In 2017, for the first time, Bitcoin overthrew the price of an ounce of gold. The news fused with the exploding adoption of blockchain technology beyond the financial world. It has attracted new investors, directly creating a new type of business for entrepreneurs to the blooming cryptocurrency. However, Bitcoin was not just able to catch the eyes of people looking for profits via legit methods, but have a whole new types of Bitcoin scams.
Why Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is proved through encoded transactions while being recorded on a ledger that anyone can access. It helps wallet-holders not fall for any theft, fraud, or scam and compromise sensitive data. The modern payment vehicles like online money transfers and credit card services are all blemished. The new types of security benefits, the gold of the digital age, are helping to build a new kind of crime syndicate in the digital ecosystem.
Why are Bitcoin owners such lucrative targets on social media? It is the same reason why Bitcoin is so secured. Decentralization, anonymity, and irreversible nature.
Decentralized
Unlike other currencies, Bitcoin isn’t controlled by anyone, no government or financial institutions. You cannot recover bitcoin lost in a scam because there is no central authority, so it is impossible to recover once lost. Furthermore, once you are defrauded, it’s done. No credit card issuer or bank can bail them out in a regulatory vacuum.
Anonymous
A human doesn’t need to give personal identifying information to open a wallet and start earning and spending Bitcoins. The above statement is why digital drug dealers and online sellers of black market merchandise prefer payment with Bitcoin. Every part of this sale happens under the pretext of the “dark web.” Social network profiles and real-world identities are never the same. It only provides the scammer with an extra layer of protection that makes it impossible to identify them in the real world.
Irreversible
Bitcoin can never be reversed or stopped. It is a feature, not a bug. No one can mess with the
records, so there is no more corruption, and all transactions are publically viewable way back to the first ever transaction. No one can recover your lost Bitcoin, and it makes the way easy for money flipping scams like “Send me Bitcoins, and I will send you the double money!” It has made Bitcoin famous for ransomware attacks. In past years, the number has significantly increased, inflicting hundreds of millions of dollars in damages upon various companies and countless individuals.
The above reasons make Bitcoin modern scammers’ favorite playing field. Social media has a wide range of key demographic of digitally connected people who love to play with Bitcoin or get in the new game but are not experts or can’t tell the difference between legitimate or illegitimate offers.
Four Categories of Bitcoin Scams
Here are the four most prominent categories of Bitcoin scams, with different Bitcoin leverage for every victim.
Fake Bitcoin wallets
Fake Bitcoin wallets have hidden malware downloads. These can be activated by clicking the URLs posted on Social media, the variety of attacks occurs this way. The scammer promises Bitcoin to get victims to click the link that downloads a malware-laden app. Scammers use fake Bitcoin surveys that have malware on them to attack people. Our advice, be cautious before you click on any URL that looks different or is not secured with an HTTPS connection.
Bitcoin phishing impersonators
There are impersonators all over social media, and impersonating the Bitcoin brand itself is used to gain a victim’s trust and credibility. It will offer you a search service where you can enter your private Bitcoin key to see if it exists in their database. The service is false. Because once you enter your private Bitcoin key, it comes into the hand of the scammer, and they can spend it directly from your Bitcoin wallet.
Bitcoin-flipping scams
These scams are an offer where you instantly exchange Bitcoins for money after paying an initial startup fee or a promise to double the initial investment overnight. They never hold their end of the bargain and vanish with the Bitcoin in thin air. There have been many articles on money flipping scams targeting bank customers, which similarly use this low-risk tactic that helps the scammers to gain Bitcoin when distributed in high volumes. Scammers only succeed with the scam because they use social media to target thousands of gullible victims.
Bitcoin pyramid schemes
To find a pyramid scheme is a tougher job than the more dreadful Bitcoin-flipping examples described above. It always ends at the same thing. The scammer will always run off with the victim’s stolen Bitcoins. The main idea relies upon high yield investment programs and multi-level marketing. These schemes are in a sweet grey spot, and a low initial investment will be multiplied if signed by additional members using referral links. New members are encouraged to do the same, rinse and repeat. Now that hundreds of victims have joined the scheme. The original scammer always walks away with the capital, and the pyramid collapses at some point in the future. Here the scammer is not working alone. Their subordinates are the victims spreading the word of the scheme. There is no ROI, and there was never an ROI; all the promises were false.
Conclusion
The Bitcoin Scam has gotten much worse. Identifying the many forms of bitcoin scams might be beneficial in the long term. It might be extremely useful to gullible investors who are easy prey for fraud artists. Both phishing and investing schemes are ancient and difficult to spot. Online freebies must be considered because social media is the emerging medium these days. They’re bogus, and the celebrity who endorses them has probably been hacked. Don’t fall for such claims, and don’t let your bitcoin be stolen.
