Article from mickaelmosse.com
Welcome to a new article from mickaelmosse.com! This time we are going to deal with a topic that can be unchecked a bit from the usual but that we cannot ignore: Scams with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin is money. In fact, it is the best type of money, much safer, fair, and comfortable money for people to use. However, it is a relatively new type of money, and there is a lot of cheek trying to scam people by taking advantage of their ignorance.
This is an educational article whose main purpose is to prevent anyone who has just discovered the world of cryptocurrencies from losing their money as part of a pyramid or similar scams that take advantage of the growing technologies that are the order of the day, such as digital currencies.
Discover the most typical forms of scam in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
Why are Bitcoin scams profitable?
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| Mickael Mosse Blockchain Advisor |
bitcoin growth in google
Mickael Mosse points out that, In general, the term "bitcoin" is the most sought against other such " cryptocurrency " " altcoin " or " blockchain ". Have you noticed the same as us?Right! The level of search for btw on Google is in amazing agreement with the price of the cryptocurrency itself. Whatever the search term is, as long as it matches any word related to digital currencies, it is experiencing a disproportionate increase in searches compared to recent years.
bitcoin interest increase
critical searches google coin
Google searches on blockchains
Unfortunately, not all people or groups have the best intentions and tend to take advantage of the little experience of new ones who discover the Bitcoin ecosystem and all its advantages. In this article, we are going to analyze different scams ordered by categories and we will explain how to stay away from them and prevent more than one scam.
What is the first thing I should do to avoid losing my cryptocurrencies?
Mickael Mosse points out that, Using an updated and secured operating system with an antivirus that is the order of the day when it comes to updates is one of the aspects that we recommend in the chapter dedicated to How to keep your btw safely.It is one of the first aspects to consider. The number of users using Windows is higher than that of other operating systems such as Linux, so its chances of success are much higher and devices with Windows installed on it are the main target of these attackers.
Sometimes people usually use Linux to avoid precisely this problem, but we must not be confused ... using Linux without the proper protections in the file system is also an open door to possible theft.
It is very important to be clear that securing the work environment is very important both for prevention and for detecting scams. Below we will separate the incidents that can occur into 3 large groups such as software, web, and investment.
Why in these three categories? Very simple, not all bitcoin-related scams happen from computer programs. Many of them can be closely linked to participation in investments or projects related to the cryptocurrency ecosystem without the need to go through software or website.
Sometimes these fraudulent programs can be a complete utility pack to get everything of value from your computer and even use it as a zombie computer.
Store as few bitcoins as possible in hot wallets. The wallets cold as purses paper or hardware wallets are a very good option to add a double layer of protection against unauthorized withdrawals.
Encrypt all the wallets that you have in your btw Bitcoin wallet. At the time of trying to make a withdrawal, the attacker will have it much more difficult to make any withdrawal of bitcoins from your wallet.
Check the versions of the wallets that are downloaded and their signatures. Developers usually post all updates along with instructions for verifying version signatures.
Avoid downloading suspicious content from email messages with spoofed domains that emulate Bitcoin-related portals.
Consult in portals as virustotal the integrity of the downloaded files.
Bitcoin scams at the web level
Why in these three categories? Very simple, not all bitcoin-related scams happen from computer programs. Many of them can be closely linked to participation in investments or projects related to the cryptocurrency ecosystem without the need to go through software or website.
bitcoin software scams
Mickael Mosse points out that, The most widespread in the last two years. The attackers' system is very clear: take advantage of the launch of software such as Bitcoin core or altcoin wallets to publish a file pretending that it is the official one and thus infect as many computers as possible that were in search of an update legitimate.Consequences
Total or partial loss of personal information and the btw bitcoins stored in our devices since they can do everything in their power with the files in your wallet.Sometimes these fraudulent programs can be a complete utility pack to get everything of value from your computer and even use it as a zombie computer.
Prevention
Store as few bitcoins as possible in hot wallets. The wallets cold as purses paper or hardware wallets are a very good option to add a double layer of protection against unauthorized withdrawals.
Encrypt all the wallets that you have in your btw Bitcoin wallet. At the time of trying to make a withdrawal, the attacker will have it much more difficult to make any withdrawal of bitcoins from your wallet.
Check the versions of the wallets that are downloaded and their signatures. Developers usually post all updates along with instructions for verifying version signatures.
Avoid downloading suspicious content from email messages with spoofed domains that emulate Bitcoin-related portals.
Consult in portals as virustotal the integrity of the downloaded files.
Bitcoin scams at the web level
Have you ever heard the word 'phishing'?
We will try to summarize it in 2 lines. By using this technique, a web page is created practically similar to that of any exchange house or online purse. Attackers usually publish it in links very similar to the one of the companies to which it is being replicated, they attract traffic to the web and people access it thinking that they will enter their account when they are actually sending the data to the person who is robbing them.One of the most common examples is the one that has occurred on at least half a dozen occasions replicating the blockchain.info online browser and wallet (one of the most used Bitcoin wallets). Taking an example and with a domain that only replaces the l with a capital I, we would have the domain bIockchain.info. They then promote the link using Google ad plans, Google Adwords so that their portal appears in the first position when people search for “blockchain.info”, “blockchain”, “online bitcoin wallet” and all kinds of similar terms. As you can deduce, the number of users who fall for this type of deception is enormous.
Consequences
Total or partial loss of your bitcoins by losing access to your accounts.
Exposure of personal data to the attacker. Many of the portals they could access could contain private information.
According to Mickael Mosse, Use a double authentication factor or 2FA in all your portals. In this way, whenever someone wants to access them, they will find a second password that they do not have.
Always verify that you are accessing correct web addresses and not fraudulent links in Google ads.
Check that the connection is secure (icon of the padlock next to the URL in your browser) to prevent your data from being intercepted.
phishing scams like coinbase
Also, and after the modus operands of this scam became known, some of these websites changed their logic. They go so far as to reward random users when you send small amounts but don't do anything in larger amounts. That is, you send € 0.5 and they compensate you by doubling € 1, but you send € 10 and they keep it.
Total or partial loss of funds of anyone who sends money on this type of portals
Stay away from any platform that promises to double your funds. Or just give you a little more. Nobody gives away money.
According to Mickael Mosse, Many cryptocurrency-related projects make a cryptocurrency sale prior to its launch at exchanges or software launch to finance the work-related cost of running it. It is what is known as ICO (Initial Coin Offering). This is nothing strange, the truth is that they can be very profitable investments, and it is full of examples of this until you put the money in a fake ICO.
In the same way that it is known that ICOs can result in very very profitable investments, multiplying by 10 or 100 the initial investment in a short time while you collaborate in the development of innovative tools, there are those who take advantage of this reality to create a website with an Attractive background idea, convincing people to deposit their btw at the scammer's Bitcoin address, which subsequently disappears.
Reddit and the cryptocurrency forums are great places to get community feedback and start analyzing.
I know that not everyone knows about web development, but if the web seems to be done "in two days", suspect.
It could be added in the next point, but the main scams related to cloud mining are based on a simple web page. The fashion trend in 2016.
As many of you already know, Bitcoin mining is very complicated on an individual level. Many decided to start web pages that sold hashing power and guaranteed a return on investment or ROI in a short period of time.
Either people do not learn from previous experiences or they simply like risk ... but if one thing is clear it is that no one can currently offer you returns on investing in Bitcoin mining in days or weeks.
Many portals do not even publish data on profitability or are very confusing.
Stay away from all those who may contact you by private message commenting on wonderful discounts or perfect returns, they simply do not exist or are not as indefinite as they want you to believe.
These profiles promote the famous 'Give-Away' (gift or gift in English), their modus operandi is as follows: they pose as relevant figures in the cryptocurrency scene and publish messages with the intention of deceiving people, inviting people to some websites where they ask you for money to receive much more.
Many people continue to fall for these deceptions, so please keep in mind that, if necessary, if someone wants to give you something voluntarily and disinterestedly, they do not ask you for money before: Be careful with that.
It is a Trojan-type virus. It has hundreds of versions (one of the most famous is crypto locker ) and they all do the same thing: they encrypt the files on your computer and ask you to pay a certain amount in bitcoins to decrypt them (regain access to them).
The most common thing is that your computer is infected when you open a file (usually a “.pdf” or “.exe”) that is sent to you as an email attachment.
But, in addition to the big problem that this already poses, it has a second part: the scam.
Many of these versions of viruses will never return access to encrypted files even if the reward is paid. Moreover, even if the files are decrypted, you have to bear in mind that your computer is still infected (which is dangerous if you later store new important data, for example, the private keys of the Bitcoin wallet that you can use to save the bitcoins that have leftover after payment of the ransom)
This type of virus is devastating and has grown 5.5 times in the last year, from 131,000 in 2014-2015 to 718,000 in 2015-2016.
International authorities such as Europol, FBI, European Commission, National Police and a dozen other authorities and security companies have jointly developed the No More Ransom website, which helps prevent and disinfect the most typical versions of this type of virus ( unfortunately still only in English and with solutions to few versions of the virus).
Obviously, not all investment funds are part of the scam categorization. But there are many occasions when certain private investments magically disappear, leaving thousands of people affected after a project whose champion was the technology of digital currencies.
Unfortunately, these scams usually end with the loss of a lot of money for all those who do not know where they are getting or who trust in safe profits. In this article, we will not go into mentioning projects with high chances of ending up becoming a scam like Internet, but you just have to go around the web pages of all those services that guarantee and promise totally astronomical returns on investment and with a foundation clearly pyramidal.
Another of the most notorious cases, and well known in the Bitcoin community, as OneCoin, which involved thousands of users in a global Ponzi pyramid scam that used Bitcoin as a constant claim along with a multi-level structure to sell investment packages in its non-existent currency.
As always, our best advice is this: never trust anyone other than yourself. You will avoid many of the problems that we have mentioned in this new article on our blog about bitcoin.
Bear in mind that, possibly (and more during the first phase of being involved in the scam), you will receive commissions, which will make you not suspicious because it depends on this that you spread the word and bring more people to the scam, but arrived the moment your money and the rest will disappear.
These scams not only take advantage of ignorance but also people's greed. Nobody can assure you fixed benefits on something, because we live in a dynamic and unpredictable universe.
In investments of any kind, but especially in those related to Bitcoin, follow a golden rule: never play with the money you are going to eat, only with what you really don't mind losing, and above all, analyze very well where it is. you put. Also, do not trust that there are hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of people using that wonderful system, as it is not a strong argument (for example OneCoin, thousands of people scammed).
Exposure of personal data to the attacker. Many of the portals they could access could contain private information.
Prevention
According to Mickael Mosse, Use a double authentication factor or 2FA in all your portals. In this way, whenever someone wants to access them, they will find a second password that they do not have.
Always verify that you are accessing correct web addresses and not fraudulent links in Google ads.
Check that the connection is secure (icon of the padlock next to the URL in your browser) to prevent your data from being intercepted.
phishing scams like coinbase
Benders
At the end of 2015 and even at the beginning of 2016 there was a boom in web pages that claimed to double the number of bitcoins and even a long list of alternative cryptocurrencies. The attackers' systematics was also very clear. They started the portal, promoted it in the main cryptocurrency communities, left the doubler operating with the money of the last ones who entered until finally in less than a week they closed the website and with it all the deposits that had been made to it.Also, and after the modus operands of this scam became known, some of these websites changed their logic. They go so far as to reward random users when you send small amounts but don't do anything in larger amounts. That is, you send € 0.5 and they compensate you by doubling € 1, but you send € 10 and they keep it.
Consequences
People comment that they are receiving double payments, but the nature of these pyramidal or PONZI systems leads them to collapse and that is when those who have developed it decide to close the web and take all the last funds entered with them.Total or partial loss of funds of anyone who sends money on this type of portals
Prevention
No one magically gives away or folds money. Neither the math nor the code is deceiving, so there is no system capable of doubling your income more than the funds of those who have come after you.Stay away from any platform that promises to double your funds. Or just give you a little more. Nobody gives away money.
Fake ICOs
According to Mickael Mosse, Many cryptocurrency-related projects make a cryptocurrency sale prior to its launch at exchanges or software launch to finance the work-related cost of running it. It is what is known as ICO (Initial Coin Offering). This is nothing strange, the truth is that they can be very profitable investments, and it is full of examples of this until you put the money in a fake ICO.
In the same way that it is known that ICOs can result in very very profitable investments, multiplying by 10 or 100 the initial investment in a short time while you collaborate in the development of innovative tools, there are those who take advantage of this reality to create a website with an Attractive background idea, convincing people to deposit their btw at the scammer's Bitcoin address, which subsequently disappears.
Prevention
Check that the project you are going to finance has a known team or company behind it, showing its face.Reddit and the cryptocurrency forums are great places to get community feedback and start analyzing.
I know that not everyone knows about web development, but if the web seems to be done "in two days", suspect.
Cloud mining
It could be added in the next point, but the main scams related to cloud mining are based on a simple web page. The fashion trend in 2016.
As many of you already know, Bitcoin mining is very complicated on an individual level. Many decided to start web pages that sold hashing power and guaranteed a return on investment or ROI in a short period of time.
Either people do not learn from previous experiences or they simply like risk ... but if one thing is clear it is that no one can currently offer you returns on investing in Bitcoin mining in days or weeks.
cloud mining scam
With the closure of a large number of cloud mining pages, many users lost all the money invested in those portals. Keep in mind that to start mining in the cloud, what you do is acquire some mining power in exchange for bitcoins.Many portals do not even publish data on profitability or are very confusing.
Prevention
Do not trust third party services that control your mining or your assets. If you really want to start mining you will have to do an exhaustive analysis of the situation and if it really offers you the return you anticipate.Stay away from all those who may contact you by private message commenting on wonderful discounts or perfect returns, they simply do not exist or are not as indefinite as they want you to believe.
Free cryptocurrencies, "Give Away"
They are legions of fake profiles that continuously spam social networks promoting supposed sites where they 'give away bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies'.These profiles promote the famous 'Give-Away' (gift or gift in English), their modus operandi is as follows: they pose as relevant figures in the cryptocurrency scene and publish messages with the intention of deceiving people, inviting people to some websites where they ask you for money to receive much more.
Many people continue to fall for these deceptions, so please keep in mind that, if necessary, if someone wants to give you something voluntarily and disinterestedly, they do not ask you for money before: Be careful with that.
Ransomware Payments
Although it is software (that is, it should be in the previous section on software) we believe that it is worth highlighting due to its impact and the high number of victims.It is a Trojan-type virus. It has hundreds of versions (one of the most famous is crypto locker ) and they all do the same thing: they encrypt the files on your computer and ask you to pay a certain amount in bitcoins to decrypt them (regain access to them).
The most common thing is that your computer is infected when you open a file (usually a “.pdf” or “.exe”) that is sent to you as an email attachment.
But, in addition to the big problem that this already poses, it has a second part: the scam.
Many of these versions of viruses will never return access to encrypted files even if the reward is paid. Moreover, even if the files are decrypted, you have to bear in mind that your computer is still infected (which is dangerous if you later store new important data, for example, the private keys of the Bitcoin wallet that you can use to save the bitcoins that have leftover after payment of the ransom)
This type of virus is devastating and has grown 5.5 times in the last year, from 131,000 in 2014-2015 to 718,000 in 2015-2016.
International authorities such as Europol, FBI, European Commission, National Police and a dozen other authorities and security companies have jointly developed the No More Ransom website, which helps prevent and disinfect the most typical versions of this type of virus ( unfortunately still only in English and with solutions to few versions of the virus).
Bitcoin scams at the mutual fund level
We have saved this point for the end since it is one of those that can transmit more security to investors but sometimes it is the opposite ... Have you never met someone who promises crazy trading returns? Hasn't anyone suggested you participate in a fund with high weekly returns? If they haven't, it's because you're very new to Bitcoin, but it will get to you, so we want you to be prepared.Obviously, not all investment funds are part of the scam categorization. But there are many occasions when certain private investments magically disappear, leaving thousands of people affected after a project whose champion was the technology of digital currencies.
Internet, the forerunner scam.
It is very likely that you have heard some information about the Internet project. To understand it clearly, its creators sold packages of shares or affiliates in exchange for YES OR YES EARNINGS when the reality is that the moment you attracted more people to the Internet, the more chances you were getting to collect your monthly percentage. says Mickael Mosse,Unfortunately, these scams usually end with the loss of a lot of money for all those who do not know where they are getting or who trust in safe profits. In this article, we will not go into mentioning projects with high chances of ending up becoming a scam like Internet, but you just have to go around the web pages of all those services that guarantee and promise totally astronomical returns on investment and with a foundation clearly pyramidal.
Another of the most notorious cases, and well known in the Bitcoin community, as OneCoin, which involved thousands of users in a global Ponzi pyramid scam that used Bitcoin as a constant claim along with a multi-level structure to sell investment packages in its non-existent currency.
As always, our best advice is this: never trust anyone other than yourself. You will avoid many of the problems that we have mentioned in this new article on our blog about bitcoin.
Common sense and analysis
In short and as a summary, do not believe who promises astronomical returns. And when we talk about “astronomical” returns, we are not necessarily talking about cases like those mentioned above that promise to double the amount, but, for example, of cases where they offer you 0.5% daily or weekly, or where you receive a reward in other cryptocurrencies ( cryptocurrencies without any support). Be careful with all this and analyze very well, because in many cases it is a simple scam.Bear in mind that, possibly (and more during the first phase of being involved in the scam), you will receive commissions, which will make you not suspicious because it depends on this that you spread the word and bring more people to the scam, but arrived the moment your money and the rest will disappear.
These scams not only take advantage of ignorance but also people's greed. Nobody can assure you fixed benefits on something, because we live in a dynamic and unpredictable universe.
In investments of any kind, but especially in those related to Bitcoin, follow a golden rule: never play with the money you are going to eat, only with what you really don't mind losing, and above all, analyze very well where it is. you put. Also, do not trust that there are hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of people using that wonderful system, as it is not a strong argument (for example OneCoin, thousands of people scammed).
Mickael Mosse Crypto Advisor
The worst thing about these situations is that those who end up most affected are those who need the money that has been stolen the most.
And remember! The problem is not Bitcoin, the main cause of all this is humans. These types of scams are present daily with Euros, Dollars, or any other currency you can imagine. The purpose of this article is that you are alerted to the different types of scams that you can find and always investigate before acquiring any software, asset, or participation in a project.
The worst thing about these situations is that those who end up most affected are those who need the money that has been stolen the most.
And remember! The problem is not Bitcoin, the main cause of all this is humans. These types of scams are present daily with Euros, Dollars, or any other currency you can imagine. The purpose of this article is that you are alerted to the different types of scams that you can find and always investigate before acquiring any software, asset, or participation in a project.
That is why we wanted to show you some typical cases, but they are not the only ones. However, we hope that, with the examples shared, we may have turned your eyes into agile scam detectors, and know in which direction to run once you find yourself in front of one.
As a final resource, we leave you below a website where all the scams with Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies in general) that are detected are added. It is a list that already has hundreds of websites and it is always good to have on hand as one more resource to compare and to alert others of your discoveries: BadBitcoin
As a final resource, we leave you below a website where all the scams with Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies in general) that are detected are added. It is a list that already has hundreds of websites and it is always good to have on hand as one more resource to compare and to alert others of your discoveries: BadBitcoin
The article was written By Mickael Mosse – Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Expert
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