Safeguard your crypto investment and avoid getting scammed.

[r1s2g3]

Hi All.

Increase in the  popularity of crypto currencies attracted lot of investor but also lot of scammers too.

Below is the common  traps/scam in crypto currencies that should be avoided and safeguard your crypto investment.

1. Free Bitcoin generators:
 I came across the variety of sites that say that they have find security flaw in bitcoin code/or bugs in mining pools and they are able to generate the BTC for free. You put your bitcoin wallet address and they will generate from 1 to 3 BTC within minutes.The real scam starts now, when they say to send .2 BTC to them as miner fees to claim your generated BTC. I never tested them but it is clear scam when someone is asking you to send BTC to give you back the BTC. Why do not they send that generated BTC minus miners fees in BTC instead of asking  first to send miner fees?

2. Cloud Minings:
There will be variety of sites that promise you to provide hashpowers to generate/mine bitcoins,litecoins/ethereum and in return of some 30 to 40 Dollar packages. These sites will be newly created and offering promising returns.But they last for few weeks only(A quick cash grab and shutting down the business). Even the sites that were existing for years , not all investors are happy.So investing in Cloud mining as a newbie is a big no.


3. Fake Twitter/social Media accounts:
a.) These fake account impersonate a famous personality in crypto world (like John McAfee) and will ask you to donate some small amount of BTC to them and in return they will promise  greater amount of BTC(Like you send me .02 BTC and in return this impostor promise to send .2 BTC).
b.) Sometime it will be fake account of some popular website/exchange to scam the users.

4. Scam airdrops.
Although airdrop looks safe bet but in scam airdrops you will be requested to give some donation to receive the airdrops (like .01 Ethereum). Be careful in these airdrops and do not send your money to them.

5.) Scam coins and ICOs.
Although a full proof method cannot be guranteed to identify the scam coins and scam ICOs, but still following point can be taken into consideration before investing.

a.) Developers promise very high returns on investment, Giving too much referral bonus or whole setup look like a ponzi scheme.
b.) Coin/Token is ready without any whitepaper or poorly written whitepaper.
c.) Coin is not solving any problem or implementing any new idea.
d.) Website look poor, Hosted in free platform like "Wix" or there is no https for website.
e.) Dev reserved too much coins for them, or too much premined or any other scheme that is giving undue benefit to development.
f.) No source code available.
g.) Roadmap putting emphasis on listing coin in exchanges instead of doing some real development.
h.) Team members are not known at all

6.) Do not beleive others without DYOR .
It is quite possible that person advising about coin/token is associated with pump and dump, or getting some personal gain like referral bonus so it is better to do your own research.

7. Precautions while buying coin/token in Exchanges.
a.) If you have no intention to trade your coin in near future then it is best deal to transfer your coin to your own wallet.
b.) If coin is forked recently then also check that exchange is having coin from new fork.
c.) Do check if exchange wallet is available or in maintainence mode before buying coins.
d.) Check the exchange withdrawal fees beforehand the purchase of specific coin.
e.) Send small amount to your wallet to verify transaction instead of sending all coins in one transactions.

8. Password security.
Create strong passwords by using combination of letters (uppercase/smallcase) numbers and special characters.If possible then use 2FA authentication.

9. Phishing attacks.
Do not open the suspicious links. Bookmark the original links, instead of searching the internet for link of sites.

10. Wallet safety.
a.) Do not give your wallet private key to anybody.
b.) Always backup your wallet.dat in some external device.
c.) Private key of wallet should be safely stored in some other place or external device. Do not save private key in same device (In case of Trojan or virus attacks). Save your key in other device/place because if you forget your key then you will lose your investment forever.
d.) Keep your wallet locked if possible offline too.
e.) If you (and you only) do not own the wallet private keys then it is not your coins.
f.) Make sure that you downloaded the wallet from official site.

11. While copy pasting your wallet address , recheck the address that is pasted is same what you copied. (you might be affected by Coin RPG malware)

12. Do not trade without Escrow with individuals.

13. Pay attentions to the Escrow email address and try to deal with them publicly instead of telegram or gmail/other email.

14.  If you got message to call on the support  number of the site then first verify the number from the official site. It can be scam attempt as discussed in this topic.

Last but not the least, Never invest the money  that you can't afford to lose.

[r1s2g3]

Hi All.

Increase in the  popularity of crypto currencies attracted lot of investor but also lot of scammers too.

Below is the common  traps/scam in crypto currencies that should be avoided and safeguard your crypto investment.

1. Free Bitcoin generators:
 I came across the variety of sites that say that they have find security flaw in bitcoin code/or bugs in mining pools and they are able to generate the BTC for free. You put your bitcoin wallet address and they will generate from 1 to 3 BTC within minutes.The real scam starts now, when they say to send .2 BTC to them as miner fees to claim your generated BTC. I never tested them but it is clear scam when someone is asking you to send BTC to give you back the BTC. Why do not they send that generated BTC minus miners fees in BTC instead of asking  first to send miner fees?

2. Cloud Minings:
There will be variety of sites that promise you to provide hashpowers to generate/mine bitcoins,litecoins/ethereum and in return of some 30 to 40 Dollar packages. These sites will be newly created and offering promising returns.But they last for few weeks only(A quick cash grab and shutting down the business). Even the sites that were existing for years , not all investors are happy.So investing in Cloud mining as a newbie is a big no.


3. Fake Twitter/social Media accounts:
a.) These fake account impersonate a famous personality in crypto world (like John McAfee) and will ask you to donate some small amount of BTC to them and in return they will promise  greater amount of BTC(Like you send me .02 BTC and in return this impostor promise to send .2 BTC).
b.) Sometime it will be fake account of some popular website/exchange to scam the users.

4. Scam airdrops.
Although airdrop looks safe bet but in scam airdrops you will be requested to give some donation to receive the airdrops (like .01 Ethereum). Be careful in these airdrops and do not send your money to them.

5.) Scam coins and ICOs.
Although a full proof method cannot be guranteed to identify the scam coins and scam ICOs, but still following point can be taken into consideration before investing.

a.) Developers promise very high returns on investment, Giving too much referral bonus or whole setup look like a ponzi scheme.
b.) Coin/Token is ready without any whitepaper or poorly written whitepaper.
c.) Coin is not solving any problem or implementing any new idea.
d.) Website look poor, Hosted in free platform like "Wix" or there is no https for website.
e.) Dev reserved too much coins for them, or too much premined or any other scheme that is giving undue benefit to development.
f.) No source code available.
g.) Roadmap putting emphasis on listing coin in exchanges instead of doing some real development.
h.) Team members are not known at all

6.) Do not beleive others without DYOR .
It is quite possible that person advising about coin/token is associated with pump and dump, or getting some personal gain like referral bonus so it is better to do your own research.

7. Precautions while buying coin/token in Exchanges.
a.) If you have no intention to trade your coin in near future then it is best deal to transfer your coin to your own wallet.
b.) If coin is forked recently then also check that exchange is having coin from new fork.
c.) Do check if exchange wallet is available or in maintainence mode before buying coins.
d.) Check the exchange withdrawal fees beforehand the purchase of specific coin.
e.) Send small amount to your wallet to verify transaction instead of sending all coins in one transactions.

8. Password security.
Create strong passwords by using combination of letters (uppercase/smallcase) numbers and special characters.If possible then use 2FA authentication.

9. Phishing attacks.
Do not open the suspicious links. Bookmark the original links, instead of searching the internet for link of sites.

10. Wallet safety.
a.) Do not give your wallet private key to anybody.
b.) Always backup your wallet.dat in some external device.
c.) Private key of wallet should be safely stored in some other place or external device. Do not save private key in same device (In case of Trojan or virus attacks). Save your key in other device/place because if you forget your key then you will lose your investment forever.
d.) Keep your wallet locked if possible offline too.

11. While copy pasting your wallet address , recheck the address that is pasted is same what you copied. (you might be affected by Coin RPG malware)


Last but not the least, Never invest the money  that you can't afford to lose.

Hi All, I added one more point (point 11) in this list, Pleas feel free to give suggestion, I will like to make this list  to cover all possible scam so we will always be aware.

[jseverson]

9. Phishing attacks.
Do not open the suspicious links. Bookmark the original links, instead of searching the internet for link of sites.

Well if I were to add something, I'd say it's still safer to type out website addresses than bookmarking them. Viruses that could alter your bookmarks into malicious sites isn't out of the realm of possibility, so you could still be phished that way. Bookmarking is safe, don't get me wrong, it's just that typing out addresses manually is still a bit safer.

[amishmanish]

Good post OP. You seem to be one of those who were jolted to post better after the Merit requirement. Keep getting involved in the discussion and keep learning in order to be able to contribute more.

That way we can all be better off than simply spamming for Sig Campaigns and be really involved with the community. Sending some little merit your way. 

Regarding the point about scammy ICOs these days, there is just no end to it. They are also some of the better managed scams where you cannot raise a question even if you lose the money.

The best advice would be to never invest your BTC or ETH in any of those. If you are a small investor, then simply doing some campaigns should be sufficient for you (After you have good enough idea that it maybe legit).
Investing in them a majority of your holdings is always going to backfire.

[r1s2g3]

9. Phishing attacks.
Do not open the suspicious links. Bookmark the original links, instead of searching the internet for link of sites.

Well if I were to add something, I'd say it's still safer to type out website addresses than bookmarking them. Viruses that could alter your bookmarks into malicious sites isn't out of the realm of possibility, so you could still be phished that way. Bookmarking is safe, don't get me wrong, it's just that typing out addresses manually is still a bit safer.

Typing manually  can cause error.
 I think it will become vicious circle, we used bookmarking to prevent ourselves to go into unwanted sites by avoiding typing error,Since bookmark can be corrupted/infected so they are also creating risk.  Can you specifically tell the virus name/malware that is capable of redirecting your bookmark to some other site.  My search yielded me then can be corrupted, nothing about redirection.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/WrLVhRAl_UM

Any ways, we need to be vigilant that is only best defense.
 

[r1s2g3]

Good post OP. You seem to be one of those who were jolted to post better after the Merit requirement. Keep getting involved in the discussion and keep learning in order to be able to contribute more.

That way we can all be better off than simply spamming for Sig Campaigns and be really involved with the community. Sending some little merit your way. 

Regarding the point about scammy ICOs these days, there is just no end to it. They are also some of the better managed scams where you cannot raise a question even if you lose the money.

The best advice would be to never invest your BTC or ETH in any of those. If you are a small investor, then simply doing some campaigns should be sufficient for you (After you have good enough idea that it maybe legit).
Investing in them a majority of your holdings is always going to backfire.

Less jolted but more motivated. Thanks for merits/appreciation. This post is really my experience of my crypto currency journey.
Will always try my best to contribute in this forum.

[r1s2g3]

Added point 13 today.

[Hivalley]

Point 6 is very important and I find it very surprising how someone can swallow another information hook line and sinker without even confirming for themselves if such informations are correct or if they are to be trusted.
Every information should be treated as false till its confirmed by the user,a large percentage are here for their selfish gain and they'll do so at the expense of others

[Kopyleft]

This are all common ways of protecting oneself which has been discussed individually, having a single thread which comprises each point is very useful and would help newbies.

Hi All, I added one more point (point 11) in this list, Pleas feel free to give suggestion, I will like to make this list  to cover all possible scam so we will always be aware.

You do not have to quote the entire first text to do this, it makes the thread a little stretched.

[r1s2g3]

Bump.

Added below point in the OP.

14.  If you got message to call on the support  number of the site then first verify the number from the official site. It can be scam attempt as discussed in this topic.

[Bitlover10]

This is very useful post for everyone especially for new members So I did translation of this thread for my local board  in hindi and hope it will help newcomers to aware about scammers. My translated link https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5145245.msg51136902#msg51136902

[okala]

Bump.

Added below point in the OP.

14.  If you got message to call on the support  number of the site then first verify the number from the official site. It can be scam attempt as discussed in this topic.

The 14th point is very important because a lot of people have been scammed through this means you will be ask through phone call pretending to be fro. Support and getting key information and at the end scamming you or hacking into your wallet.

[mersal]

Bump.

Added below point in the OP.

14.  If you got message to call on the support  number of the site then first verify the number from the official site. It can be scam attempt as discussed in this topic.

The 14th point is very important because a lot of people have been scammed through this means you will be ask through phone call pretending to be fro. Support and getting key information and at the end scamming you or hacking into your wallet.

If we read the terms of any wallet registration then we might know that this is just a scam attack but we are used to just tick all the boxes without bother reading them then we don't know what have to be done at this time.

But when we are using the right wallet then we don't have to worry about having issues.

[r1s2g3]

This is very useful post for everyone especially for new members So I did translation of this thread for my local board  in hindi and hope it will help newcomers to aware about scammers. My translated link https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5145245.msg51136902#msg51136902

Hi bitlover , Thanks for translating it. I have quickly read that translated post. (Actually I am a native Hindi speaker.) I think below correction are required.

2. Cloud Minings:
There will be variety of sites that promise you to provide hashpowers to generate/mine bitcoins,litecoins/ethereum and in return of some 30 to 40 Dollar packages. These sites will be newly created and offering promising returns.But they last for few weeks only(A quick cash grab and shutting down the business). Even the sites that were existing for years , not all investors are happy.So investing in Cloud mining as a newbie is a big no.

Bold part translated to:

इसलिए क्लाउड माइनिंग मे नए लोगों के निवेश की बड़ी संख्या है।

But I think it should be translated as:

इसलिए एक नए निवेशक को क्लाउड माइनिंग में निवेश नहीं करना चाहिये।

10. वैलेट सुरक्षा ट.

I think  ट. is extra.

[Little Mouse]

And most important-
Don't use any web wallet to store your BTC.
Here is what I have faced recently with the most reputed exchange and kind of web wallet coinbase- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5145338.msg51139754#msg51139754

[r1s2g3]

And most important-
Don't use any web wallet to store your BTC.
Here is what I have faced recently with the most reputed exchange and kind of web wallet coinbase- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5145338.msg51139754#msg51139754

I guess , I did not mention it explicitly but I guess I can add below point in Wallet Safety.

If you (and you only) do not own the wallet private keys then it is not your coins.

Edit: Added.

[Harlot]

Don't forget about hack crypto wallets. Recently we have seen Electrum again be victimized by the hackers. It forces users who have outdated versions of their Electrum to install a fake version of it in order for them to obtain the private keys of the victim. That is why being cautious and not rushing any kinds of steps in order to sacrifice safety is always the way to go in order to protect your precious cryptocurrencies. Not everything we see is real and it will only take a couple of minutes just to verify if things are right.

[Bitlover10]

Hi bitlover , Thanks for translating it. I have quickly read that translated post. (Actually I am a native Hindi speaker.) I think below correction are required.

2. Cloud Minings:
So investing in Cloud mining as a newbie is a big no.

Bold part translated to:

इसलिए क्लाउड माइनिंग मे नए लोगों के निवेश की बड़ी संख्या है।

But I think it should be translated as:

इसलिए एक नए निवेशक को क्लाउड माइनिंग में निवेश नहीं करना चाहिये।

10. वैलेट सुरक्षा ट.

I think  ट. is extra.

Thanks for letting me know. (I thought it was big number because full stop is very close to no ). Well Correction is completed.

[r1s2g3]

Don't forget about hack crypto wallets. Recently we have seen Electrum again be victimized by the hackers. It forces users who have outdated versions of their Electrum to install a fake version of it in order for them to obtain the private keys of the victim. That is why being cautious and not rushing any kinds of steps in order to sacrifice safety is always the way to go in order to protect your precious cryptocurrencies. Not everything we see is real and it will only take a couple of minutes just to verify if things are right.

Hackers are devising the complex ways (but still can be avoided by some vigil.). Earlier it was pop up attack of Security Update required was used.

Anyway , I added the below point for wallet security.

f.) Make sure that you downloaded the wallet from official site.