What are crypto scams?
Cryptocurrency is a decentralized system of trading currencies. This makes it susceptible to scammers trying to steal your money. The massive growth of cryptocurrency has also actively created many opportunities for fraud. A Crypto scam is a type of investment fraud that involves criminals stealing money from people hoping to invest in digital currencies known as cryptocurrencies. This article will educate you about crypto scams and how to stay away from them.
Crypto scams and how to stay away from them?
There are two types of cryptocurrency scams:
- The type of scam where the scammer will try and get your credentials to have access to your digital wallet
- The type of scam where the scammers will try and convince you to pay them/transfer your money to them.
Here are some precautions that will tell you about crypto scams and how to stay away from them:
- Although it may not always be easy, you should be on alert and try your best to identify a scammer. They are always looking for new and innovative money to get a hold of your money. For example, a person who tells you that you can only pay by cryptocurrency is surely trying to scam you. It is important to stay vary of them as, if paid by crypto, there is no way of getting your money back.
- Investments and big business opportunities are commonly used ways of scammers to lure people in. These scammers often offer fake promises of huge investment opportunities that are ‘guaranteed’ to yield huge results. Most of the time, they also offer you free money. They will also come to you with faulty endorsements. Be alert and thoroughly verify such offers. Most of the time, they turn out to be scammers.
- Some scammers will try to send you blackmail emails. These emails can contain threats of exposing your compromising pictures, your data, etc. unless you agree to pay them. You should know that this is a huge crime that comes under the category of blackmail and extortion. Do not be scared and immediately take action by reporting these emails to the police authorities.
- In this growing age of social media, scammers have found a way to scam you through social media. If you see a tweet, post, and story or receive a message or an email to transfer cryptocurrency, or to give up your details, more often than not, it is a scam. This usually happens in the manner of scammers impersonating to be celebrities In this case, their account is hacked. If you receive such indications from someone you know, it is advised that you double-check or even triple-check with them to know for sure if it was them asking for your cryptocurrency or not.
- Many times, scammers try to impersonate influencers and get you to participate in giveaways where they claim to match the amount or double the amount that is sent to them through cryptocurrency. Beware of such giveaway scams. This can be done in the name of charities too.
With crypto currency’s growing popularity, the number of scammers is also on the rise. In the last year alone, almost 7,000 people have claimed to lose about 80 million dollars in these crypto scams. An individual looking to invest or already investing in cryptocurrency must be aware of crypto scams and how to stay away from them. Hope this article provides you insight and what you can do to prevent scammers from taking your money and crypto.
