Popular scams in crypto that investors should avoid

[Jimmycrooks]

Scams and frauds have been rampant in the crypto community for many years now. The crypto market, being relatively unregulated, has attracted so many scammers and  fraudsters. These criminals take advantage of the lack of knowledge among investors to leverage their schemes.

One of the most common scam is the Ponzi Scheme. I'm pretty sure most, if not all of us are very familiar with this scam. In a Ponzi Scheme, the scammer promises high returns on investment without doing any actual trading. Instead, the scammer gains new participants mostly true referrals and uses their funds to pay the earlier investors' promised profits. The Ponzi Scheme collapses when new participants dwindle or demand a payout, and the scammer disappears with the remaining funds. There's something my dad always tells me, " there is no such thing as something from nothing". Anyone that promises you a particular amount of BTC, and all you have to do is invest a  particular amount or share their link to invite a given amount of people, that person is a scammer, and potential investors should avoid them at all cost.

Another common scam is the Fake ICO (Initial Coin Offering). In Fake ICOs, the scammer promises a new cryptocurrency with a major technology or platform, convincing potential Investors to invest their funds in the ICO. However, after collecting the funds, the scammer disappears, and no new cryptocurrency is ever launched. Personally I've been a victim of something similar to this some time ago, but it wasn't crypto related.

Another fraud is the Phishing scam, where a scammer creates a fake website that pretends to be a popular cryptocurrency exchange or wallet. They ask for login credentials, private keys, and then proceeds to access the victim's cryptocurrency wallet and steal their funds.

Lastly, the Ransomware, here the scammer captures a victim's digital devices or files; the attacker demands payment in cryptocurrencies to surrender the data and restore access to the victim. Another one that's very similar to this, the scammer preys on investors that have issues with their wallet, offers a solution and demand for their login details to fix said issue. Then they proceed to access their wallet and steal their funds.

A few days ago, a user on this forum asked if it was possible to reverse a bitcoin transaction cause he accidentally sent funds to the wrong address. That's the kind of post these scammers look for. I'm sure he got a couple of messages from people claiming to have a solution to his issue.

To avoid scammers like this, Investors should also be wary of promises of unusually high returns and do not disclose any personal information or keys to anyone.

Finally, Investors should use secure software and hardware for their devices and regularly back up their data.

[1714326121]

1714326121

[Nwada001]

Your first form of scam The victims are always driven by greed; it's only greed that pushes people to fall victim to a money-doubling scheme; they want to make more out of things, which is exactly what the scammers need in order to get their target.

Let me elaborate more on the ICO scam part. These days, that type of scam is almost a thing of the past because I barely see projects running ICOs. Back then, what most of them usually do is propose promising projects that have no physical foundation, attract investors through those promises, and through paid advertisers, investors give them their money.

Most of them actually launch those coins, but launching those coins is actually not the problem; the major problem is usually whether those coins or tokens will be listed on any exchange. Even if they are listed, will they be worth what you invested inside? etc. Many people have fallen victim to such scams because we really can't tell which of those coins are scams, and most of those scammers are very good at what they do. Now what they do is the IEO, which is the initial exchange offering.

You will be allowed to buy their coins or tokens from an exchange that they will promise to list at a particular price that will be tempting to you, which will make victims buy these coins because they believe the coins will be listed. But any of the projects that happen to be scams will still list those tokens on those exchanges, add a little money that they have gained from the IEO, pump the market a little, and then pull the rug, leaving all the investors with worthless coins or tokens.

[Jimmycrooks]

Your first form of scam The victims are always driven by greed; it's only greed that pushes people to fall victim to a money-doubling scheme; they want to make more out of things, which is exactly what the scammers need in order to get their target.

Exactly. As I quoted there, " there's no such thing as something from nothing". Only greed would make someone think they can get money from doing absolutely nothing.

[lovesmayfamilis]

OP, can I ask you? You create such a topic and describe the post quite fully, do you read the forum yourself? Can you use the search? Are you asking yourself what I will bring to the forum by creating a thread about scammers? Don't you see how much of this material, and almost everything about the same thing, is posted here? I'm assuming that you, as a newbie, read the recent thread and just paraphrased and posted here the same thing you read on the forum. So to speak, "control work" on reading. You don't even have to go anywhere, everyone is here.
Can I ask you to be a little attentive, try to read the forum on your own, and not teach what is here in tons? Friendly advice is a forum where his knowledge will be useful to you and nothing else. Always remind yourself of this.

For an additional understanding of your topic.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5125435.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5122515.0

[BIT-BENDER]

One of the most common scam is the Ponzi Scheme. I'm pretty sure most, if not all of us are very familiar with this scam. In a Ponzi Scheme, the scammer promises high returns on investment without doing any actual trading. Instead, the scammer gains new participants mostly true referrals and uses their funds to pay the earlier investors' promised profits. The Ponzi Scheme collapses when new participants dwindle or demand a payout, and the scammer disappears with the remaining funds. There's something my dad always tells me, " there is no such thing as something from nothing". Anyone that promises you a particular amount of BTC, and all you have to do is invest a  particular amount or share their link to invite a given amount of people, that person is a scammer, and potential investors should avoid them at all cost.

The Ponzi scheme has been the type of scam that newbies and inexperienced people usually fall for the promises those Ponzi organizers offers are mouth watering and made up. I have some topics on some of the various Ponzi schemes.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5245895.msg54363375#msg54363375
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5257989.msg54680733#msg54680733
The biggest turn off I have is that there are newbies that had fallen victim on previous Ponzi schemes but still persist and joins more Ponzi schemes in the hopes of having a payday someday. Always learn to accept your loss and make your corrections.

Another fraud is the Phishing scam, where a scammer creates a fake website that pretends to be a popular cryptocurrency exchange or wallet. They ask for login credentials, private keys, and then proceeds to access the victim's cryptocurrency wallet and steal their funds.

Falling for this sort of scam goes beyond your actual knowledge of Crypto-currency it can also be prevented by reducing your risk which is becoming hard, you can also be a victim for such scams through ads, malware and generally having the device of your wallet online keeps you prone to such scams, you can use cold storage to protect yourself.
Read more about cold storage here.

https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html

[Hyphen(-)]

Your first form of scam The victims are always driven by greed; it's only greed that pushes people to fall victim to a money-doubling scheme; they want to make more out of things, which is exactly what the scammers need in order to get their target.

Exactly. As I quoted there, " there's no such thing as something from nothing". Only greed would make someone think they can get money from doing absolutely nothing.

Scammers are always happy to see people that are greedy and those greedy people are their main target.

This type of thread has been created in this forum several times, and so many people are still falling for such scams easily.

As a new user in the forum, I will advise you to use the forum search bottom always before creating a new thread to know if the thread has been created before to avoid duplicate threads, as I can see, some reputable members have provided you with some links of the similar threads.

[348Judah]

OP your topic is one of the most interesting aspects I'd liked in cryptocurrency because it shows us the ways we can be safe from all eventual attacks regardless of their means or form of operations but you could have just perfected this by giving a recommendation or link to back this up in other for the beginners to see the practical example or scenario where such is being experienced and to also back up your new discovery in this regard, scam is what we all go against and wouldn't want to be a victim of, but you've done well in passing this out for others to get more informed.

[Zaguru12]

Finally, Investors should use secure software and hardware for their devices and regularly back up their data.

Seems a good idea but the best is do not back up your details like passwords or seed phrases on softwares. There are applications that offers backup and many people fall into this, backing up files on line is same as given away your data and that is why cold storage is the best, even 2FA by Google authenticator is said to be compromised at the moment.

To avoid scammers like this, Investors should also be wary of promises of unusually high returns and do not disclose any personal information or keys to anyone.

This is kind of scam actually affects airdrop hunters they usually fall for scams that ask them to link up there wallet to a particular site and this exposes there keys and compromises other coins in the wallet. The scam is old but still catches up with gullible people.  It’s better to have a separate set aside for this Altcoins airdrops

[mk4]

https://chainsec.io/scams

^This article pretty much covers 95% of scams(and similar variations).

But really — even if you read thousands of articles, it will be very impossible to be totally aware of 100% of existing scams. All you can do is to always keep your guard up and be suspicious by default.

[qwertyup23]

https://chainsec.io/scams

^This article pretty much covers 95% of scams(and similar variations).

But really — even if you read thousands of articles, it will be very impossible to be totally aware of 100% of existing scams. All you can do is to always keep your guard up and be suspicious by default.

I definitely agree with you- as someone who previously reported dozens of scams in the forum, I can also confidently say that there are tons of scam websites that look genuine on its face. It is hard to determine whether a project is a scam or not, especially given with the power of ai-created images and texts that can fake information.

The only weapon that you have against these scammers is to always remain vigilant and doubtful. If a project looks too good to be true, then trust your gut and avoid it. Fortunately, this forum exists in order to provide an extra layer of security as you can ask questions about a certain project if it is a scam or not.

[sunsilk]

Yeah, I forgot to add this too. Airdrops were really popular in my country as of last year and most of them were fake.

Funny thing is, despite numerous information about this people still fall victim to these scams which is sad

And it's due to the greediness of people participating airdrops. A fake airdrop post and announcement can literally go into a swarm a lot of airdrop people. That's how easy it is to these developers when they've learned that there's still so much interest into it.

While they take advantage of these people, the joiners have no idea if they join a good or bad or for nothing. They just like participate, join and wait if it's gonna be successful or not without thinking that they've been scammed in return of nothing for their KYC and compliance to what the airdrop has asked to them.

[Woodie]

A few days ago, a user on this forum asked if it was possible to reverse a bitcoin transaction cause he accidentally sent funds to the wrong address. That's the kind of post these scammers look for. I'm sure he got a couple of messages from people claiming to have a solution to his issue.

Not really a scam but its possible to reverse  a transaction if it has not yet been confirmed on the blockchain by using the "replace by fee" aka "RBF" which achieves this by double spending to invalidate the first transaction.

And rule of thumb, if you want help and you do not want to be scammed... keep the conversation in an open space ,unless it gets to a point of dealing with a reputable user and some details aren't meant for all eyes to see!
All in all great write up OP

[The Cryptovator]

If you want to create a thoughtful and valuable discussion, it's crucial to do your research beyond just the initial post. This is especially true if you're starting a new thread, as it's important to avoid repeating topics that have already been covered. Take advantage of the existing threads on the forum, as they can provide a wealth of information to learn from. Additionally, it's essential for the original poster to exhibit maturity by spending time on the forum and understanding the community's culture. Avoid creating threads where forum members would criticize. Instead, I would suggest that you familiarize yourself with the numerous threads that already exist, which warn about scams. Ultimately, creating a new thread on the subject is not necessary, as there are already many discussions on the forum that address this topic.

[Asiska02]

The Ponzi Scheme collapses when new participants dwindle or demand a payout, and the scammer disappears with the remaining funds. There's something my dad always tells me, " there is no such thing as something from nothing". Anyone that promises you a particular amount of BTC, and all you have to do is invest a  particular amount or share their link to invite a given amount of people, that person is a scammer, and potential investors should avoid them at all cost.

Ponzi schemes are a major scam that should be avoided, especially in the crypto space. Their operations appear so real that you can't deny their methods of operation.  I have fallen for such a scam before, but not in the crypto area because I was clueless about scam knowledge. This type of scam is directly and entirely directed towards bitcoin newbies, and they are easily duped. Those who come with the attitude of getting rich quick might easily exchange their bitcoins in the hopes of earning a better return from such Ponzi schemes, which would inevitably fail them.

[cryptoaddictchie]

Thats a lot of thought but for me its quite simple to avoid such scams. Never entertain anything that you dont review or know.

Sometimes curiosity really hit us hard especially when someone offering free tokens that are too good to be true. Hence that would be a great lesson if we can discipline ourselves to avoid and do such review first.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Scams and frauds have been rampant in the crypto community for many years now. The crypto market, being relatively unregulated, has attracted so many scammers and  fraudsters. These criminals take advantage of the lack of knowledge among investors to leverage their schemes.

One of the most common scam is the Ponzi Scheme. I'm pretty sure most, if not all of us are very familiar with this scam.

Considering how unregulated cryptocurrency market is, I don't think there was ever a doubt of the market been safe from scam. The industry will always attract scammers since there are lots of vulnerable investors or wanna be investors in the market. We have so many people with lack of experience in investing parading themselves as professionals meanwhile they're losing secretly or been scammed. Ponzi scheme isn't the most common in cryptocurrency market, we hardly hear of a project collapse because they were a ponzi scheme, the last time I heard of such news in the industry was the bitconnect scam and that of Onecoin which wwre a long time ago.  What I think is most common is project selling a false reality tintehir investors.

There's so much money been lost to scam projects that rise funds through private funding, ICO and other means of crowdfunding and yet they just exit scam or stop development and nobody says anything. Each time we see a new trend, we begin seeing countless amount of project focusing on that particular trend but immediately the trend dies down then the project stop development and that's the major problem of the market. This is the scam people have to avoid, they have to stop chasing the hype or they'll end up losing all the money they intend investing in the market.

[GeorgeJohn]

Thats a lot of thought but for me its quite simple to avoid such scams. Never entertain anything that you dont review or know.

Sometimes curiosity really hit us hard especially when someone offering free tokens that are too good to be true. Hence that would be a great lesson if we can discipline ourselves to avoid and do such review first.

You are right, because  I that what triggers some people to venture in scam is lack of verification or research towards the coin they asked or advice to purchase, and sometimes people do invest wrongly without a proper investigation, because if we fail to be excited when we see a new token or new project and make a review of that project by ourselves, nothing will make us to be a victim of scammers from my understanding, and especially for a new project, at least someone or an investor have to know the potentials of token before venturing into the investment, so that it will not be victims of scams.