Just a friendly Bitcoin friend reminder - High price = more scams

[Kakmakr]

The Bitcoin price are reaching a new All-time-high again and we all know scammers are trying their best to get their hands on your coins.

I have seen a significant increase in Phishing emails, trying to get me to click on stupid links.

I never click on any links and all my coins are stored in long-term cold storage, so I know they are out of reach, but many people have hot wallets and they might be a target.

So guys... be safe out there and protect your coins. It's crazy season and the scammers are very active. 

[Upgrade00]

Some tips;

• Double check your backups,
• Do not store your coins on centralized exchanges,
• Use only non custodian wallets for cold storage,
• Do not disclose your crypto holdings casually,
• Have an investment plan, do not simply watch the charts without knowing what you plan to do with your coins. Here's a thread that can help with that.

Bonus advice, don't go about looking for the next Bitcoin.

[icalical]

I have seen a significant increase in Phishing emails, trying to get me to click on stupid links.
 

Yep, I notice that too, since the beginning of the bull-run the amount of scam email was increasing. But in my case the most annoying one is Social Media DMs and tag, basically I am now unfollowing almost all of Bitcoin and Crypto related news account, thats might be the reason those scammers are sending me DM.

But I haven't found any new MO, all of them are using similar narrative with giveaway or airdrop with phising link, nothing fancy, at least for now.

[tranthidung]

• Use only non custodian wallets for cold storage

Choose open source wallets too. Non custodian wallets are not enough as another factor is open source.

• [LIST] Open Source Hardware Wallets

Here's a thread that can help with that.

Two other threads for investment and take profit plans.

• Are you ready for the Bitcoin bull market? What's your plan? Some ideas for you
• [ANN] JJG Sustainable Bitcoin Withdrawal Strategy
  
  • https://bitcoindata.science/withdrawal-strategy

[Rruchi man]

I never click on any links and all my coins are stored in long-term cold storage, so I know they are out of reach, but many people have hot wallets and they might be a target.

As a notice, you have to know that these scammers are also individuals around us who may look normal during the day, but at night take up a second identity, or who look normal without a computer or a mobile phone from where they scam people. You have to be generally careful with people both online and offline. There was a story the other day shared by one of our forum members about how he saw a close family member trying to check his phone

At some point a cousin said to me that... Let me see your beautiful phone so I gave it to him, then I watched to see what he was doing in the phone. I found out he was trying to penetrate on my wallets but unlucky for him that they are all on passwords and at his notice that I am being observant, he began to point out those wallet Apps in my phone that... What App is this and this and this? What is it used for? And suspiciously, he was only after knowing what my wallets Apps are such as the Binance exchange, Ethereum and what I uses them for.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5487374.0

These scammers online are sometimes our close friends, family offline. If they have no remorse stealing from people online, that evil heart will grow colder and one day will have no remorse if he decides to steal from you.

Be as vigilant offline as you are online.

[summonerrk]

Now I remember that I was robbed once by emptying my Jaxx bitcoin wallet, and that was exactly when bitcoin was at its maximum in the last period of growth. There was also a very powerful bull rally back then, and now it doesn't seem like a coincidence that I was hacked just then. Perhaps the criminals even hacked me earlier and were just waiting for me to enter more cryptocurrencies into my wallet.
I advise everyone to have antiviruses, I haven't had one yet. And also, in no case do not click on links in suspicious emails.

[Kelward]

Some tips;

• Double check your backups,
• Do not store your coins on centralized exchanges,
• Use only non custodian wallets for cold storage,
• Do not disclose your crypto holdings casually,
• Have an investment plan, do not simply watch the charts without knowing what you plan to do with your coins. Here's a thread that can help with that.

Bonus advice, don't go about looking for the next Bitcoin.

Thanks for the additional tips, to add to the one that the OP emphasized on, saying that we should try as much as possible not to click unfamiliar sites, all these points must always be emphasized, no matter how many times we've heard them before. Because of the many scams and hacks in the crypto space, crypto holders must take every necessary precautions to protect their coins, especially now that we're entering bull run, a lot of scammers will be enticing novice investors to scan projects. My addition will be to see every unfamiliar links that is sent to you as a potential scam, even if they were sent to you by your loved ones, because they might have ignorantly forwarded it to you as received.

[GxSTxV]

Where there's money, there will be more rats around trying to steal and scam people who just bought Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. The best thing to do is creating more awareness and alerts against these rats, starting from this forum, friends and social.
Just this morning while getting a haircut, someone there was talking about a website where he received 0.2Bitcoin approximately $13,000, he was flexing ad it's a very significant amount of money in our country, I had to step up and ask him if he could withdraw them, he answered by no, but he is going to deposit 0.02 for the fees as 10% of the whole fake amount, my responsibility was to explain to him how this website is a scam. Unfortunately, he was even afraid or jealous to share that website so I can alert others, he didn't listen or believe that's a scam.

So unfortunately, some people even with many alerts against these kind of scam, I think they are just so greedy, that's why scammers are everywhere because they have victims.

[ImThour]

Great advice, and yes. Do not click on any link in your emails and never open and try to figure out the "Spam" Folder. It's literally spam.
And one more thing, do not open any PDF file you receive from someone. It can be malicious too and can empty your wallets (mostly Metamask and extensions).
So take care of your funds, and keep growing. <3

[Doan9269]

The Bitcoin price are reaching a new All-time-high again and we all know scammers are trying their best to get their hands on your coins.

The more things are going at it peak the more also are the scammers advising means to make sure they hook on their victims on scam, we should be careful and not be carried away by the ecstasy of the market bull and fall in hands by some little offers we may come along with online to be giving free bitcoin or any other crypto for nothing, also, we need to maintain a good security practice on all our wallets in other for them not to gain access on them.

[Gladitorcomeback]

The Bitcoin price are reaching a new All-time-high again and we all know scammers are trying their best to get their hands on your coins.

I have seen a significant increase in Phishing emails, trying to get me to click on stupid links.

I never click on any links and all my coins are stored in long-term cold storage, so I know they are out of reach, but many people have hot wallets and they might be a target.

So guys... be safe out there and protect your coins. It's crazy season and the scammers are very active. 

Yes you are right, Almost after every 2 daya I receiving mail from fake binance to update your app. App is apk files and I strongly believe that it's contains malware which could drain my wallet balance or at least access to my cloud storage. I have not cold storage yet for holding as I am a day trader and I am using Cex for trading but I have staked more than 1k$ for staking ETH in Metamask and 500$ in Keplr wallet. I have stored my phrases in hard copy because whenever scammers got access to your PC,they will steal phrase from your cloud storage. Scammers are active Telegram, Twitter and mail and mostly airdrop hunters are being scammed.

[Zaguru12]

Yep, I notice that too, since the beginning of the bull-run the amount of scam email was increasing. But in my case the most annoying one is Social Media DMs and tag, basically I am now unfollowing almost all of Bitcoin and Crypto related news account, thats might be the reason those scammers are sending me DM.

But I haven't found any new MO, all of them are using similar narrative with giveaway or airdrop with phising link, nothing fancy, at least for now.

Exactly Social media should definitely be a place you stay very clear off at this particular time. Some of those links sent by those reputable people or crypto influencers you follow might not even be the ones sending those messages because many of them are getting their accounts hacked and the hackers target their followers since they know most of them shill better opportunities to their followers. Others might have share those links out of ignorance that it is malicious because them too do not sometimes do due diligence on the things they share.

One thing OP hasn’t added although is mostly connected to Altcoins is never connect your wallet to any website for any airdrop if you must do it then let it be with a fake wallet.

[Casdinyard]

The Bitcoin price are reaching a new All-time-high again and we all know scammers are trying their best to get their hands on your coins.

I have seen a significant increase in Phishing emails, trying to get me to click on stupid links.

I never click on any links and all my coins are stored in long-term cold storage, so I know they are out of reach, but many people have hot wallets and they might be a target.

So guys... be safe out there and protect your coins. It's crazy season and the scammers are very active. 

I've seen the same upsurge you're talking about.

While I receive the occasional "you got 1 bitcoin on this certain exchange, you need to verify your account and register to claim it" or something along those lines, as well as the Nigerian Prince email (LOL), I'm not quite sure if it's just me being very particular with the crypto scams during these instances or if they definitely increased in strength and numbers but the bottomline is, hackers are bound to get massive bags during this time period cause we got a lot of newbies who are just so ignorant about the crypto world, or people who are easily blinded by the prospect of a large sum of money which is the very thing these scammers hook them with. Perhaps besides actually acquainting yourself with these scams, and building common sense of course, you might wanna master self-discipline and skepticism cause 9 times out of 10 that's what's going to save you from losing all your money in the crypto industry, where you're a single click away from losing all your shit.

Be smart, be skeptical, don't do stupid things, do all of this and you're sure to never lose a single dime out of your cold and hard wallet, as easy as that.

[itorai]

The Bitcoin price are reaching a new All-time-high again and we all know scammers are trying their best to get their hands on your coins.

I have seen a significant increase in Phishing emails, trying to get me to click on stupid links.

I never click on any links and all my coins are stored in long-term cold storage, so I know they are out of reach, but many people have hot wallets and they might be a target.

So guys... be safe out there and protect your coins. It's crazy season and the scammers are very active. 

Yes my friend. Thanks for the information, if possible i will also do the same as you do and i will divide it into several wallets that i have, so my hope is that even if 1 wallet allows them to take it there are other wallets that are still left, so at least with many wallets a lot of storage is also left.

[btc78]

To be fair, scammers are always out there trying to get to your coins. But this season of bullish trend and halving fast approaching, scammers are becoming more smart with their tactics. I have seen some scammers even creating new projects just to get you interested. New investors will surely be attracted to those projects with really huge promises but we must all stay vigilant. This is not the time to be relaxed and careless.

[Miles2006]

I also thought of this idea couple of days and what went through my mind was completely different. The issue with scam and random links is just too common, I thought of identifying phishing links with installed apps, I have seen such apps and websites on android and ios device identifying scammers through phone call. Installing such apps on our phone device can help in terms of identifying scam link. Although scammers can be trickish so it doesn't necessary mean I will rely on link guard,  I also need to prioritize safety measures when dealing with bitcoin investment.

[headingnorth]

The biggest scammers are on ethereum, NFTs and other altcoins that is where 99.9999% of the crypto scams are taking place.

To avoid these scams stay away from altcoins and NFTs especially ethereum.

[Z-tight]

Yes my friend. Thanks for the information, if possible i will also do the same as you do and i will divide it into several wallets that i have, so my hope is that even if 1 wallet allows them to take it there are other wallets that are still left, so at least with many wallets a lot of storage is also left.

This will only give you a false sense of security, i.e. separating your funds into different online wallets that are not in a secure device does not give you any kind of security, you can lose all your funds if an attacker compromises your device. You should have a cold storage wallet, and that is either a hardware wallet or an airgapped wallet, you will store the large part of your funds in this offline wallet, then you can have another online wallet that you would use to store funds for spending on the go.

It is also worth mentioning that your funds is only as secure as the device you store it in, so you must pay good attention to your opsec and ensure you don't brag about your BTC funds to anyone.

[PrivacyG]

Sadly, Bitcoin is one of the best perimeters to be around as a Scammer.  There are only few things as hyped as a Bitcoin Bull Run is and the amount of hype is incredible.  Every body is so desperate to make money EXTREMELY quick during a Bull Run hype that they easily fall for traps.  Particularly when all Shit Coins pump hundreds of percentage in weeks and some body comes with an offer to double your Bitcoin for free.  Seems legit to some people, silly as it sounds.

So it is not only the Bitcoin price that attracts Scammers.  In fact.  I would argue the price is barely a motivation for them to push more Scams.

Instead.  The hype brings many more potential victims and to them Bitcoin is a much safer way of scamming than requesting people to send you money to your PayPal so you can double it.  You would get caught much easier that way.  Furthermore.  Some Scammers are smart enough to scam you out but stupid enough to believe Bitcoin is Anonymous.

Almost every Bitcoin Bull Run there was a HUGE hack on a large platform.  Wonder why.  This is why.  When every body is hyping Bitcoin up, a LOT of money is on Exchanges.  The jackpot is much bigger therefore for filthy Scammers!

[yazher]

Just like in the old times, they are planning to steal the investors' funds with their new trick, that's why it's best not to talk with these kinds of people and consistently update ourselves with their new style on how to scam people because they are also updating it once they are not getting enough victims with their usual styles. You often know their sign once they offer you some high returns or ask for your keys which others had fallen into, Yes! some people actually fell into this kind of trap and all of that because they talk to those guys who were great in terms of pretending, those scammers are good actors, you need to take note of that.