It's not new to us that the rate at which everyone uses banking Apps on their phone has grown rapidly due to the recent spike in digital banking like Opay, Palmpay, Kuda, Moniepoint and other related micro banks and this is due to their fast transaction unlike the commercial banks that sometimes delay payment, these banks save you when you want to make fast local transaction without having to wait, they are pretty fast and some don't charge for fees while some do but limit the free transfer you can do in every 24 hours.

There is a challenge with these Apps and one of them is when your phone is mislaced or stolen, the first thing they do with your phone is to find a way to unlock it if it's locked and if the phone is not passworded, they go straight to your mobile app to drain the account balance. This is how they do it and it's in two ways:

Accounts that are Tier 1: This is an account where KYC is not done or BVN is not requested and most of the time, the maximum balance you can have in your account is 300,000 naira and the daily transaction limit is 50,000. What they do when a phone is misplaced or stolen is they try to enter the app by forget password and request for one-time password(OTP) to set a new password, since KYC is not requested on this tier account, it will be easier for the person to recover the password from the sim and gain access to the account and transfer all the money on the account to another person until the account balance is empty, most of the time, they send it to POS person and collect cash.

Accounts that are Tier 2 and above: These accounts are usually KYC, BVN are been requested to use these accounts and above with daily transaction of #5M and unlimited max balance of Tier 3, and documents are required for the usage. When a phone is misplaced or stolen, anyone who finds the phone will try to get access to the mobile APP the same way as that of the Tier 1 through forget password by requesting for one-time password(OTP) through the sim card but even if the account is reset, BVN number will be requested but that doesn't stop anything. They can use *565*0# to request for the BVN to get the number and that's how easy it is to get into these virtual bank apps.

To verify, dial *565*0# and you will be charged #20 for your BVN, this is not magic, it is from Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System(NIBSS)

How to prevent this from happening:
1. Make sure that your sim card is pin protected, this way it will be difficult to get access to your Sim when the phone is on, even if they are able to unlock the phone, the sim will remain locked and that gives you the advantage of making sure that your mobile wallet remains inaccessible.
2. Make sure to always password your phone, some phones are easily jail break but it is better than not having anything at all, this can give you time to do a welcome back before they get access to the phone.
3. Always have less money on this virtual app to protect yourself from this kind of emergency, this can help you in case the banks try to run away because there has been a lack of transparency from them, especially Opay and Kuda.

Stay safe, stay healthy.

[High APR and APY:]

If there is anything simple that I have learned in crypto, is nothing but to be less greedy, this is what some people lack being a crypto person and as long as there is money in a particular place, scams will never cease to exist that particular place, they will keep coming in different forms in different trends and no matter how expert you have been around here, you will come across them. However, it's not everyone that has this sense of smell to convert it easily as a red flag, these scams come and go in every trend but there is always a catch in the way they present them if you carefully take your time to observe, criminals always live evidence behind and that is what I'm going to share with you.

A scam is not limited in any form in crypto, they could be criminals that manipulate people into having their privacy and securities, scammers that generally steal a wallet or drain the wallet of people but the scams I want to share are limited to physical appearance, things you can look from far and detect that you are in the wrong place, some of this red flags are easily detectable but as I have said, greed is what makes many of us into places we are not to be which result to regret of being in crypto in the first place but I will share you some of the ones I have learned so far. Come with me as I share:

High APR and APY: These two are used as a form of reward for people that love staking their coins and tokens, and in return, they are given interest for a period of time, the two are different, APY stands for Annual percentage rate and APY stand for Annual percentage yield and the difference is that APR is compounded and APR are not compounded, so technically APR will be slightly higher but not much gap. The lesson is not about the difference but the percentage these projects gives which are ridiculous percentage as high as 100% to 1000% in other to make people stake their tokens to reduce inflation but they are scams mechanism.
When you lock your coins in any platform that promises high yield is always a trap for people to lock their coins and when the market is going down, you wouldn't be able to sell and whatever the APR they gave you wouldn't be able to compensate you for the loss, they are either scams to prevent you from selling or to take away your coins, no real projects offer high yield, you should be cautious of this when it exceeds 3-5%

Team: There is no good feeling like knowing the people around what you have in your portfolio, it may not be a guarantee of the success of what you buy to hold but knowing that people that are working behind what you invested in reduce the risk of scams and teams running and abandon what you have wasted money on. There are times projects go anonymous for projects like DEFI that are high risk as they always new and test, they do that for disclaimer purposes in case it failed which is the intention is clear. However, there are some projects that hide their identity by using fake ID are always scams because that's impersonation to give an impression of what they are not, this is one of the red flag people should detect during personal research, nobody will tell you this but you alone and the signs are there when they use fake ID from google and Stock images for impersonation.

Plagiarized and Lazy structure of the contents and website: A man that doesn't have time to think will lack tangible art to present and Ponzi schemes don't lack this from their master plan, they lack idea, they also lack reasonable solutions to problems, the only thing they know is to think out of the box to plagiarize another work and promise to do better in the original work so that people will think they are the real deal breaker, while in the process of doing this, they don't do it from scratch, they present the old idea and change the name and places that will looks similar to their scams. Oftentimes, you could see this from their websites, their documentation and whitepapers are copies of another idea and these are the signs to always check in any projects.

Under pressure to rush things: Real project will do their work at their own convenience without procrastination, they don't give into pressure, they take time to build and when they deliver or make announcements, they make sure they meet expectations and don't disappoint, they always work with the road map and keep people along the timeline with the mission they promise from the beginning but Ponzi and scams are easy to detect right from when they do crowdfunding and public sale, always in rush to make money so they can run away with people money without valuable result for the people, sometimes in public sale when they don't hit their scam target, they keep increasing the time over and over to continue their fraud until someone expose them of their scam.

Unregistered company and short time website duration: Another red flag to look out for is when a company that claims to have a project is not registered, a real company will be registered and fully recognized with a registration number to prove they are real and not fake individuals to avoid any doubt that will raise any form of suspicion. When they have their website registered in under a month and will expire in the following year is another thing to avoid, most of them do this to clean their tracks after scamming people with their Ponzi schemes.

Ponzi schemes and scams are everywhere and they will continue to exist but they can be avoided, you just need to be extra careful and sometimes look for the red flags, you will get one or two pieces of evidence to avoid them if you are not greedy, remember a safe investment is a safe mental health and safe future.

Phishing scam no be today e don dey, it been long this type of scam has been existing but there have been another dimensional rise on how different people clone website to scam people. One of my friend been inform me until I tested it out and as crypto people like to they use Opay make payment because of the free transaction and charges, na him I say make I share this new scam update wey boys they use scam people.

Scammers don they clone website wey dy be like original website but in the real sense, no be the real one, no be only for a particular payment platform, na across all but the one wey I see na Opay. The scammers clone a similar website wey be like say na OPAY but if you are use to the original platform, you go know say no be true but some people wey no sabi the difference  betweeb the original and the fake they fall for them.

One of the Opay scam website wey I came across name na: https://ngwebsite.buzz/
Original Opay website for login na: https://open.opayweb.com/
If you do comparison between the images, differences clear between them.



This one, na the original website of Opay payment platform be this and from the look of the design, e clear but that one no mean say another scammer no fit do this perfect job, just dy at at aleart before you login.




This one na the scammer screenshot from image be this, e dy slightly different from the original Opay website but the scammer do am in a way wey person wey no eye clear go fall for am, because he will ask for a mobile number and password which from his back end, him go copy and come use am for the real app and the funny thing be say, e go behave like say you dy Opay true true, it will request for the OTP which he go dun request from him end and meanwhile you don't know that he is the one that requested for it and that is how they will have access to your account balance.



I test run one fake number and 6 random numbers as password and na wetin the website request be this, they will ask for you for OTP after you input your login details(mobile number and password) and the scammer used it on his end to request for OTP and that is how scammer go enter your account.

Key things to they observe from this payment platforms so as not to fall victim:
1) Always login on the app downloaded from the playstore or Apple store, them fit clone another fake app too but do well, to detect the original easy.
2) Always avoid unnecessary links
3) The website links they get funny funy domains like .buzz, .game, .fun, .money. You know why because to register these kind domain no dy cost and e cheap to maintain like the .com and most like fit no they available for purchase and if e dy, e go cost for them
4)Avoid to they enter giveaway places, na from there them dy drop this fake links and website for people to enter.
5) Know that this is not limited to only Opay, e they happen to all other digital banking platforms like Kuda, Palmpay and many others.

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Binance one of the largest centralized exchanges by users announced on Thursday last week that it is going to retired some deposit addresses and memos of users in batches and email notifications will be sent to users as a reminder of when it will happen.

This is to inform users that make use of Binance to check their wallet address before they make deposits especially those that register on the exchange with mobile numbers and others that don't frequently check their email addresses to be at alert.

Note:
1)You can continue to deposit through that wallet address until you received a notification about the wallet change of address and memo. This doesn't affect the user's balance in their wallet.

2)Deposit on an old wallet address will not lead to loss of funds, but it wouldn't be automatically updated. To avoid contacting support for help, it's better to take caution about using the new wallet address that will be available from July to September.

The wallet addresses and addresses with memos that will retire include BTC, BCH, SEGWITBTC, XRP, SOL, XMR, LTC, ADA, DOGE, DOT, XMR, FIL, ALGO, NEAR, WAVES, AVAX, HBAR, RUNE, EGLD, FLOW, ICP, EOS, KAVA, DASH, ELF, IOST, IOTA, STX, WAX, CKB, ICX, ASTR, SCRT, INJ, BAND, STEEM, HIVE, XEM, FET, BTS.

So, keep refreshing your email addresses.


Source: https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/existing-deposit-addresses-to-be-retired-in-q3-july-september-2023-ffbe37cbd85f46db8fe3021ee3f85eb3

Why are some exchanges and some platform don't send Bitcoin from legacy to segwit wallet address, is there a cost of operation in implementing that on their exchanges? I don't know why they displayed an error when someone wants to send Bitcoin to an external wallet or send to the Bitcoin wallet address.

My second question is this, If Segwit is considered to save fees and space, why are people still using the first generational wallet address instead of segwit and also the new improved Taproot wallet address? Why are they not helping the blockchain and the cost of spending Bitcoin.

[Spend time with your family and friends:]

We keep Bitcoin for every 365 days of our lives, but we forget that no person can work effectively every day. Despite this, we spent our entire lives holding Bitcoin without taking into account our health. The bitcoin you have hidden from the public needs to be protected not only by you, you need good health to stay alive to spend your effort and sweat, you need proper health maintenance to boost your immune system and stay longer but almost every day of our life's, we spend time discussing how to invest in bitcoin, how to secure it but we don't discuss how to stay alive to spend it, especially where we spent half of our lives online interacting with other people on the discussion of bitcoin and what is happening to bitcoin in other parts of the world.

This is not a guide but optimized ways to stay healthy as a Bitcoin holder who wishes to see his Bitcoin value tomorrow, this advice will help you stay functional especially if you are the type that is always glued to the internet every day, especially those who have an addiction of opening any Bitcoin popup notification, it’s good to stay updated about the current happening of bitcoin but too much of everything is bad for the health especially when they involve assets, the recommendation is as follows:

1. Spend time with your family and friends: Not every day of your life should always be about Bitcoin, you should have a life outside of Bitcoin, it will help your body and health when you engage with people outside Bitcoin and also spend time with them, it helps you preserve energy and also improves your perception of people outside bitcoin and others exposure outside bitcoin.

2. Book a day with your health instructors and doctors: The majority of people don't check their health status until something is wrong in their system, you want to hold onto your Bitcoin and want it to grow in value and keep it safe from any harm but it becomes a problem to check on your health. Remember that health is wealth and to spend from that bitcoin in the future, you need to be in proper health condition to spend it wisely otherwise you may even end up spending it on your health, do frequently check your system and tackle it where it is necessary for adjustment.

3. Do early morning exercise: There is no harm in doing common exercises for the body, they keep your immune on check and your body system in a fit way, unless you have some specific health challenges, doing morning exercise helps you boost your immune system and also makes you strong, instead of staying all day and night inside without doing anything take a walk and do some exercise for the body system.

4. Spend Bitcoin on your health status when there is no alternative for funds: At a point in life, an unfortunate situation arises that you cannot predict and people don't like to lend money, when you have a health challenge without an alternative to the source of money and you have a bitcoin, don't hesitate to take some sats and take care of yourself, it might not even be you who is in need of the money, it might be your parent or siblings, there is no crime if you spend it on them.

5. Take a break from the ways you check the Bitcoin chart: Holding Bitcoin for the first time as a newbie could be challenging and you have this urge to check the chart when there is any trending news, it is good to check what is going on but doing it over and over can cause anxiety and fears and that's what people who hate bitcoin want you to feel but fear not, bitcoin has proven and will continue to perform well, take care of yourself and bitcoin will take care of itself.

6. Small meet up with people who have the same Bitcoin goals as you: Staying indoors can be depressing sometimes, even introverts feel lonely and bored when they are alone, meeting up with people who have a common insight of Bitcoin will help you and thinks outside your surrounding and indirectly exercising because even sun is good for the body system.

In order to enjoy your Bitcoin as you age with time, your health should be something important and a resource that should never be taken for granted. As we age, the body weakens, but it can be maintained with proper care of health. Being proactive with your health keeps you alert and makes you feel better and safer, keep your Bitcoin safe and take care of your health.