Bitcoin Forum

Because of the increase in the financial leverage of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency a lot of fraudster are budding under the umbrella of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency to scammer people especially those who are not much grounded and knowledgeable of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency like me. Instance, some fraudster will send you a link through WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media telling you to click the link to register for cryptocurrency and Bitcoin with hope of making much money from the link but immediately you click the link they will access to all your information and then use hack your account and be using it for their fraudulence activities or better still scammer the you.
So if I may ask, how can we identify this kind of fraudsters?

you should know that it's not advisable to click any link someone sent to you iether in your social media accounts or in your email address. They know that novice are everywhere looking for easy way to earn money and they just frame up some stories to lure you into clicking there link and they can hack your account in the process or get access to most of your passwords. Understand that no one really spams your DM to bring a legit information to you. If they had a genuine information that pays well, they will most likely keep it to themselves or share it with thier immediate friends and family members.

Even when the person that sends you such link is someone that's close to you, don't be in a haste to click it, chat up the person to be sure that he's actually the one that sends it and that his account hasn't gotten into the wrong hands. Sometimes the mistake we do is to fall for anything we receive from our acquaintance not considering that there account could get hacked and used for a dubious purpose.

Another way to protect yourself is to copy the link to your clipboard and paste it in some URL checker that identifies if the link is fraudulent or not, there are some good site that will indicate that the said link you dropped is malicious and can give you additional details that will guide you as to if it's safe to work with the link or not. But the general role is that there is no free thing on the Internet. The number of those trying to steal from you always suppases the number of does that are willing to give you the right update and information so it's just best to trade safe.

One of the fastest way is to check out their promises, most scammers often offer very huge profits to persuade people to want to buy their token and they sometimes leave loopholes in their whitepaper, there are many cases of scammers using palagrised whitepaper and that's is also another way to know, sometimes you can find then using fake profiles as their team members.

It’s not so easy to identify scams sometimes I would say anything that sounds too good to be true is not real or any investment that promises quick returns or 100% profit is likely to be a scam. Also if an unknown person messages you all of a sudden telling you about an investment that will bring you profit in a short period is also a red flag, so treat any message from any social media platform about a certain investment as scam, never click links from an unknown source, some are been sent via email they are very risky.

There are several red flags we can use to identify scams but ignorance will always make people fall victim to scams sometimes all we have to do is make research online to educate ourselves better. A lot of people will give your information on how to identify scams but i still think you should carry your own research about how to identify scams to widen your knowledge more. A simple search on google would do.

You are absolutely correct, as ignorance is the main reason why most people are really falling a victim and will still blame it to investors or people who are the ones that introduced crypto to them, instead of looking for who to blame, they should blame themselves. Although it's not really easy to identify scammers especially when they are using familiar apps, links, and emails to scams us, it's very hard to identify which one is real and fake but with the rate of it now, we can try and identify it, as you said that any investment that involves 100% profit in return, is likely to be a scam, which are totally right, we should bear it in mind that whatever thing that we didn't suffer to get, it's likely to be a scam.

So anytime we are introduced to crypto or ask to invest either through online like Facebook, etc, and emails, we should ask questions to other investors who already had experience before us to know if it's true or not or better still we can do more research about it to be sure of what we are doing, this way we help us to identify the real and fake from them.

Di easiest way to avoid scams for social media, na to get di mindset say nothing be free for social media. So when somebody wey you no know begin to de tell you say make you click on a site and invest small money and within a small time you go get plenty profit, dat na red flag say na scam. And wetin scammers de take catch people na greed, wen dem tell people say dem go benefit plenty money for dem scam projects, na so many people go lose dem sense of reasoning, until dem loose money finish.

Scams de plenty for di crypto space, many altcoins wey developers de launch na scam, dem go hype di token say na di next best thing after Bitcoin, make you de careful because na red flag say na scam. Ponzi plenty for many projects dem wey de for di crypto market, so investors suppose wiseup and carry out research first before dem go buy, odawise make dem de focus on Bitcoin and top altcoins.

Take every unsolicited message, either requiring you to click a link, invest/deposit money in any platform, etc, as a scam, until you can prove that it is not. If you have that consciousness and eliminate greed from your mind, it'd be hard for you to fall victim to scammers.

That being said, it is advisable that you keep your assets offline, you can go for a hardware wallet, so that if you get unlucky and scammers come manage hack your device, dem no go fit steal your money, as e no dey online.

That is a candid advice, most at times scammers use mischievous means in form of links to try to caught people of guard, I've even heard of some links containing spyware that they could use to monitor your device and steal your password and paskey and that is why as a person into crypto you need to stay away from links as much as possible, especially unidentified links cause you could end up giving out your privacy to scammers.

These are just rebranded websites that will waste your time. Back then, it use to be an investment website where you can earn dollars when some of these scammers know nothing about Bitcoin or understand how it works but since Bitcoin adoption has increased, even the scammers has improvised and what they do now is to design a website and gives investment package for people to invest their Bitcoin and get a high ROI in return and we know that's a big fat lie, there is nothing as Bitcoin investment by sending Bitcoin to another person.

How do we combat all this for people:

Education: People should get good education about Bitcoin, the security and some technical aspect of Bitcoin, it will help them to fight scans and identify one when they see them. They don't need to wait to be told about Bitcoin scams, as soon as they see one, they will identify it.

Buy Bitcoin: Some people don't even understand how Bitcoin looks like in a wallet and don't know how to buy, sell and even send, they should buy and see how it looks like and it feels to own a Bitcoin instead of just hearing and don't have no experience of holding it.

Well you can start by knowing that nothing ever comes very easy so immediately you see the proposal you can verify for certain that it's not real and it's a total fake. I have seen many people tell me or even share me links to join different channels but I have always had this thought about clicking of random links as many fishing things could be encoder in that supposed link so before I try anything I first of all check if the link is verified or the service it's renderings is something can be relatable.

From what you have said it means that you should not click on any link that you are not familiar with and always think that everyone is a thief trying to steal from you, then from there you look for how you can be smart, you will have gut feelings confirm some things but simply following the safety and golden rule of not being a victim and not sending your money to anyone that you don't know will keep you in shape.

I think one of the easiest way to identify these sets of people is how you personally interpret false information, which is: "Anything that is too good to be true should not be trusted". If you can abide by that statement, then you shouldn't be clicking links that promise to offer you any form of cryptocurrency. I think greed is actually a massive contributor to why so many people fall victims of this scams, as they want to earn what they didn't work for, even though it's coming from an unknown source. I hope my contribution is valid.

No be today wey scammers dey hide under the umbrella of Bitcoin to scam people. E don start tey tey and naim make many people hate bitcoin because when dem join bitcoin with a clean mind, them no go know say dem join for the hand of wrong people. Dem go scam dem and in the end dem go talk say bitcoin na scam why no be bitcoin be the scam, but na means through which dem scam dem.

But with some experience we don gather here, we go fit detect scammer like as follows;

• Any person wey dey pressure you to act fast.
• Any person wey wan do you too much better when u no even know the person.

And many more signs we need look out to.

You just answered one of the ways scammers use, that is, when a stranger send you a link asking you to click to register a stuff, as most always happens to be a link which enable these scammers hack into your device, so as to chat with your friends asking for help pretending to be you. And secondly another way to identify a scammer online is when a total stranger chat you up, trying to introduce you to a platform where they claim you could make much money if you invest a certain amount. Just know it's a complete scam if you happen to come across any of this format.

E get many ways wey we fit identify crypto thieves and scammers.Crypto scammers dey always come up with their get rich scheme strategy for example unknown person go just dm you to invest on project wey go give 100% profit in a twinkle of an eye,and out of ignorance many people don fall victim because dem go fail to carry out their own research to dey sure if weda na legit or not, ignorance don make many crypto users to lose their coins give scammers, nothing dey come so easily but scammers go always tell you say you go make am overnight all those informations from pipo online na to scam pipo carry their crypto run.And to dey on a safer path e go good if we avoid to dey click links concerning crypto online.

Scammer offers a very high profits which is high from what you think it really could be with very little or no risk at all ,and they will keep on disturbing you until you accept their offer without allowing you to investigate ,their details and informations are not clear. They will stylishly ask of your personal or financial information to know your worth through any means they want to get you . Don't use any network that refers you to another network such as not being able to withdraw/transaction directly . Avoid pressure from a particular platform that wants to introduce you to Bitcoin or Cryptocurrency investment, you will know it's scam. Make research on your own and obey instructions of whoever must have introduced you to Bitcoin until you are well grounded with the knowledge and keep reading.

I believe not being scammed means staying better ahead of the scammers, they keep on figuring new ways and patterns to trick people into falling for their scam but the better we keep unto their trend and always stay updated then we can avoid being scammed. We should be very careful on our medias, especially telegram which is the most avenue likely to be used by these scammers, a valid project or site will never PM you directly to invest or partner will them, scammers are the ones more likely to behave in such manner.

There's no measure of of techniques to identify scammer, just have every unknown and untrusted links from anonymous suspected to be scamming mode. Don't click on it unless you've a strong anti fraud software in your device capable of resisting the intention of the scamming of having access to your wallet or your devices in anyway.
And if there's an opening to invest on cryptocurrencies in order to make profits, do always enquire and research before you proceed.

The thing is that it takes only someone that has a good cryptocurrency knowledge to be able to identify or I have a doubt if they are being lured into wrong investment by scammers, that's why learning about Bitcoin is very important because it will open your eyes to see that it will be very difficult for someone to be paid Bitcoin only by joining a platform or link, however for now is actually very difficult to identify scammers because since they know that people are beginning to understand there method of operation they have actually established different method and sometimes they could even lure you to register on a particular platform and not to ask you for investment but instead what they just need is your email and some personal information so that they would use it for other people, while some will ask you to perform a task to be paid a certain amount of Bitcoin and after performing all the task they will ask you to deposit a certain amount of dollar for you to be eligible to claim it, so you can see that they actually have so many ways and the reason why I have  this knowledge was because I have seen people who got scammed through this method and however with the knowledge I have about Bitcoin I don't think I can be lured into a wrong investment platform now.

I agree with you that it takes someone who's knowledgeable about Cryptocurrency to be able to spot a scammer though scammer may come with different strategies to decieve people but someone with a good knowledge about Cryptocurrency won't be easily convinced or lured into making wrong investments only Newbies with little knowledge would easily fall victim.

 Some people instead of making research about a project would just jump into it with the high quest of making money, those are the people these scammers are after, those that would quickly rush to click a link they know nothing about and register immediately not knowing that they're exposing some details to this scammers to get access to their documents.

 Most times these scammers would come up with fake airdrops that looks very legit at first and after acquiring their fake token through task they'll request you pay certain fees to claim your airdrops those are the kind of scams people should note of and avoid them totally.

If you read the threads in the forum and follow the steps then you will know more and always follow the scam accusation board to learn more and to spot a scammer is very simple. And all what you have to do is to refrain from all greediness. Don't plan to buy cheap things and don't plan double your money in any form. Always be contented of what you have then when you see all those things in the social media, stay away from them or you first attack them of saying "Scammers Run oh". Or if you want to buy something always Payment on Delivery.

And always secure your seed phrase by not given out even a letter of your phrase. Whenever someone asks you to deposit bitcoin to his account don't do it. You have to know that he is a scammer. Unless you know the person face to face.

To me I think the answer to this question is that we should be careful and pray not to experience or fall victim cause it's not easy to detect or notice that a particular person is a fraudster because it won't be written on there face or there profile. And been able to detect a scammer doesn't just require only Bitcoin or crypto knowledge cause if we want to take in that dimension I think some expertise in crypto has fall prey, my question now is that, is it that they don't have knowledge on this ( Crypto) the answer is they have knowledge but sometimes it just happened like an accident perhaps I think Bitcoin knowledge will only help one to overcome those basic way scammers come inform of. Note most scammers studied before executing anything so it is very difficult to observe them.

Countless time we have been instructed never to click any link you know nothing about more especially in facebook platform because the rate of scammers is very high mostly in facebook platform. Just imagine telling someone to click on a link to register for cryptocurrency? isn't that obvious that the person happens to be a scammer even without someone telling you that the person you're dealing with is a scammer. if making money online is that easy everyone would have been in a better position by now this are the things you need to think about before doing what they ask you to do, is only those beginners who are naive and also wanting to get quick money that will fall for this time of scam. However if you don't want to get scammed you see the spirit of being (greedy) you need to let go off it, because that's the most common thing that always lead people into a wrong direction.

Always avoid them and don't be to rush to click on link sent to you on WhatsApp or any other social media platforms because it's easier to hack you, like I do, I don't always click on random links or any links shared on whatsapp group and social group because I know the implications. To avoid being scammed you need to set a 2fa on your social media accounts with this it makes it very hard to access your account whenever your being sent to phishing link that would hack your account. Again, avoid being desperate to make money online with this you can limit the rate at which you get trapped to this scammers.

You are absolutely right one of the reason some people fall victim is because of desperation and greed. When some people heard or see a link with a write up that if one invest so so amount he or she is going to have so so huge amount in return and sometimes, the amount they say you will get in return will be enough reason for someone to know that this is not real but because of greed and the desperation to make money they will dive into it thinking they are going to turn into millionaire or billionaire overnight. I think we should be careful and mindful not to click anyhow link  and one shouldn't get attracted to everything they see online because as much we are thinking how to identify fraudster that is also how they are thinking for a way that people won't notice or observe them.