All you need to know about Bitcoin scammers

Whether you like it or not, the market cap is currentlyBitcoin is already worth $10.5 billion. If any of you still haven’t realized how big a pile of money this is, then scammers have been keeping their eyes open for a long time and are ready to do anything to grab their share.

Regardless of whether you practicecryptocurrency professionally or just trying to embark on this path, we recommend that you track as often as possible information about fresh revelations and, in general, about major frauds in this area. I would also like to thank the Coin Republic resource, the specialists of which kindly provided information for infographics, as well as the CryptoCoinNews resource for the fact that the guys constantly share up-to-date information about scams that are somehow related to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

In general, Bitcoin scams and scams can be divided into several categories:

Fake Websites

At the very beginning of 2016, one of the usersReddit lost several BTC resources after investing them in a fake (fake) site disguised as the popular exchange platform ShapeShift.io. The site really was very similar to the original, except that a letter was missed in its address, which is quite difficult to notice. As soon as this information was received by the ShapeShift team, the guys immediately posted a press release, which acted as a warning to other users of the exchanger.

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It is worth noting that this is far from an isolated case. Periodically, there are fakes in the image of BitStamp, Bitcoin Foundation, Blockchain.info and other popular resources.

By creating an exact copy of the popular platform,fraudsters fish out the usernames and passwords of gullible users, or attract money from inattentive wallets. By the way, many of these fraudulent sites are even found in Google ads!

How to avoid problems:Follow verified links from people you know. Each time, pay attention to whether the site address is spelled correctly and whether the connection is protected by an SSL certificate.

Divorce

Found on the Internet who wants to sell you bitcoins,or claims to accept payment in cryptocurrency? Then with a great probability you are a fraudster who will disappear the very second you send your money to him.

This type of fraudster can enter into trustpeople in many different ways. Some are so tricky that they manage to send fake identification cards or hide behind the name and appearance of other people, often for these purposes an image is taken of someone from the experts known in the bitcoin community.

There are several types of bitcoin divorce:

Trustworthy advertising of scam resources using links to fake and phishing sites, as well as empty promises of all kinds of bonuses or a 300% return on investment.
Often attackers introduce themselvesrecommended sellers and use positive feedback from fake customers as their main argument and sell you non-existent BTC coins. To make their offer more attractive, BTCs are offered at below market value.
Advertising and sale of nonexistentpre-order mining equipment. In this case, the attackers fish out money from inexperienced miners who hope for the amount paid to get the most modern cryptocurrency mining equipment at home.

How to avoid problems:listen to your intuition.Often, too good and profitable offers turn out to be a scam. Try to trust only trusted companies and services, and always pay attention to the spelling of the site address, and never click on links indicated in suspicious emails. If you have the slightest doubt about the source, try to contact the support of this resource. If you decide to purchase or sell BTC somewhere in your city, then insist on a personal meeting or use escrow services.

Pyramids and schemes of Ponzi

No matter how professional the website looks,An experienced Internet user will always recognize a financial pyramid in it. However, it is worthwhile to pay tribute to the scammers associated with the pyramids, as they make good psychologists who can manipulate people with their own greed and desire for profit. If you stumble upon a beautiful website where you are promised profits of unprecedented volumes (up to 100-200-300% per annum), or you often come across people who, every now and then, try to lure you to such sites, then you can be sure in that this is another one-day pyramid.

Bitcoin financial pyramids orOther cryptocurrencies can be represented in various images and formats, but the most popular types can be called those in which you are offered dividends for storing bitcoin deposits or pools and cloud mining services of cryptocurrencies.

Often investors are offered attractiveincome from placing their hard-earned bitcoins in the vaults of a fraudulent service. In addition, it is common practice when a deposit is frozen for a fixed period, only after which it will be possible to return the invested funds. But we hope you understand that in 95% of cases you will not receive any dividends, or even your own invested money. In 2015, there was a major scandal with the MyCoin platform, when about 3,000 depositors lost a total of $ 3 billion. And you probably already heard about the March event: over 1,000 depositors encroached on a promise of 250% per annum, and lost about $ 50 million.

As for the pools and cloud mining services,then these guys offer “investors” to mine bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies without worrying about buying expensive equipment. In theory, you buy or rent a certain amount of computing power, which is subsequently used for mining cryptocurrencies, but such services tend to suddenly disappear from the horizon at the moment when you and other deceived “equity holders” have not even recouped the investment. Famous in certain circles, Gavin Andresen strongly does not recommend contacting such services, even if they have been working for many years and have long proved their reliability, since the very idea of cloud mining always carries a potential danger.

There is another, less common type,fraudsters masquerading as an innovative and breakthrough network marketing company (MLM or multi-level marketing). Today, such companies are really gradually introducing the ability to operate bitcoins in the personal accounts of consultants and participants, but even so, the network company is, in fact, a referral program, and we recommend that you bypass them.

How to avoid problems:Avoid overly tempting offers.If a sentence “sounds too good to be true,” it probably is! As for network companies, even if you receive recommendations from friends, do not rush into decisions: often your friends themselves do not yet fully understand what they have gotten themselves into.

Phishing links and sites

Many people mistakenly think that userscryptocurrencies are more tech savvy and simply impossible to trick into phishing. Forced to upset you. At the end of 2015, BitPay lost BTC for a total of almost $ 2 million precisely because of phishing. If you quickly comb through Reddit, you can find information about many different phishing attacks and fraud. When using services such as Bitstamp, LocalBitcoins, Coinbase, and blockchain.info, try to be extremely vigilant.

How to avoid problems:Follow only verified links from people you know. Each time, pay attention to whether the site address is written correctly and whether the connection is protected by an SSL certificate.

Deception in plugins and applications

This type of fraud has begun to gain momentum.relatively recently, but carries no less danger. Unfortunately, now we can not be fully protected from fraud even in applications and plugins.

At the end of 2015, the Bitcoin community stirred up information about the rapidly expanding Localbitcoin application, which was then available in the Android application market.

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A couple of months ago, in March of this year,A tarnished reputation has been gained by a Chrome browser add-on called BitcoinWisdom Ads Remover. This script was able to replace the QR code when converting currencies in popular exchange platforms and thereby send money to the attacker's wallet.

How to avoid problems:It is unlikely that any of us will be able to predict whatof subsequent applications will turn out to be fraudulent. First of all, you shouldn’t trust high ratings and a series of exclusively positive reviews, as it’s very easy to cheat them. Experienced users already know that ratings in the Android Play Store should never be trusted. Before downloading any application that is unfamiliar to you, try to contact the developer indicated in the information in any way and make sure that the application was actually created by him.

Deception at the expense of authority

This type of fraud is the most difficult to recognize. Many attackers have been rubbing their trust in the participants of the Bitcoin community for a very long time. One of the major scandals of this kind broke out around the Cryptsy exchange platform, which for a long time hid from its users the fact that subsequently the hacker attack lost $ 6 million. Instead of honest confession, users simply lost the opportunity to withdraw their own money and get any clarification. And the community will probably always remember the case of Mt Gox - an exchanger that suddenly disappeared, like the 744 thousand BTC stored in the platform’s reserve.

Another high-profile hoax happened in late Marchthe current code, when the attackers acted as the organizers of the London Bitcoin Forum, and collected many thousands of pounds from those who would like to attend such a grand event. The program of the never-held forum included speeches and lectures of famous personalities in the Bitcoin community, presentations, and much more. When the deceivers collected enough money, the site simply fell out of sight, and the page on Facebook was blocked. As a result, today all information about planned events related to Bitcoin is undergoing thorough verification.

How to avoid problems:Take such news with a grain of salt, and try to familiarize yourself with the history of the companies and people who advertise upcoming events.

In conclusion

All of the above methods, and even more soThe revealed facts of fraud and deception will not exactly add to the reputation of the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Was this the natural development of a decentralized financial instrument? The current state of affairs, namely the absence of any regulation of cryptocurrencies, unleashes the hands of attackers. One can hardly expect that people will deceive less or that there will be less deceived, and therefore we recommend that you be careful and carefully check all the information and platforms that you are going to entrust your own money with.

: coingecko.com