Bitcoin Forum

Tips for Respective Bitcoin HOLDERS :

Types of Bitcoin SCAMS :

1) Never trust anyone who says Invest your bitcoins here/there and we will show how they grow down the line ! Never trust anyone and transfer your bitcoins into any wallet,once they are gone they are gone forever ! So please !

2) Any one threatening saying they know your secrets and request you for Bitcoins,dont even care just hit the delete button !

3) Anybody calls you and says they are from your exchange and request for access/password,just hangup the call !

4) Whatever stories you hear or told,never let your bitcoins leave your WALLET AT ANY COST !

5) Dont buy bitcoins from anyone who says they are selling for cheap ! Buy only from Trusted Exchanges !

Just dont care and move on for any of the above !!

The most common scam about bitcoin that you say is for 1/4/5 points, because it seems that it's often done by irresponsible people. and surprisingly there are still many who make this mistake and many believe it. and keeps repeating again, confusing too.

These scammer's strategies mostly target beginners for they aren't aware of the possibilities that might happen and they could believe in these strategies easily.
It's a good thing that you're sharing these things for awareness. We should really be aware all the time to get rid of these scammers.

OP, your title is a bit misleading. I rushed in here thinking I was going to read about the different types of scam only to get "Guides to avoiding different bitcoin scams"
Maybe you should consider changing the title to a more fitting one

There are so man bitcoin/cryptocurrency scams that one can't even exhaust all of them. The most recent ones are.
- Fake wallets and exchanges that can steal your coins
- Advanced malware in form of apps and browser extensions that can steal your login detail or private keys.
-  FAKE bitcoin forks meant to steal one's coins etc

Some of us have learned these things to experience. We could easily stay away from scammers if we don't trust people easily. Also, we must be keen and observant about people's intention around us. We should do some research before doing a certain step like choosing an exchange or a trading site. Being scammed is frustrating so we should protect our earnings.

This is a very dangerous scam. It's common to receive emails from *exchanges* asking for personal details or asking the person to click a link to solve an issue or to claim a benefit.
Always think twice before clicking links you receive on email and always check the sender informations: there can be strange email terminations, or a letter out of place to trick the person.

I also agree to not invest your coins on websites who promises they return more because i think all of them are just hyip, i see a lot of video on YouTube where they recommend to invest bitcoin there and there.

Thats how I lost :(

My whole intention was to atleast spread little awareness for newbies,as me being a newbie a year and half back was scammed and So here title might matter but the content carries more weightage ! Thankyou for reading and please spread the word !

True ,some of us have learnt the lessons but still there are people who are being scammed ,so spreading a small word could save somebody's hard earned money !

Your mentioning points are mostly correct! but I think if anyone keep awarness about scam then it's not hard to avoid any scaming situation like mentioning, also you can buy bitcoin from most trusted and familiar persons, I am also always buy from trusted persons and exchange with most popular and trusted exchangers for avoiding scam.

Everything you say has touched on all actions that are not pleasing to be done, aka fraud, but indeed perhaps the most often done is to give a gift of bitcoin in an easy way but behind that you have to deposit some for reasons that are to be administered. I am fortunate to date that I have never been deceived, because I get used to diligently reading the forums here.

And surely more types of scam would be made because scammers are going to find a new way to get your crypto.
And also one more scam that is being used in telegram recently a stranger would contact you asking for help,
Then would ask to create an account on a trading site then you would see that your account would have a balance and when you are about to withdraw it the site would ask for deposit first.

I never know that number 3 is really happening on crypto market,I have exeperience the same thing but its about my bank trying to get my card infos never know that they are doing it on cryptocurrency too.There are many ways of scamming nowadays be alert always

You will be surprised that so many of these are on telegram channels, in fact, there is one dev that was scam by a guy pretending to be working on Yobit, I also received a lot of lucrative offers like accepting Bitcoin to my wallet in one exchange, if you are a newbie and you don't know how these scammers you could easily fall to it.

These are all safety precautions to all the holders and most of the holders know it aside from newbies, though some of the scammers are still using this old tactics to earn an easy money.

But as you see, the environment is keep on evolving and not only the holders, investors and project owners who evolved. The scammers also are evolving therefore you need to be wise and think twice before deciding to invest and use your hard earned money.

this is the obvious scam but the less obvious one that is common nowadays is the cases where they tell you they can help you "make profit" is an investment in some shitcoin they want to pump, in other words they don't take your bitcoins directly to their wallet, they instead take it from you indirectly by encouraging you to buy their sell orders of the shitcoin they want to dump!
they disguise it in form of "investment groups", or "signal channels", and things like that.

All information you share is helpul the sadness there are manny people investing and give their trust to unknown personality making untrusting peoject to collect bitcoin easier and investing in the new exchange without any further study and investigation.


The lesson here invest wisely to avoid these worse scenario's from the elements.

I agree, since beginners don’t have enough knowledge yet about bitcoin and these types of scams they tend to get persuaded easily by scammers about doing this and that. Scammers now are very intelligent and they’ve put a lot of effort to make it look like a legit one so we should be really careful who we transact with. On the other note, thank you for sharing this guide, it will serve as a reminder not only to me but to others as well to be more cautious in whatever we will be doing.

I am highlighting this one because I have seen a deluge of many member-generated advertisements in almost all related Facebook groups precisely praising a certain trader and how that trader change the course of the poster's financial life. The advertisements can be attractive especially to newbies who are not yet exposed to the evil of scammers and hackers online. Unfortunately, I also saw some complaints directed against those traders of how they were gone after the money or cryptocurrency is transferred to the account of the trader. We should always careful with people we are dealing with online because we don't really know who they are and their intentions. When the offer seems to be too good to be true then probably it is...so run and get out as much as you can!

Most users have described about beginners easily getting caught into the traps of scammers. More than that we've got experienced people who have known much about the cryptocurrency and its growth possibilities getting caught into traps. Scam existed as a result of people in need for more money and the same is used as a source by people who without humanity does it and we go behind without making any research.

There are a lot of scams on bitcoin. People are using BITCOIN for their scheme but if someone is offering a "too good to be true" investment then think twice coz that might be a scam! In regard with number 3., there are lots who do these on telegram. Pretending thay they are from an exchange and asking for $$$ to get listed on their exchange with a 25% discount lol Never fall on that!

That scam attempt format is very obvious, only those who are fools will fall for that.

Crypto world is also full of scams although it's also full of opportunity, hence risk on investing here is considered a high risk.
Thanks for the tip, but every potential investors should dig more as the crypto is getting bigger, they are also seeing great opportunity
to scam people, hence they will revise and improve their strategy to continue taking advantage of the ignorant investors.

Hi, Firstly Speaking on Bitcoin Scam's as the majority of the programs that are being Introduced are In fact Scam which we think of and so we usually get into much Tense and Panic situation where we might actually think Dumb because as all of these Scams are visually so powerful that their Content Grabs our attention. and Drags us into getting Scammed and Invested which is going in Vain. So, we must make sure that the most possibility of not getting scammed is to research deep enough that we get to know there is certain or a lot amount is Invested in it and we must take time to check the Potential of the given Project which is Invested enough to not just get into some Scam or turn out to be a big Disappointment.

I think the scammers are target all of people, not only for the beginners if they have a chance .Before you believe just think of it well and be careful if who they are. If you are wise a dont believe it, then you will not fall victim to a scam.

Yeah, it's a little clickbait, the content is more like "Don't do this unless you want to lose your coins.
And the advice is pretty generic, all of them can be replicated for some fiat payments methods also.


The sad part is that once somebody builds a website, posts some fake profiles and pays a few hundred of dollars in advertising people start taking the bait. The howeycoin thread shows how gullible people are.

Greed is the biggest enemy and with all the exposed scams, people losing money, all the information available, they keep handing money to unknown persons hoping they will become rich overnight.

Always do your research and never to fall in such discounted offers, with how the industry move forward everyone should always never forget the importance of studying and analyzing every investment that they've going to place their money, we have to make good precautions to avoid being
scammed and to protect our money.

The whole tips OP listed can only manifest if the victim is given to greed. Without greed on the part of the victim, fraudsters are as stupid as they come. How can you make someone rich when you aren't even rich yourself? Those who participate in HYIP don't even bother to find out from where the promises they are made of repaid interest will come from. They don't bother to find out these things before indulging the business.

Greed is everything - steer clear of it and your Bitcoin is safe.

Just add:
- Be careful when entering the private key, because many phishing sites are similar.
- Don't download content from untrusted sites.
- Be careful when using new exchanges.
- Be careful with hype sites that lure money fast.

Remember, protecting is always your best asset.

Scammers are majorly after newbies to cryptocurrency. Funny many are been scammed daily. I have been safeguarding some persons in my country I come across, I help them to buy and sell bitcoin by referring them to reliable escrow and exchanges, sometimes they put me off the picture of their deals, although very few on of them, and some do get burnt, having a good mentor in this space is very important.

I believe there are other suffisticated ways of bitcoin scam lately such as the use of phishing site to steal log in details and also the hacking into your email. I don't trust any bitcoin investment formula that promise double return on investment because the market is always unpredictable.

people should be careful here:

-  Announcements (Altcoins) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=159.0)

- Tokens (Altcoins) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=240.0)

People should conduct research: investigate team members, investigate location of company headquarters, investigate the code, investigate the smart contracts, investigate the partner, investigate what the project offers in real life or the online world, and investigate the white paper

and never invest money here:

- Investor-based games  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=207.0)

Thankyou guys for sharing more info and the experiences,its very much needed for NOOBS !

The most common scenarios of those people doing scams are being pointed into numbers 1,3,4, and 5 because I think the number 2 is more likely a black mail since it already involves threat which is really alarming and I think is already in need to seek for assistance from the authorities. Well, all you have pointed out are all true because I have already experienced being scammed and I do really regret the decision I have made but I do promise not to make the same mistake again and to ensue the safety of my Bitcoin and also my other cryptos that they are always in tacked as well as my passwords for my accounts. It is really in need to trust no one because you are the only one who knows how to take care of your ow things. Better seek for second opinion from your closest friends before doing such actions.

You forgot to mention one more important thing that is proof of key never leave your bitcoin in any exchanges including local exchanges it may hack or scammed in the name of hack anytime as it happened with cryptopia I lost good amount of money in that exchange.

In essence, we must trust ourselves more and always be careful when entering your key key and not easily trust other people, especially those who you do not know for real or I just know on the internet.

I knew someone who never listened to me. He is fond of joining his acquintances who offered him doubled the money and promised big profits. If he just listened to me before, he will not cry like a baby now because they've tricked him.
I never receieved any kind of emails or messages like this. Considering they are harassing us and blackmailing us, we can not be threaten by those kind of messages.

We should be careful to whom person we are talking to. There are some instances that a  person will act and pretend they are a team from a particular exchange just to get personal informations from us. The best thing to do is to ignore if it is suspicious.

I don't store my bitcoins for too long in my wallets. Anyway, thank for the advices mate. It will be very helpful to remember these kind of tips to everyone here.

I remembered when I was a newbie I was almost scammed l was lured to send some bitcoin and promised a rate of Return Of 200% in three days time   similar to hyip.
Honestly trusted exchange or resellers is the way out in cryptos because of fraudulent practices across the cryptosphere and moreso the use of ESCROW services is another option in transaction of bitcoin in addition to the OP ways of preventing scam.

1. In short, don't trust someone with your fund. You have the authority to do whatever you want with your bitcoin and avoid investing into investment scams that are promising high returns.

2. Yes, that's the best option, ignore them.

3. Contact the exchange authority and verify if they are conducting that.

4. Same as number 2.

5. Use reputable exchanges or buy from someone known.

I add some, never trust about giveaway, airdrop, bounty or anything about freebies from email. Most of them are scam and the email will give you a link.

Just don't click it and delete the email directly.

Of course, there is no such thing.as free lunch. And if something looks and sounds too good to be true, it isn't. Scamers always have new inovative ideas and always find victims because people are naive and greedy. Always be careful, think twice and use your brain and common sense to evaluate situation. Don't expect that someone else will protect you from scam.

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This goes to those trading on websites like Bittrex, Binance and so on, please endeavor to always ;

1- use 2FA authentications or Google Auth as security for your exchange accounts. I got a phising attack on my bittrex and lost all my holding of 28,000usd. I am still in pains until today because of this. This should be an eye opener to traders before it is late.

2- Never seek website links from google or search engines, most links could be from hackers who do phishing attacks.. Always good to directly type the website of your exchange or web wallets into the browser.

Donate : bc1qm6ylqvke3mfukdckvpujx0ttdszl5fy4dtgwt4

right, it's better to avoid various types of invitations that are unknown or not authentic and untrusted sources. with simple delete and permanent blocking. Crypto users often receive invitations to their e-mails for the purpose of scaming our wallets. let's criticize fraud and scam issue by rejecting various forms of invitation with any reason.

This is a common types of scam already and the ones who will fall on this kind of traps are those newbie investors out there who doesn't know how and where to invest their money.

The problem to some of the investors is that they are too easy to be hypnotized by these scammers. Some will say "Invest here and will get 20% interest monthly". Greedy investors will invest their money there without knowing that it is only a scam. Investors must have knowledge and must know where to invest their money

Yeah i agree these scams are very common but newbies are not familiar  with these common scams..
We should be aware  of these hackers and scams..Good luck Guyzz.

i agree there are lot of scammer and newbie need to know the fact that bitcoin is not safe if they are not knowledgeable

It's similar with other investment platform such as forex/gold
They said that MIA and GCG are great choice to invest because they are doing copy trade for you while you are sitting and relax.

Every people have their own perception on what is the meaning on scam until the time said otherwise

Most scammers can appeal to our greed or that desire to earn money the fast and easy way. They have been doing that ever since and they are concocting many programs and establishing sites so they can promote their evil design. I was a newbie and got a victim with many HYIP type of programs before some can give us gains while many would say goodbye even days upon starting. With the coming of cryptocurrency, scammers found a big paradise to explore with so many new newbies to enthralled that is why education is always important.

Totally agree with all your views and good info for newbies going through this thread !

I suggest to avoid all third-party wallets in which you do not solely control your own private key. I also recommend to use a hardware wallet if your holdings are in the four figures or higher. Always use two-factor authentication when using exchanges, and only use reputable exchanges. Lastly, remember to safety store your passphrase when applicable.

Im using a third party wallet that dont have the ability to give private keys to thier users and im using it for almost 2 years and a half but so far so good . I dont experience any issues regarding on their security or service .  Not all kinds of this wallets are bad  . Its only up to the users if how he secure/use his wallet . Bitcoin scams usually happen on person to person transactions or on online exchanges but i rarely hear a scam news about online wallets  .

I agree with your opinion. the point is that if you want your wallet to be safe don't ever give a private key, don't go into a phishing link where we switch from the original website to the website of the person who is cheating. we must be careful

All the information is true. I did not trusg anyone else except to my self because I know what is good to my bitcoin because my knowledge is quiet enough. Just not like before who don't have enough knowledge that can cause me to result losing my bitcoin. Most of the common scam I saw is some people hear story on how they successful and they convince to send bitcoin to them and they give bavk profit after few days only but it's totally scam.

If you are referring to GreenAddress, it's true with them you do not have access to your private key, but they don't either, so they are an exception to the rule - there is confirmation required between the user and platform using encryption to access and move funds.

I have also used GreenAddress in the past, and I highly recommend that users keep a copy of the passphrase in a safe spot when using that service.

Absolutely,using people's innocence !

There are scams especially on telegram where a certain person claim that his/her Ip is blocked that he can’t  withdraw from an exchange. He/she then coerces you to register that he/she  would send the coin to you, but you will keep a percentage and send the rest to him/her.

Here is the catch. The coins they usually send in the exchange is a teatnet coin which is valueless. Never fall for that, if truly their IP is blocked, I’m sure there are VPNs that can help to circumvent that. Never believe their lies. They are all out for scams.

some good guidelines you got there for newer btc people to navigate the scam/thief jungle that exist and trying to take your hard earned crypto.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm a telegram user and reading a lot of offerings but haven't fallen from their trap. You can easily detect potential scam or cheating from these scammers. You should be very careful in sending your vital information or any keys to these suckers. Don't be greedy by accepting their offers.

1. Before that, to be sure you are good for handle 2fa https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3178131.0
2. Always bookmark true site, double checked like ussualy.

There are other obvious bitcoin scams and can easily be determined.

Online Cloud Mining - Don't invest on this kind of scheme you simply put your money to their address and allows them to mine a coin for you cause in reality they aren't
HYIP - no more further explanations
ICO - this is also one of the shittest scheme right now trying to create a token that might have a value in the future or even worse you are doing something but still you can't have the certain tokens

I often find cases like in number 3, I don't know why there are so many messages about this on my email, I know they tried hacking with phishing. They act like exchange sites or wallets, and their mode asks for certain verification so that your account isn't blocked by them, and you are directed at their site which is very similar to the original exchange site. I don't know how they knows email of bitcoin users?

This post is really a useful post for everyone, which gives a lot of good ideas and some important tips for newbies. I would like to thank you for posting an important issue. Many misunderstandings are misguided that you mentioned here. This is one of the most effective postings for all, especially for newbies. If you follow these points, I hope you'll be far away from cheating.

The latest of the scams seems to happen through the social networking sites, and particularly the focus is getting mentioned with the name of mining. Recently I was contacted through Instagram about mining without investment, those were just traps, and they never demand for money. This way it looks like legitimate service and surely one should not get into such traps.

I have been written many times and asked to transfer them bitcoins under various pretexts. This is really a very big problem now. I hope that people will be smarter and will not be believe these scammers.

Agree with you, but those who are still be scammed or be scam even after reading how threads like this can help, is purely greed and nothing anyone can do for such individual. When one is greedy, you are prone to scam, as the scammers will always provide you with bogus profits that's attractive in order to scam the party.

Only fools will do it. I'm not sure the scammer will succeed this way.
but to watch out for this might happen. you should check every information that comes in so that it is not fooled by fraud.

There have been a ton of stories regarding sim swaps which I find something of importance to take note of. I've been wondering if they target people in crypto because of mobile wallets

For those that doesn't encounter such attempts, do leave no footprints, leaving info's on not trustworthy sites. They probably sell your personal information which lead scammers go trail your holdings and the worst in your handphone. Several sim hack case are happening on people, scammer these day have no problem. Also with the raising popularity of IEO, giveaways, it's so common to see such info in telegram thats link scam

This is the problem with cryptocurrency.
Those who wish to stay anonymous makes it easier for these type of things to happen to those who are not versed in how to protect themselves.
Stay safe and know what to look for when dealing with individuals you dont feel right about with in the first place. :-[

The most usual type of bitcoin scam in your list is number one, there are still lots of people in social media, telegram etc that will just message you and tell you that they have a platform that you can invest your bitcoin and will grow it in just a couple of days. It's obviously a lie and if you send your bitcoin to that platform you already lost it, so we just need to be careful and ignore those type of scam.

There are lot of scams on telegram aside for mining sites. They offer to double your investment for about a day though you withdraw it, it does not receive on the wallet. We have to be aware on where we invest and make sure that it is really trusted one. They offer good to attract everyone.

Moral of the story: " Don't talk to stranger."

Any suspicious on the internet or even a person should be ignored. Dont trust anyone offering too good to be true or easy money. Also, dont click any links that pops up on your desktop offering bitcoin's opportunities. Scammers are evolving. We should always be cautious.

All these are gullible ways of deceiving the person that won't take leadership for himself, but want other persons to even help them trade on a decentralized exchange with their private keys without considering the implication. Anyone who gives me a DM and asked "how may I help you", I flag such as a potential scammer, open discussion or nothing.

The most popular bitcoin scams are
1) phishing through emails or websites with no secured https access
2) money doubling bitcoin HYIP (high yield investment) websites
I know how crazy some people wants to make money quickly so they are obsessed with HYIP even after knowing its a pyramid scheme

We need to responsible for what we have and related to the cryptocurrency, we need to protect the private keys that we have so we don't have to worry with them. We need to always be careful in any situations and always searching on the internet for something that we don't know so we can get more information for that things, and we can prevent from something bad that might happen to us. That will be a way to preventing us from the scammers.

Very much ! And the FB and many other social media sites just SCAMMERS,worried for NEwbies not to fall for them !

My story was different,I didnt even get to speak to a stranger,I was called by a scammer who presented himself as a customer care of the exchange where my Bitcoins were sitting and done ,neat sweep !

This has been said for how many times,but still helpful specially for the newbies and those who don’t really learn in this community even if they stay longer
I love the idea that everyone is concerns about each other’s future here because we cannot trust the market itself instead we need someone to carry us each time we need a hand

For me the most recent one in bitcoin scam is the forking of coins and it's like stealing the business of ones business. And one far more grievous crime is telling the world that you are Satoshi Nakamoto. ;)

Hahaha, that's really another big thing inside this industry, claiming things that you've created system that you've wanted to be anonymous but now you are showing your real identity in order to gained attention, this big scam attempt to bring another project to ruined the original chain.

Anything and everything on Telegram.

Thats correct for almost crypto holder have telegram and after the twitter scam which happen last year if I could remember correctly the latest crypto scam of this days are carried out through telegram and I will advice all crypto holder not to save the wallet inform on phone or join a telegram group which seems suspicious.

Can be because of two reasons, the most common one is that you registered in a lot of sites with your mail and they sold your address in a list along with a bunch of other address probably so you get added to the list. Selling information is very profitable online, it's the information age at the end.

Have to be really careful with first which links you click and second what you download.

This is a very basic way to scam someone but I feel the community is wise to know not to answer such calls. There’s a new blackmail scam happening where they shoot of mass mails by saying they have caught you enjoying watching adult entertainment, and in other they say they’ll do negative seo on your website. In both cases they’ll send you an address where you need to deposit bitcoins, but never deposit any coins on those address as it’s false they won’t do anything.

Scammers do operate in different angles. Though you mentioned the few moves they normally operates on. Each day scammers create new ideas which looks real and people falls victims to their traps

They are good at their creative nature as well of creating unethical scams which makes you go awestruck !!