Bitcoin Forum

We need to be very careful when it comes to cryptocurrencies because there are a lot of scammers out there looking for ways to defraud us, and the majority of them always target newcomers because they think they are very simple to persuade and because they are unfamiliar with the cryptocurrency space, they don't really have much experience about security which makes it easy for scammers to easily brainwash them. That is why I put together the list because I think it will be helpful for the majority of newcomers just joining the forum.

1, Phishing scams; we all have to be careful because this is a common cryptocurrency scam but newbies are the ones that mostly fall for this kind of scam. Scammers always look for ways to get personal information, they do end up sending emails to people or sending personal messages to people which contain a harmful links. So make sure you don’t trust anyone on social media, don’t click on any link you receive through email or any social media account, be careful with the websites you are visiting and always try your possible best not to connect your wallet address to anyhow website.

2, Giveaway Scams; most newbies believe cryptocurrency space is where they can easily make free money, but I will tell you there is no free money in crypto, any money you are making you have to work for it. You might receive a random message telling you they are running a giveaway, any amount you send to them, they multiply for you in a few minutes or hours. Don’t be surprised if you receive this kind of message from an influential person on social media, the user’s account might have been compromised. No one will offer to double your money for you in the crypto space, so we all have to be very careful.

3, Fake Crypto Exchanges; we are having multiple crypto exchanges currently but some of them are fake when making use of crypto exchange, make sure you are using a reputable exchange, most of this those crypto exchanges are always offering  Bonuses just to attract customers, immediately you make a deposit to the exchange, the coin you send might not reflect or whenever you want to make a withdrawal, you might not be able to withdraw. So when using crypto exchange, make sure you go for reputable crypto exchange and avoid unrecognized exchanges even if they are offering attractive bonuses.

4, Fake Apps; lots of people have lost their crypto assets just because they downloaded fake crypto apps, we have seen lots of fake crypto apps that have been reported on the forum. If you are downloading any crypto app, make sure you get the link to the app from the official website don’t trust most of the applications you see on the Google play store. So make sure you confirm if you are downloading the right application whenever you want to download any application.

5, Fake crypto website; lots of people fall for this scam, most people don’t really take note of the website they are visiting, we have to be careful when visiting any website, scammers are always creating fake crypto websites similar to the original website, which if you don’t know you will think it’s the real website that you want to visit, the similarity is always much but there is always little difference in the domain name, they always make sure the website is very real.

Great list, of which every Newbie should be aware of.
Scammers are criminal idiots trying to take advantage from uneducated and greedy people. So, education is already an important step to avoid such scams. And your list is a good compilation of common scam attempts.

I would also avoid MLM-scams / ponzi scams, see also my topic MLM - a dangerous marketing stratgy (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5116935.0)

MLM is scam in most cases and extremely likely to be unprofitable / a fail in almost (99.9%) all cases.  ;)

All your tips explain phishing in one way or another, simply because it is an attempt to use a service that claims to be a reliable service, or at least there is an unreliable service that wants to attract followers by offering offers that are too good to be true.
But the fraud is much greater than that. You may find a real service that works for several years, and yet it deceives you.
So preparing static lists will not solve the problem, but:

 - Be skeptical.
 - Do not trust any service.
 - Always ask and do not be shy to ask the question, no matter how stupid.
 - Finally, do not think that you know everything, because it is the scammers' way of finding victims.

All those that you mentioned are scams based on fake versions: fake links and emails and sites, fake giveaways, fake exchanges, fake apps. Indeed, they are relatively easy to avoid. One may be easier to avoid than the others, though, as in a fake Binance site is easier to determine than a fake Binance email which may even carry the words official or staff or team or whatever.

But the scams that are harder to avoid are those that aren't fake. FTX wasn't fake. BlockFi wasn't fake. The same is true with Celsius and Three Arrows Capital and others. They were all duly registered and licensed. They were all legal business entities. They all had highly paid teams and sleek headquarters and whatnot. But they're all scams!

1. Common scam.

2. It's not a giveaway scam, but it's ponzi scheme since you said to send and double the money. Giveaway scam is ask you anything and follow their requirement, but they're not distribute they never distribute the reward.

3. I still don't understand why many people fall to this scam when there's already a lot review and ads promoting a big exchange.

4. Don't install everything, if you installed a wallet, you can verify the signature.

5. No different with phishing scam.

Most phishing and fraud sites are new sites that are not indexed in Google searches. It would either take advantage of a typo or you have been redirected by some random guys on the internet who suddenly shares unrelated financial experiences, and then the scam steps start by becoming a fake mentor.

To put it bluntly, the altcoin market is a scam. Cryptocurrency industry, only Bitcoin was created for the purpose of being a P2P payment method, Satoshi never intended to make it an investment or a commodity. The rest are all created to sell tokens and make a profit, so at some point, they will collapse for no reason.

Investing in altcoins means taking a gamble, so we should stop before it's too late. A scam cannot appear on its own but is created by human greed, if we are not greedy, no one can deceive us.

OP, would it be nice if you also explained how exactly a newbie understands that he has gone to a phishing site? Why can an application download from a trusted resource, for example, Google Play, be fraudulent?
The whole list is good, but the problem is that we only mention general concepts, like don't go there, and don't do that. That's bad.
Beginners need an "Explanation on fingers", because if they are told to sign up and invest as soon as possible, otherwise it will be too late, how will they be able to soberly assess whether they are doing the right thing or not?
It is easier for beginners to say than to show. People learn better from their mistakes.

I won't call scammers idiots, they are so smart than many crypto investors that's why they can deceive and trick them, investors need to be as smart as these scammers to be able to avoid their traps completely, it's a pity that many new crypto investors comes into the space with no single knowledge about crypto and they have to learn from scratch, this is why those scammers are never going to go out of business any time sooner.

Since all new crypto investors need to begin their journey front the start, they will make so many mistakes along the way, it is inevitable.

You know what sometimes surprises me?
It's seeing some people, who are educated and even work in the IT area, falling into some basic theft schemes.

I once saw a person who worked in a computer company, saying how he was deceived in a very basic method on a personal level. If I were that person's boss, I would have fired them on the spot.

This is a good reminder, OP; you have compiled a good list that includes some basic tips to ensure our community's safety because we have a lot of new members joining this forum; I believe this thread will be useful to remind them because I am sure some of them have experienced something similar in the past.

These are some of the target points for scammers to prey on beginners because they know they are unfamiliar with the entire system and will make mistakes, which is why they use these mediums to defraud them.

Aside from scammers, beginners should be cautious about the type of wallet they use. We should always make sure we downloaded the right wallets from official websites to avoid accidentally giving your Bitcoin to a scammer.
Furthermore, beginners should stop relying solely on cryptocurrency exchanges; instead, they should buy their coins there and transfer them to their personal wallets rather than keeping them in the exchange.

Sincerely scammers are getting strong in their schemes but the obvious thing to do when a link is sent is for to go through the site and see maybe there a little changes on the domain name, https could be used as http by the scammers, also a phishing site will ask ridiculous questions like your personal information and once such pops up then one needs to be careful of going further.

As for application even google play added goggle play protect and scammers still find their way to get fake apps into the goggle store but one could use some common tips to minimize downloading them. Firstly is to check the logo/avatar of the app once they are duplicated or many then one is the only genuine one. The next step is to go through the number of downloads and reviews although this also can be manipulated. One also can check the app developer to check which of these apps is actually the right one. Things like checking through the app grammatical errors could also help in dictating a fake app

I recently fell for a phishing scam on paxful and I was scammed of $150 and this is a very common way if scamming innocent people on most private exchanges and I really felt so bad at that spot because the money was intended for treatment and it also was a loan from @ shansha but paid and got another one from him.

I want to throw more emphasis on clicking on links no matter who sends it to you as everyone could be a suspect as far as the internet is concern because most phishing links looks too real to be doubted.
In general people have to be very careful with the internet and always try to stay very secure on the Internet and treat everyone with extra caution.

What is most often experienced by newbies is when their wallet is hacked because they carelessly exchange tokens that they get from unknown sources. They are fooled by the value of the token they want to exchange, so they ignore the security of their wallet. And without them realizing it when they exchanged the token they had directly given access to their wallet to the hacker. Therefore, for newbies, you should not exchange the tokens that you get carelessly, make sure that the source of the tokens is trusted and always be vigilant.

You forgot to mention by far the best practice to avoid downloading fake apps and it is to avoid Google Play completely and instead download apps directly from developer's website. I know that its more convenient to use Google Play, but losing your concentration for a second might make you download the fake app so why even take that chance.



Don't be so judgemental as it can happen to anyone, even to the most experienced people as all it takes is one moment of losing your concentration and money is gone. I know a guy who is in crypto profesionally for 7+ years, yet he managed to lose $100k by connecting Metamask to some scammy website just because he wanted to do something quick before going out. Even better example is the well known Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr who recently got hacked and lost 200+ BTC and guy knows more about security than 99.99% of us here.

Additional
Honeypot Token Scam :
If you are not greedy then you can hardly fall for this type of scam. Honeypot Scam is a term use for Scams that attract people and trap them.Honeypot token trap  by not allowing the owners to swap the token and by that means stealing the gas fee and they can also still the owner wallet key.
Honeypot token scam is quite common, they are usually gotten through Airdrops and Presale or when a random person just sent his/her wallet key (the tokens there are honeypot)

since the members have already given their advice and opinions regarding the topic, I thought this thread([LEARN & EARN] Phishing Quizzes - Beginners & Experts ( (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5178375.0)) would be a great addition to this topic as the quizzes are about phishing sites/scams, the thread I shared could also be a great way to learn(because I certainly did) on how to spot phishing sites and avoid it.

Exactly Google play overs convenience than searching for a particular app. Although it is easier for members of this forum to get link to the website but for outsiders searching randomly from google will still lead them to fake developers. Before it was social media verification that actually helped to access This links easily but the current trend of gathering fake followers or easily paying for verification has made it easy for scammers to create a large community for project on social media too. The other way could be requesting from a trusted person that is knowledgeable on the field or better going through the google play store but like you said calmly.

If you're into cryptocurrency for some time, you will know that the more scammers perceived you have wise up from the crooked way they uses in attacking you, they also advanced it and come in other ways and dimensions, but once you're not too greedy in making profits or hasty in making money, you will likely not fall their hands, another thing is that if you're not giving out your privacy to third party for them to have access to, most cases of the attacks we had comes from our negligence.

With the combination of 3,4 and 5. There are also fake casinos and fake web wallet websites and I think  that 1,3,4 and 5 are all connected.  Scammers and hackers will come to those points that they'll capitalize to make something good such as fake websites.

That's how they're getting their victims that aren't familiar with the websites they visit and don't check the spelling and character letters and numbers of them.

Little mistake and changes about the URL and domain, that's already a big sign that the website someone's trying to visit is a fake one.

You can add one more point which is Scam Airdrop Sites as now a days I am seeing a lot of scams launching related to fake airdrop. Few days ago I shared about Scam ZkSync Airdrop Site and Scam Arbitrum Airdrop Site where scammers are encouraging users to connect their wallets so that they can hack users wallet and steal funds. So we should be safe from this type of scam also. This point should be included I think.

Not much knowledge is necessary to avoid getting scammed.  The moment we live in allows us to research any subject at any given time, given you are willing to learn.  How difficult is it to open a new tab and look for 'Cryptocurrency giveaway scam'?  There are a million posts all around explaining how and why you should not give them your money.  So at the end of the day.  It all goes down to how willing you are to learn and how you want to learn.  The easy or the hard way.

Check, check, check.  Question every thing that promises you something amazing.

-
Regards,
PrivacyG

I get it. But it depends on the situations. These cases are situations in which the person did not act properly, probably due to distraction.
Another is to be in a telephone conversation, giving access data to a stranger from your bank account.

I will tell the case:
In Portugal there is an app that allows a person to generate a code, and with that code go to an ATM and withdraw money without a card. Just enter the code and withdraw money. But the application can also send money to other people, just using the mobile number.
The scam that has happened a lot, is people who are trying to sell second-hand products, are contacted and the thief tries to convince the person to give him the code to withdraw the money at the ATM.
Interestingly, the app is very simple to use and very clear in the operations that the person is doing, asking for two or three confirmations for the person to be sure of what he is doing. So many people give the code to "withdraw cash at the ATM" to strangers.
The information is clear and just read it, you have to approve the operation two or three times. Someone in the IT world doesn't see this... I'm amazed.

This was the same as entering the site and asking your seed to make a payment. As fast as you need to be, did you know that you can never give your seed to anyone for payments. It is the most basic of the basics.

When visiting a site, they should make sure they double check the domain name of the website they are visiting if it’s correct, incase if they notice any slight difference in the domain name, they should know that they are in a wrong website.

Google play store is not a place you should trust, Google play store is full of fake apps so we should be very careful when downloading any application from it, have seen a fake trust wallet application on Google play store before, have seen a fake Application to a website before and the website those not have any application yet, but a scammer design a application and uploaded on Google play store, anyone that download the app and input his details, then the scammers are having the details of the user already.

Yes, it's really hard to explain. Maybe it's a mixture of greed or curiosity, where they overestimate their abilities.
Of course, it's not just scam related.
It even happens to some traders where they expect that they have more knowledge that the market and they expect, that they can beat the market.

Best option.  :P

OP, you've put together an excellent list. The lust for money is what draws many newbies into this giveaway scam. They are desperate to become wealthy and to imitate other wealthy people in that field, so they are easily enticed and duped with the little money they have saved. It is preferable to avoid quick money rather than live a life of regret after being duped.



Having a link to download an application from its website is the best thing to do because many applications are now being replicated or recreated, differing from the original in ways that can't be observed. The five star rating and reviews received from users who have downloaded a specific application from the play store used to be of great help in determining whether an application is authentic or not.

But I don't fully rely on that anymore, because the same scammers can still give a good review for an application that isn't worth using or portray a scam that they have already developed.

That’s why constant research and education is necessary so that we won’t fall into these type of scams. And never be greedy as greed will always lead to its consequences that you will only regret in the end. And never trust any link or service providers as they could be a source of scams, so always take caution in everything that you plan to do.

Another technique scammers employ to capture newbie's attention is scam airdrops. These kinds of incidents frequently happen when someone is excessively greedy and seeks out airdrops in order to acquire coins, providing scammers with the opportunity to steal their money. Because they are all fake nowadays, airdrops no longer pay out a respectable sum of money.
I advise newbies to stop being greedy when it comes to airdrops because it never results in good things being accomplished in life.

Scammers are just a bunch of dead conscience dudes roaming around the crypto space to feed on the gullibility of unsuspecting individuals, especially the newbies. It's very true that giveaway is one of such channels they use in attracting their victims who I describe to be too greedy and impatient persons that want to make it fast and big through crypto and this greed blind their sense of reasoning from been able to discern supposed noticeable  scams due to the promises it offers to give away. Which ordinary they're are too good to be true to another rational being.


Newbies are mostly absorbed into this kind of scam, and there are many newbies that have had to learn through the hard way in their very beginning with cryptocurrency. This is because they are not inclined with most renowned reputable exchanges and their keen to try new things also do lure them into such victimization.

So it's advisable to research thoroughly on any thing new you want to try before going in. If possible throw questions at experienced members in the forum or people outside the forum about such.

Points 1 (phishing sites) and 5 (fake sites) are pretty much the same thing. You could have combined the two and taken the best sentences from each paragraph.

Binance and some other exchanges allow you to set up an anti-phishing code that will be displayed in the email you receive. Only legit emails can have that code. If you see this in a fake Binance email, then their servers got compromised. 

There is nothing wrong in downloading apps from the Play Store as long as you know what you are downloading and trust the developer or company. But you shouldn't use the Play Store to search for the apps manually. Instead, go to the official website and follow the link from there. Most of the time, it will take you to the Play Store. Standalone .apk files on the official websites aren't that common as apps stored on the Play Store.

Phishing scams always happen today in the different discord servers where still the NFT is one of the threads on it, and another thing is the giveaway scams included within the first statement, also it happens in youtube as always there are some conversations, and there's a ripple most of the time having a giveaway and etc. This is the reason why ideal to bookmark those reliable websites to prevent this happens, another form right now is the different attacks with the use of crack software we cannot deny that most of us are using crack software because we do not want to buy and there's some trojan included in that collects your data. So it could be added to your list op.

The tips are all right, but how do you get a beginner to learn them and then follow them? As practice shows, a beginner first loses his money, and then proceeds to analyze why he lost it. It is greed that becomes the main reason that we ignore all our security receptors.

Even if we say those pointers to them but if they are been attracted to the profits offered by scammers to them for sure there's huge chance for them to get scam. To many warnings publish on any social media sites and local media outlets about such things but we can still see so many people got caught by those criminals. This is also mean that people didn't learn from a mistake if they did not experience it. Once they lose a piece of their capital for sure next action will happen is to realize the incident and learn from those events.

Yeah, I encountered a fake MEW back in the days when I attempted many airdrops in here. Registered my throwaway telegram there and found my entry on the spreadsheet. After for almost a week of just doing my usual life outside crypto, I received an email from the team that I can now claim my token from their website.

They claimed to be in partnership with MEW and I would just need to give my private key and password so that I would claim my token. What a lame attempt lol.

Thank you mate, for letting all of the newbies know about these wonderful tips that are presented here. In my opinion, these tips are not just for newbies but for all of the forum members, since you mentioned both people who are knowledgeable about them and those who are unaware of them. Even I didn't know some of your points, but now that I do, I'm grateful to you for that as well.
I've believed that there is no free money in bitcoin or cryptocurrency since the day I joined, and one has to work hard to gain money. How can someone in the world we currently live in believe that you'll just receive a personal message outlining a technique to instantly double your money in a matter of minutes or hours? This is something you should consider. Getting cryptocurrencies instantly for the money you didn't work for.

It’s better to doubt all of the services you encounter than to put all your trust in a single service which turns out to be a big scam in the end. So always take caution and never trust easily especially for services that have too good to be true offers. Remember, when it comes to money, scamming is inevitable so never be deceived in any way.

This is great tool for escaping scams even though some of the terms are misxonceptuliazed e.g where you mentioned giveaway scam, this is not what it is because from your explanation you talk more about a Ponzi scam instead of giveaway since in giveaway you will not have to put down anything in form of monetary commitments, but you may have to perform the task with your time in other to get the giver away but at the end, scam giveaway will end up not regarding their participants.

But the Ponzi scheme is what will ask you to bring x1 to collect x100 in less than 24 hours and this investment is a pyramid scheme that the bubble will burst in no time, and all investors will end up losing their money in the process.