I'm sad to say that I have been scammed for the very first time.
I've had bitcoin for a few years but don't use it that much. Was looking into how to use a bitcoin mixer. Found a review by googling the topic, near the top of the links was this:
https://darknetmarkets.co/category/btc-mixer-tumber/Referred to bit-blender.com (phishing) and bitmixer.io (phishing)
I sent $50 to fake bit-blender, was unconfirmed but couldn't research how to double spend fast enough before it confirmed.
In hindsight the reason I was duped was because I typed in a general topic to google and intuitively but incorrectly expected that google would not rate a scam so highly, and then figured that because this referred site provided a thorough review of a number of other sites that this was legit. I then confirmed the reviewed link by googling "bit blender" separately and the phishing site was also highly ranked on google, so it seemed like everything was above board.
So a somewhat pricey lesson, but a necessary one overall. At the very minimum when I'm using a new service I will start with small transactions and work my way up. I will also work harder to corroborate a website more before spending. Lastly, I will have to re-evaluate my trust in Google's ability to separate legitimate pages from phishing scams.
Really I'm more upset about the amount of time I've wasted as well as the embarrassment of being humbled than the $50...lol
