Crypto SCAM - HowTo protect yourself

[aundroid]

Hello everybody,

In this topic I would like to give an Overview of the most common SCAMS we are exposed daily.

I'll try to add more SCAMs over time, to give all Newcomers a nice Overview!


Table of contents

• Phishing Websites
  
  • Cryptonite by MetaCert
    
• SCAM Airdrops
  
  • Ask for Private Key
    
  • Send ETH
    
  • Airdrop Rules
    
• Twitter
  
• Pyramid Schemes
  
• Telegram
  

Websites
As probably everyone has noticed, the cloning of well- known crypto- sites is a very popular scam nowadays.
These cloned sites wanna get the users to enter their data and steal it.

Usually the presence of a green 'https' tells you if a site is legit or not.



Some of the Scam- Sites however found a way to display the green 'https' and 'secure' in the URL of the site.



If you take a closer look at the URL, you can see little dots under the letters 'n'.


That you do not have to manually check the URL every time you visit a crypto- related site,
I'd like to introduce an nice Extension for the Chrome Browser I am using for a while now.


Cryptonite by MetaCert Link
(also available for Firefox: Link)

Sorry guys, completely forgot to update this topic.

As everybody probably noticed, the Cryptonite extension was changed from 'free' to 'chargeable' (8$ / month, as far as I know).

So if you don't want to spend $96 a year on an extension (which I can understand) I would recommend you to bookmark all your relevant pages for now.

Besides, I can recommend you to install MetaMask that gives very good phishing alerts.

I will revise the initial post in this thread when I have a little more time.

As always: Stay Safe Online!

As soon as you are on a verified Crypto page, the black shield on the toolbar changes its color from black to green!

If the sign does not turn green during the visit, one should assume (according to the description) that the visited site is not safe or rather not verified.

I have the extension in action for some time now and can really recommend it.
You don't need to manually re- check the URLs.

Recently, when I was browsing through some bounty threads and looking at the websites of some candidates, the extension already hit
the alarm.



Really nice  

You cannot be safe enough when visiting crypto sites.


Airdrops

There are multiple ways to run a fake airdrop and scam people.

One very well known scheme of an fake airdrop looks like this:


You will be asked for your private key


They just ask for your private key.  
In the Note they guarantee that "They will never use, store or collect your personal data (such as the private key)"  

NEVER share your private key with anyone else!!!


Another scheme is the
"Send X amount of ETH to receive Y amount of airdrop shitcoin" scheme

Here is how it looks like:




Airdrop Rules:

- NEVER (seriously) NEVER ENTER YOUR PRIVATE KEY ANYWHERE!!

- Never send ETH to participate in an Airdrop

- SCAM Airdrops are often posted from brand new accounts on Twitter, so always check the Tweet- history and the Account registration date!

- You should also check their official channels before you take part in a 'suspicious' Airdrop, because they should have promoted the Airdrop somewhere.


Twitter

Everyone with a crypto-related Twitter Account has aleady seen them for months.
I am talking about the huge crypto scam botnet, who spread the word about fake airdrops/giveaways.
They reply to tweets posted by the legitimate account.

This is how it looks like:



I can only repeat, please just install Cryptonite MetaCert (Link above) which also has a Twitter support and look for the green shield.
If it's not green, assume the twitter account is a fake until you prove otherwise.
 


Pyramid Schemes

Pyramid Scheme - A Definition



Proof of Trevon James (PoTJ)



Proof of Trevon James, or PoTJ is an ERC-20 token named after Trevon James, a "crypto youtube and twitter influencer".
This scammer has also been involved in BitConnect which he openly advertised on his channels.

YouTube Channel:



Concept:
“When someone buys or sells Proof of Trevon James Tewken, 20% of the buy and 25% of the sell price is split by the total number of coins and given as locked-in-rewards (priced in Ether)”.

Example:

If you were to buy into the contract with 1Eth and immediately sell it, you would get around 0.55Eth back. The reason for that is you lose 20% on the buy in, and 25% on the sell, ending up with around 55% of your initial ethereum. In other words, in order to break even the token price has to go up roughly 40% before you decide to sell it.

[source: https://themerkle.com/what-is-proof-of-trevon-james-potj-tewken/]

Beware shit like this. People like Trevon are people that the crypto community doesn't need.




Telegram

Nowadays everyone is a member of several crypto- related telegram groups, so it was only a matter of time before people were threatened by malicious attacks there as well.
A current threat, which I see a lot at the moment, concerns the .SCR files that are distributed almost everywhere.
These files look like this (name may vary, of course)



VERY IMPORTANT:
Please guys NEVER, seriously NEVER EVER open such a file, not even if it looks like it was posted by an admin of the group!!
I can't stress this enough.

SCR files are executable script files. Executing a SCR file will only lead to a list of commands being run by the system.




Stay Safe Online

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[aundroid]

reserved

[cryptokath19]

Hello everybody,
As probably everyone has noticed, the cloning of well- known crypto- sites is a very popular scam nowadays.
These cloned sites wanna get the users to enter their data and steal it.

Usually the presence of a green 'https' tells you if a site is legit or not.



Some of the Scam- Sites however found a way to display the green 'https' and 'secure' in the URL of the site.



If you take a closer look at the URL, you can see little dots under the letters 'n'.


That you do not have to manually check the URL every time you visit a crypto- related site,
I'd like to introduce an nice Extension for the Chrome Browser I am using for a while now.

Cryptonite by MetaCert Link
(also available for Firefox: Link)


As soon as you are on a verified Crypto page, the black shield on the toolbar changes its color from black to green!

If the sign does not turn green during the visit, one should assume (according to the description) that the visited site is not safe or rather not verified.

I have the extension in action for some time now and can really recommend it.
You don't need to manually re- check the URLs.

Recently, when I was browsing through some bounty threads and looking at the websites of some candidates, the extension already hit
the alarm.



Really nice  

You cannot be safe enough when visiting crypto sites.

Have fun with it and

Stay Safe Online

Good day. Thank you for the advice and guides which is can helps us to be careful of what we are clicking links especially those phising sites. I will share this to my friends especially to those who are new here in online. I appreciate your being helpful to others.

[carlisle1]

I have bookmarked this thread to spread for some section if theres an issue regarding phishing site

This all must be credit to you OP,because what you did here is a total helpful topic that all of us must be aware of.

You deserve a respect for helping the community be more secure and safe with all this hackers and scammers that only looking for victims that whos not aware of their doings.again thank you so much

[abake]

What a great and educative topic which would really assist so many noobs like me and other ones around here. Thanks alot

[abake]

I have bookmarked this thread to spread for some section if theres an issue regarding phishing site

This all must be credit to you OP,because what you did here is a total helpful topic that all of us must be aware of.

You deserve a respect for helping the community be more secure and safe with all this hackers and scammers that only looking for victims that whos not aware of their doings.again thank you so much

I think I need to do the same by bookmarking this thread as it is of beneficial to the whole community not for only someone use and even thinking of spreading it on other platform

[impulse709]

Yours ways to prevent phishing scam sites is good, i would like to add my way to prevent this. I do bookmark all important sites, set hard and difference passwords for all sites ( i use google chrome to save password), enable 2FA.

[Probinus]

Another action for this is to bookmark the legitimate site. Specially here in bitcointalk, tons of duplicate sites are trying to phish your account. I have a way of knowing if i am trying to be phished. See i always check the always logged in, so when you were asked to relogin, you'd be thinking "oh why do i need to login again?" Then you'd check the site, see if it's really bitcointalk.org.

[anjohyx]

Thank for sharing your experience, it's just a first step to prevent scam, I prefer to bookmarked all the website, use some browser protect to visit important website, such as kaspersky internet security, double check ssl is valid and green, daily scan your computer have infected virus or not

[ironman2014]

I would suggest you to download and use some stuff like Metamask browser extension, it prevents those things!

[aundroid]

Added an Airdrop Section!
More to come.
If you have any suggestions, let me know
In the meantime: Stay Safe Online

[Denreal]

This is a very good update. I have seen and heard of many who got scammed through phishing sites. Something similar to this has happened to a friend, who unknowingly provided his information on a phishing site and got scammed in the process. I think the crypto space now requires a lot of vigilance and care.

[AlisaWhishie]

I have not a suggestion, but a question that you or maybe someone else can answer here.

Is it secure to type in my password or private key when I am connected to VPN? I always thought that VPN is made to make my online life safer, but I've heard recently that instead of it they can just steal my private keys, especially if I use VPN that is free. So how to make sure that my VPN is reliable and not malicious? Maybe I have to look up for something about this in the privacy policy? Or it's better just to disconnect from VPN while entering my passwords and private keys?

[buytheeffinD]

Thanks OP, you are the Batman that we don't deserve. I always checked for https but I never knew hackers could have those little symbols under letters, mind freaking blown right now! Brownie points coming your way

[kostya-smrnv]

Cool guide. But I think it's always appropriate to have one great "Brains". Well, I also want to add, "Know your enemy." Examine all the schemes of fraudsters, and what they are doing. Then you don't have to read "how to protect yourself" every time. All schemes are similar to each other.

[Damn3d]

Try to enter only tested networks, allways take a look on the URL in the adress line, trust nobody, use different passwords

[donadoni212]

I really like thread like this, with very dangerous website PHISHING make the information you give very useful. be careful in choosing a website and more thoroughly will make your assets safe, does it work on a smartphone?
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cryptonite-by-metacert/keghdcpemohlojlglbiegihkljkgnige

[aundroid]

Thanks OP, you are the Batman that we don't deserve. I always checked for https but I never knew hackers could have those little symbols under letters, mind freaking blown right now! Brownie points coming your way

thanks 

Then you don't have to read "how to protect yourself" every time. All schemes are similar to each other.

I agree with you, the schemes are often very similar.
But if you are new to the scene, you may not know all this stuff and this is where this Thread should help 

I have not a suggestion, but a question that you or maybe someone else can answer here.

Is it secure to type in my password or private key when I am connected to VPN? I always thought that VPN is made to make my online life safer, but I've heard recently that instead of it they can just steal my private keys, especially if I use VPN that is free. So how to make sure that my VPN is reliable and not malicious? Maybe I have to look up for something about this in the privacy policy? Or it's better just to disconnect from VPN while entering my passwords and private keys?

In a public network like in a coffee shop etc. it is of course better if you use a VPN.
But I prefer a hardware wallet like a ledger nano.
You can also download MEW and run it locally.

[lynx_]

Good article . I see that the merit system is working and the participants are bringing something good to the forum! I put your extension! Let's see what happens!

[kodtycoon]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge to avoid investing in a scam project. and yes there are many ways people to earn money on the internet by scam and also make phishing etc. Hopefully with us know how to check with what has been given in OP, hopefully there is no longer a victim of crime in the world of internet or online.