The world of crypto is booming an withd the increasingly large amounts of money invested comes the inevitable growth of scammers, swindlers and other shakedown artists. Crypto scams are a dime a dozen and ever so well obfuscated.
Here I will endeavor to help you recognize the devious tactics the scam architects employ. I offer advice based on my personal experience so that you may stay safe in the lucrative and exciting world of crypto.
Where do scammers catch you
Fear, greed and hope is constantly playing cards in our subconscious when trading. This is by no means a new concept and anyone participating in the crypto world can confirm this. Scam architects love this fact and strive to manipulate you on that bass level.
What better way to get you to take action than to offer you something you really want. Think Google ads, your actions online tells Google what interests you and so you get ads for it.
Participating in an airdrop often means you have to follow some twitter or telegram account to be accepted in the competition. This is where they pick up your interest and proceed to target you.
Telegram
I receive a scam attempt almost every single day on telegram. I’m not saying Telegram itself is dodgy but there are plenty nefarious types who love the direct line to you. You joined a group that offers news on an upcoming P2E game your interested in. Someone sends you a message, with a very similar name to the group you joined, stating that your wallet has been whitelisted for the IDO sale.
Getting in early is a tactic that often yields incredible profits. Greed pops up its ugly head and you don’t look closely enough at the channel on which you were confirmed. You don’t DYOR (do your own research). You click the link to the purchase page and everything looks good and aboveboard.
It’s not, just opening the link can expose your device to bad people who could record all your saved passwords, what you are typing right now and many other details. But to add insult to injury you may actually try and purchase from this webpage and you transfer your valuable coins to a wallet and you do not receive anything.
Discord
Discord is great space to stay up to date on many things from NFT’s to developments in games. Channel participants, like Telegram, are openly visible to anyone who is part of the channel.
I received an interesting one a little while back where I was informed that my account has been randomly chosen because of a competition I entered. I have won a random amount of BTC(bitcoin), all I need to do is create an account on a particular trading website.
Obviously my hackles went up at this but again, greed can blind you. I went to the site, set up an account and entered a voucher code. The site generated a number, I think it was about 0.0345 BTC that was then visible on this account. It even made it possible to immediately transfer these winnings to any wallet I like. I entered my wallet address and hit transfer only to be shown a warning that the transfer is only possible if I were to first transfer 0.001 BTC into “my” account. Basically this person offered a nice big carrot so that they could steal a small byte from yours.
On twitter it’s bit harder to catch you since it’s a far more secure app. They still however use the classic “Bad link” approach as mentioned before. This usually comes from someone you do not know or from an account that has been compromised(hacked). So before clicking any link in twitter first check if you know the person and ask them about this if you do and if it’s a total stranger do not click.
Email scams have actually become a bit of joke such as the classic Nigerian prince who needs you to pay a nominal fee so that you may unlock a much greater reward. Even though this is practically vintage they still try to catch you with these so unless you are expecting a link to something and unless you know the person sending you the mail with link do not click on any links.
How do scammers catch you
Many scams are straightforward and easy to avoid, but it’s not always as simple as that. Some scam artists are truly artful.
Pump and Dump and pull the rug
Crypto is constantly developing and new coins pop up every single day. Some try their best to make it and by doing that gain more value or eventually fall flat. Others, well others are simply there to catch the unwary trader. Basically what they do is they create everything one may expect from a startup to seem legitimate. They create a website, social channels, write a white paper in which they describe their goals, purpose and even offer a roadmap to future plans. They get their coin listed on CoinGecko and offer it for sale somewhere totally legit.
You see the charts and there is great opportunity for profit so you buy in. The next time you check the coin has died and become worthless and you just gave your money away to own a whole stack of useless crypto currency while some smiling criminal sits on your ETH or BTC. This is why everyone on the crypto scene constantly chants D-Y-O-R. If you do not do extensive research into any and every purchase you could lose a whole lot of money.
Fake apps
Fake app, available on Google Play store and Apple App Store, are another favorite go to for the underhanded scammers trying to catch out the hard working crypto traders. One can easily find and remove them once aware but sometimes they can do damage in a single usage.
Android users are most at risk but everyone, regardless of OS, are at risk of spyware or sophisticated hacking tools being activated on your device. If you deploy the most valid security measures such as VPN’s (virtual private network), 2FA (two factor authentication) and Secure Hardware Wallets your greatest risk is Phishing.
Keep your eyes open for inconsistencies like misspellings in the title or the text, weird names, incorrect collours or misshapen logos. At the sign of any of these rather don’t download the app and do some more research and perhaps contact the official support channels for the company who released the app.
Giveaways
As mentioned before under the “Where do they catch you” heading, giveaways are great way to exploit our feelings of hopefulness. They catch you out by requiring a small fee for taxes or delivery or something along those lines that one wishing to win would consider a small cost to receive the usually very large payout.
Social Crypto Scams
Social Media is rife with impersonators and fake accounts. They can pretend to be your favorite celebrity or a well respected trader or analyst. These are often just bots waiting on your take certain actions so that your device and accounts can be exploited. Pay attention to the names of the accounts and be wary of any offer that seems to good. Remember, no one out there is trying to make you or anyone else rich.
When you scrutinize the account, don’t be taken in by other people commenting or confirming anything said on the account, they could very well all be bots or paid to comment accounts.
Warning signs of crypto scams
Emotional Language
Scammers try to evoke emotion in you that gets you excited or scared. People who offer you real things that have real value will give you facts and solid information. So if you find yourself reading a message and feel a sense of urgency, excitement or fear then stop and think, “why am I feeling this?” The answer is you’re being manipulated.
Something for nothing
There are many chances for you to participate in competitions and airdrops in which you can win crypto or NFT’s. All these will usually require you to do something that will benefit those running the giveaway.
The most common actions required will be things like retweeting a post on twitter, liking and sharing a FaceBook (Meta) post, Adding a crypto to your watchlist and liking and following a YouTube channel. These are valuable and beneficial to the respective accounts and visibility of crypto currencies. If its completely free then is probably a scam, nothing is free.
Direct Contact
When you receive a message offering a freebie then you can assume it was sent out in bulk , it’s a scam.
Opportunities to participate in giveaways on official group are legion but you would have manually joined these groups, the group will not try and find you. So any direct messages sent to you will almost certainly be an attempt to exploit you in some way.
What to do if you got caught
The hard truth is there is nothing you can do once you transferred your coins, it is irreversible often untraceable.
If you have not yet made a transfer then you can try and minimize damage.
- Find and halt any payments that may have been initiated
- Clear ALL history and All cookies from your browser, leave nothing behind
- If your credit card was exposed then go ahead and cancel it
- Run a full scan and clean on your device
- Stop any communication you may have with the scammer
- Do not just click on any link, check out their whitepapers and official sites for info
- Report it so that they can be stopped
A simple but often overlooked detail is the “Do you want this device to save your password” functionality of browsers. You should NEVER save passwords on your browser. These are very easy to steal.
Summary
They try to catch you out by offering you things that are so good you start feeling heightened emotions. Now you want to click that link. They fool you by carefully hiding in plain site waiting for you to just not pay enough attention.
Always remember DYOR (do your own research) and that there is no such thing as free in crypto. Keep this in mind and you are far more likely to escape with your wallet and your pride intact.
Don’t be scared away by these uncouth lot trying to take you for a fool. The crypto scene is booming and those with enough patience and caution can truely change their lives for the better.