personality or company invites anyone who sends a cryptocurrency to double it. This type of fraud is common on Twitter and Facebook. It is done in the following way: a media personality or a company invites anyone who sends a cryptocurrency to double it. If the scheme is carried out on behalf of a company, then a crypto exchange that supposedly decided to cease to exist and the commission money to distribute to anyone who sends their cryptocurrency may be a cover. If you use a separate identity, you tend to have fraudsters choose rich people whose wealth is being discussed online. One example is Elon Musk. His condition is known to all, and he is actively discussing cryptocurrency on Twitter. Elon has already been used in fraudulent schemes: in March 2021, an anonymous investor sent a fake Mask 10 BTC, expecting to receive 20 BTC in return. As you can guess, he did not get anything back, and later the fake page was deleted.
The point is that no company or media personality will hold such stock. But even if one of them is going to do something similar, you won’t be the first to be asked to transfer your funds. In all other cases, it is recommended to ignore similar messages in order to save your money.
Financial pyramid scheme
Financial pyramids are well established in the crypto industry. The most famous of them are: PlusToken, OneCoin, Bitconnect. So why is the crypto industry now the most suitable environment for pyramids? Let’s analyze it in stages:
- The first cryptocurrency appeared just over 10 years ago. The industry itself is booming, but it was not until 2021 that its capitalization reached the $trillion mark. By comparison, BlackRock (the largest investment company) has $7.4 trillion at its disposal.
- The market, relative to others, is not great. There is an audience, but not too big. Also, new faces in the crypto industry are willing to absorb any incoming information in order to understand things more quickly. That’s what the founders of the pyramids use.
- The new arrivals are told that these are not the pyramids as they were before. Cryptocurrencies make money easy and easy, but it’s worth bringing friends.
It is most unfortunate that people once again believe in malevolent individuals and give up their funds.
Mobile apps
It is easy to download a crypto purse on a smartphone, but not quite safe. Fraudsters can forge a certain application with a crypto purse that looks like the present and performs the same functions. But if you try to translate the cryptocurrency, then instead of the address you have given, the money will go to the attackers. There have been quite a few cases in the crypto industry.
The selection of the tested application is complicated by the fact that fake purses can rank high in ratings. In addition, an application can be created on behalf of a large crypto exchange that may not have an exchange at all. Users can try to enter the personal office with the necessary data. Neither phone confirmation nor two-factor authentication will help: the user will enter the necessary codes in the application. If the attackers work quickly, which is usually the case, they will be able to enter the necessary data in time to enter the actual user account on the exchange. In the future, the funds may simply be stolen, and they may not be traced.
The largest mobile app marketplaces, App Store and Google Play, attribute the high rating of fake apps to the fact that they are tested as regular apps and then many changes occur.
It is recommended to use direct links to download applications from companies’ official websites in order not to fall prey to fraudsters.
Phishing
Similar to some other types of fraud, phishing has existed for a long time and eventually ended up in crypto space. The method is somewhat similar to mobile apps: here they also try to learn confidential data in order to access the account of the exchange.
Let’s say you get an e-mail saying your account is being hacked. To update the password, you must go to the link that is attached to the letter. Going to the link will open an identical site of the relevant exchange, where you will be asked to enter the old password and come up with a new one. After you have completed this procedure, you will most likely lose access to your account on the Exchange and then to the funds that were on it.
Fraudsters may also be found in official trading channels. After a customer complains in a chat room about not being able to access his account, he is privately contacted by an intruder who pretends to be a representative of the exchange. During the conversation, the fraudster tries to find out the necessary information for entering the exchange account: login, password, seed-phrase.
In order not to get caught in phishing, we recommend following rules:
- If an e-mail requests a password change, you should first compare the URL with the official exchange website. Also, you should contact the exchange directly, via the support, and see if your account is actually being hacked. Yeah, it’s gonna take a while, so for security reasons, you can withdraw funds from the stock exchange.
- Adding frequently visited sites to bookmarks will be a good solution. The point is that search engines can issue phishing sites in the first positions of a search query.
- Do not tell anyone your passwords or your seed phrase. Exchange representatives are never asked about it.
The use of famous personalities in advertising companies
Media personalities are often used in the promotion of crypto companies. For example, during the ICO boom, Floyd Mayweather advertised a huge number of startups. The most interesting thing is that in their list there are also those who simply appropriated the investors ‘ money for themselves, that is, made an exist-scam. For such advertisements famous personalities get good money, take the same Mayweather: he does not live at all poor, therefore on cheap advertising contracts and wouldn’t watch.
The use of a well-known person to conduct an advertising campaign does not indicate its success. When it comes to investing in the crypto of startups, the following factors should be noted:
- How the token distribution will take place.
- How many tokens remain in the possession of the startup management. If the majority is from the existing issue, then there is a chance of selling tokens at high price levels.
- Is this project unique? If not, then look at its competitors, analyze the market.
- The project developers have already done something similar, or they are unknown people.
- Whether the project product has a practical application.
Conclusion
In this material, we talked about the most common types of fraud in the crypto industry. Remember that fraudsters have no boundaries, so if they have the opportunity, they will steal all your funds immediately.
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