Kaspersky Labs: Bitcoin Involved in only 3% of All Online Scams

[alyssa85]

http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/05/30/kaspersky-labs-bitcoin-online-scams/

Contrary to what most people believe, Bitcoin is not a big part of these financial scams, though. Albeit 3% of survey respondents indicated they had lost Bitcoin funds in the process, the primary culprit were online scams or fraud, followed by data leakage. Additionally, losing funds through a financial organization ranks higher than Bitcoin losses as well.

The most worrying scams are fake emails allegedly coming from established financial institutions, such as banks. But there are also fake emails and messages from retail sites, and the number of phishing pages asking for financial information seems to be increasing as well.

Looking at the figures a bit more, it turns out the average loss was US$283 per person, which is quite high. But over one in five people lost over US$1,000, which goes to show how enticing and convincing some of these scams can be. Luckily, over half of the affected users managed to get their stolen funds back, albeit nearly one in four never saw a dime returned to them.

[Lauda]

But I was told by the government that Bitcoin is the main currency being used in scams, drugs and terrorism? The report is rather interesting and I do wonder how exactly they have conducted this research. Additionally:

It is rather surprising to see internet criminals target consumers in developing regions. Indonesia (26%), Vietnam (26%) and India (24%) see very high rates of customers reporting financial losses due to these scams

This doesn't surprise me at all. It is easier to fool (poor) people in 3rd world countries that are in desperate need of money. Anyone who spends a decent amount of time on this forum (reading) will be able to easily avoid almost every type of potential scam.
Update:

The news report claim they reported the news based on a Kaspersky report and they did not put a link to the source. Plus, there's nothing recent on Kaspersky site about Bitcoins:

https://blog.kaspersky.com/tag/bitcoin/

Indeed, that's why I'm interested in how exactly this was conducted (i.e. where can one get more details). It lists this website as a source; and I have no idea how credible they are.

[sbtctalk]

The news report claim they reported the news based on a Kaspersky report and they did not put a link to the source. Plus, there's nothing recent on Kaspersky site about Bitcoins:

https://blog.kaspersky.com/tag/bitcoin/

[criptix]

What the hell is newsbtc.com?

Sounds like www.news-directly-from-my-asshole.com

[sbtctalk]

And the news is spreading on several "news site" that reports on crypto currencies. But I didn't see it on Kaspersky's website yet!

Where did the news come from?

[franky1]

clickbait story, no reputable source that can be independently verified..

[~Bitcoin~]

Seems just a made up story without source link. I really doubt only 3% of online scam involving bitcoin atleast 10% or even more should be that number as bitcoin is anonymous and been choice of lots of scammers and hackers recently.

[LadangGalau]

As long as it is less than 50,01%, that's more secure than fiat and all the arguments against Bitcoin are thus invalid.

[Lauda]

Seems just a made up story without source link. I really doubt only 3% of online scam involving bitcoin atleast 10% or even more should be that number as bitcoin is anonymous and been choice of lots of scammers and hackers recently.

Your "at least 10%" is as credible as the "3%" (as far as concrete numbers go) in that other article. Please do not make up your own numbers based on zero research.

Where did the news come from?

The source is AntaraNews and I have no idea where they got their information from.

[DimensionZ]

I wouldn't be surprised by that low amount at all because the predominant Bitcoin hacks are the ransomware attacks which require some leg work from the hackers as opposed to the phishing mails which require no background set-up process for the attacks to work and can come into action triggered by the gullibility of the users. For the Bitcoin hacks to work the user must have downloaded a script or installed a compromised program etc. I am not saying that this is always how the Bitcoin scams work but most of the time a little bit more sophisticated process than simple phishing is required.

[Joel_Jantsen]

This doesn't surprise me at all. It is easier to fool (poor) people in 3rd world countries that are in desperate need of money. Anyone who spends a decent amount of time on this forum (reading) will be able to easily avoid almost every type of potential scam.

Does that mean people from the third world countries are not smart ? Fool, Poor, 3rd World, Desperate. Just don't fit together in the same sentence.I remember someone saying,most of the potential scammers around the forum come from the 3rd world countries.People do have wrong perception about 3rd world countries seriously!In fact,I find people from 3rd world countries are providing services cheaper than the actual labor rates.Don't get me wrong but I don't agree with either of the facts,also its very unclear when you'll refer to "3rd world country".I live in a third world country too,neither I have got scammed nor have I scammed anyone and trust me,I know a lot of people who are quite sane as me.

[Hirose UK]

Looking at the figures a bit more, it turns out the average loss was US$283 per person, which is quite high. But over one in five people lost over US$1,000, which goes to show how enticing and convincing some of these scams can be. Luckily, over half of the affected users managed to get their stolen funds back, albeit nearly one in four never saw a dime returned to them.

that loss is because of gambling cmiiw. and they can get it back by gambling either 555

[sbtctalk]

Seems just a made up story without source link. I really doubt only 3% of online scam involving bitcoin atleast 10% or even more should be that number as bitcoin is anonymous and been choice of lots of scammers and hackers recently.

Your "at least 10%" is as credible as the "3%" (as far as concrete numbers go) in that other article. Please do not make up your own numbers based on zero research.

Where did the news come from?

The source is AntaraNews and I have no idea where they got their information from.

The news is misinformation to boost feel good factor o bitcoins. It is amazing to see the spread of this fake news and the people who believe in it.

[ravecoin_radio]

I'll chalk that up as a win for BTC.  I think its because people who use BTC are more technically sound and computer literate.  This enables them to spot scams online easier and take counter measures to protect themselves online.  This isn't your classic "telemarketing the old people" scam.

[cjmoles]

First thing we need to understand is "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."¹  How many members here believe that the least amount of fraud involves bitcoin?  How many members here believe that bitcoin fraud is reported and enforced?  How many members here believe the poll was an accurate representative cross section of internet users within an acceptable tolerance?  Nope....I'm not buying it!  Are bitcoin users really the most honest members of the economy?  Pssst....Come on, homeboy, you don't have to lie to make friends!


1. Phrase origin uncertain but attributed to Mark Twain.

[Denker]

If that article should be true, I would be really disappointed as an average joe reading this.
I mean it is always said by msm and politicians that Bitcoin is bad and pure poison.And online scams is a big business.But if Bitcoin has only 3% of that cake, this means that the other 97% are used via traditional payment methods and pure cash!So who is the real bad guy here? It seems Bitcoin is not!

[Wendigo]

I think it's easier for the scammers and phishers to spam the inboxes of people with fake emails designed to trick them into typing in their login credentials than trying to steal their Bitcoin wallets. However I have seen some rogue sites pretending to be a legit copy of the Blockchain wallet website that appeared on top of the search results so I urge everyone to double-check and even triple-check the URL before logging in to their online wallets because the scammers are coming out with clever ideas to steal your hard-earned money every day. Also don't download shady stuff from the Internet because it could contain malicious code like the ransomware stuff and more 

[TastyChillySauce00]

may i know why kaspersky can say that only 3% of online scam are made through bitcoin,does kaspersky calculating every single online scamming case even? it's happening every damn  time in a day,and i'm sure something was missed by kaspersky

[sbtctalk]

may i know why kaspersky can say that only 3% of online scam are made through bitcoin,does kaspersky calculating every single online scamming case even? it's happening every damn  time in a day,and i'm sure something was missed by kaspersky

The original source (Kaspersky Labs) did not post anything about this issue. This "feel good" news is likely fake.

[Ayers]

why they don't report, in how many scam fiat is involved i bet my ass that is far higher lol, double standard here again just to put bad light on bitcoin