List of Cryptocurrency Scams [You Have to Stay Away]
Cryptocurrency market capitalization is cross $250 billion marks. A lot of money is flowing in the crypto market daily.
Still, the crypto market is just a decade old and, it was started back in 2008 when Bitcoin became the first cryptocurrency, from that point, now new cryptos and tokens are created, new exchanges started operating on daily basis.
As the crypto market grows more eyeballs get attracted to the market from a money-making point of view rather than Intrest or Adopting technology.
If you’re one who is here to make money by investing in crypto then you have to learn about how crypto works and basic market knowledge, if you invest your hard earnings in crypto by seeing others who make lots of money in crypto or someone suggest you it is easy to get rich quick in crypto then there is a higher chance that you may lose your all earnings soon.
That is why in this post I listed some Crypto Scams, to stay away with, this list will help you to understand types of scams which lead you to lose your hard earnings.
Fake Balance Scams.
This scam mainly targeting Facebook groups and Reddit communities to trick newbie crypto investors.
Here scammer shows screenshot of huge transactions details of his wallet and makes an offer to group members that he is going to sell his wallet in exchange of a small fee.
If you believe blindly to his wallet numbers then, you’re about to lose a lot of money because that number may be fake numbers.
Scammer import wallet address that have a huge number of crypto balance and transactions from a site like blockchian.info if you purchase that wallet you cannot able to send or withdraw any crypto from that wallet because it is just a number imported from another wallet, not a real crypto balance it showing.
However, if you want to buy wallet then, you should demand a private key from the wallet holder, but now scammers are selling wallets with a private key difference is that is a token private key not from parent crypto.
The best way of staying out from this scam is never to buy any wallet from anyone.
Pump and Dump Schemes.
Most of Pump and Dumps runs through Telegram channels, these channels manly target tokens, particularly those tokens with low price and market value.
The scheme starts when channel admin signal to members for placing a buying or selling order of a token in a particular time to raise or falling the price of a token.
These type of channels have multiple layers like paid channels and free channels, their first preference is a paid channel.
For example, if paid group decide to buy an X token at today 6:59 PM, admin signals to free group that X token price is going up by 7:00 PM place buying order at 7 PM, when they buy X token in 7 PM, already paid group holding to sell those token when buying panic starts, then after a month or two paid group show free group that the profit they made when they manipulated X token price to inspire members to make another Pump or Dump.
But pumping and dumping are not that easy in Bitcoin or any other top crypto, in top cryptocurrencies wales trying to manipulate the price but they don’t make a huge impact on price.
Fake Giveaways.
Fake giveaways always create a headache for most crypto celebrities like Vitalik Buterin, Changpeng Zhao (CEO of Binance).
Here scammers create a fake account of any known celebrity in crypto space to conduct giveaways in a small amount.
For example, scammer create an account in Twitter and earn enough of followers to get verified on Twitter, after getting verification they change their name similar to Vitalik Buterin after that they go to original Vitalik Buterin page and add further tweet on recent post about giveaway, obviously every Vitalik Buterin followers think that he is going to conduct a giveaway and decide to participate in it.
These activities directly make a bad impact on the original influencer image.
If you want to participate in any giveaways on influencer recommendation, then make sure he/she is using the correct username.
Fun fact is, after seeing these type of scamming activities, many official influencers changed their Twitter name to Non-Giver of Coin.
Ponzi Schemes.
This scam is the most popular in crypto space.
Here scammers launch a fake crypto coin to collect money from people, the scammer offers a high return in short period time to attract people for that they pitch their idea is legit and give returns quickly.
A real example for crypto Ponzi scheme is. In 2017, a Mumbai-based company called OneCoin was delivering a sales pitch to a room of investors. Indian financial enforcement officers raided the meeting, ultimately jailing 18 OneCoin representatives for operating a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. At the time of their arrest, OneCoin had already moved over $350 million through a payment processor.
This is an only one example for Ponzi schemes if you research you’ll find more news about these type of scams, that is why do not trust those schemes that promise your money is going to double in a month or week.
Fake ICO.
When crypto is booming many people lost their money in fake ICO’s.
In the crypto world, ICO means Initial Coin Offering just like in Stock Market it is called an Initial Public Offering. Creators of a particular crypto coin or token first offer their coin/token to the public, their main intention is to collect money for their as precious crypto project this process called as ICO.
Now, making a crypto coin or token is not a big deal, anyone having basic coding experience can create crypto coins, and standards like erc20 make even easier to create a crypto token without having any coding experience.
Fake crypto projects offer their ICO when crypto is booming because they can attract more eyeballs when booming periods.
They advertise their ICO on different social platforms. Also, they contact influencers to promote their ICO by giving high referrals, best real-world example for fake ICO is Bitconnect.
That is why, it is hard to find out which is real and fake ICO when every one promoting it, but if you believe in the team who is offering ICO and their project also influencers promoting it then you can think of throwing money in ICO.
After 2018 ICO word is fading and new word IEO is emerging in crypto space. An IEO means Initial Exchange Offring, IEO is same as ICO, but here creators offer crypto assets on the particular crypto exchange.
Coin Doesn’t Exist.
Scammers can cold-call or contact you on social media, naming crypto business or any coin, they just created, they promise a high return on what you invest.
A real-world example is, In August 2017, the City of London Police shut down a “cryptocurrency business” that was cold-calling people to sell fake digital currency. Victims were cold-called and persuaded to purchase non-existent cryptocurrencies. Nine victims came forward to the U.K. firm, Action Fraud, with combined losses exceeding £150,000.
The man who allegedly set up the scam used a central London address, in the financial center, to lend the scam authenticity.
When someone contacts you asking invest in their project, never fall for them without proper due-diligence.
Fake Wallet.
In the growing crypto market, many wallet providers are there with different promises to store your crypto asset on their wallet.
That is why chose wallet providers wisely, never chose any random wallets that you can get from android play store or on the web, that is why do proper research before selecting any wallet.
Fake wallet scaming activities are high during any reputed coin fork, these wallets promise you the seed and control of your funds, then they rip you off your all crypto holdings.
Shady Exchanges.
Nothing is secure in an online world, even, reputed crypto exchanges vulnerable for many hacking attacks, but some exchanges born to rip off.
Also, some exchanges born well and gain the trust of holders for sometimes then they run away with all the holdings any time because they fail to scale and innovate to stay relevant in the market.
Conclusion.
These are some dangerous crypto scams you have to stay away.
Also, many ways are emerging every day to scam innocent crypto holders like Pyramid schemes etc. But when you do proper research before investing in any crypto, you can stay away from these scammers easily.
If you like this post, do share with family and friends.