Bitcoin Forum

  While humans keep looking for easy way out of their financial woes, there is a high tendency they will keep failing prey for lack of financial intelligence and their unwillingness to learn. The blockchain industry is a bit technical and the basic of bitcoin transactions can be taught in a simple way and be digested by any willing mind.

It happened last year that my former course mate saw things about bitcoin on my status, he decided to pay me visit for some tutorials, I gave him an introductory class with some notes, since I was not going to help him invest his money on some money spinning machine with a daily or weekly payout, he never show up again.

In the early hours of today he dropped two messages on my whats-app as follows:

1. How long does it take bitcoin wallet to transfer bitcoin before it gets to the receiver?
2. And what is the highest a beginner can transfer out of his wallet?

At the introductory class, he was thought the 2 above and what a custodian and non-custodian wallet is all about.
Long story short, himself and his friend bought bitcoin using bitstocksFx, never heard of this broker before, besides, I don't need any third party to buy me bitcoin. They claimed to be a bitcoin broker, they had initially purchased $500 worth, the suppose brother told them it was too small to be transferred out because they were new, they deposited additional $500, the next day they saw an imaginary $15k which they couldn't transfer out, they were told the money was invested for them and they need to deposit more in other to withdraw both the capital and the interest. When he suspected some foul play, he remembered me. I told he had rejected a free training class and that his friend and him have been scammed. I just recommended where he can legitimately buy bitcoin.

People hate to hear the truth, and the price they have to pay for short cut is been victim of scammers. I am waiting for him if he still wants to learn the basics of bitcoin, this I will still do for free.

That is one costly short cut he took. Ideally anyone else would have invested more but your stupid friend was smart enough to understand it was a scam. People still believe Bitcoin is the shortest way to become a millionaire.

They should understand Bitcoin is not a scheme first. It is a technology to become financially independent.

That's a very unfortunate story to hear. It's too easy to fall prey to any of the scam websites that claim to do X or Y but never deliver.

I've seen several "coin swap/exchange" websites (clones of legitimate sites like changelly) that show very appealing prices but the entire site is fake so if you happen to try and deposit coins you just lose your funds. Very nasty, especially since these sites are hard to spot. Even worse, you can find posts and articles around the web which promote the fake site because they have an affiliate program running!

I hope your friend has learned his lesson and didn't get butthurt too badly to give up on crypto entirely.

Life teaches don't act without knowing what is being done: and even more bitcoin needs knowledge.
They sinned that they wanted to make money quickly without studying: they were punished.
Nothing is given to you for free, you have to commit yourself to understanding...

Bitcoin lessons aren't cheap at all, some times we send to the wrong address, some times we spend in the wrong exchange or some times we invest in the wrong scheme, but they are just lessons, no one say it would be easy.

I would completely agree with your statement above. I can still remember the first time I bought Bitcoin and was transferring between wallets, I was so nervous that something would go wrong and I would lose my money. I also remember being amazed at how quickly the transfer went through and I could see and spend my Bitcoins - what an awesome moment!

It's worth mentioning that when sending, always double verify the receiving address. You can quickly check the first few characters, and the last few characters to be fairly certain the copy/paste was correct. I suppose if you're real paranoid you could double check every character also!  ;D

Moreover, it's not like dealing with fiat is much easier, it just has different problems. I've never lost any BTC, and it was not hard for me to learn how to use a wallet, how to send and receive BTC. With fiat, the wrong address or wrong exchange kind of problems are highly unlikely, but getting scammed is always a possibility. Also, you can get robbed on the streets, lose your banknotes accidentally or spoil them with water, food, heat, clumsiness. Not to mention how dirty banknotes are because people touch and exchange them so much! Knowledge is always important, especially when it comes to financial matters. Bitcoin doesn't require anything exceptional regarding that IMO.

Its never been has a cost on learning about bitcoin or crypto but good thing that you are telling them and giving out some of your time on educating them.
If they do neglect you out then its their choice and now their coming back just to seek out some advise? Good thing you still accept them.
Newbies do really have that common mistake which do really end up on investing to things which do offers too good to be true until
they do realize that they had made some mistake when they got scammed.

We have the same experience. When I first get my very first money here in this forum, Everytime I click, I ask my friend who have more knowledge on bitcoin. I want to make sure that every step, I will not make a wrong move for me to not to lose the money. Knowledge is the very first needed in digital currency. Since, we do not know who facilitates all the transactions  in the digital world.

More like they should stop believing in "brokers". Like, really, brokers for irl is already filled with words like scam scam scam (majority if not all) so why wouldn't it even be more so especially with how the internet is literally a free medium for them to scam others WITHOUT being caught. And knowledge is honestly very easy to obtain. Though you may need to filter a lot to be able to learn efficiently. The internet has a plethora of knowledge all over. No need to get lessons or what.

I wonder what percentage of people who go out to learn how to use bitcoin don't view it as a get rich quick scheme? Regarding how much knowledge of bitcoin they need to use it properly, knowing how to use whatever wallet software you choose should be good enough, because if too much technical knowledge of blockchains is required before you can buy and sell stuff in bitcoin, then there would be sharply less people less willing to use it because many of them can't comprehend technical details.

Consumer items that require less technical knowledge to operate tend to be more successful.

May your friends gain valuable experience from that fatal mistake. Cryptocurrency is not something easy, it requires sufficient knowledge and experience to be able to adapt well. If you join cryptocurrency just because of the desire to get rich quickly, it will increase the opportunity to get caught in a scam. Desire should be balanced with a great learning process, the right strategy, and guidance from people who can be trusted, do not be lured into big rewards from people you do not know especially from the internet.
Op has been kind enough to give free courses, unfortunately, his friend did not pay attention to it.

It's the same in everything you do. If you lack electrical knowledge and start repairing electronics you will mess up the hardware and maybe even endanger your own life. If you have no experience in construction and start building houses you'll probably won't do well.

People think they can invest with 0 knowledge and profit because some teenagers became millionaires. :D

That can be lessen if you start to learn before investing, but since there’s a lot of greedy people who keep on investing without having the right knowledge. Crypto investing is really expensive, and if you make a mistake you can’t undo that so make sure to make a decision that is base on your analysis. Don’t depend on any investment signal, those are not worth it in the long run.

Honestly, it goes far beyond crypto-literacy, if someone fell for a scam like that, it could have happened with them in any other situation, like investing in stocks or opening a bank account or buying something online. Scams are not exclusive to crypto and same schemes can just as easily work with fiat, but a lot of people don't get scammed because they have some common sense and check the reputation of the sites they are going to deal with.

You are right, fraud can happen everywhere, and when it comes to new technologies and innovations such as cryptocurrency especially bitcoin will be an exclusive topic that is often made hyperbole. Crimes occur because of the opportunity and lack of knowledge of the target of fraud. That is why understanding the cryptocurrency ecosystem is important, one of the goals is to find out the worst risks so that they can make prevention strategies so that those risks can be minimized.

Unfortunately, most people are interested in bitcoin because it "can make rich quick" without knowing what its ecosystem is like. And innocently handed over their money to be multiplied. That is stupid. That's a big mistake in investing. Even more stupid for not asking questions and learning in advance with people who have the experience, such as the events described OP. That will lead to a bad experience.

i have seen that newcomers who suffer like this are suffering for two main reasons, first is their greed of wanting to become rich overnight which could also be the product of the second reason which is other newbies who misled them by giving them a lot of bad information.
for example for a long time i have seen a lot of people (on another forum, in the same country as me) thought blockchain.info is to bitcoin as paypal.com is to paypal dollars! i had to spend a lot of time making them understand how things work and how blockchain.info (.com now) doesn't own bitcoin and they shouldn't even be using it as their wallet.

As many people are coming to invest in the crypto industry, some malicious people are taking advantage to make some good to be true offers that will lead to the loss of funds to those newbie investors. if they arm themselves with enough knowledge to prevent by getting scammed with these crooks. First of all, when you are offered by someone who claims to know this industry very well, you need to research some reviews of that offer. usually, if it is good to be true, then that kind of offers have a high percentage of fraud or ponzi scheme.

That is what people get from someone that offers a big profit in the short term. Your friend needs to learn more about bitcoin because once he bought bitcoin at the exchanges and hold it, he doesn't need to buy another bitcoin if he doesn't want. After all, that will be enough for them to keep it for a while.

I guess he doesn't want to learn from you, so he decides to learn by himself, and unfortunately, he got the bad experience in out there. There is nothing to blame in this case because he chooses to search by himself and don't ask you about those 2 questions. Perhaps, if he asks you, he doesn't have to get that experience, but all things already happen, and you can hope that he can learn from his mistake.

This type of scam is the most stupid one of all.
Deposit more funds so you can withdraw?!?WTF?No broker or invesment fund works like that.
Those 2 guys that were scammed didn't do any simple research about the service-online reviews,scam reposts,etc.They would have been scammed,even if they were using a non-crypto related HYIP "investment" scam.Nobody with a brain will signup to some unknown "broker" and deposit 1K USD just like that.
It's not about knowledge.It's about common sense and being cautious.

It would be great listen for other who want to enter into bitcoin especially for very beginner. To be honest most of peoples are getting scam due greedy behavior. They don't try to learn at least minor technical issues before do something. And when someone suggest them they like just skip it and they want earn shortcut. There is no any shortcut way to earn either online or offline. Online shortcut will drive to scam and they already realized that after got scam.

Always should acquire better knowledge when you are going to do something new that you are not familiar with it. Especially bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, if not then it's very easy to cheat by scammers. Hope whoever's reading this topic they would learn from it what is the outcome of shortcut.

The situation of your friend is a great example that "Knowledge is Power." People tend to neglect what they think are unimportant because they think they know most/everything already. In real life situation, especially in Bitcoin, you really need knowledge, experience, and advice from people. Even those with higher rankings admit that they are not at the peak of learning yet. They constantly learn through discussions and peer to peer relations, as well as from experiences like these. It's good that you tried to lecture them about Bitcoin. However, at times of transactions, especially when we think we can get easy money (which most people think about Bitcoin), we should be very cautious. We must first refer to people that has experience already or has prior knowledge especially at Bitcoin transfer (where most people are scammed). If one thinks or has a sense that the transfer might be a scam, especially if the broker isn't a legit one, stop it already.

When we educate more people, we can stop frauds like this and even help Bitcoin gain trust from people.

To be honest cryptocurrency or investing in the cryptocurrency is more likely investing on some industry or companies but the thing is there is a lot of hurdles you need to understand in this case but on the other side the investments that you have been invest has a chance to double up or increase as much was you want to do, I probably say that this is one of the big risk part on the cryptocurrency but if you know what you are risking and you are ready from it then it is probably be a good one to risk on.

There are really lots of scams here in the industry of cryptocurrency and I can say that we should be aware of that and to prevent that knowledge and understanding is really important. You can prevent it on your own if you have really studied the particular project. It is really true that there are lots of projects that are intentionally scamming other people but if you have read their whitepaper wherein all of the information, the target, the platform of that particular project is stated. By knowing that, you can notice if that project is gonna get successful in the future, you can also take information from the current investors of that particular projet if they really do trust it and it is possible to earn there buy supporting that particular project.

How come that it is not about knowledge on crypto? if they don't have enough knowledge on crypto then probably they will just having a very big problem because it is not all about the common sense but it is all about the things that they need to know in so many terms. When i am a newbie here on crypto I seek so much information about here and research on what is crypto so that i have gained knowledge on this field so this is not about having a common sense but also having the knowledge on what things are going into.

Very expensive lesson to learn indeed, have heard similar horror story in the past and it keep coming. I guess noobs really need to understand how everything really works before investing their hard earn money. Otherwise, more will be scammed and they think that the whole crypto thingy is shit.

Scammers in crypto sphere are everywhere, and if greed takes over, you wouldn't think that you are going to be scam and look forward to the profits that you are going to make, until you realised that you have been scammed. Knowledge is the key here if everyone wanted to stay long and not be victimised by this criminals.

They fell victim because of their lack of knowledge and being lazy to learn the basics.
What a shame they have to learn it the hard way but it is the price they have to pay for being lazy.
The eagerness of earning without the knowledge is the reason why many newbie's are being scammed.

I think that it is not easy to detect fraudsters brilliantly. Each of us went through a bad experience when someone defrauded us. It is worth noting that the fraud methods are very smart. There must be great caution in transactions related to bitcoin and similar digital currencies. Guiding him and making him read more about the world of Crypto, and it is best to show him successful examples to improve his situation.

These guys had a hard lesson on how to know BTCitcoin. The sad thing is that they did not accept the knowledge of their true friend who asked him nothing in return. I am learning about Bitcoin and cryptos and I say it this way because one never stops learning. I learned on my own, I learned to be a bounty hunter and while I participated in my first ICO is when bitcoin and crypto started to amaze me. I have always followed the advice of the community that we must be cautious and make good use of digital tools to be able to handle in the crypto space.

When I see such people I don’t really stress myself much about them. If you’re not going to be patient and wait for me to teach you what you’re meant to know then it’s your business and you’re going to face the consequences alone when it hits. And moreover I’m still surprised that people will still rush into whatever they see without doing proper research.

Even when I was still new to internet business and all that, when I see sites I always do research and I look for reviews about them to know whether they are scam. I never failed to do this for any platform I see online that got my interest.

I don’t believe things easily, I do serious research and make sure that it’s accurate before I choose, and my research is not based on just one site, I dig information from lots of sites to be able confirm, and not just any sites but big and we’ll known sites that wouldn’t play with their reputation and I also ask questions on forums, Facebook and Reddit. I did all these when I was still new to avoid scams till I reached the extent where I’m able to easily tell projects and sites that are scammers without even having to ask.

I agree. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain world requires constant learning as the world of new and modern technologies as well otherwise you can't keep the track.
However, many people still think that pure luck, guessing and accidental situations are enough.
If someone doesn't have enough good will and patience to learn it's better not to even start dealing with cryptocurrencies. Working on yourself and gathering new information and experiences all the time it's the only way to become successful.

This is a scam using bitcoin as bait. Its not even original, I'm pretty sure i have read of this exact scam here on Bitcointalk. The reason scammers exist, and have existed in all times is to exploit people's ignorance. Hey i will sell you this bridge; the bridge is the bait.

They were simply scammed out of their ignorance. Bitcoin has no limits whatsoever its a blatant lie like that bridge fellow claiming ownership... Weren't you supposed to actually check who owned the bridge? Why act the same with Bitcoin?

• Bitcoin transfers tend to take a day at most using the cheapest transfer fee (1 sat/B)
• There are no limits.

Why can't people ASK others before pouring hundreds or thousands of dollars to strangers? No wonder scammers exist, you should refer to the SCAM industry, which is UNRELATED to Bitcoin.

Truly these guyzs are everywhere and one must be more careful to fight against them or not to fall prey to them. Many obvious scamming are still pumping up everyday and people are still victim of these scams, the problem is those of them newborn to the industry who have little or no knowledge about the technology, they are the first victims before those who are much greedy. Personally, I have rescued many of my friends from gotten be scammed with this type of scams. They always ask to send first before you can withdraw from their ponzi scheme and how on earth will you invest $300 and expect to get back a whopping sum of $1000? These are clear case that proof they are scams.

Many people ignore the process and are only money-oriented. So they ignore the learning process that is so important as a basis for adapting to ecosystems that are very difficult to guess, as well as facing war without preparing weapons, it is careless. Even though the OP has offered to help, but it seems like his friend just wants to get immediate profits, and finally gets caught up in a scam, which is unfortunate. This is a lesson for all of us if we encounter new things and want to try it out, it is better to learn first from those who already have experience in that field, do not just make money and results as the main goal.

Yes, and untill we make sure to talk with our family members, friends and close relatives to let them know that bitcoin is not some magic money printing machine (although at times the media has made it sound like it). Yes, you can't skip knowledge but for those of us in the know we should be open with our closest circle of people about what to look for, in the worst case scenario (let's say you have a LOT of people you care about and this would basically go on forever if you try to educate every single one of them), let them know they can ask you questions about crypto, so that they never fall prey to scammers like these.