If there is money involved, it is a fraud! There are no exclusions for cryptocurrencies. A cyber-attack on the cryptocurrency exchange resulted in a loss of around $ 320 million. This is just the top of the iceberg. According to expert studies, investors were duped out of $1 billion between 2021 and 2022.
Cryptocurrency is digital money that is kept in a digital wallet. Connecting it to a bank will let you to convert it to fiat money. As a result, cryptos vary from digital currencies such as bitcoin. It is based on blockchain technology and does not need financial institutions, making recovery from theft almost difficult.
Here are some new and popular cryptocurrency scams to be aware of.
Scams with rug pulls
The fraud is carried out by “investment scammers,” who “inflate” the market price of a non-fungible token (NFT) or currency in order to get funds. Once the fraudsters get the money, they vanish. The crypto code allows you to buy the currency but not sell it. As a result, it is a worthless investment for an investor.
Do you remember the popular South Korean program Squid Game? Squid coin was the name of a recent cryptocurrency scam. People would purchase tokens for online games, earn more while playing, and then swap them for fiat cash. The Squid token began at one cent and rose to $90 by the end of the day.
Within 10 minutes, the trade ceased and the money vanished. The value of the token fell below zero. People attempted to sell their tokens but were unsuccessful. These investments enabled the crooks to earn almost $3 million.
Scams involving e-mail
Phishing assaults are a very old fraud that is still highly popular (I’m not sure why!). Scammers send you an email with a phony website link, and you log in believing it’s the real thing, and they steal your information. They now know the password to your cryptocurrency wallet.
Rug pull scams, bitcoin investment scams, phishing scams, romance scams, social media giveaways, man-in-the-middle assaults, false exchanges, fraudulent jobs, and Ponzi schemes are all examples of phishing scams.
The password idea has been improved in cryptocurrencies to a “unique private key” for digital wallets. Once the key has been taken, you must go through hell to replace it. Each key is unique. Every every wallet update comes with a new key.
To prevent such a phishing scam, never submit your information via an email link. Instead, get up and go to the official website to log in.
Attack with a man-in-the-middle
Have you ever accessed your bitcoin account using public Wi-Fi? If you answered yes, there’s a significant possibility a fraudster has your personal information, including bitcoin wallet keys, passwords, and account details.
You connect to a public Wi-Fi network, and a hacker may steal all of your data using the “man-in-the-middle” attack method. After approaching a trustworthy network, the hacker intercepts Wi-Fi signals.
By obstructing the middleman, you may prevent such assaults. Use a Virtual Private Network instead. VPN employs data encryption on all data sent and received. As a consequence, hackers will be unable to access your personal information or steal Bitcoin.
Scams using bitcoin giveaways on social media
Everyone wants to be on social media, which is known as FOMO. Unfortunately, you are not alone in your enthusiasm. Scammers and cryptocurrency scammers like it even more. “The giveaway scam,” in which hackers impersonate as influencers and celebrities offering gifts in order to lure consumers in.
How does it function? When you click on the link, you are sent to a bogus website that requests a “verification amount” or “personal data” in order to get cryptocurrency and verify your “legitimacy.”