New scams are created every day! Thieves are finding fun and unique ways to con you out of your crypto. Here are a few simple rules to follow and they might just save your assets.
The most common way to pull off a scam is to fabricate a fake ICO, create marketing hype and persuade people to buy. That is because ICOs are a great and innovative way to kickstart a company and that is the aspect that is misused. (Read: What Are ICOs ( Initial Coin Offering) & Why Are They Good For You?)
Ethereum has become the breeding ground for these fraudulent ICOs but Ethereum is not directly responsible for it as it is an open-source project. Instead, it is the ignorance of newbie investors who dream of 100x gains in a matter of weeks by just HODLing worthless ICO tokens.
Usual signs of fraud ICOs or Token Sales:
So, in order to keep your funds safe, no matter which type of exchange you choose (either direct trading, trading platform, or through brokers), it’s essential to do a bit of homework before you start trading professionally. And the thing you should always assess first, before fees, verification requirements, and payment methods, is the reputation of the particular crypto exchange.
The shady exchanges that are blowing up for a night and then start bragging are something every newbie crypto enthusiasts needs to stay away from.
With the launch of Bitcoin, many fake android wallets have also been launched on play store.
That’s why it is a big NO from us to pick any wallet randomly from the play store because there are chances that it will be fraudulent and you may end up losing your money.
Though these wallets may promise you the seed and control of your funds, never fall for them without proper due-diligence.
It is one of the easiest ways to scam people and happens many times during the launch of Bitcoin forks. These wallets take your seed or private keys and rip you off your BTC too.
The pyramid scheme in a nutshell: the scammer comes up with a ‘foolproof’ investment scheme. Enters the goose, just ready to be plucked. The swindler will persuade the goose to tie his money into this outstanding venture, promising higher gains.
The goose will then invest a sum amount in the idea. But that’s not all – the initial investors now have the job to bring in new investors if they want to get a share of that dough or, in this case, digital coins.
Once the new investors step in, the older ones begin getting payouts. And it goes merely on until the new investors well run dry. In the end, the only one who stands to win is the scammer.
Pump & Dump groups on Telegram, Slack, and IRC are not something new in the traditional market also so why the crypto market will be left behind in this.
If you search on Telegram, you will find many crypto groups with 40,000-100,000 members in it.
What do you think they do in such groups? They don’t chit-chat. Instead, these groups are the tools to manipulate the prices of altcoins that have low market caps.
In this way, people who act fast or first get the advantage and the people who are a bit late suffer from the plummeting prices in just a matter of minutes.
There are several tools available in the market to monitor the volume increase in a particular crypto which helps in identifying such schemes.
I know some people make money like this but I am not one of them and I would suggest you stay away from it too.
The most sophisticated form of scam.
In this type of crypto scam, scammers make fake Twitter and Facebook account to impersonate the actual legit project or the person behind it.
You will find many impersonators on Twitter acting like Vatalik Buterin or Binance’s CEO and announcing airdrops etc which are never true.