Classic fraud schemes in the crypto world

Every day new fraud schemes appear, designed for naive citizens. For the most part, all scams and crypto-frauds, conditionally, can be divided into several categories.

So, the fraud schemes in detail.

Pyramids and Ponzi schemes

Financial pyramid or crypto bubble, during the existence of Bitcoin only the lazy did not call it. Today, however, there is no doubt that the cryptocurrency has come seriously and for a long time, but the Ponzi model has remained in the arsenal of scammers. It works on the principle of attracting new subscribers who pay for the investments of previous ones and promising large profits on bets and deposits. The pyramid crumbles when there are not enough new clients and funds for payments.

ICO scams, attracting authorities

ICO, crowdsale, startup, initial sale of coins... The process of raising funds for the development of a particular idea is called no matter what. The impressive amounts of successful ICOs inspire scammers and fake startups multiply like mushrooms after rain and disappear instantly after collecting money from gullible citizens. A multimillion-dollar market and the lack of government supervision radically facilitate the task of extorting funds for non-existent projects.

One of the favorite ways to attract an audience is to use a popular name in promoting a project and advertising. Cyber ​​fraudsters often use well-known names and hide behind popular brands and services. 

Phishing links and sites

It would seem that users should have long ago learned security lessons and checked the links they follow, but alas. 

There are constantly messages about another phishing attack, fake and mirror sites. The essence of the hacker scam is simple: when clicking on a seemingly familiar link, malicious software redirects users to a fake website. Moreover, such sites, as a rule, are distinguished by their amazing similarity to the original. By conducting transactions on such a site, the user sends his hard-earned savings to the wallets of crypto scammers. Just this year, such “mirrors” were created for Telegram, Twitter account of Pavel Durov, and other well-known companies.

Fake exchanges and exchange offices

Today fake web resources are distinguished by professional execution, an abundance of positive reviews and even their own CMS content management system. Fraudsters spend a lot of effort on organization and attract many users, especially by offering low commissions and favorable cryptocurrency exchange rates. The wallets or IP addresses indicated on such sites usually belong to scammers and are registered under dummies. After collecting funds from users, the fake online cryptocurrency exchanger closes and opens a new resource taking the baton.

Fake wallets

Crypto wallets are anonymous today, and give a huge field of activity for scammers. Creating an analog of an official wallet is not difficult for a hacker. demonstrated dozens of fake applications that appeared at one time in the App Store and Google Play.

“Gypsy” cryptocurrency or a banal deception

The simplest scheme is to sell the user tokens that do not exist or something under the guise of cryptocurrency, but even today there are victims of scammers who were sold souvenir coins under the guise of Bitcoin, or tempting offers on web resources. "favorable price" prompted users to transfer funds to the proposed fake wallet or card, ultimately left without cryptocurrency and without funds.