[PSA]: Do not fall for this kind of trick

[Odohu]

This is a well organised scam that many people will not suspect to be scam as they perpetrators are using the latest development in the crypto space to push their scheme. But they actually left a clue that people can use to know that they are scammers which is asking people to transfer their asset to another wallet. Trustwallet on its own have been shown to be unreliable, so those who are aware that through being active on this forum will easy escape this scheme that involves downloading Trustwallet from.where one will import their seed phrase before sending their crypto to the scammers.

[Porfirii]

Scammers try to invoke 2 major emotions in their potential victims, greed or panic and sometimes both. This looks like an obvious scam to us and most others but in a state of panic there are a few that will not think the situation through and feel their first priority is to secure their funds that are at risk.

-snip-

Please note: you have one week from the date...

You are right but I think that we could add the feeling of urgency in the explosive mix of emotions they try to invoke from potential victims. Different from greed and linked to panic, but not just the same.

It often happens in scams, and it is an easily identifiable big red flag: you have limited time, it is a once-in-a-lifetime deal, or whatever, and they urge you not to miss the train.

[Coyster]

Trustwallet on its own have been shown to be unreliable, so those who are aware that through being active on this forum will easy escape this scheme that involves downloading Trustwallet from.where one will import their seed phrase before sending their crypto to the scammers.

You are correct, Trust Wallet is a closed source wallet, so it is not a good wallet to keep your coins, but even if the scammers had used Electrum or Sparrow wallet, i don't think anyone should still fall for this. What i am saying is that the wallet the scammers used for this should not be what gives them away, it should be everything, from the email itself, it is so obvious. If it is only the wallet that saved some of the recipients, then they will likely be scammed in the future.

[LogitechMouse]

I just want to share a post from reddit regarding this phishing attempt using the name of Gemini and trying to trap and victimized crypto users.

It will give you a supposedly seed phrase where you going to transfer your assets, but that is under the control of criminals.
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I just looked at the phrase "give you a supposedly seed phrase where you going to transfer your assets", and looked at the supposed email which is from Gemini, an exchange where I'm not using at all and I said to myself "These scammers need to do better if they want to scam me." because that trick will not get me. Seed phrase that I myself didn't even generated at first place? Try harder scammer.

On the flip side, there are some investors out there especially newbies that might fall to this way. I've been in crypto for quite some time and I already look at these scamming attempts as like I'm normalizing them already because it happens all the time. Like we are seeing scamming reports from different users on a daily basis. This is the reason why the number of money that these scammers are getting is increasing yearly. This is why as investors, we need to be updated and we must know how these scammers are scamming us so that we know how to prevent them.

These tricks that scammers are doing is what I consider as "cheap", but it works unfortunately.

[Alone055]

if a crypto user falls for this scam, then TBH, they really have no business using crypto, because they do not even understand the basics, hell their funds shouldn't even be stored in Gemini's platform in the first place.

You have no idea how naive some people can be. This is nothing, I was reading through the forum yesterday and I read a thread where a guy was attacked by a group of strangers in a parking lot because he went there to sell his USDT to a buyer he met online in Telegram which is the primary platform for scammers for privacy and security it provides.

Now, can you imagine how naive a person needs to be to trust someone they meet online and literally go to meet them in person to sell their cryptocurrencies?

The world is full of such people, sometimes you will find scams and scammers that are completely dumb and idiots, but guess what? They still find people they can scam because there is always someone more stupid than them. We live in a crazy world.

[tabas]

You have no idea how naive some people can be. This is nothing, I was reading through the forum yesterday and I read a thread where a guy was attacked by a group of strangers in a parking lot because he went there to sell his USDT to a buyer he met online in Telegram which is the primary platform for scammers for privacy and security it provides.

Now, can you imagine how naive a person needs to be to trust someone they meet online and literally go to meet them in person to sell their cryptocurrencies?

The world is full of such people, sometimes you will find scams and scammers that are completely dumb and idiots, but guess what? They still find people they can scam because there is always someone more stupid than them. We live in a crazy world.

That's the reality.
Some people will believe and fall for that trick even if we're so aware of how the scam goes. It's the sad truth that despite a lot of awareness and reminders given to many communities, there are people who will fall for it because they think that it's a real thing. They won't ask someone for it as if the money that they have in there will be taken from those concerned people that they'll ask for it. But the thing is, the scammer will have no other intention on them but to really take and suck everything from them. It's not surprising that there will be people that are going to fall for it.

[Agbamoni]

Still doesn't look new to me but the steps this scammer has taken is brilliant. Many would believe their fully well-constructed guides and docs and transfer their assets. On the brighter side, one should be smart enough to note that as long as you share your private key with someone it is all over. Any site that requests your private key apart from the main wallet app is a scam site. These are the first steps to secure an investment.

For those who are not familiar with the Gemini logo will be the first to fall for it and the domain still looks fishy as well.

[EL MOHA]

We experienced similar issue with Binance at the time the SEC in my country were implementing certain policies that wasn't favourable for most of the exchange. Prio to the delisting of Naira from the exchange, if I'm not wrong a circular was sent internally through the exchange that notified user of what's going on, it's left for the person to take necessary steps that's good enough for his case to help secure his funds. At least, if the update his coming from an internal source, through the exchange directly you're more confident it's not an attack. When you know that even the official email address of the exchange you're using could be compromised and used to carry out phishing attack or alternatively, they can create another email address that's almost like that of the exchange and use it for such kind of act, it becomes too deficult to believe whatever update message you're receiving through your mail most expecially as it relates to your crypto.

The message that Upgrade00 was actually passing is that the source of message been it from the official website, the official social media handles and also official email address doesn’t mean anything in relation to what was written in that message, the content stating that the funds be move to a different seed phrase not entirely known to you is already the giveaway spot that it is scam already. if an exchange is trying to  delist a pair like the naira which binance Delisted they simply assure you that nothing will happen to your funds and it won’t happen ( this is not an advice to use centralized exchange or store coins on them though) or even if they are leaving that region they simply tell you to move the funds to your other exchanges or wallets without stating where, an original source of the exchange can still be use to pass this kind of phishing information not it doesn’t change anything.

[Churchillvv]

Cheap scam trick, no platform would ever create a seed phrase for you, how can one even think of sending their money into a non-custodial wallet that was created by a third party.

Please don't call this trick Cheap someone out there who is a novice in crypto related stuff is somehow going through a lot in the hands of criminals like this through this simple looking trick. Although it's their fault that they don't make good enquiries before taking the actions but I don't blame people who fall for this trick because they aren't as knowledgeable as we that have being on cryptocurrency platforms for months and/or years, a good example of people who are easily trapped on this are those who are just being introduced to crypto through this new telegram mini app, tap to earn schemes that has been trending hence victims are just very new to this cryptocurrencies.