Bitcoin scams and new Bitcoin users

[ralaks]

After the boom of bitcoin in end of 2017 it caught eyes of general audience and many people who thought it as a great investment opportunity bought bitcoins and this is now continuing more and more people with little technical knowledge joining the bitcoin community it was essential to happen this for bringing bitcoin in mainstream but with that this made this era paradise for scammers every day many scams come into existing now their number are growing faster and they target people with less technical knowledge of bitcoin they are likely easy to get scammed some of common scams the scammer pulls are :

1. Cloud mining scam where they make users to invest in their cloud mining and give them a very small % of their amount daily and also encourage them to bring more members so they can get extra rewarded after a time when deposit amount starts to slow down and withdrawal amount starts to increase then their threshold they simply vanished.
2. Multi level marketing scam this work as from oldest days just invest an amount bring two more make your own tree and earn rewards starting ones in this scams who are able to get many other people always get profited and 99% of members who are in down ranks get scammed they do the same when incoming amounts slow down and outgoing amount reach a certain threshold they simply vanish.
3. The seed hack scammers are approaching people saying we will teach you how to make 100$ in one hour and you need to give it to us most common people don't know about seed and put their btc in online wallet such as coinbase or blockchain so scammer get their screen shared and make them transfer their btc in a wallet such as electrum and got their seeds screenshots open their wallet in their own computer and transfer the amount people had no idea what struck them .
4. Investment scams deposit x amount and get x amount this is the most common type of scams getting all over the internet it is a small amount scam usually people don't mind to fell in it by giving 5-50$ of amount to these scammers .

These are some examples of classic scams affiliated with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as bitcoin community is in main stream these types of things confuse people by saying bitcoin is a scam and what ever they try to do with it they ended up in the scam. With their less knowledge about bitcoin it is nearly impossible to make them understand that they are victim of classic scams and it is nothing to do with btc but for these scams they cant go any where or report it they feel vulnerable in using cryptos many individuals trys to point out some scams which get into main stream but this thing need to be done as a collective effort. I propose to have a plat form for normal people teaching them basics of bitcoin as a 9 year could understand all this. because community platform like bitcoin talk have a way to much advance topics which confuse or scare the new non technical people .

[maxreish]

My co-worker easily fall for that cloud mining scam. She invested minimum amount with their package deal and promised to return daily 2% of her investment. Weeks has passed, they are giving the return 2% at first and then it suddenly shut down.

The point here is that she seeked advices from me and she didn't listened. What we should always do to make sure if the site is really paying or not are,

• feedback of the users,
• search for the team (some are bogus),
• their platform (how can they even pay in return without selling any products or without any trading actions?)

Even before, I always discouraged those obvious scam schemes, pyramid/networking or high pay returns. Be vigilant joining those. Awareness is always the key.

[TGD]

That worthless scumbag makes Bitcoin untrustworthy to the general public. In my country, Many people know bitcoin as scam because many investment in facebook are using bitcoin as mode of payment.
Many innocent people fall for that and most of them are those people leaving in the province and not fully aware on the risk of ponzi investment. Until now, Many still think bitcoin is scam and
they are afraid to buy. This scumbags legacy is really hard to erased. 

[Beparanf]

That's why people should be aware that they need to study the projects before investing, they need to know what they should know in every projects, but many are too greedy and bitcoin been used by scammers, they just might shows some proof that makes the new users intrigue and wanted to join since they show some proof or edited proof. Bitcoinis just used as medium and its hard to eliminate people who only know is to scam others.

[iamaruf]

Maybe you are new in crypto area or online 😁
1.  Cloud Mining: If you search on this forum you will find tons of posts where many members told that Cloud Mining is scam and don try to invest money in cloud mining. You will lose both of your money and time.
2.  Multi level Marketing : This is not new tricks. Even this tricks also use in real life not only online.
3.  Seed hacker: This is also old method in crypto area.they will give you thousands of proof. And they will ask for you for your seed or key. Even if you faced any problem with your token or coin (like how to swap).they Will message you that they can help or they will tell you that he is the developer or bla bla..and asked for seed or key. So avoid it and huge posts available where people gave warn.
4. Investment (Ponzi/HYIP) : this kind of scheme in btt illegal. There are so many ponzi/hyip site. They will tell you or advertise that invest 100$ and receive 200$ within 24 hours. BTT admin and mods are trying to clean this from ponzi/hyip.they also warned not to join.

If you joined this kind of programme and lost your money then its your fault, and you are greedy.
All of these method are not new.and be aware from them.           

[Kakmakr]

You cannot blame Bitcoin for being "Money". Scammers use anything valuable to scam people and Bitcoin has the added benefit for them to stay pseudo anonymous. This feature was designed to protect people from scammers that might target people, if they knew how much bitcoins each individual had, based on the information on the Blockchain, but it turns out that the scammers also misuse this feature to hide their activities. 

A time will come when Blockchain forensics will catch up to these scammers and they will have their day in court. 

[slaman29]

Dig in a little deeper though and you'll realize that these scammers are the same type of scammers who existed before Bitcoin. They'll simply pick up a new tech and twist the scam around.

Remember napster back in the day? People were giving out free files to infect you. Or paypal free money, or free money for surfing here and there. Pay to watch ads. Now Bitcoin is getting named, but it's nothing to do with bitcoin:)

[CryptoBry]

All of us in the Bitcoin or cryptocurrency community need to exert more efforts in educating people that they should not easily trust any third-party programs claiming to be giving a high return of investment because most likely they can be scams. Just like the US Dollar, Bitcoin can be the medium of exchange in any program because Bitcoin is also a currency.

Sadly, because Bitcoin is relatively new many people are associating this with many scams that victimized people all because they don't understand the currency aspect of cryptocurrency. I guess no one will ever accuse the dollar to be a scam just because there is a pyramiding program that is using the dollar as the money to pay-in and payout, right?

Unfortunately, we don't have that supernatural power to stop scammers from doing the things they excel. Some people are just inclined to enjoy fooling other people all because they are aware how lucrative the scam industry is. There is more money that can be made here than doing things legally and ethically, that is the truth that is staring right before us.

Scammers will scam, hackers will hack, phishers will phish and victims will cry. Hope we can spare one or two within our own circle of influence to steer away from being a victim statistics.

[hahahafr]

These scams have really made away with the funds of so many people and i am glad you have shared it openly so that other new members who join this forum can be aware of these schemes. Investors in here need to make the due diligence before investing into any project that gets launched into this space.

[Ken_terrance]

I did know someone from india who basically live all his life on HYIP investment plans and he really know how to make money off them, he told me that greed is the ultimate weapon that HYIp builders use against hyip investors, either ways its really not advisable not even cloud mining, as old as eobot cloud mining is i still find it hard to trust them till today

[piebeyb]

After the boom of bitcoin in end of 2017 it caught eyes of general audience and many people who thought it as a great investment opportunity bought bitcoins and this is now continuing more and more people with little technical knowledge joining the bitcoin community it was essential to happen this for bringing bitcoin in mainstream but with that this made this era paradise for scammers every day many scams come into existing now their number are growing faster and they target people with less technical knowledge of bitcoin they are likely easy to get scammed some of common scams the scammer pulls are :

1. Cloud mining scam where they make users to invest in their cloud mining and give them a very small % of their amount daily and also encourage them to bring more members so they can get extra rewarded after a time when deposit amount starts to slow down and withdrawal amount starts to increase then their threshold they simply vanished.
2. Multi level marketing scam this work as from oldest days just invest an amount bring two more make your own tree and earn rewards starting ones in this scams who are able to get many other people always get profited and 99% of members who are in down ranks get scammed they do the same when incoming amounts slow down and outgoing amount reach a certain threshold they simply vanish.
3. The seed hack scammers are approaching people saying we will teach you how to make 100$ in one hour and you need to give it to us most common people don't know about seed and put their btc in online wallet such as coinbase or blockchain so scammer get their screen shared and make them transfer their btc in a wallet such as electrum and got their seeds screenshots open their wallet in their own computer and transfer the amount people had no idea what struck them .
4. Investment scams deposit x amount and get x amount this is the most common type of scams getting all over the internet it is a small amount scam usually people don't mind to fell in it by giving 5-50$ of amount to these scammers .

These are some examples of classic scams affiliated with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as bitcoin community is in main stream these types of things confuse people by saying bitcoin is a scam and what ever they try to do with it they ended up in the scam. With their less knowledge about bitcoin it is nearly impossible to make them understand that they are victim of classic scams and it is nothing to do with btc but for these scams they cant go any where or report it they feel vulnerable in using cryptos many individuals trys to point out some scams which get into main stream but this thing need to be done as a collective effort. I propose to have a plat form for normal people teaching them basics of bitcoin as a 9 year could understand all this. because community platform like bitcoin talk have a way to much advance topics which confuse or scare the new non technical people .

people who are usually trapped from the scams above are the attitude of wanting to get rich quickly and get a lot of money, sometimes we cannot provide technical knowledge about bitcoin if from the beginning they have that attitude, so back to the attitude of wanting to get rich quick from themselves that needs to be in fix

I also see a lot of people like that deceived easily and when they are deceived they blame bitcoin as a fraud, fraud sites use bitcoin as a tool, so I feel that this forum has also been implemented, if there are users promoting investment sites with bitcoin how it works like above it will be said to be a scam in this forum, preventing new people from being deceived

[Baby Dragon]

That's why people should be aware that they need to study the projects before investing, they need to know what they should know in every projects, but many are too greedy and bitcoin been used by scammers, they just might shows some proof that makes the new users intrigue and wanted to join since they show some proof or edited proof. Bitcoinis just used as medium and its hard to eliminate people who only know is to scam others.

Well they don't even think before making decisions for themselves and that is the reason why most of them fall into scams, it is hard to trust projects these days because you can easily say if it has a good intention or not and that is why we have to be cautious. Sometimes it depends on the person if they wanted to get scammed or not because if you are aware of what is happening in your surroundings then you will literally look for something that can help you to avoid experiencing it. You should have done some research or ask people for their thoughts and opinion that can help you to make the right decision for yourself so you won't end up feeling remorse about it. There are just some bad people these days who keep on ruining bitcoins reputation by using it on illegal things and they are trying to take advantage of it just to get the benefits they wanted.

[TravelMug]

That's why bitcoiners specially newbies should equipped themselves with the knowledge on how everything works here.

Just because someone told them they can make $100 in an hour in crypto doesn't mean it's true. Common sense, logical thinking, understand of the crypto scene, but the problem is that there are so many gullible individuals who easily fall for the scammers trap. I was also a victim of a doubler early in my crypto journey, I know it's an expensive lessons to learnt, but I guess it help me better understand those scams early and not fall for it again.

[dewin]

That worthless scumbag makes Bitcoin untrustworthy to the general public. In my country, Many people know bitcoin as scam because many investment in facebook are using bitcoin as mode of payment.
Many innocent people fall for that and most of them are those people leaving in the province and not fully aware on the risk of ponzi investment. Until now, Many still think bitcoin is scam and
they are afraid to buy. This scumbags legacy is really hard to erased. 

Unfortunately, too many people are blaming Bitcoin itself for being a scam, instead of blaming/searching for the real delinquents who are standing behind such projects. The whole fake 'hypebubble' build around Bitcoin is awful, scammers are making up stories how Bitcoin is going to 'free you from banks', or 'Bitcoin will give you tremendous profit'. The communication send to people is based around Bitcoin, Bitcoin, Bitcoin, which distracts those people from the real culprits. Bitcoin is evil - they will say, but if someone gets scammed on stock market, he won't talk that dollar is evil (well, maybe some of them will). It's a perfect match for frauds - blame something else than yourself, that's the first rule, and when everything collapses, regular people won't be looking for a human, because they've been told that bitcoin and technology it stands on is the reason why they've lost money. Very, very sad reflection, I think for the whole cryptocommunity, which is full of wonderful and helpful people.

That's why bitcoiners specially newbies should equipped themselves with the knowledge on how everything works here.

Just because someone told them they can make $100 in an hour in crypto doesn't mean it's true. Common sense, logical thinking, understand of the crypto scene, but the problem is that there are so many gullible individuals who easily fall for the scammers trap. I was also a victim of a doubler early in my crypto journey, I know it's an expensive lessons to learnt, but I guess it help me better understand those scams early and not fall for it again.

Sometimes the knowledge and preparations is not enough, you can become a victim just by accident, because of some unsuspected data leak, or someone can just target you and do harm. There are plenty of platforms which offers help in this case and then it turns out that is another fraud. So it’s much safer to use services of companies focused on such stuff e.g. Coinfirm, which is doing amazing work on AML field and with their 'Reclaim Crypto' services. They've been partners even with Binance: https://www.coindesk.com/theres-a-new-way-to-get-your-stolen-crypto-back

I think that the most important thing is: don't let go, don’t give up. React, and stand up for your stolen money. Malicious activity is, unfortunately, a common thing for crypto followers, but we have to stand up against it, because thiefs must feel that the punishment might come.

[Artemis3]

The more people will trade bitcoin, the more scams will appear.

And yet this has nothing to do with Bitcoin. If people expect an authority to "protect them", they are in for trouble. There is no governing body and all transactions are final period. Reversing a transaction destroys trust, and the code should not allow it, as is the case with Bitcoin.

Its not that you are "your own bank", you are also "your own security". Yes, you can still always pay others to do it for you, that is no different, it doesn't mean they will never fail, when you hire a third party, you trust it to not steal your money...

Which is exactly what happens when you give your coins to others. If the coins are not in your own wallet, they are not in your control or protection. Many traders risk millions in exchanges that can disappear overnight, some thing regulation would "somehow" prefent another Mt.Gox, and yet exchanges and other online wallets are always at risk. Maybe somewhat less risk vs the past, but still at risk.

And the internet is full of scammers trying to convince you to handle them your coins...

If you came to bitcoin to preserve your savings from the State induced inflation done to fiat, keep it in a cold wallet and protect those seed words...

[Nolimitz84]

I have long been fond of cryptocurrency and somehow such cloud mining services have never attracted my attention.If you look from the point of view of the idea-it is quite alive, but if you look from the point of view of the implementation of the situation is the opposite.I would be glad if someone here to share with working such a service. (With proofs)

[BeManga]

After the boom of bitcoin in end of 2017 it caught eyes of general audience and many people who thought it as a great investment opportunity bought bitcoins and this is now continuing more and more people with little technical knowledge joining the bitcoin community it was essential to happen this for bringing bitcoin in mainstream but with that this made this era paradise for scammers every day many scams come into existing now their number are growing faster and they target people with less technical knowledge of bitcoin they are likely easy to get scammed some of common scams the scammer pulls are :

1. Cloud mining scam where they make users to invest in their cloud mining and give them a very small % of their amount daily and also encourage them to bring more members so they can get extra rewarded after a time when deposit amount starts to slow down and withdrawal amount starts to increase then their threshold they simply vanished.
2. Multi level marketing scam this work as from oldest days just invest an amount bring two more make your own tree and earn rewards starting ones in this scams who are able to get many other people always get profited and 99% of members who are in down ranks get scammed they do the same when incoming amounts slow down and outgoing amount reach a certain threshold they simply vanish.
3. The seed hack scammers are approaching people saying we will teach you how to make 100$ in one hour and you need to give it to us most common people don't know about seed and put their btc in online wallet such as coinbase or blockchain so scammer get their screen shared and make them transfer their btc in a wallet such as electrum and got their seeds screenshots open their wallet in their own computer and transfer the amount people had no idea what struck them .
4. Investment scams deposit x amount and get x amount this is the most common type of scams getting all over the internet it is a small amount scam usually people don't mind to fell in it by giving 5-50$ of amount to these scammers .

These are some examples of classic scams affiliated with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as bitcoin community is in main stream these types of things confuse people by saying bitcoin is a scam and what ever they try to do with it they ended up in the scam. With their less knowledge about bitcoin it is nearly impossible to make them understand that they are victim of classic scams and it is nothing to do with btc but for these scams they cant go any where or report it they feel vulnerable in using cryptos many individuals trys to point out some scams which get into main stream but this thing need to be done as a collective effort. I propose to have a plat form for normal people teaching them basics of bitcoin as a 9 year could understand all this. because community platform like bitcoin talk have a way to much advance topics which confuse or scare the new non technical people .

i agree there is a lot of scams that use bitcoin as front
this kind of scam make people confuse and they think that bitcoin is a scam

[diazepam666]

I have long been fond of cryptocurrency and somehow such cloud mining services have never attracted my attention.If you look from the point of view of the idea-it is quite alive, but if you look from the point of view of the implementation of the situation is the opposite.I would be glad if someone here to share with working such a service. (With proofs)

Even if we get attracted to the cloud mining means also you might not continue with me cloud mining investment or you might be completely read off from the cryptocurrency industry.
So think that you are in a safer side.
scammers are very near to you in a bitcointalk as well as in every cryptocurrency feel so you need to be really careful while we starting to learn cryptocurrency.

[Kyraishi]

Maybe you are new in crypto area or online 😁

I don't think this is the case with a lot of people, there are definitely people that don't know how online investing and the scams will work and this ends up happening.

1.  Cloud Mining: If you search on this forum you will find tons of posts where many members told that Cloud Mining is scam and don try to invest money in cloud mining. You will lose both of your money and time.

Not everyone in the world will use bitcointalk, often times when you google cloud mining you'll be bombarded by google ads.

2.  Multi level Marketing : This is not new tricks. Even this tricks also use in real life not only online.

That's fair, it's a pretty well-known scam scheme, and it's probably lack of awareness if they end up falling for it.

3.  Seed hacker: This is also old method in crypto area.they will give you thousands of proof. And they will ask for you for your seed or key. Even if you faced any problem with your token or coin (like how to swap).they Will message you that they can help or they will tell you that he is the developer or bla bla..and asked for seed or key. So avoid it and huge posts available where people gave warn.
4. Investment (Ponzi/HYIP) : this kind of scheme in btt illegal. There are so many ponzi/hyip site. They will tell you or advertise that invest 100$ and receive 200$ within 24 hours. BTT admin and mods are trying to clean this from ponzi/hyip.they also warned not to join.

Bitcointalk isn't everything.

If you joined this kind of programme and lost your money then its your fault, and you are greedy.
All of these method are not new.and be aware from them.           

Often times its lack of awareness, or just not really understanding the entire scene.

[diahsw]

there are many more con artists who do other things, which certainly they are very troubling, even to the point of being stressed because they do that. now we have to think about how to make them deterrent and detained, because it's very important, considering this is cyberspace, so it's hard to report it .. !!