Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad people out there. They often take advantage of the little experience of new players who discover the Bitcoin ecosystem and all its benefits.
In this article, we are going to analyze different scams ordered by categories, and we will explain how to stay away and prevent more than one of these awkward episodes.
The age of the Internet brought a large number of viruses, malware, and other scams to the world. Unfortunately, the value, anonymity, and digital nature of cryptocurrency means that scammers can now make money much easier through dangerous downloads.
As always, you should not click on attachments from unknown emails or potentially dangerous links. You should also know that Bitcoin is used as bait. For example, a post on social media where someone says that you can get Bitcoin by merely downloading a program, or a link to an alleged Bitcoin exchange that offers gifts to get you started. Such offers should always be treated with caution.
There are plenty of legitimate and safe cryptocurrency exchanges, but chances are you won’t get them by following external links.
Someone offers an investment plan that promises an incredible return on your investment thanks to the magic of Bitcoin. Many people invest in that, and then someone runs away with all that money.
At first, it might seem like it works. Numbers in your account may be increasing as promised, and from time to time, someone could come out to talk about “how it works” and how it changed their lives. But when you try to get those funds back, you may find that “customer service” is not responding well, or that there are technical issues, or that the money will be return soon or several other excuses.
So one day the company just goes missing, and the money is never seen again. Ponzi schemes can be evil in the cryptocurrency world. Most people know very little about cryptocurrencies, other than that, some people are making themselves a millionaire. It makes selling big promises easier than ever.
Watch out for offers too good to be true. Think about whether the promised returns are sustainable and what the numbers mean. If it seems too good to be true, it is probably false.
Do your homework. If it resembles a Ponzi scheme, you better avoid it, expressly if hundreds of people agree. Some legal services can be accused of being a scam, while some of these scams may go unnoticed for a while. In case of doubt, you should not invest anything you do not want to lose.
Check the signs of legitimacy. Check if the company is registered and if you can identify the owners. Scammers probably value your anonymity.
Fake ICOs invite investors to get a newly created coin that is going to take off and will be the next big thing. It can be tricky because sometimes the creators themselves don’t know that they are selling junk.
Avoid ICO scams by researching and discovering what you are getting in.
You must decide if a new coin has the potential to take-off and if the engineers know what they are doing. If you do not have the knowledge to judge, you should probably avoid all ICOs.
It involves the simple exchange of cryptocurrencies directly between the parties involved, without the help of any trusted intermediary, such as a money exchange. The success or failure of such an exchange depends, of course, on the circumstances and the parties involved.
Exchange adverts abound on social media and chat, offering to buy or sell cryptocurrencies with different payment methods. Some may be legitimate, but others will request that they send the funds first and disappear with them. Therefore, when trading cryptocurrencies, it is necessary to resort to a regular part.
Keep in mind that, possibly (and more during the first phase of being caught up in a scam, you will receive commissions, which will make you not suspicious since it depends on this that you spread the word and bring more people to the scam, but the moment when your money disappear will come.
These scams take advantage not only of the ignorance but also of people’s greed. No one can assure you will hace fixed benefits on something.
Inside the investments world, but especially in those related to Bitcoin, we need to follow a golden rule: never play with the money that you need, only with what you do not mind losing, and first at all, try to analyze very well where it is. The worst of these situations is that those who end up most affected are those who most need the money that has been stolen from them.
Nowadays, we need to remember that the problem it’s not the cryptocurrency, but the way some of us tend yo use it. These types of scams are present on a daily basis when it comes to Euros, Dollars or any other currency you can imagine. The whole purpose of this article is that you have to be alerted to the different scams that you can find.
Always investigate before acquiring any software or participation in a project.
Now you know why we wanted to show you some typical cases, but they are not the only ones.
However, we hope that, with the shared examples, we can have turned your eyes into agile scam detectors, and know in which direction to run once you find yourself facing one of them.
Image by Ondřej Šponiar from Pixabay
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