There is nothing I hate more, than crypto scanners And with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency growing in awareness and popularity, there are more and more of these scammers crawling through the cracks every day
These scammers are constantly altering their approach and have managed to scan even the most seasoned traders and investors Well today, I'm going to give you the knowledge so you can protect yourself and your investment from these scammers We're talking Ponzi schemes, fake exchanges, fake altcoins, pump and dump schemes, old-school social media scams, malware and phishing, and lastly, third-party payment fraud, which even I have been a victim of Are you ready to protect yourself and your investments? Let's go! before we dive in quick disclaimer i am not a financial advisor and the information provided in this video is purely for educational purposes i wish that i could tell you that if you followed the tips i'm going to provide you would be 100 protected but what i can guarantee you is the best protection you can have is knowledge that being said let's get down to the business of scamming let's start with under crypto scams i'm sure most of you have heard of ponzi schemes otherwise known as pyramid schemes now ponzi schemes are not unique or new to bitcoin and have actually been around since the 1920s the premise of a ponzi scheme is quite simple existing investors are paid out with money brought in by new investors this creates the fake illusion of income or profit these businesses also ask that users refer new people for a bonus or commission this then keeps the cycle constantly going now these schemes are often extremely complex and detailed and they spend a fortune on advertising and may even pay out select users simply to keep up the facade but at the end of the day that is all it is a facade some of the most popular ponzi schemes that have been exposed are mirror trading international but connect and the bit club network and millions upon millions upon millions have been lost in these schemes so how do you spot a ponzi scheme before you become a victim well if you answer yes to any of these questions run are they guaranteeing you a return or a profit the truth is nothing is guaranteed besides the fact that they are probably pulling a scam is there a tiered referral bonus of commission for referring new recruits if that's the case this is then multi-level marketing and is definitely something you do not want to invest in is it a crypto lending platform this is where you supply funds to a business and they pay you a regular amount of interest which is normally a crazy percentage the idea is that there are lenders on the other spectrum of this business who pay that interest but the harsh reality is there simply is not is it a cloud mining platform this is where you are told that you are earning a steady and normally large return by mining crypto the bit club network i mentioned previously ran on this premise for over five years before it was exposed that they are not investing the funds into mining equipment and not just pocketing it for themselves is it an investment option where they trade on your behalf or have some form of ai bot that does these extremely profitable trades anytime someone is offering to trade on your behalf and especially if they mention an ai bot they are probably scammers because the reality is if that bot was so successful at trading they wouldn't need your money they'd simply make their own fake crypto exchanges scan their victims by posing as a legitimate exchange but engage in scamming tactics such as pressuring users to invest more or charging hidden fees to regain access to their funds or stealing their funds all together they often also operate as a popular crypto exchange such as bitstamp finance coinbase etc and use a slightly different but extremely similar domain name to confuse the users these exchanges are unregulated and sadly vanish overnight so how do you spot a fake crypto exchange number one do your homework coinmarketcap is an excellent resource to get statistics and data on the various exchanges if it is not in coin market cap it is probably not legit number two if it's too good to be true it probably is if they are offering insane results and interest and returns and use the word guaranteed in any way steer clear hackers as terrible as they are are extremely intelligent and creative bastards when sending bitcoin from one address to another always triple check the address you've entered some malware when installed will change the bitcoin address when pasted from a user's clipboard so that all of the bitcoin gets sent to the hacker's address and because reversing a bitcoin transaction once it's been confirmed is pretty impossible once you do pick up the fault you won't be able to get your funds back fishing websites often go hand in hand with malware and phishing emails phishing websites are replica websites designed to steal your login information or force you to download malware never install software or log into a website unless you are 100 sure it is legit phishing websites often also appear as sponsored results in search engines or in app marketplaces on mobile devices be wary that you are not downloading a fake app or clicking on a sponsored result to a phishing website so how do you protect yourself against phishing websites always double check the url of the website and make sure it is running a security certificate make sure your antivirus is up to date and be careful about downloading programs and software from unverified sources always do a who is look up on the domain in question i will leave a link in the description but you'll be able to do a reverse check now you won't be able to see the person behind the website but you will be able to see the country so if the website is pretending to be based in switzerland for example but ahui's check shows that the domain was registered by someone living in nigeria it is probably a scam all coins have grown in popularity and in numbers there are literally thousands of altcoins available with new ones being launched almost on a daily basis but the sad truth is that a lot of these old coins are in fact scam queens they entice their users by private sales or pre-sale discounts they'll often have a flashy website and boast a large community to create a fake sense of establishment and to create the fear of missing out effects for new people who discover it if they don't have a large community they'll then offer free coins or tokens to get people to come and join their community the people behind this coin then pump up the price and dump and exit their positions to take a profit it is sadly not uncommon for these coins to completely die overnight so how can you protect yourself from becoming a victim of one of these scam coins thoroughly research the individual team members behind the coin before you invest and have a look at their history and see if they have been involved in any other fraudulent activity a cryptocurrency or ico white paper is the foundation document for that project companies that don't offer white papers should be avoided at all costs make sure you read and analyze the white paper very carefully before you invest any legitimate company launching an ico or altcoin will make it extremely easy for investors to purchase tokens or the coin and read their charts if a company makes it difficult for anyone to chart the progress of its ico this is a major red flag pump and dam schemes or market manipulation is unfortunately extremely common do not trust someone who entices you or others to invest because they claim to know what the price of bitcoin is going to be in a pump and dam scheme a personal persons try to artificially rise up or pump up the price of a queen so they can dump their holdings and make a profit this is often bundled with fake news stories or fake celebrity endorsements and because technology is so good at making things seem real it's a bit hard to determine what is the fake stuff and what is the real stuff the easiest way to protect yourself from becoming a victim of a pump and dam scheme is to do your research have a look at the price history of the coin you are interested in check the charts have a look at the relative strength index you can have a look at an example video up here and never invest purely because someone tells you to always do your homework perhaps the most famous example of social media scams happened in july 2020 when twitter accounts belonging to famous individuals and companies were hacked some of the accounts that were compromised were those belonging to tech entrepreneurs elon musk and bill gates investor warren buffett boxer floyd mayweather jr and companies like apple and uber hackers gained access to twitter's administrative console and posted tweets from these accounts asking their followers to send money to the specified blockchain address they promised that the funds would be doubled and sent back as a charitable gesture according to reports 320 transactions occurred within minutes of the tweets being posted due to the viral nature of how information spreads on the internet scammers seek to take advantage by offering free bitcoin or any other digital currency in exchange for a small registration fee or bit of personal information when you see this on the internet or on social media it's best to report it immediately so that no one else falls victim so how can you spot a social media scam well if they are promising you something for free or mention the word giveaway it is probably a scam also always check the handle of the user in question third party payment forward is unfortunately very common and hard to detect before it's too late it's extremely common on peer-to-peer trading platforms like paxful or localbitcoinscom let me explain john is selling a fridge to nick nick needs to pay for the fridge he asks john for his banking details john then jumps onto a peer-to-peer exchange like paxful or local bitcoins and opens up a trade to buy bitcoin to the same value as the fridge from michael michael sends john the banking details and the reference to use john copy pastes those details and sends it to nick nick does the payment and sends the proof back to john john then sends the proof to michael on localbitcoins
com or paxful michael sees the proof and the funds in his accounts and sees that the payment matches the reference he requested and he releases the bitcoin to john john withdraws the bitcoin and disappears nick never gets his fridge michael is unknowingly implicated in the fraudulent scam now after a scam like this we have two people affected nick who's lost his money and never received what he paid for and michael who did receive the money for his bitcoin but now has his accounts associated to this fraudulent activity which if nick decides to go and make legal action his account could be affected so how do you protect yourself against third party payment fraud on websites like paxful and localbitcoinscom the sad truth is you can't 100 but there are a few things you can do to limit your exposure to these scammers i'm going to show you an example on localbitcoinscom but the same will apply through to packs for in localbitcoinscom when editing your cell adverts make sure you have your terms stated very clearly in the terms of trade section as well as the fact that you do not accept third party payments if you scroll further down make sure you have identified people only selected as well as sms verification required further to this when someone opens up a trade with you if you are uncertain about that person ask them to verify the fact that they are the account holder so that you don't take the chance of putting your account at risk well guys i hope i've managed to open up your eyes to some of the potential scams you might encounter on your crypto journey let me know in the comments if you've discovered any others and any advice you might have if you enjoyed this video please smash that like button if this is the type of content you enjoy everything e-commerce to crypto and everything in between hit that subscribe button and we'll see you in the next video
