During the recent wave of gigantic increases in the price of cryptocurrencies, many people became interested in this topic and decided to invest their money in some digital assets. Such situations are an opportunity for hackers and thieves. Due to the virtually zero possibility of recovering cryptocurrencies, we need to warn ourselves against swindlers and scammers. Here are the most common ones.
Send once, receive twice
This method gained popularity about two-three years ago and continues to trend with scammers. The scam is that you send them a certain amount of a particular cryptocurrency, usually Bitcoin or Ethereum, and they promise to send you back 2 times that amount or even more. Too stupid for anyone to fall for? Maybe, but people sometimes get fooled anyway blinded by the desire to get easy money. Free giveaways are generally advertised and endorsed by big personalities or require no contribution. It is important to keep this in mind when we come across such opportunities.
Financial pyramids and Ponzi schemes
This scam is a little more advanced, nevertheless the losses the user can suffer are very high. The first warning sign is the investment opportunity where they write about maximum profits and guaranteed return. Here you have to be careful, because the certainty is death at the most, not profits on strange projects. It works on a simple mechanism. The organizer takes money from investors and this alleged inflow of cash comes in reality from other people who put money later. This cycle can repeat indefinitely as long as there are enough people.
Fake wallets and mobile apps
You've probably more than once seen an advertisement on Google Play about free cryptocurrencies and built-in wallets. After installing such an app, the beginning seems to be very quiet. We mostly earn some points, which we exchange for cryptocurrencies and after collecting a minimum amount, we receive a payout. It is often the case that the payout amount is very high and the potential profit is disproportionate to the user's effort. In the end, the user gets nothing and the application earns money on ads, referred products and much more.
Phishing
Phishing is a real nightmare that takes its toll. Who has not received an email about a prize of 100 Bitcoins, let him first raise his hand. People impersonate personalities in the world of cryptocurrencies, companies, exchanges and contact by email or phone and sometimes even through fake websites. When we enter such sites they are often deceptively similar to popular exchanges or projects and we are asked to log in with a wallet or provide personal information. In this way the fraudster has our wallet data and can rob us in this way. This is especially true for the seed phrase, which is the key to our wallet. If someone has it, he has our wallet. In such cases we should always check the website link to see if there are any typos or if it is a trustworthy website.
There are as many methods of cheating as the thief will be very creative. We must beware of such offers and watch our pocket, our cryptocurrency wallet. After all, none of us would want our bank account to be wiped out right? So why are we sometimes irresponsible in the context of cryptocurrencies? We need to be aware of this.
