What is the most common cryptocurrency scam and how to avoid it

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum have gained a lot of attention these days. As the time goes by, the world of cryptocurrencies is rapidly growing and today we have thousands of crypto coins worldwide.

People spend a lot of money for buying cryptocurrencies because there is a lot of potential for some cryptocurrency to grow and to reward its participants. Sadly, because of the large amount of money present in the cryptocurrency world, many scammers have entered that world in order to steal money and information from people.

Cryptocurrencies have revolutionized the world we live in — but they have also attracted a lot of scammers in that world. That’s why it is important for us to know what is the most cryptocurrency scam and how to avoid it.

If you want to avoid being played by scammers, read this article and learn something more about this problem.

The most common cryptocurrency scam is:

Phishing

Phishing is one of the biggest and most common cryptocurrency scams worldwide. It is an attempt to obtain sensitive information from a user such as usernames, passwords, card details, etc. In the cryptocurrency world, phishing scams attack cryptocurrency exchange passwords, digital wallets, private keys, etc.

This process is usually done through a fake website which looks like an authorized one. Many people join these websites, enter their information and the owners of that website can easily steal that information and use for their personal needs. Phishing is so popular scam because it is easy to operate, requires minimal technical knowledge, and doesn’t need a lot of investment.

Phishing scams are usually done through emails.

Have you received those emails which inform you that unusual activity is happening on your account? It is usually a phishing scam.

This happens in the cryptocurrency world as well. You receive an email which looks as some Cryptocurrency support, and you click it. It says that something is happening on your account or wallet. To verify that it is you, the email guides you to follow the link and to enter your personal information.

Many people want to secure their personal data and they click this link. The website thanks you for verifying and the process ends. But, if you check your cryptocurrency wallet later, you will see that your funds have disappeared.

This is done by the scammers through phishing. Similar as the advertisements, the scammers set fake emails through which they steal your data and your funds. The website is also a scam that appears to be a proper and legitimate site because it is similar as the original one.

How to avoid this?

First of all, you have to look at the email and the email address precisely. The scammers will usually use similar addresses like the originals. For example, if you have account on the Cryptopia website, a scammer will send email from the address like customer_support_cryptopia@gmail.com. But, the authorized emails from the cryptocurrency websites are sent from the domain name of the website, not a g-mail account. For example: support@cryptopia.com.

You can also check your emails and see if there’s some grammar or vocabulary mistake, as well as to check their social media channels to see which email is legitimate.

Another popular phishing scam is done by online advertisements through Google ads. That’s one of the reasons why Google will ban all cryptocurrency ads from June.

When people search about some cryptocurrency in Google, they see advertisements on the top of the Google search results, and they immediately click there. That advertisements look like a fake websites which are similar to the original ones for some cryptocurrency. The scammer can easily use the information stored on the fake website.

How to avoid this?

Avoiding this is very simple — just don’t click on the Google advertisements that appear on the top of the search engine.

If you click on the advertisements anyway, check the URL of the website to see if there is anything strange with that URL. Scammers add words or a few letters at the end of the URL which is not normal for the proper website.

In conclusion

Phishing is very popular scam there days due to its easiness and simplicity. That’s why you have to make sure that you enter the real websites, proper links, because your personal information is very valuable.

Make sure to do online research before you register on some website, in order to avoid such scams and problems.

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Thank you for reading.

What is the most common cryptocurrency scam and how to avoid it was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.