Bitcoin Forum

I read on the cointelegraph today about how scammers are using the recent pandemic to scam people using phishing, malicious malware attack and other scam tactics to scam people. I think this is well informative and worth peoples attention. That is why I brought it here on this forum. There are major things that I read:

1. Scammers are using fake donation platforms to trick victims to pay bitcoin.
2. Use of phishing attack tricks claming to sell products for residents of specific affected areas. They claim to sell hand sanitizers and face mask and demands high price but will not deliver the items.
3. Using phishing attack to steal private data or to install malware or ransomware into crypto wallet devices.
4. Also, hospitals are not left out, victims of cyberattack in hospital are willing to pay to regain access to hospital compromised equipments by cyber attackers.
5. A new ransomeware called CoronaVirus was discovered on malicious websites. A given amount of bitcoin will be demanded by the scammers in order to unlock back their devices.
6. Lastly, the use of corona virus map that infect users with malware and also using it to get access to passwords and other sensitive information stored on the website browsers.

This is the link to the news on cointelegraph is very helpful and I will like you to read the news in full details.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/beware-scammers-are-out-for-crypto-amid-the-coronavirus-pandemic

Let us all inform our people of this cyber attacks from the scammers, do not think only wallet owners can be affected,  some cyberattacks can also steal our banking or other sensitive information if you read the number 7above.  We should be safe and also handle our wallets and cryptocurrencies  as if scammers are always at work.

I have written some articles here on this forum about how to protect ourselves from scammers and about how to secure our crypto wallets. The two articles are well informative. Only the donation scamer tactic was not included as all these scam tactics above are what we wallet owners know about and avoiding daily. You will see the two articles helping using these links:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5232577.msg54021683#msg54021683

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5235930.msg54107672#msg54107672

And lastly, let us tell our family, friends about this scams because not we only wallet owners can be affected. Stay safe.

In my country,the scammers are calling old people on the phone and telling them that their relative has been infected with coronavirus,so they have to donate a certain amount for his/her medical treatment.This doesn't involve cryptocurrency payments,but it's a nasty scam nevertheless,because old people are naive and can get panicked very easy.
The fight with the hackers/scammers will continue despite the pandemic.

They create apps and capture victims once they have downloaded and installed the app. And the next what happens are the things that you mentioned. People are looking for ways to watchout the situation of the world for this pandemic.

But before installing, they have to verify the source and its authenticity. Not everything that they see are legit, they need to check it and everyone must be aware that scammers don't take rest even if we are in this dire situation.

how come that you will be easily fool with that scheme even they say it to you , you still need verified this situation you will contact them directly in thier number and social media accout and if that was true.

You will never send any money to people even they said that its part of your family without verifyng it.

To older people you need to always watch thier move every time and also remind them about this scheme so if ever this things happen they know how to react to that matter.

Today the virus is still continuously increasing the number of the infected and one of the things we need is to avoid and take care on our selves but there are many people trying to scam others by just telling to others they are trying to raising some funds just for the people getting affected by the virus and some of them are not true and legit it is just a scam trying to abuse the situation of other people, for now, we must be aware of the platform or the link they are trying to promote because some of those are just phishing websites that are trying to attempt to get the information of your device also it is better to make a background check to be more aware to avoid getting more risk even you are want to help.

Thanks for the fair warning, specially that we are under a crisis, even those scammers will not rest and have taken advantage of the covid-19 and created a lot of fake websites trying to lure a lot of people. So all of us need to be very vigilant as there are reports of people losing their money on such scam like this one.

PLEASE BEWARE - 14,000 XRP stolen from Ledger (https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/fqjyy3/please_beware_14000_xrp_stolen_from_ledger/). So we really need to educate ourselves and people around us that they need to be very careful and cautious.

While most people suffering from quarantine, there are people who earn on coronovirus. So in my city there are no masks in pharmacies, while disposable masks that work 2 hours on the market sell for $ 0.25 per mask. In general, since it is impossible to buy a mask in a pharmacy, it is better to sew it. In our pharmacies, even pharmacists have masks hand-sewn from gauze.

this is the main reason why we can not trust any site that are using bitcoin in payment, because if you get scammed no one can help you, no one can recover the money you've lost, you can not determine if this site is a phishing site, because they use everything to make it realistic so that everyone will believe that the money will go to the corona virus affected countries

every day a lot of news, the reliability of which people simply do not have time to check. people are in a panic. and scammers use it.

In my country, there were cases when people in special suits and respirators came into the house and said that they needed to carry out anti-virus treatment of the room. The homeowners believed them and let robbers in

That's a very relevant topic. While scam has always been around, in the situation of uncertainty it's even easier to manipulate people. Just yesterday I watched a great Vox video explaining a huge vulnerability related to emails. Turns out, sometimes it's easy to fake the official corporate email address, and this very much holds for the official WHO addresses. They haven't set up the protection protocol (DMARC), so it's not hard for scammers to send emails pretending to be the World Health Organization and ask for money (including BTC donations), and the receiver might get confused when the sender's email ends with @who.int. Here's the link  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CrbHvbvvMw)to the video in case you want to learn more. Be vigilant!

If it wasn’t the Corona Virus it’d be something else, there are dishonest, lying scammers in walks of life. It isn’t just in crypto, I’m sure many of us have been scammed on Paypal for example. Just keep your wits about you.

During a pandemic, or any crisis whether that is locally or worldwide I would like to see people banding together, and donating their contributions instead of looking to profit off of it. For example, local stores were increasing the price of their "vital" products, and there were masses of people over buying products, and trying to sell it off. There was an example of this in America where a guy purchased a huge amount of water bottles. I believe in the end all of those were donated, but if I remember the report correctly he was originally planning on profiting off of them.

The same goes for scams. The people who are capable of pulling off scams usually are the people who pray on the weak, and needy. That's why these scammers are successful in what they do. It's an unfortunate fact to admit too, but Bitcoin is no different.

Same here, seems we came from the same side. I wonder when such people that scam people will repent from their evil deeds and make this world a better place. The issue of people orchestrating scam approaches is increasing everyday around here from calling people to tell them their credit and bank accounts are having issues and they need some confidential information inorder to be able to rectify the issue to scammers impersonating project developers to scam people in telegram and other crypto social media. It's time for everyone to tighten up their games and be more at alert cause scam strategies do increase during pandemics

That's true, scammers use this current situation to deceive people, they use some application to fool people, some made a donation saying that it is for all the people that has been affected by the virus, they collect bitcoins from others, but based on their post you can see that it is not thst so professional, they don't have the credibility to handle those donation.

For sure those donation will only for them and they use this virus so there will be someone who may give him biycoin or any cryptocurrency.

There are always 2 kind of people in every occasion. First are those who are willing to help others, and Second are those who do anything to help themselves if it means to monetize the situation, by no hesitation they will do it.
I have witnessed how some people in my country hoard as much alcohol and N95 facemasks just before the pandemic become worse, and sold it 2x or 3x the actual retail price. Luckily after a week or two authorities has been arresting these overpriced sellers.

While, collecting donations for fake charity is a common kind of scam not only in crypto space, but also with the other form of payment methods.

Dear friend, those sort of scams are everywhere and just as you suggested, i agree with everyone has got the responsibility of tighten up their games.  Lots of them scammers will appear to provide healp due to the current pandemic and virtually everyone looking up to one another but insead device a means to scam them. I think global crisis is always a good period for the bad people to make more money.  And again, people need to be less greedy and stay far away from any financial investments options that promises high return during this period

It always happens no matter what crisis or tragedy we are in there are people who really like to do the bad deeds just to get what they want. People should know their rights and be wise enough not to support those who scam people. People should have to know how to distinguish the legitimacy of the charity before giving something because we are dealing with a real money here.

Exactly! If you really wanna help, start from your neighbourhood. More than likely, there is someone that needed much of your help rather than these scam sites. If they are promising you money in return, don't believe such thing, they are only created to rip money from gullible users. Scammers will always be here so it is your job to avoid them or warn others if you find one. And here in the forum, I think all corona related projects are scam as all of them are anonymous. If they do have good intentions, they will reveal themselves to the public.

Way to go for sharing this very informative article. Many of us may have been in the digital world for so long yet many people are still put onto a seat where they are being a victim by not being protective enough on their personal information. We become a target of scammers because they know that most people are really greedy for money or moreover, just someone who isn't educated enough. We must protect our personal data at all costs and do ways in which we can't be attacked by scammers. This information could also be shared to other individuals. Our investments, our bank details, our identity are vulnerable if and only if we won't take action.

It's disgusting that some people consider the pandemic as a new way of earning money. Although, cyber scamming isn't widely spread in my country, there are many people trying to make money out of others misery. Often they sell silly anti-coronavirus staff like badges, pendants or useless not medical masks which can't protect you from the virus.

This is true, however users are reminded by our community to keep cautious when dealing with the some of OPs mentioned. Its hurt that many people got scammed but it is more frustrating when some take advantage of what is current happening now. Especiallt wr are talking about donations here. Pandemic virus is vulnerable with the badass minded people and they even using their skills to fool many people out of money. Clearly  bitcoin decentralization has been compromised by thieves that dont know how to earn fair and square.

We already have the situation I guess we cannot remove people like this in the world, even here in my country they are so many people that are taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic.

I can't believe even donations are already becoming a scam since at this time it would be easier to scam people who would like to donate.

I think what we could do is just be aware of these scams and also just help in other ways, either way, we don't need to make it in crypto what is important is we are helping those who are in need.

Indeed. However, people are mostly ignorant ( no offense ) and just donate to whichever site looks like a "legitimate" one. Even if a red cross donation site was cloned, people would probably not notice it until it was too late. I'd say it'd be a lot better if social media actually spread tips/info on how to accurately determine legit websites. This doesn't only apply to the scams out there, but also all the fake news that keeps spreading globally through social media. Just look at how many people believe about some stupid remedies that say that it could "prevent" the virus from spreading to themselves. And yet, people still believe them. I know, fear probably influenced them, but as humans, we should be quite rational in determining decisions made, after all, we ourselves would suffer from it if anything wrong happens.

Thanks for this post! It is useful information to be aware of new viruses that are being created. Cyber attackers are taking advantage of our concern about the Coronavirus.
Also, the article in Cointelegraph is very accurate, these scammers have no scruples.
Stay At home Saves lives!

As we know this pandemic has been spreading almost for all countries in this world. Wich, I think we don't need to donate our money through cryptocurrency. It will be better if we donate our money just for our country, use our money fiat if we really want to donate which I think there will be many ways (like trusted institution) that can be able to pass our money to the people who really need it.

The scammers aren't looking at any situation, they will always try to scam many people although the bad condition is coming to people. They take this situation as a chance to gain money just for personal gain. So, I hope the people here especially who have intentions to donate his money for the coronavirus's victim should be aware and choose the right way to give his money in order to the victims are really accept it.

In the time of trouble, people tend to make ill-considered decisions. When people get emotional even with the suffering of others they make reckless decisions. They are already occupied and would do whatever to ease from what they are suffering from and some unethical scammer find it's easier to target such people.
If you want to do a charity, it's best to do it personally or through trusted sources. Don't fall for scammers that you find online or through youtube video. Stay careful and safe.

People are willing to manipulate and deceive their fellow man even in times of crisis for their own gain. They don't think the struggle of other people with money, they choose to sell mask and alcohol for a higher price to earn huge profit. Fraudsters even impersonate the World Health Organization to attract people for donations. It's the reason why we should be attentive and wise because people will always look for a chance to get the benefits they wanted from us.

There's a need of much deeper knowledge in regards to this kind of scamming activities, lots of scammers and hackers are taking advantages to people who are not that aware of this kind of practice, especially now that there's spreading virus and scammers seen opportunities to trick those compassionate
people who are willing to help others from surviving to this pandemic virus.
It's best to keep your research before joining or participating to any activities that offers related things to this virus.

We have received the letter from the telecommunication authority to spread this awareness among all the people, so no one is scammed.

https://i.imgur.com/QOLr3Tr.png

A simple example is at https://boxmining.com/outbreak/
Michael is kind to help everyone get valid information about the pandemic, however one post on the page is targeting people who don't know about bitcoin mining claiming they can make much larger profits than is reasonable. Just email a guy who only calls himself Mining Expert bitcoinminingexpert11 @gmail.com and doesn't talk like he knows about mining. Just send them money so he can acquire things like GMO miner B3, and you'll get great returns in 72 hours because of his expertise in solving the difficult algorithms, yeah right.

Someone also shared same thing here last week about a website that asks for a minimum donation of 20$. Another one sent email threatening that he would infect him with COVID 19 if he refuses to send him BTC

Scammers using this method to scam people knows that this moment is the moment when the world need help and many people are willing to.

This is expected, scammers always use any available opportunity to rip off people. The gullible and the greedy will fall for this. I recently called my in-law and told her over the form that the federal government was giving her some grant to help her cope with her school business and recover from the Covid-19 effect she was very excited and was willing to send her sensitive details, had to reveal myself and warn her against falling for scammers.

Well, there are so many scams related about corona, because everybody is panic and aware.
Only around 2 month, this virus have infect 120.000 people

https://i.ibb.co/jZHFcBM/Screenshot-365.png (https://imgbb.com/)

https://i.ibb.co/92z9bNM/Screenshot-366.png (https://imgbb.com/)

Look at this, corona is more popular than bitcoin :D
It's why scammer try to scam with corona articel/sites

Out here in Africa I don't think such act is something to play with, everything is being taken serious here, but the other cases of popular musican name (Davido) the wife got to be tested positive while they have been together and Davido him self was tested negative including their baby was tested negative and 31 other people who where with them during the tour to many countries. Now this is where I don't really get the Matter straight since Corona virus is said to be a communicable disease which if u come in contact with someone who has it.

I have received few emails where the senders are asking fund for helping corona virus affected people. I have know it is an attempt from scammers so i didn't open that email. And yes, they are sending many malicious links in the name of corona help. So, it is my advice to all crypto related guys, don't open any fake email and click on malicious links. Otherwise your crypto wallet and personal information saved in PC, Lapto will be theft by scammers.

Well you can't expect people to not find any means to steal. There will be always people acting like that regardless of how centralized a system is,now they're using a decentralized asset now to scam.
I read also those scammers here trying to sell fake cures and fake donations. Good thing that there weren't any people trying to scam me in my actual email, because pretty much I use junk mail when I am signing up to an untrusted sites.

Yes, cyber criminals are trying to.use this heavy situation and scam people. Unfortunately they are also successful in many attempts, despite the continuous warnings.
There are many types of these emails, so be very careful and check everything twice. The best thing is to delete such emails without even opening.
Also, there are many fake news related to.COVID-19 , don't fall for that and listen information only from legit and official sources.

Scammers are not human, how can someone play with people's emotion! I got an email that an expert team asking donation so that they can research and invent a cure for Coronavirus! That email was very lengthy, so I was reading carefully to get their motto, but in the end, I noticed they sent the same email to many Gmail users! And when I visited their donation site, I was clear that this is another scam attempt! God may curse them by COVID-19, sorry, for my rudeness, but they deserve it!

People are good at fooling people that's why it is hard to find out if the fundraising is legit or not. This scheme is very obvious that's why it is not effective anymore in scamming people, we are looking for a strong proof and evidence that the money will really go to the community and not a scam. Plus, we really need to know if it is supported by that authority so that government will take actions if your legitimacy is fake and fraud. It is not easy to trust people nowadays as they are seizing the opportunity to scam people and take all of the possible funds that they collected. So if you know some fundraising camp that is suspicious, you should let the authority know so that they can investigate about the fraud and people who are scammers.

I do not know who to blame anymore. Govs thieving medical equipments from each other, sellers and even big companies rising the price of many goods in addition to hiding some of the basic ones to sell it x2-4 its price, regular thieves profiting from quarantine to stole things without much stress, people calling for fake donations... Piracy, scams everywhere!

This situation is giving those scammers an opportunity to scam more people. I've been hearing and seeing news about scam and fraud, and they are using this pandemic as a reason. I have read before that there are scammers impersonating WHO  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5234384.msg54069046#msg54069046)and is asking for donations. Good thing that WHO already gave awareness to people about these tactics.

It's really frustrating that instead of helping each other and showing humanity, they are becoming more selfish and greedy to steal money. Other people only want to help but scammers are taking advantage of it. That is why before we make transactions or click any link related to the virus, let's make prior research to see if it's legit or not. Let us also share this information with our families and friends about these scams.

Exactly! Scams are everywhere, and most of the time-poor and illiterate people get affected by it! In developing countries, poor and middle-class people are suffering too much because of the long Quarantine time! But bad people did not stop cheating others to make more money. I read the news that government gave 500K USD for a limited area where people received only 150K USD worth goods, rest of money is vanished by ministers! Crypto Scammers are creating corona coin, scam exchange like Yobit supporting them and many scammers keep mailing people by asking donations! These people making the world toxic, I hope they will learn well when COVID-19 catch them!

I agree to all that you said. Recently there is some page that added me and share my profile picture saying that i won a bonus token in my last joined campaign. They have provided some links that redirect to a site that you may think thats legit, at first you cant say that it is a phishing because it looks totally convincing but after i realize they are getting some private key, it was totally a scam and i proved it when i visit the telegram page of my last campaign. Scammers nowadays will do everything to fool us. We have to be aware and alert of everything that we do online. Im fortunate that they didnt get my private key. Awareness is the key!

Frankly speaking, no matter how cruel the world events are, without having pandemic still there are people who will try to make easy money all over the world. There are people who even sells a face mask in a double, triple of the regular price, so it does not surprise me at all if there are still scams during a problematic world like where we are now. Unfortunately, these scammers can hardly make anyone fall in trap since people are very needy now of money aside only gullible people are being expose to this kind of crap in the internet.

Just because of the recent news about the corona virus that is happening right now all over the country. There are some mushrooms that pop up in which they are a corona virus scams in which they are using the virus to scam other people or to cheat with other people and it is sad to say and to know because in all of a sudden although we have a crisis that is facing right now there are some people who are using it to cheat or earn to other people.

This scams will continue until people learn. But people are not ready to learn, that is the big issue. Ignorance and mostly greed make people victims to scams. If people take their time to observe things before they rush into it, they will notice the scams before they happen.


I can tell you that whoever is doing this knows the old people personally. It may also be someone close to this old people that gave out their phone numbers to the scammers to call and scam them.

I saw this one, that's a pretty big sum of cash and all thanks to a "google extension", scammers are out there and we oughta be careful.

To avoid this scam you need to have a good knowledge how scam works, they play with your emotion so having a calm and collected demeanor surely helps a lot when dealing with this. Help your old folks to know that there are scammers, the reason they fall for the bait is they are not informed. Instead of donating in charities in Internet, you should instead donate in your local charity, they are more legitimate.

About the topic: There is a lot of opportunists and this is a nice chance for them because there are a lot of people who want to help with donations, but is complex to understand where de donating goes. So, the best thing to do in a hard time like this is to keep our money and to help our friends and family.


Please read the forum rules, I hope you understand no one will give away $7200 to you. The money is for the ones who work, so, go to beg to the streets because in this forum that's not allowed.

See the reason why the world is still not developed is due to the fact that The scammers and the criminals try and find opportunity in everything , be it a war or a pandemic , they will always find a way to throw people off the mark whereas our own government cannot even think about thinking out of the box

I would say , never donate on any kind of platform , if you want to donate towards something , go buy something like clothes for the poor or personally take a stroll in a hospital and pay off for the kid you see suffering.

Don't ever believe in anyone except for the well established  companies that are very well known. (also it is a known fact that even they don't give 100% in charity , corruption is always there)

Corona virus scams are increasing day by day but i also think the scams are quite flashy one can know that its a scam they are using fake upi addresses,phonecalls even phishing people and taking their bitcoin i strongly suggest everyone please read the terms and conditions of the site on which you are donating and pls see that if its a government approved site for donating otherwise you'll end up loosing your money . Stay safe 🙏

The most annoying thing about this news is that they are requesting for Bitcoin as payment, it’s very annoying, why don’t they request for payment in fiat and stop ruining Bitcoin for those of us that loves it? :-X. This is really annoying to be sincere, now when they keep doing this it might cause the government and the world to see the cryptocurrency community as a bad one and try to stop it.

These foolish hackers and scammers are really bringing us a bad name, I wish there was a way track down these people and capture them so that they will pay severely for the crimes they have committed.

Indeed, as we can see the coronavirus affects many people over the country so that their governments declared to have lock down, this order affects many people because their jobs also affect on it. So that many scammers now are using this crisis to scammed other people, they used all the most helpful people and show them that they are motivated to help to donate but it is not, they used it for their own will and not for others. To prevent of being scam just know them if they are legitimate or not.

While the pandemic outbreak happens, the scammers do not skip this kind of opportunity to make a bad thing and some of them today are making a massive offer of money to the people that they can earn money easily some of them are spreading they are giving some fundraising to the people who affected by the virus and according to their statement some of them are using the money to buy a lot of foods, mask, alcohol and more to protect themselves against the pandemic outbreak but don't let your emotions carried away by this kind of platform because some of them are just a scam and use the events happening right now to make an advantage to the other people about their situations

It's not annoying, it's a smart move from them for choosing an untraceable means of payment. Using fiat as ransom money will just get then in danger and they don't want that thing to happen at any less of the situation so they are with bitcoin. What bothers me is that these people are trying to scam even they know how the life for a normal people in this kind of situation with pandemic and market collapse, It's very cruel on their part, they can't excuse that they are also needy this time. I'm with bitcoin no matter what happens, but if bitcoin will be widely use for this kind of doing over the world then I'm out.

Will the rules become stricter or not in these coronavirus times? I'm deadly sure that scammers will use a stack of opportunities caused by the chaos that have never ever helped track transparentness a legitimicy of projects. Panic attacks steal people's brains and wariness worldwide. So the main question is how to avoid being a scams' victim now and detect suspicious projects. Are there any updates on that item? I mean, in terms of the current situation throughout the world.

People who do advertising like those websites that have offers and tasks to od to earn bitcoin/currency the offerwalls and things like that. Survey unlocks and offers have asked their members not to even use the keyword corona. I have not looked since but I am sure you are not allowed to use the word virus. Otherwise, people will say stuff like "I have the virus!!!" then further down it says "I would have had a not bought a (insert product/offer here) Basically to bait you.

Personally I don't really want to hear about the virus so I stay away from it online. I do hope the virus will make people look after the environment though.


How can you say its untracable? You can trace it you just cant link it to someone easily. IT doesn't mean it is impossible. A scammer will use fiat and just use an account and close it afer being paid so the money cannot be paid back. IF they use paypal they will empty their account before you can do anything. I knew someone who worked at a bank and they were telling me there are ways scammers open all kinds of accounts using all sorts of methods and even using just some random person as their bank account and offering that person a cut. It might not be as direct as you think but I assure you it is not impossible and bitcoin is not totally untraceable. You can monitor wallet for years after the crime and make an arrest 10 years later if you need to.

They only ask for bitcoin because those scams use the latest trends to exploit people. It will be bitcoin or anything else that is valauble. A scammer exploits the latest technology because they know not everyone is up to date with it and they can confuse and trick new users more easily. Though to be honest in 99% of cases the person being scammed deserves it for being an idiot.

I have also seen this a lot, not only in the crypto world but in the real world too, so many people take advantage of this situation for their personal interests. Well, don't be surprised if another "Corona Virus" project appears. Well, I can only give advice that is careful about projects that are named and use this virus for their projects.

The scammers will take this as an advantage because most of the people have a huge problem and do need to have help, and this is one of the most targets of the scammers they are trying to convince people that is desperately need help. But still guys, always be conscious about these things because even you are problems, you need to be aware because you are not secured into the world of scammers; they did not choose any events or situations. One of their goals is to make more earnings.

The first scam you have mentioned I think it will be obvious when you see such a scam, and moreover I am not the type of person that donate my money to a platform I don’t know. Take for example, I have Red Cross and Save a Child for a long time and I know their site and their social platforms, so I donate to them and when I see other random sites that are asking for donations, I don’t donate, because I don’t know them.

If I ever feel like donating, I go through their social handles to judge their authenticity. There are lots of things I check that can help me tell whether the platform I’m seeing is real or fake. Moreover there are lots of people on my street and platforms so I guess I do not need to go online but physically I may go for helping people if I adjust my budget for the reason for hard time for common people who do not have adequate saving to survive lockdown days.

During this period which is we are experiencing the pandemic corona virus or covid 19 disease there are many people who are taking advantage. There are reports that people are messaging netizens regarding a family member who is positive with the said disease just to get donations using transferring money in bank accounts which is just a scam. They are doing their best to get some money and to take advantage of the situation. These must not be doen because it can deceive other people who is working so hard to get some money.

Scammers are working harder this time because many companies are closing temporarily and are not providing salaries to its employees.More people are needing financial support this hard time. So there will be some people that will resort into scams to earn money.

It's frustrating in the current crisis conditions, scammers take advantage of this situation to commit fraud. Most have already been
mentioned in the opening post how scammers are deceiving their victims. We are indeed required to always be vigilant against all
things related to the corona virus, because for scammers it is very easy to deceive its victims at all times when people focus on the
spread of the corona virus.

That is just frustrating when you say they are working harder this time. Instead of helping other people, instead of thinking about how bad people's position right now and they are still working hard to scam people. I guess there are really those people that don't have sympathy for people, they are selfish and ignorant. I am watching this thread to warn some of my co-teachers about scams that are happening since I know a lot of people who are so desperate to help right now.

Now, in connection with the situation with coronavirus, a lot of donation communities have appeared. Therefore, you need to carefully look where you send your donations and first carefully check to whom they will then go.

Nothing is surprising when it comes to these situation on where scammers would always really make advantage whatever the situation we are facing on.
They do always just lurk in the dark and waiting for an opportunity to scam people specially into situation where everyone is on panic
or even using peoples pity to others to milk out some money to them.I dont know on how these souls can afford to scam where majority is
already on need when it comes to survival.

Shame on such people who are using a pandemic situation like this to profit themselves stealing others' money.
While what you listed is true there are some people who are calling others and falsely claiming themselves as bank associates and stealing their money from their banks. Scammers have gone way too far this time.

That is why it is important to have some basic computer knowledge and practice computer hygiene. People throw personal information around, which could then be used in scenario like this. And in these kind of situations when everybody is panicking the victim mostly doesn't take logical approach thus is vulnerable to make rash decision and pay the donation.  

In my country our prime minster started a donation campaign for fighting against the virus. All news media outlet and celebrities shared the account information for everyone to donate for this cause.

Still fraudsters were able to somehow create a duplicate profile of this account and were able to get few people donate some money to this account. Unfortunately they were caught by the cops.

How on earth they were able to do it is still a mystery? I am sure few bank employee were part of this scam.

They are the lowest of the lowest.

People should be aware of these scams that is why we should always check the legitimacy of a certain site, a certain link or certain people that say they want to help or they will be donating those Bitcoins or fiat into places affected by the pandemic. Even celebrities and YouTube content creators are warning those people who want to help that these scammers are using their names to gather more money.

Scammers are using any type of tactics just to get a free money even if they are going to use the pandemic scenario. These type of people are the worst therefore we should be very careful in every donation or transaction that we like to sent, make sure that it can reach to the right organization or company that will surely use the fund correctly.

Many are suffering from this pandemic therefore a single dollar that will be donated by those who have heart are very helpful to those people who are truly in need.

Really as in they are contacting via Phone?that is traceable and they must be caught because of their bad intention.
which country you from Mate?

because here in our country scammers use the popular exchange to victimize user by sending Email about asking for donation for legit organization but if you make a research those org don't even attempt asking people.

There are so many spamming sites around us. We should check all information before making donation don't donate to a stranger site. Because there are so many poor people living around us, so we should extend our helping hand to them, if we want to help them then this is more useful to donate funds on any well-known registered charity organization.

This can be more sinister like gangs intimidating old and vulnerable people in their houses to make them do things with their bank accounts

Its all pretty sick.

The bad karma they must have.

Yes, that operation is really conventional, they always do that if there's an event where they can seize the opportunity to lure people. The apps that they created can be used as their platform for those victims, that's why we should be very knowledgeable in checking the apps that we are using. Some apps and websites are obviously a fraud so just check its website appearance if it seems legit. Also, those apps will give you some stressful times as if you want to subscribe to their platform, the money that you will pay to them will be scammed quickly.


Always check the legitimacy of a certain apps or website, because that two is the most useful platform for them to fool people. Most especially, we are experiencing a pandemic and many people are building some organization that will help people to donate money for poor people, that is the key to them to make a scam.

Be knowledgeable about that so you prevent losses to your money, also, never trust easily and be the first one to stand so that those scammers will be noticed. If you suspect some fraud fundraisers, learn to investigate and report it to the authority.

this is a Legit way of fundrasing because people now don't know where they will send the donation so if this massive advertising will help them find the right way.and this is good presentation of how your country binding together to help the country.
scammers will always pretend more legit than one so if we will not look carefully then we will become Victim.
they are hackers actually ,they are hacking the system so the flow of donation will come on their accounts and not to the one who is legit.

To avoid this you simply shouldn't click on COVID-19 maps you see on social media or receive via email. In fact, it's better to not click on them anywhere with the exception of legit sites, like this one:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

You can find all the info you need there, and if you still need more, stick to verified websites and double check the URL before clicking.

this scams are far beyond evilness why would some people make use of this situation to take advantage to fellow human amidst that everyone is affected by this pandemic! thanks for the information and hopefully i will not fall on this trap!

Since there are issues about the pandemic of corona virus that has been going on recently. There are really some people who will take advantage on individuals who are affected in this kind of situation, that is why to avoid this kind of scams we should be alert and educated enough to avoid clicking links that was shared from other people about the pandemic because it is the best way to get some of your information and to get inside on your accounts.

The fraudsters are very inhumane. This pandemic is a disaster for us all, we should help each other instead try to take the opportunity to commit fraud for personal gain. I also read some news that there are some people who hoard and sell important items in this situation such as masks, hand sanitizers, disinfectants, etc. at very high prices.

How sad, forging fundraising for personal gain. We also need to be selective in choosing a truly official fundraiser. If through social media make sure it is an official account. Actually, the easiest way is to help the closest person, the neighbor, or the neighborhood, it's more effective I feel.

Like TS directives, we also have to remind each other and report if we know of scammers in the name of raising funds. Report immediately so they can't fool more people.

Exactly,
I want to said that people should well aware about the cryptocurrency. Following facts should be deliever to the peoples are given below
1. People do not know how to get a rid of malware, and setup security system. People should get enough Knowledge how to scure their digital assets.
2. When lock down are occurr people try to learn online course but mostly do not know about crypto currency. They shoud learn about digital currency and its bright future.
3. People write the content on bitcoin,but they do not introduce the digital assets at international level.
4. Always discuss about price action of bitcoin and other digital assets. They have to introduce how to use for food and other necessities of life
Kind regards.
Everyone has right to give arguments on important threads

Nowadays some scammers really do it because they all know that this event we are weak almost all people clings to the bottom to make profit and be aware this.While online it's better to alert anytime on pop ups never click to prevent lose.

A good report and a very valuable publication deserves attention. As usual, many scammers take advantage of the bad conditions to surround their victims, but I think that there is sufficient awareness that prevents them from spreading, which makes their twisted methods the subject of doubt for many of the participants in such false campaigns.

It too sad to see and think about how these people would like to trick others and make them suffer. I can't imagine how they do this and why not working for money in a good way. It feels like they don't care their people around but just having only for the benefits of their own. And I condemn these people.

Since we know about these scamming activities, we should have not to listen or even talk to strangers especially when talking about money to keep us safe. Scammers are just around us, they keep doing this because they'll know that they could still have found a victim.

All fraudsters, regardless of the situation in the world, are doing a bad thing. A great thinker of all times, Sophocles, once said: "Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud." Although he said it more than 2k years ago, it is absolutely relevant today as well.

However sad it may seem, we'll always have fraudsters among us, but it doesn't mean they will always be the winners. We can make them losers by ignoring their baits, which is not that hard to do having Google at our disposal.

This is why we should not open a site that uses Bitcoin in installments, the motive behind it is thinking that you have just cheated no one can support you, no one can recover the cash you have lost, you decide The site can be a phishing site, as they use everything they can to build a rationale for this goal. Bay infection that affected countries will contain the cash crown

Good point, I search out the reviews for everything I ever do on the internet these days. Lesson learned.


What about the older and more gullible people though? they are an easy mark.

Plus no one can see what's going on and step in, like in real life.

Brad Garlinghouse - the CEO of Ripple - posted a very interesting Twitter thread (https://twitter.com/bgarlinghouse/status/1252652100409950210) yesterday, I thought it is worth sharing here.
As you probably all know, the number of impersonators has increased dramatically, especially since COVID. Larger projects like Cardano for example are offensively warning their community that impersonators are on the road in their name. Also on e.g. Telegram one is currently much more often contacted with fake accounts.

Brad has now addressed this problem in his thread and is now taking platforms such as YouTube to the obligation to take action against it. Even more, he has announced that will take legal actions against Youtube, because impersonators are constantly reported from his side, but Youtube does nothing against it.
I think this is an exciting development. A positive outcome of a possible court case could lead to social media platforms having to take active action against scam attempts.

It is just awful how those kind of people live on taking advantage of the situation specially now that we are facing a serious matter concerning health care because of the pandemic. It just saddens me to think that such kind of individuals are busy feeding themselves of those money that were supposedly be donated into those who are in need but instead of that thing could happen, the money is being scammed by some sort of people who can attain to take advantage of the situation. While other people are busy thinking how they could survive the upcoming days and keep themselves safe, those scammers are busy taking money for their own sake not thinking thar other people deserve those money. Scammers do not really choose when and where to attack because they will do such thing even at this point if time where all lives are at risk and using the situation to fool or lure people to get their money. Those kinds of scamming schemes should be reported and be punished accordingly because at this time we must helo each other out and not to take advantage of the situation.

We just had a warning from the local police.

Someone is calling people in our area telling them the law is they must buy some face masks.

Then they get scammed.

thanks for such info . scamers took the oppurtunity whenever there are major events and in this time there is that so called corona virus  . scamming and other bad deeds does not also happen online but also happening offline where people mainly collects fund from other and they just keep it for thier own good  . i just wish that greedy people will get a bad karma soon if ever they wont be caught out in the act  .  for now  , lets not easily put our trust to someone else unless we really know the person or we have done some background check  .

Weird scam.

People will still take advantage of this pandemic that we're facing so I doubt this COVID-19 will be cured easily if some people are still being greedy during a crisis. They're using the term law even though they're the one who disobeys it, so much hate to those kinds of people.

Even on the internet, there are many scams popped up in social media.

I don't understand why anyone would fall for this crap. You could easily verify this by checking out the news online and offline in order to verify its credibility.

Most people are making their own masks or reusing the same mask again and again. Only gullible fools would fall for this crap.

Companies like Gilaed have proven to be greedy in the past which is why any ready-made vaccine would probably be sold at a high price. Greed is a priority for most people. However, there are some who focus less on money though.

Not as weird as here in my country, there is a city ordinance that prohibit a person to go outside if he/she have no mask, they will be detained and will fine $20 to $60 if they are caught. I find this a good move from our city since we have a lot of community covid cases. I agree I have seen some people scamming people through their websites asking for donations saying it will be all gathered to buy the poor people a relief goods, there no humanity left for those people those are kind of people that is deserved to be imprisoned.

Oh how compassionate you are. What about the elderly, what about the disabled people and those who aren't internet experts.


Newest warning on UK police systems - Criminals are dressing as doctors and key workers so they can go around and commit crimes while everyone else is stuck indoors.

They don't want to work for a living they want to take for free. They will go to lengths to do so.

I don't think these ransomwares and other bad applications will mysteriously have their way into our computer except you keep threading on the wrong places on the net, or maybe someone hacks your computer and install them, but I still don't think anyone would hack your computer if you're doing the right thing about avoiding bad sites. That I know for sure. Then as for the donation sites, it's up to you to avoid them by going to the right site if you want to donate. There are lots of ways you can verify that you're donating to the right side and that's by verifying through their social media platforms.

In the country that i live in lately a group of unknown people tried to pull of a scam
They have sent a text message (SMS) to many people asking for Credit cards informations and that they have to pay the electricity bills (or other bills i am not sure) online.
This scam scheme is a proof that we are living in a scary world out there and people would just go off the hook in crisis or if there were no rules

Stay safe all of u

I have seen numerous scam attempts like these in different social media platforms already but I didn't tried to entertain or even do some research on one of them.

All of these attempts of the scammers are just common ways and for me it isn't attractive at all. Maybe for those newbies who are easily attracted by these scam attempts then they are the ones who will get scammed. I can also detect which of them are scammers and which are not.

Its just a disappointment that such scammers have the balls to scam these people who doesn't even have any funds to use for their family needs. They are using the virus just to scam people which is disgusting. Anyway, having a deep knowledge and having a basis in whether this thing is a scam or not is valuable so yeah. Better learn before giving your money to somebody you don't know.

Thank you for opening the caution thread. Scammers are always waiting for opportunities. When there is a big event in the society, when there is a natural or any other disaster, when the thoughts of the people are concentrated there, they try to do more of their misdeeds. At a time when people around the world are plagued by epidemics caused by the corona virus, they have become more active.They are influencing people by lying about helping the sick, building hospitals, providing food for the people, and so on. This is really a problem for those who are working in human service. They are even becoming active in cryptoforums. So I think this post will increase people's awareness and reduce the violence of scammers in the society.

It's not the only scam that is happening today. As you can see, halving is approaching and there are many promotional scams in many platform. In corona virus, you can see a lot of charity that involve BTC, and for bitcoin halving, sites are promoted to attract investors for their HYIP.

People are very greedy nowadays, this programs are very abusive and should be stop by reporting it.

The hospital scam was trending when the coronavirus started earlier. I saw so many reports about hospitals that their systems were blocked by hackers who were requesting bitcoin as payment. It's really bad that some people have chosen to use bitcoin for nothing else than for bad. When situations like these are on the rise, it makes a lot of people out there to view bitcoin as a negative thing. And it's things like this that can also make the government to hate cryptocurrency.

But what more can we do? There is really nothing we can do than to just watch. Everyone has to be very careful and stay clear from all these scammers, if not you will lose your money to them.

For scammers does not affect whether the situation is pandemic corona or not, they will continue to look for ways to fool the victims.
Even scammers take advantage of the situation now that everyone is panicking because the spread of the corona virus is increasingly
widespread to deceive its victims. Many ways are used by scammers to commit fraud. Among others, making fake donation websites,
selling masks at low prices but do not send the item to the buyer, offering investment with very large profits which of course fake and
much more. In conclusion we must be careful and increasing our level of vigilance.

Due to Covid-19, the bitcoin scams are increasing. They are sending threatening emails saying that they will leak our personal information and infect us and our family with corona virus if we donot send payment to a bitcoin wallet.

Holy shit that sounds brutal. I was getting death threats once its not nice its in your mind all the time.

They (scammers) has been unleashing their fraudulent activities before covid pandemic I saw this coming because scammers always hide under any crisis to perpetuate evil the world is full of  evil people who doesn't care about the feelings of victims that had been mourning their lost ones as you rightly commented we should be careful.

Above all the disastrous events happening in the world, there are still people who are taking advantage with it. These scammers should be the one who will be infected by the virus. They just giving dirt to the world. Instead of helping other people to recover and feed them, they use solicitation from their own good.

We should beware of helping also. We should be easily conveyed by our emotion when it comes in putting our donations. Because instead it will feed the poor, it will sustain the laziness and fraud of shit scammers.

in any situation that occurs in a disaster, there will always be many who work together with the aim of personal and group benefits. Likewise with the current pandemic, there are not a few who abuse their authority to enrich themselves by cutting off donations that should be given to the abundant pandemic. this is always certain to happen at all levels, such as hoarding vitamin drugs and preventative devices (masks, etc.) for sale at high prices because people are in dire need to be forced to buy. the behavior of such people should have a warning from the authorities, by appearing to be able to protect the people in need, but it rarely happens.

Fucking Hell I'm scared right now to even use my true email address into different trusted sites already because of what you said :D :D :D.

Are you sure that there is scammer who will leak your personal information if you will not give Bitcoin to them?? How can they infect you and your family with the virus?? Pure bullshit. Its just common sense lols.
Anyway, coronavirus scams are constantly appearing on the internet because there are stupid investors who are easily attracted. There are gamblers who are just throwing their money as they see the opportunity that their money will double or even tripled if they invested there. Their aren't doing any research or doesn't have any basis into when they will invest and they will not.

If there are no investors who are willing to scam themselves, there will be no scammers lurking around.

Lol I am really surprised whenever I see news that people were scammed by fake charity sites. I keep wondering, like how would you donate to a charity organization that you know nothing about?

I don't really understand why people are fond of making dumb mistakes all the time, when they can be easily avoided. Why would be donating to an organization that you know nothing about and you have not even done any research to understand them fully. You don't just give money to anyone online these days. When I am donating money I always make sure that the organization that I'm donating my money to is one that I know very well.

Fraudsters have used a lot of the corona virus and this pandemic for personal gain, even a lot of people are begging in telegram groups who say their relatives or families are infected with this virus so they can be given help, I'm not sure that's true

Many people are now using corona virus to scam people because no one want to die before he or her time. During the pandemic a lot of fake vaccine was spread by the scammers all over the country for the treatment of corona virus which was not the real vaccine to cure the virus according to the doctors. Many bitcoin users sold their coins to get the fake vaccine for their love ones,  who has be isolated over some months in the isolation center, not knowing the vaccine is not a real vaccine for the virus.
Fraudster are now using social media to scam people by spreading fake information to some people concerning their family health, that they need to do something possible for them not to lose their lives for covid-19.

Scammers are really genius. They can make different tricks to scam people. Even the corona virus, the use it for their own benefits. We really need to be careful enough and be vigilant at this day that many scammers are spreads to find a victim.

Don't trust people who send private messages on telegram. It has been confirmed that all of these people are scammers who are working to trap you. Not just begging. Even malware related to the pandemic has been found and infected many devices. events like this are also not only on telegram, but in almost all social media. Even in email, I also often get emails that go to the spam box. remain careful, do not easily trust strangers.

With Covid-19 still around then some of these scams and scammers will still be lurking around in different ways hence the need to educate people in any way we can. Also, I think the first step towards avoiding these scammers is through being contented, how? Scammers knows that Covid-19 has affected a lot of people negatively and hence once presented with a good offer or whatever are likely to get their victims, but if people will understand that scams can come in different dimensions hence asking questions when they are presented with such offers, then they are likely to be saved from those scammers or better still ignoring all those juicy offers they always see on Twitter or other social media channels. Lastly being inquisitive with whatever they are presented with, will also save them a lot.

Thanks for reminders and also for Bumping this thread ,when Corona Cure is already Here and now being use to Fight and end this virus,Hope there is also cure from Scammers and Hackers .

Where's the link please, But anyway Any reason why Making this Thread on the top? after 7 months.
Because they are at some chances are gifted People ,Because their Knowledge is really above others ,about Misleading and lying ,they can do those perfectly .