Crypto Fraud: How To Protect Yourself From Crypto Scams

Cryptocurrency is gaining popularity, and the number of ways people are using cryptocurrencies has grown over the years. Even the players in many virtual casinos like Casino Bizzo can use crypto wallets instead of common money. And crypto scams is also becoming more common. It is similar to other types of financial fraud: bad actors use different criminal schemes to get access to your money. Unfortunately, crypto wallets are even more prone to fraud and connected to certain risks because cryptocurrency is decentralized, anonymous, and not being regulated by central financial authorities. These features of cryptocurrencies make them extremely attractive to investors but also attract scammers. Millions of people fell victim to fraud, and crypto frauds run far and wide. If you are interested in investing money in cryptocurrencies, get informed about the most common types of crypto scams and learn how to avoid them.

How to avoid crypto scams

Cryptocurrency scams take many different forms, however, in most cases, these are manipulation or access scams. Scammers who use manipulation scams ask users to transfer cryptocurrency to the fraudulent site or the fraudulent account, in case they use access scams they try to gain access to the crypto wallet themselves. One of the common types of access crypto scams is phishing scams. The authors of the sites offer to make money on investments in cryptocurrency. 

According to victims, often such fraudulent sites even create the illusion that your investment brings income, but the moment you try to take your profit, you are asked, for example, to transfer more tokens to your account. This type of scam includes fraudulent emails, phishing sites, and fake mobile apps. With these fraudulent schemes, criminals pretend to be someone else (e.g., a crypto exchange), gain access to customer information, or force them to transfer money to their accounts.

Another way to swindle your coins is called romance fraud. Fraudsters use them to get acquainted with a user and then advertise a “promising” cryptocurrency to him. The fake significant other asks to transfer him/her a certain amount of money (usually in digital assets), which he/she promises to invest in a promising project. Naturally, these funds do not go for any investments.

Cybercriminals who work with giveaway crypto scams send users messages promising to multiply a certain amount of cryptocurrency transferred to them. Employment cryptocurrency scams, as the name shows, have to do with job offers. Frauds have sent victiessages with job offers that lure them to fraudulent websites. Blackmail scams are messages, in which scammers try blackmailing users with their sensitive personal information and photos and force users to pay for this information with cryptocurrency. Cloud mining scams belong to manipulation or investment scams, and so-called rug pull scams are made to convince users to place stock into a project fund. A form of rug pull scam was the so-called Squid coin scam.

To avoid crypto scams it is important to follow some essential rules. Possibly the most basic of them is not to rely on emotions when investing: don’t be lured by the “urgency” cybercriminals appeal to. Never provide private information about your digital wallet to anyone, and, of course, check all the dealers and investors before investing.