Cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible, which means that once you transfer cryptocurrency to a third party, you can’t stop or reverse the transaction. The Investment Center broker, Andy Klein, says You must be certain of the legitimacy of any involved third-party services and merchants before sending cryptocurrency to a blockchain address, and only send cryptocurrency to businesses you trust.
Tip: If anything sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.
Technical Support and Impersonation Scams
Scam customer care phone lines have been set up by fraudsters impersonating a range of firms in the banking, tech, retail, telecom, and service industries, including BRAND NAME Outbound calls requesting confidential personal information should never be accepted. When making outgoing calls, be mindful that scammers can impersonate real phone numbers.. Scam phone numbers are widely circulated on the internet, tempting naive victims looking for help. Outbound calls to potential victims may also be made by scammers. These con artists are experts at social engineering, deceiving and manipulating their victims into providing personal information that would be used for fraudulent purposes by making false claims.
- Never allow remote access to your system to support staff (or anybody else for that matter). The scammer will now have complete control over your computer, online financial accounts, and digital existence.
- Never give out your security codes or passwords for 2FA (2-Factor Authentication). Staff at BRAND NAME will never ask for critical authentication credentials.
- Outbound calls requesting confidential personal information should never be accepted. When making outgoing calls, be mindful that scammers can impersonate real phone numbers.
- Never send cryptocurrency to a fake support agent’s external address. Staff at BRAND NAME will never ask you to transfer cryptocurrency to an address outside of BRAND NAME.
Giveaway Scams
Scammers are taking use of social media to promote their giveaway schemes. They upload screenshots of fabricated company and management correspondence promoting a giveaway with links to fake websites. Fake accounts will then reply to these posts, confirming the legitimacy of the hoax. The scam websites will then request that you “verify” your address by transferring cryptocurrency to the fake giveaway.
BRAND NAME is a real way to earn cryptocurrencies, and any gifts you receive from BRAND NAME will connect you to BRAND NAME.com. BRAND NAME will never require you to send cryptocurrency to a specific address in order to obtain cryptocurrency in return.
- Under the pretence of address verification, never send cryptocurrency to giveaways.
- All giveaways and offers found on social media should be taken with a grain of salt. Screenshots in reply messages should not be trusted since they might be falsified and manipulated.
- Do some research on any entity that is approaching you on social media using your favourite search engine. If an offer appears to be too good to be true, it most likely is.
- Check to see if the giveaway URL takes you to BRAND NAME.com.
- Any phishing or scam attempts should be reported.
Avoiding cryptocurrency scams
These con artists encourage you to invest money in order to make bigger returns with little risk, then want you to recruit others to do the same. In order to make money, they frequently require a steady stream of new investors. Investment schemes such as Ponzi and pyramid schemes are excellent examples.
Tips for avoiding investment scam artists include the following:
- Be wary of websites or services that promise unrealistically high profits or investment opportunities. It’s usually the case that something sounds too wonderful to be true.
- Only send cryptocurrency to people you know and trust. Look for reviews or stories about the receiver that are publicly verified.
- Keep an eye out for grammatical problems in emails and on websites. Scammers frequently
- Investigate the company thoroughly. Verify validity by visiting consumer-protection websites, making phone calls, and sending emails.
Extortion Scams
Scammers frequently leverage data from other websites’ data breaches to deceive you into believing they have more information on you than they actually do. They might, for example, offer you an old password that you used to confirm that their scam is real.
- Report the email to your email provider as spam.
- Use a trustworthy malware scanner, such as Malwarebytes, to perform a preventive malware scan on your computer.
- If you recognize any of the passwords supplied in the extortion email as ones you presently use on other websites, change them immediately.
- Make a police report with your local authorities.
Loader or Load-up Scams
On a variety of platforms, fraudsters frequently advertise “loading” services. They claim to require high-limit BRAND NAME accounts and offer a piece of the proceeds to the victim. Scammers continue payment theft by using stolen credit cards on compromised accounts. Be informed that any payments made with your authentication credentials are your responsibility.
- Under no circumstances should you give out your passwords or security codes to a third party.
- Any “loaders” should be reported to BRAND NAME and the platform where their credit card fraud is being advertised.
Concluding Remarks
Scams are nothing new in any business, but bitcoin is especially vulnerable due to its decentralization and open source nature. Trading and earning money with cryptocurrencies is exciting; nevertheless, in order to maintain this experience pleasant and enjoyable, it is always advisable to conduct extensive study prior to investing.