Bitcoin Forum

Last week the United kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning that the coronavirus out real might be providing criminals with the opportunity to swindle investors out of their crypto assets, you've been warned

Scammers are sophisticated, opportunistic and will surely try many things.

Do not trust any one or organization asking for donations to combat the outbreak, it's not real

I have seen a bunch of new threads that promoted an ico that used to fight this virus and I can believe if this kind of ico is a scam. I hope that a lot of people will aware about this and they will never try to believe with those scam charity that used the name of humanity to fight corona to scam others. It looks like we need more awareness about this.

People have become so ethicsless and greedy that they attack people when they are suffering. A person in problem is highly likely to believe in any positive prospective that they'd outright accept it. That's why it's aways better not to make decisions by your mood and think about it for at least two different days.

Yeah, very possible, people should be cautious about this situation and try not get scammed as a result of covid-19, opportunist will try and make money out of people's misery even when people are suffering from this pandemic, they don't seem to care, some bad people will take advantage to do bad things instead of genuinely helping those in need.

They keep coming here, saying they are connected to one NGO or the other. Some even say they have connections with WHO. All these are just means of convincing and confusing people in order to make them fall into their trap.
Do you know what amazes me most?
They have good and attractive websites.
The information there looks too real.
They can issue you with documents (fake) to back their claims.
They can be very intelligent and smart.
So, you have to be extremely careful at this time.

First save yourself from this virus because it is capable of affecting anyone and even can make you die if your immunity is weak or already have some respiratory diseases.

Donate if your government asked for it or just keep everything to yourselves because we never know how long it will take for those things back to normal in that time period you may need those money for your needs.

As far as i know, the scammers will always trying to find a way how to steal the money from peoples.
Pretending to collect the donation in cryptocurrency for corona virus could be the way.
If we want to donate, just donate to the official one with fiat money.

perfect examples are those corona virus-related projects here. if you are an old timer, are you going to invest on those projects? i don't think so. they are one of those money grabbing schemes from naive users. they are popping out like mushrooms and enticing possible sympathizers by stating one of their missions is to donate some of their collected funds to the victims, UNICEF, NGOs, or other charitable institutions. do you believe such kind of stunt if they are anonymous teams? so please be careful with these projects. they are meant to be in the trash bin.

We already have Corona coin  ;D and I'm pretty sure it's same thing that OP is talking about, if just easy to spot this type of scams nowadays, scammers aren't always that smart unless you are greedy

yes, indeed, these are unpleasant times for everyone, but scammers are certainly trying to use it to scam others, as i heard, in my country small criminals organized themselves, disguised as medical workers to help elderly, go into their homes, dressed as medicals, and steal from them, cannot be worse than that

As you mentioned, fraudsters exploits the situation for their own benefits without even realizing how it may affect other people. It's because they think that they can easily persuade people, especially people whose willing to help people in need, but they don't have any idea that the situation is being used against them by asking them for fake donations without giving any assurance that it'll be donated. We should be cautious these days because people changes their mindset when it comes to money. Fraudsters are everywhere and we need to be careful with our actions because they will always seek for an opportunity to deceive us.

When ICO was reigning in 2017 many scammers scam innocent victim, and even while IEO takes over series of fake IEO projects entered crypto space, the fact is scammers are always in every corner and waiting patiently to take advantage of any new opportunities

Of course, scammers will always look for an opportunity in any situation be it good or bad, they don't care but will try to rip off any gullible user. I have seen people making use of this virus situation as a means to create an ICO and I wondered what the idea of the project will be at all. In addition to what you have rightly said, it is better for everyone to be careful of the type of projects they get involved with as more scams will be coming up now, might not be through ICO but might be through giveaway events etc.

Yes. I agree with the warning. Because I have also read a tread asking for donations in the form of BTC to overcome corona disease. His foundation is only based on dreams of meeting Jesus. Joke ;D ;D ;D

Scammers always want to exploit opportunities. The current situation is that people in the world are scared and people want to help each other. And scammers are taking advantage of this opportunity to make money. If we think of the ico scam then we can understand how scammers are scamming innocent people. Now the days of ico are over so scammers are waiting for new opportunities.

I think it is not enough blaming scammers.
We need to re educate newbies, on the basics to do as regard crypto currency.

As individuals, even apart from crypto currency, we must learn the patience to find out thorough information and investigations ourself.

Because it will help in the crypto space.

Please and please, always dyor.

yeap you are right mate, shit peoples already creating corona token. I saw more than 2/3 tokens news in crypto news sites, even one token added in coingecko. you can take a look. https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/coronavirus-token
so before any donation think twice that is it right place or scam.even buying corona token buy 100 times because scammers made a trap for you to scam your valuable money.

Scamer is a collection of uncivilized people, they will always look for opportunities to gain profits. Outbreaks that are happening now will also certainly be utilized by them, if you want to help better to a credible foundation or institution

This is always the way of scammers, they will always take advantages of any opportunity, just to get what they wan't, this has been their pattern time and time again, but those people who get scammed are the one that are too greedy, they already had what they wan't but since they wan't more , they unconsciously, fall for the same mistakes that others did simply because of greed.

This is so true. I'm also thinking the same thing, surely there are people that's going to use this issue to gain sympathy from people to gain money, start a fundraising saying that it's for the country or people that's been affected by COVID-19 virus. A lot of people could(would) be trick by this scheme because we're in a tough situation in where our lives is at stake, and if we don't help each other, we're all going to die because the disease will spread rapidly.

So it's always important to do background check before you donate some money, because your money would not help anyone, but to scammers only.

Scammers will use any oppurtunity even in this corona virus outbreak. If you want to donate to help people just donate your money to official department in your country. Dont trust donation from the internet, those people are the worst one.

A crisis is always golden time for scammers, when people are scare and panic, they're easier to make a donation to make they feel better, without check legit of the donation. I saw many threads about a new scam coin named coronacoin. They are attacking Bitcointalk, if you see a thread like that, report it.

I have read the topic here where someone is impersonating the WHO, and they are asking for donations in BTC. For absolutely no reason and organization who is known for health and other applications started to accept bitcoin as a donation, better check the background of that website or check the actual site for the usage of cryptocurrency taking of payments.

With corona virus outbreak we have right now, it would give more opportunities for scammers to steal the money of people without their awareness. So we should be more responsible in taking care of our properties not to be deceived from those people who pretend to be charity staffs. If we want to donate cash, we can go personally to the charity intended for it and not just trust easily what we see in the internet.

Yes you are absolutely right. In this situation many people being greedy and do many ways to enrich themselves and in cryptocurrency is the most vulnerable. For old trader/investor may already understand but for newbie or people who do not have a lot of knowledge would be very risky.

I am aware of the scams in the crypto space, and this is a global pandemic, it's not necessary to donate money to other countries, what I did is I just help in my own community as we are still lock down until now, people losing their job and business are closing, in a small way I also did my help by donating the basic needs like food.

I read some scammer's new method of fooling people in the beginner section earlier and it has something to do with the epidemic. We need to share some prevention to let people know that these scammers are making their move to take advantage of our current situation. We need to prevent them to accept strang offers that have to do with cryptocurrency or any other means of digital money. Today, we need to be vigilant because those fraudster doesn't have a holiday they always take advantage of every bad situation.

I agree that we must be on guard against fraud. The scammer will always use every moment to benefit himself or his group and I think if we are vigilant and do not panic easily, then we will be able to think rationally so that we can avoid fraud

Come to think of it, some people around the world will definitely want to help those in need, these scammers are available on Twitter too giving users foul proof that the funds are going to those who are infected by the disease, may God have messy on  scammers souls

a scamer does not have a heart, they take advantage of the opportunity to enrich themselves personally and do not care if it harms others. sometimes many people are tempted by their deception with attractive offers, so there are still many people who fall into their trap. therefore logical thinking becomes a means to avoid their actions

This is the disadvantage of social media. People who lack spine instead helping are taking advantage of the situation and this is such a ridiculous move by those scammer. Without consciences they just do whatever they wanted just to earn some money. What worse is they using crypto ad their payment scheme does making it worse in the perception of other people.

We also need to be smart, with the number of crypto hacks and other crimes in the space, that should be enough to make us aware of the risk here.
Actually we will never fall for their scam if we know what we are doing and we keep educating ourselves, it's only ourselves where we can trust in our venture here in the crypto space.

The opportunity to scam is not just in crypto. People should be careful even in their homes because some evil group are seizing this opportunity to rob different homes in disguise as health workers spraying homes against the virus. No one should believe anything from anybody unless proper information was passed by the government on that.

disadvantage because they can now have a victim and recruit many people  without explaining anything face to face . They are just give proof of the payment and show money images then they can easily attract people who want to earn money in easy way . Its happen not only in crypto they are also using other online payment as long as its available in thier country.

Scammers like copying, stealing and taking advantages,  the copy website designs , steal ideas and create advantages out of anything good or even bad situations, but where is always ends is sending money to strangers, I don't do such that's why i am safe

Indeed the current coronavirus situation ravaging the world is a good venue for crypto scammer. The ability to send and receive cryptocurrencies virtually or online makes it very easy for scammers to do their illegal ways. Taking advantage of the vulnerabilities of victims and people affected by the current situation. Everyone should be careful not to fall for them.

I believe crypto community is smart enough these days so they won't fall in the scams which are happening in the name of corona. Now the time is to be more careful and aware we must avoid these kind of scam projects somewhere It will create an unnecessary hype If we do much talk about these projects so just avoid them.

Look, scammers are scammers and in a sense, entrepreneuring. They have the same qualities as entrepreneurs who are successful because they take advantage of any opportunity quickly. See social media and see legit advertising and marketing and Gurus online all telling us about Covid-19. They take advantage of people too.

Well, scammers are scammers, they will do their best just to steal your money even in bad situation we are facing right now, it would be really advantage for the hackers and scammers to fool other people because of high chance of believing of others to their offers. As crisis happens people would take the risk even they don't know the person they are talking to just to sustain their needs.

Just simple tips to anyone:
1. Always be wise.
2. Do not trust so easily.
3. Always make a proper decision.

     This always happens. Some people try to take advantage of certain difficult situations for the population, lying to them with some solutions that do not exist. A person who has certain problems is very vulnerable and calls on anyone to solve their problem and in fact creates even bigger problems. Who wants to donate can do it directly to the source (hospital, people, etc.), not through fake intermediaries.

Uncivilized people? I guess you are wrong, the ability to scam others is within ones mind and there is not way to know what a heart speaks, even well civilized humans are part of criminal activities, it's not about been civilized or not mate

I'm afraid scammers and entrepreneur are not the same, I can't see them related in skills for us to compare scammers to them. Scammers are simply unethical people who only cares about getting money without sweating anything at all, while entrepreneurs are the other way around. It takes years before you could be an entrepreneur but being a scammer only takes a day. You could spend your time googling your tactics on how you could pull a scheme to anyone, that's easy peasy, that's why there's a lot of people doing that, especially now.

It would be easy if they are going to use cryptocurrency to scam donations in coronavirus I think it is better to donate to some foundation that is legitimate. No need to use cryptocurrency as a donation the important thing is you are helping people that is needed the most and you could always do that in a lot of ways, I think donate to a foundation that is recommended in the news in your country. It would be safer than donating to some websites that is using a suspicious bitcoin or altcoins address, and we don't have any verification in this donations so it would be easy for scammers to execute this scam.

Of course, the problems that we are facing today are many in the negative direction by certain parties, then in this matter we must be careful not to be easy to believe with an offer that wants to raise funds by a certain party to make an outbreak of the plague Corona virus, if any link offered can we believe it certainly is no problem, because it helps fellow human beings highly recommended.

Indeed they are opportunist and as they say, most Opportunities comes but once hence the reason why they are off to scam innocent people with this deadly virus as a cover-up. Also, it is time to be on the lookout for most platforms or organizations which will come up to ask for donations to help tackle this virus; it is good to donate but also wise to do it through the right and established organizations which are thoroughly known, so that you will have the feeling that you did a good work for humanity.

This happens because the average scammer is always updating the way how to fool the victims by utilizing the existing situation. I wonder why there are still events in this situation. Is there no touching feeling to this scammer person towards what is experienced at this time. I agree to always do research before making a decision, there are still many irresponsible elements.

Scammers are innovative, they will always find new things to do their stuff. No matter how alarming the circumstances right now there will be always people that would do thing differently from the right one. Instead of lending hand, and helping one another they can still pullout such things, they really have the guts. Anyway not surprised by these things, I mean even outside the crypto space such stuff is prevalent, like those people who hoard necessities in this crisis, and would sell stuff doubled on its original price, it is just like they are totally blind on what's the essence of helping each other. Anyway, ya'll guys be careful with such deceptive acts, always watch your assets.

I've been visited some threads here also new projects that is related to cryptocurrency there are some also who also have a service about corona virus insurance at the very first glimpse I already knew that this was a scam that will take advantage on what's happening on our society we are on a critical state and yet they still manage to take advantage for their greed.

They wouldn't stop no matter what's happening they're always there and will pop up anywhere we should take cautions to every action we're going to make and always doubt in everything and trust no one. (This helps me, might be helpful to others too)

Exactly, I know definitely that scammers will want to capitalize on this horrible situation.  Those that created thread in promoting such donations have been warned expressly to desist from it. All the claims that some countries, especially Italy want to use crypto donations to fight the pandemic are all false.  I think we are wise and careful enough not to fall into such cheap scams.

Frauders take advantage of every opportunity to benefit, even by exploiting this pandemic sadness. Come on to be more caring and conscientious in providing your help, it's better to choose to fundraise for local social action in your city that is trusted. Immediately report if there are suspicious projects in the name of Corona Virus and the like, do an in-depth analysis.

Yeah, in fact, I have seen someone is planning to create some charity for this covid the thought is good, it is really good to help but for now let us leave it to the government and some companies. But what if they are just gathering funds for themselves so if you want to donate directly donate in your officials in your community or existing charities for this pandemic to make sure your donation is in good use.

It is really sad that even with the deadly nature of this virus that there are people who would still scam others just to enrich themselves while causing more pains and agony to more people. Nevertheless, just like you said let us be careful of who we donate to, no matter the organization, every charity organizations, NGO or whatever needs to be a recognized one so they can be held accountable should they mismanage the funds. Even those creating one token or the other for this virus, don't know what they are trying to achieve and as such should be ignored as well.

Ive seen many more scam approach that relates on covid outbreak. I am so dissapointed that these people are taking advantage of investors. More people are dying on our watch and these scumbags try to insert their illegal activity and what worse is using donation as an approach to seek funds from these concern people. Hope karma approach them soon.

It's not surprising for these scammers actually. Like going out of your home just to donate isn't a good idea anymore and they would expect you to donate from the internet using any other channels or means of payment, it could be credit card/debit card and yes, cryptocurrency.
I think it would be nice for a compilation of those sites that aim for us crypto hodlers here in the forum and it would be just locked after this pandemic issue.  :)

Scammers will always appear at every opportunity and they must be faced with strict law enforcement. But in the current era of internet and decentralization, it is difficult to ensnare for scammers and I think it takes the efforts of many countries to uncover the mode of scammers and capture them

I agree. I have already read one post in this forum about such thing that you need to send a cryptocurrency amount in his given address to be able to serve as donation for the victims of the Coronavirus pandemic and have a here say in the ending that "if you do not donate, you will be infected by the virus etc." Well that was a lame and obvious act of desperation because a donation is an in kind money to be sent into those in need and not a forceful act. Also, government of different countries are already using calamity funds to sustain the needs of the people that are affected by the lockdown together with large companies as well as group of rich people to help those in need. At times like this, we still need to be observant in our surroundings for us to be able not to be fooled by those people who are taking the advantage of the situation.

Scammers won't take a break whether there is a pandemic situation or not as they will surely use any opportunity they have just to steal the money of others. As long as they have any chances, they will surely use it as they are born like that and will always behave like that.

There is a very little chance that they will change as most of the scammers are evil doer and they like to use the money for whatever reason they have. Scammers are very tricky as they are also evolving so make sure that you will avoid them at any cost, don't be greedy or trust easily even if they are telling that they want to gather funds in order to help those affected area by virus.

This is normal and people have always look for an easy way out to reduce the impact of bad economy by investing in HYIPs and Ponzi. We that have been here enough should be wise enough to educate newcomers and make do to avoid scammers by shunning greedy offers.

I think today it's up for us to educate ourselves and others not to interact those project that surely a scam. There a lot of project that easily to determine whether it a scam or not. Newbie likes projects that easily for them to gain profit and that what scammers what to target because of lack of knowledge about crypto. We must prefer for a safe transaction or donation if we want to help the spread of the virus and other aspect that we can help. We should allow scammers to get what they want.

I don't understand what you mean, I know that the ability to deceive is indeed a human instinct but when used it is uncivilized. Is stealing and cheating normal for you?

obviously it's not real, such promotions are just tricks to attract the attention of crypto users or investors. especially when the world is currently in an emergency situation about the corona outbreak. of course, scamers always have a way to fool their victims even by taking advantage of the current situation. With the advent of Corona Virus, it has now become a powerful weapon for scamers for fraudulent capital.

Stealing and cheating on something is neither normal nor civilized, because they use their ability to deceive people and have the intention to seek benefits above the suffering of others, so it's clearly not normal.

Only gullible users will fall into this trap. They are scamming anonymously, so why should someone trust their money to faceless projects that are operating for obvious reason that they want to pocket money from naive users? People should be smart enough with this kind of project esp now that we are in the crisis mode.

yes, that reason makes perfect sense. because if only for donations, actually making donations directly using money or in the form of goods or food can also. if it supports using crypto assets, bitcoin and etherum should be there first and can be used.

the fact that scammers are indeed very clever. they are able to think of something as sophisticated as reality to make a period of being fooled. it does not only occur in the corona case, but it also occurs in the crypto case. that's why many people nowadays don't really believe in new projects.

They are not just after your crypto assets, they are after anything they can get from you whether it is crypto or fiat, they are taking it from you. There are some scammers that has created fake charity websites and some of them pretend to be popular organizations and use their names to ask for donations, and once you donate you will be thinking that the money is being used for the purpose as of which you donated it, but you don’t know that the money has been given to scammers.

So, people really has to be careful, if you see any advert or anyone that’s asking for donation, you should verify if they are legit; if they claim to Red Cross, check their social media pages to know if it’s verified and all that, before you donate.

They are trying to abuse the current situation of our world as of now for them to be able to scam other people. They are going to do some fund raising for the people that has been infected by the virus and scam the money that they got. We must be very careful because scammers is everywhere even though our world is facing such crisis like this one.

Scammers will never rest, they keeping thinking of how to defraud people while making the best of every opportunity they can lay their hands on. Just imagine when the whole world is in turmoil, another group of fraudsters are busy thinking of who to steal from. Let every one be careful of where they donate to, if possible get the details of all approved organizations so as to do it the right way; let's not feed scammers during this critical time in the world as every penny donated towards this situation is very important.

You are very right,these scammers don't rest,they see opportunity in everything,we all need to be careful,also still on this Covid 19 issue, you see loads of link regarding it,please for goodness sake and for your own safety,that includes safety of your wallets,mind what link you click on so as not to create pains for yourself

That is really how scammers do work. They would always seek and make use the advantage which is favorable to them to get what they want to the people they would be victimize. What is important for them is to sustain their own needs and wants without thinking about the state of the people they would scam. Especially nowadays that the whole world is still experiencing and at the same time suffering from this pandemic, there will surely be a movement happening on the scammers out there to make use or took advantage of the situation most specially on people who are desperately seeking for jobs, products and goods and other related stuffs online, scammers will always make way to make things favorable to them. That is why despite of the pandemic, we all do need to be aware and keep ourselves equipped not to be victimized by those scammers around.

Of course we always have to be wary of scammers, but I am always ready to support cryptocurrency to legal organizations. It is also a way to raise people's awareness of cryptocurrencies.

In fact, organizations that are really intended to solicit donations for the Corona pandemic are mostly open and public. others with Scammers who do it in a quiet way. obviously this is fraud

In my opinion, there are still many people who are good and appropriate in asking for and distributing donations. For this moment, public is very clever in analyzing whether the request is true or not because at this time there are many references that can check the legality of the request for assistance. This called Public accountability.

Yes, and it is natural that Scammers who make donations to the Corona pandemic in a calm manner, because they have other strategies for their intentions, now the scammers are very clever in capturing the hearts of their victims.

I've expected that this pandemic situation will make new scam method for that fucking scammers. I hate that people who take advantages from the others suffering. If someone else offering you to donate with crypto assets, just ignore it. You can still help the other with another way, the right way.

Yes it's true, any opportunity they find in the world not necessarily in crypto, they will leverage on it immediately. Now in the crypto space, there are many scammers using this corona virus to create scam projects through which they can carry out their scams; the funny thing is, it is getting to much, more and more of this corona virus coins are being released and while some people are asking questions for guidance others are already investing. Few weeks ago I heard that one of this corona virus projects has exited scam and this is likely the fate of others. So therefore, let everyone be mindful and careful of all these projects while watching out for their other tactics such as asking for donations etc.

That is the problem, in most cases the scam projects look more legitimate than honest projects. Even the team is experienced and created so many successful coins, it is not guarantee that they will not scam you right now.  ::)