How to spot common Bitcoin scams and avoid them

[Muenalo]

It is such a piece of sad news now as scammers now use Bitcoin to scam people of their hard earn savings of a lifetime, which beginners/newbies are mostly their targets, simply because they have less knowledge about how to buy, sell, trade, stake, lend, borrow and invest in Bitcoin in this crypto era. And this has been the reason for tears in many families as they lost their fortunes to these scammers. Which is the main reason for me writing this to my lovely bitcointalk family so that we all can avoid been scammed.

Listed below are some common ways scammers lure away people's hard earn money.



No 1: Twitter Bitcoin Giveaway

In this method, what scammers do is to use an account that bears a close resemblance to that of a high-profile personality or celebrity, asking people to send BTC to a specific address and be sure to receive double of whatever they send within 30minutes. And this always led to stolen funds, because never will they send the BTC double just as promised.
So be careful...


No 2: Email And Website Phishing

In this method, what scammers do is to create fake websites and emails similar to that of the original, all to dupe investors into entering sensitive pieces of information such as usernames and passwords, to enable them to gain access and hijack your funds.
So be careful and check all URL send to you via mail carefully.


No 3: Cryptojacking

In this method, what scammers do is install malware into a user's computer, which enables them to steal valuable computer resources used to mine bitcoin.
So be careful and protect your computer and most especially this smartphone you are using to access the bitcointalk forum from malicious individuals at all costs because it's indeed your office and source of income.


No 4: SIM-Card Swap

In this method, what scammers do is to duplicate the SIM-Card of an individual's cell phone, in other to initiate two-factor authentication and code been sent to the number to enable them to gain unauthorised access to the user's account and hijack his fund.
So be careful and stop sharing your phone number on social media carelessly.



Conclusion:
So in conclusion, I hope with these few tips of mine on how to avoid been scammed, no member of this lovely bitcointalk community will get scammed of his or her hard earn money. Amen

So be careful and watchful.  Thanks

[GreatArkansas]

I can add additional the best thing to avoid scams.
High reward, like offering free money but you need to pay them. "Too good to be true", this is very common and the most victims here are the newbies who are aiming for free money or easy money, that's why they are lured with it.

[BIT-BENDER]

No 1: Twitter Bitcoin Giveaway

In this method, what scammers do is to use an account that bears a close resemblance to that of a high-profile personality or celebrity, asking people to send BTC to a specific address and be sure to receive double of whatever they send within 30minutes. And this always led to stolen funds, because never will they send the BTC double just as promised.
So be careful...

Most high level influencers, highly regarded people in an area has a tick on there account, so this tick is to show that they are the original person, but this account can still be hacked, so avoiding such give away in Total is adviceable, I don't think they would do any giveaway wanting you to first send anything.

No 2: Email And Website Phishing

In this method, what scammers do is to create fake websites and emails similar to that of the original, all to dupe investors into entering sensitive pieces of information such as usernames and passwords, to enable them to gain access and hijack your funds.
So be careful and check all URL send to you via mail carefully.

Here also you can be sent virus by scammers to your email as an attachment in link format, if clicked the virus is activated, also delete and suspicious message, see to checking junk and spam for any activities you didn't authorize.

I would also want to shade light on YouTube scammers, scammers creating several bot account all pretentiously play to promote a scam traded/investor, also the clone/duplicate the owner of a channel asking you to write to them on their contact.

Even here on the forum you can get private messages so you have to be sensitive and knowledgeable about scams.

[Daniel91]

There is a very simple rule that I have been practicing for many years.
When I get a super good offer to make money on the Internet, I first check the person or company behind that offer.
A good Google review will immediately show whether that person or company can be trusted or not.
After that, the offer itself can be analyzed, whether very high and unrealistic returns are promised, whether it is probable and verified etc.

[FloridaKid]

The most popular scam tricks are always good looking 😂 and attractive because they are too good to be true but newbies will think it's the biggest opportunity they will ever get in their lives so they quickly fall for the traps, think twice when you come in contact with good offers, the only way to scam you is with good offers you can't resists.

[pakhitheboss]

Social media scams are very common now days. Not only twitter but YouTube has become quite a hot spot for scammers and you won't able to recognise that the live video that you are watching is about to scam you.

In  most of the cases the offer is a Giveaway. People who are unable to control their greed generally fall for these scams.

[tranthidung]

Two reminders

• Reminder for crypto newbies, traders. Be cautious with new exchanges
• Beware of "Pay original fine" - a scam method

Basically, any deal that looks "too good to be true" would likely be a bad one. If a stranger give you such deal, will that guy naturally accept loss on his/her side, and generously gives you big profit?

It is unrealistic. Deal should be as fair as possible for both sides.

[cryptoaddictchie]

I would like to add telegram chat by strangers. At first they will try to talk to you and become interested on some deal or transactions. Then as you preoccupied with the topic his engaging his started to penetrate by inserting words such as exchange, transfer, cash out. Anything that leads to to withdrawal and even trying to fake that he is in need of help. These are all type of scams, and much netter to hit the block or directly delete message.

[Charles-Tim]

No 1: Twitter Bitcoin Giveaway

Not only on Twitter, scam exists on social media generally, also YouTube scam can not be neglected. Also there are some scam apps on playstores.

• Reminder for crypto newbies, traders. Be cautious with new exchanges

It is good to be careful of new exchanges because some are fake and only want to scam, that is why it is good to make use of crypto price tracking sites like Coinmarketcap or Coingecko to look for exchanges. But that is not all, there are some shady exchanges and some offer gambling, these exchanges are better also he avoided. Some exchanges are legit but listing too good to be true coins, also there are mistakes someone can make while trading on shady exchanges, in a way high amount of trading funds like $200 or more will become less than $1 immediately after a trade, this happen when trading good coins like Bitcoin with a shit coin on such exchanges. That is why it is also still good for newbies to further their research to be able to know good exchanges that are not ready to lure users to invest on what will finally ensue losses. It is not also surprising anymore how some legit exchanges can list 5 to 10% daily profit for a particular coin, these are even still scam that can be found on some old and legit exchanges.

Also, it is good for newbies to know exchanges are not recommended and also not advisable to keep cryptocurrencies, an exchange can be hacked, some were once hacked in the past that were not able to pay back customers funds, while some were not able to pay it completely, some exchange users will not have verified account, that is how such users lose their funds after the exchange says only verified customers will be refunded. Not your key not your coin as people do not have the full control on custododial exchanges over their coins, the exchanges will only be saying customers have full control but just a lie, the exchanges team have the full control. That is why it is better to have our cryptocurrencies on noncustodial wallet, and offline wallet preferably for better safety.

[khaled0111]

Use comon sense, it works all the time.
If someone, for example, tells you he can double your money or have an investment strategy that can generate a 100% profit (common scams), tben ask your self why didn't he invest his own money and kept the whole profit for himself! You will realize that something doesn't feel right.

[Fortify]

It is such a piece of sad news now as scammers now use Bitcoin to scam people of their hard earn savings of a lifetime

Scams are nothing new to Bitcoin, they've been around for the over 10 years it has existed already. One thing that scammers can prey on is greed, so it is always worth remembering the old adage: "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is". Unfortunately most people will end up learning the hard way and due to the devious nature of scams the only protection might be to keep your greed under control. If you absolutely must try something out, first you need to understand where the profit is coming from, if it cannot be explained in a simple and logical way that you understand - keep far away. Another thing to ask yourself EVERY SINGLE TIME is if this is as profitable as the person says it is, why would they ever need to share it with you and not just use it to get super rich themselves? There are very few sensible answers a scammer can give to justify that last statement.

[Asuspawer09]

Most are on tweeter or social media platforms where scammers are probably finding beginners and newcomers to scam, I mean scammers are everywhere this day.

I think it's mostly greed when people are getting scam here, most of the time it's you end up in a sketchy deal there is a high chance that it is a scam, but we could obviously avoid that.

As much as possible you could always go in a safe way of transaction not risking your money into some stranger in tweeter or discord because you're just putting your money at risk in my experience and most of the time we go for a sketchy deal in some other platform because we get FOMO thinking that we might still get the opportunity, you could always avoid that and just common sense you could easily know if your money is already in risk. I never invest in something when I know that my money is at so much risk, and you could always avoid that in you want to.

[passwordnow]

No 1: Twitter Bitcoin Giveaway

In this method, what scammers do is to use an account that bears a close resemblance to that of a high-profile personality or celebrity, asking people to send BTC to a specific address and be sure to receive double of whatever they send within 30minutes. And this always led to stolen funds, because never will they send the BTC double just as promised.
So be careful...

It's not only on Twitter but there's also in Facebook. Those scammers are posting in different pages that you can see and they have the same script that's being automatically posted again and again. It's funny to hear that there are still people who becomes a victim of them but the real thing is that it's sad to know when there really are actual people that have believed with such scam. I thought that I would never encounter someone who's going to share a story that he believed on that trick and scam.

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

It seems that the OP was inspired by the information provided in the following link:
https://www.newsbtc.com/news/bitcoin/common-bitcoin-scams-how-to-avoid-them/

Whilst the OPs content is a subset of the above, and the used phrases are for the most rather distant in construction, there are some key words that are an unusual construct, and are used in the same manner.

To be on the safe side, if one bases his post on an article, it’s best to add the reference link just in case. Not sure if the intent here was to summarize the post in your own words (more or less), or else, but the link servers a purpose to dissipate any doubts in form (not in intent).

[isaac_clarke22]

~

No 3: Cryptojacking

In this method, what scammers do is install malware into a user's computer, which enables them to steal valuable computer resources used to mine bitcoin.
So be careful and protect your computer and most especially this smartphone you are using to access the bitcointalk forum from malicious individuals at all costs because it's indeed your office and source of income.


~

Don't overlook this. I learned my lesson back in the days to always double check if my account to other social media platform is being logged on different IPs.
Add up to this also OP that one should be at least familiarize their IPs (external IP not the internal one), and check if there's a "sus" IP logged.
Somehow last year without my awareness, someone got access to my Bitcointalk account and I resolved it in this thread I made back then - Is there such thing as a malware that would make me automatically post?

From that incident, I now often monitor my accounts not just here in the forum but to different social media platform as well.
To check your IP logs here in the forum, you can use this link : https://bitcointalk.org/myips.php

[Smartvirus]

There is a way I've always loved to go about avoiding scammere and scamme platforms which has been effective to me so far. These ways are as follows:

Avoiding there platforms:
I simply live out the downloading of apps not from the official site. If I don't know the site, I ask questions on it. I also learn to be contented with the boring fonts and display of my phone. Seriously, I see no point in having a very beautifyinglauncher. It won't be worth it should it have a way of bringing me some lose.

Avoiding scammers:
I often avoid anything free or too good to be true. Which ever investing that I can't do myself or learn to do myself or even, the project don't come by my own research and criteria for credibility, I become very skeptical about such projects.

I think you should too.

[Pmalek]

It really isn't that difficult. Use your head and common sense before making any decisions. Why would that person contact you with such an offer instead of doing it with his family, friends, or loved ones and make them all rich?

No one is giving anything for free, not even crypto. Bitcoin doesn't grow on trees and it isn't given away over the internet.
If you think airdrops are free, think again. For a few coins, you are giving someone your personal details such as emails, phone numbers, social media accounts, your real name. You are also increasing their follower count, make tweets and posts about their project. It's no longer free, is it?

[sapnu]

All of this should never be disregarded most specially by newbies because all of this precautions may save your life one day. Even though we have this lists or advices, we should still stay updated on the new movements of hackers or scammers nowadays because for sure, they are also getting smarter and learning that we are already aware of their old ways. Many people are still getting scammed and mostly it is because of too much greed wherein their eyes are only focused on the prize and they fail to see the hidden agenda by the person they are dealing with.

[FatFork]

Fake exchanges are another common crypto scam that was not mentioned by the OP.
These scams are usually presented as fake websites or as mobile apps and they may appear to be legit at first glance, but their main goal is to steal your money. Some of these fake exchanges will even try to attract crypto investors by offering free coins on social networks or chat groups.