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Hi steemians,
Welcome to my blog once again. We are in week 5 of the steemit engagement challenge for season 6 and today I present my entry number 4 in this week's engagement challenge I do hope you will enjoy reading through my blog as I participate in a very important topic titled "Common Crypto Scams And How To Avoid Them".
Welcome to my blog once again. We are in week 5 of the steemit engagement challenge for season 6 and today I present my entry number 4 in this week's engagement challenge I do hope you will enjoy reading through my blog as I participate in a very important topic titled "Common Crypto Scams And How To Avoid Them".
Without further ado, let's move straight into the business of the day as I try to answer a few questions related to the topic under consideration.
Explain Your Understanding Of Crypto Scam
The word scam simply means a malicious way to defraud people of their possession. In the world, we live in today, there are lots of people ready to snatch things from our hands using a malicious way and these people are called scammers.
Relating these to the crypto world, crypto scams can be seen as a malicious way in which scammers defraud us of our crypto assets. This means that the said people get assess to our wallets and then remove all the funds in them without our knowledge.
Both greed and ignorance are two key factors that cause one to fall prey to the crypto scam. As we all know, in cryptocurrency, one of the major aspects the blockchain technology focuses on is the security of the asset of the user but since it is a decentralized system, we all have control over our asset to a certain level and that is why we create a password or use another form of verification to ensure that our asset is protected.
Greed and ignorance have made many people lose their assets in the crypto world and one of the common ways this is achieved is when a link is shared with users most especially on the steemit platform for example and the sender says to click on it to earn a certain amount of coins.
An example is seen in the screenshot above. Now, these people create an account on the steemit platform and then share some malicious links in the comment section of some valuable posts were users often visit and ask them to click the link and earn a certain amount of an asset.
Those who are ignorant or greedy go ahead to click the link and immediately that is done, they get access to your wallet and then try to steal all the funds in it. If actions are not taken immediately, they will even log you out from your account and they will change the keys and have complete control over your asset.
Explain The various Types of crypto Scam
There are many crypto scams today and some of which I may not even be aware of but I will want to share them with us in detail once I'm familiar with them.
- Ponzi Scam
- Phishing links scam
- ICO scam
- Fake wallets and Exchange scam
Ponzi Scam: One of the major types of scams we see today is the Ponzi scam. In this type of scam, the victims are promised high returns on their investments. Here, in the beginning, the entire thing works perfectly because they try to win over the trust of the customers by giving out what they have promised.
When those concerned see how beautiful their entire returns look, they will go ahead to put in more money to earn more returns and immediately they can get more users investing much, they will disappear with the funds into a thin air. An example is the CALA project which talks about AI robot trading.
Phishing links scam: This type of scam is largely associated with steemit users as I have explained above. This is a type of scam in which a link will be shared in a comment section of a post and you will be asked to click and claim a certain amount of crypto asset.
Most times, victims of these types of scams are greedy or ignorant people. We have seen always people dropping links as such but those who do not know or those who want to become rich without stress, will go ahead to click on it and when that is done, scammers get access to your wallet and try to steal your funds.
ICO scam: ICO means initial coin offering. Before a coin will be listed on an exchange, most times they pass through the process of ICO where there will be fundraising to help sponsor the project. During this period, the assets are sold at a very affordable rate to those interested so that when the asset eventually gets to the market they can sell at a higher price and make some profits.
In most cases, the asset is fake assets and those concerned only do that to get money from the investors who have not made proper research about the road map of the entire project after buying the project closes leaving those concerned with nothing at all because they can not even sell the coin to get back their money.
Fake wallets and Exchange scam: Another major type of scan we see in the crypto space today is the scam of fake wallets and exchange platforms. Here, a body will come up with claims that they will serve you diligently and then convince you to open an account with them and once you do that and find the account, they will take over it completely and you may never have access to your assets again.
These are largely associated with centralized wallets or exchanges where you don't have complete control over your assets. Those concerned will just disable the server and then tell you that the technical unit is working on it and it wi be restored shortly before you know it they will go blank completely. As an example, we look at the CALA platform.
How Can We Do In Other To Spot This Types Of Crypto Scams?
There are various means by which we can use to spot this type of crypto scam and I will be listing a few of these ways below. Let's look carefully at them.
Any crypto investment, that tells you about compound interesting I.e investing and reinvesting to earn a larger amount of returns is a scam.
Any crypto investment that puts much pressure on you to invest promising you that the asset will rise from maybe $0.01 to about $10 within 2 months is a scam
When the project management promises you that the asset will continue to rise as far as the project is in existence, that is a scam because no asset will continuously move in an upward direction. Crypto assets are designed to have bullish and bearish seasons.
Any link that talks about clicking and claiming crypto assets should completely be ignored because there are no free crypto assets anywhere.
Text messages or emails asking for some personal details about your crypto account should be ignored, if you have any issues, deal directly with customer service on the platform it is safer.
Have You Ever Be Scammed Before? Or Have A Person That You Know Ever Be Scammed? Explain To Us The Incident.
Yes, I have been scammed. Recently, about 4 months ago, I was introduced to a platform called CALA, it is an AI trading platform where you purchase a robot and then fund them for them to work for you.
At the time I was introduced to it, I did a little research and I heard numerous things about the platform. I went ahead to study how the entire platform works and I found out that the robots are designed to go through various exchanges and buy low and sell high in others and then the profit made is given to the user.
At some point, I became convinced since you have to buy a robot and then fund the robot to perform the activities for you and the returns depend greatly on the amount of investment. So I decided to give it a trial.
I joined the Cala platform and I was able to purchase and fund robot 2 which cost me about 105 USDT. At this rate, I make a total of 8 USDT as profit every 3 days. The business was moving well but the admins in the group I joined kept saying people can make more money by compounding their interest and reinvesting.
I decided to allow my gain on the platform waiting for it to increase so I can reinvest. Only for the platform to shut us out one day and nobody was able to withdraw his or her asset again. First, they told us it was a technical issue and after about three days, they told us that the government didn't allow them to operate again.
Next, they told us that they can't return our money via USDT again they are going to compensate us via another token and that we should send our BNB trust wallet address they sent a token called YZZ which is lower than $0.001 and asked us to wait and see how the token wi raise in two weeks.
The truth is that they used our USDT to fund their YZZ token and since the token didn't pass through the normal procedure, it refuses to raise because a lot of people have insulted and caused the team for running away with our money. Most people invested their school fees and other church money in that platform. So that was how I was scammed by CALA.
How Can One Protect Himself From Crypto Scam
Based on my experience, I feel the measures that must be taken into consideration to avoid crypto scams are as follows;
Make proper research before investing: If only you can spare time to make more research on whichever project you are about to embark on, then you will be able to protect yourself from crypto scams because you will get to know the long term plan of the project and those behind it.
Use only well-known exchanges: Don't run from one exchange to the other because of the few benefits they promise you. Make sure you partner with exchanges that have a reputable track record and have stood the test of time.
Avoid links that promise free assets: Don't always go for free assets because nothing is completely free. If you see any phishing link like the one I shared above, please avoid it completely because there is nothing as such.
Being more security conscious: Everyone must be security conscious I.e don't allow your details to be seen by even your friends. This means that you alone should have complete access to your devices so that people around you don't steal your password word without your notice.
Crypto scam is one major issue that we see today in the crypto space. A lot of people have lost their investments because of these acts. These contest today has helped us to understand the various types of crypto scam and how we can avoid them. I have also shared my experience with the crypto scam and it is a lesson to me and those reading through my blog today.
I want to finally invite a few friends to also join this contest today. I call on @fjjrg, @afrizalbinalka, @ruthjoe, @chiabertrand, @lavanyalakshman and @pelon53 to also read through my post today.
I totally agree with the idea that greed and ignorance are key factors that contribute to one being scammed. Most scammer aim at greedy -ignorant victims who are willing to make large sum of money in no time.
Once the preventive measures you have suggested are applied, the probability of being scammed is mitigated.
Thank you for sharing this educative post and best of luck in the contest.
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Thank you, friend!
I'm @steem.history, who is steem witness.
Thank you for witnessvoting for me.
please click it!
(Go to https://steemit.com/~witnesses and type fbslo at the bottom of the page)
The weight is reduced because of the lack of Voting Power. If you vote for me as a witness, you can get my little vote.
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We support quality posts anywhere and any tags.
Curated by : @chiabertrand
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Thank you @chiabertrand for the support. It is highly appreciated.
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Very good point. We should always know that crypto is not a get rich quick scheme. Any crypto project that promises to make one rich without stress is a scam and should be avoided.
Your post is very interesting and enlightening.
Goodluck in the contest 👍🏼
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Thanks for wonderful comment and on my post today, i'm glad it is enlightening.
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You are welcome bro 👍🏼
Keep up the good work
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I must commend that your post looks very interesting and full of quality, I learnt alot from the article you have shared friend.
Overall, the cryptocurrency scam have affected hundreds of thousands of users around the world. Unfortunately, there have been no reports of any of the victims getting their money back and it's unclear whether anyone will ever recover their funds.
However, the various tips you have mentioned, from "Making proper research before investing," to "Using only well-known exchanges," "Avoiding links that promise free assets" and "Being more security conscious," would go a long way in helping users.
Thanks for sharing and goodluck in this contest
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Thanks for your comment and contributions my friend.
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Hello brother,
I hope you will be doing well. You post is enough to understand all the tricks of hackers. You provide info with examples and I really found that these things happen with me.
I also get such messages below my post and I think the best way is to down vote and ignore them. I prefer not to click on links which are not related to my job.
Scammers are getting smart day by day and we have to become more smart to prevent us from their scams.
Very informative post. Keep sharing such posts so beginners like me get a chance to learn more about crypto. Good luck in this contest.
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Thanks for your wonderful comment and contributions on my post my friend, I'm delighted that the post was educative enough to you and others on the platform.
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I want to invite you to read my post too and mention my mistakes and what you find good in it. It is grateful for me.
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Sure my friend, I'm going to do that
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You must be a special beginner, gust a beginner with a style and energy like yours, you will definitely go places. Your comment to this post is powerful...
Please keep it up.
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Thank you brother for compliment 😊
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Older investors are paid from funds of newer investors to gain trust and then deceive them all.
That's true.
Compound interest is true but in genuine projects cover long term.
Regards
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You gave a great example here on our platform, there are also those accounts sharing evil links, what a good example, we must be prepared and alert all users.
god bless you
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Losing about 105UST to CALA isn't a small money sir. This scammers are very smart n taking Investors money and know need to be very careful of them because they are ready to make someone become poor so they can become rich. I wish you success.
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Hackers set traps to trick their targets with lots of traps, so we have to be careful about keeping the account key, make sure it's very secret.. :)
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Hi boss.
I hope that you will be doing great and enjoying the time with best wishes for the upcoming year 2023.
You have truely explained this post in your beautiful way as always. I really like your way of presenting the ideas about every topic.
Crypto scams are always the possibility when we do not have proper knowledge of any project or we are trapped in the schemes of the cunning scammers.
Yeah bro, you are very right here. We can easily spot such kind of scams by using the common sense as how can an unknown identity can offer such a surprise.
Thanks for the beautiful post. Have a nice day and good luck for the contest.
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Gosh I hate these scammers!
I get so cross when people steal from others especially when it is hard earned money.
I am certain we are going to see more and more crypto scams as crypto is here to stay.
Good entry my friend.
Merry Christmas! 🎄
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