With the recent price surge and prevalence of cryptocurrency, more and more people are investing in coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. We have listed some helpful security habits that will keep your coins out of harm’s way. But, of course, the ultimate first step in protecting your currency is keeping your wallets safe.
Your wallet contains all of your public information connected with your currency, making it very vulnerable to theft. There have been many reported cases of people having their wallets stolen through phishing sites, spyware on a computer, or malware on an internet-capable device like a Smart TV.
If you invest heavily in crypto, keep an offline/paper wallet – this ensures that even if your account got compromised somehow, the hackers wouldn’t be able to access the coins themselves. But we all know that having a scam is quite common in online transactions related to any currency. So we will elaborate on some significant types of crypto scams that can happen all around the scenario.
Some common Crypto Scams
Here we have described some different types of crypto scams that can happen to you.
1. Anonymous identities:
While cryptocurrency aims to be anonymous, you can always look up the wallet addresses of the people you are trading with. The main reason for this is so that you can confirm that your funds have been sent and received by the intended party. If, for example, a scammer sends you the coins and then creates a new wallet or transaction history to make it appear as if they never sent any money, then there’s no way for you to know this has occurred.
2. “You Win” Emails:
Another common crypto scam occurring more frequently lately is an email telling users that they have won a prize or sweepstakes in exchange for sending some coins to a specific address. While this does happen occasionally, these emails are usually just trying to make a quick buck by conning people to send coins. Again, it would be best to prevent clicking on links you don’t recognize to avoid getting scammed.
3. Phishing:
Phishing is another common crypto scam and one that can be pretty dangerous if it’s done well. These emails are typically sent from fake email addresses and will ask you for personal information or coin address and a sense of urgency to gain trust with the user. To avoid these scams, always beware of emails that ask for your personal information or use a fake email address.
4. Inflate Accounts:
This is also a fairly common scam for Bitcoin and other coin exchanges. The scammer will create an account on the exchange that looks like it has been around for years and then threaten to close the account if the user doesn’t send them some coins to keep their funds safe. This is a standard method of stealing people’s money and should always be avoided.
5. Selling Coins:
As with any Internet-based service, online trading can lead to security vulnerabilities if not done correctly. Because crypto is a new market, there are always bound to be other users who other scams have scammed in the past. The perfect way to avoid such scams is to never sell your coins to someone you don’t know or trust. If, for some reason, you do accidentally end up selling your coins, make sure you keep the transaction records and check into any suspicious accounts connected with the sale.
6. “Faucet” Scams:
This is another common scam that people use to steal your coins from your wallet, as they usually do require a decent amount of money for you actually to receive any money. The transactions for receiving a reward or gift from these “faucets” can be automated so that you will get a massive amount of coins over time. Never use a faucet that asks you to give out personal information, and instead, only use one that will send your coins directly to your wallet address.
The only way to protect yourself from these types of scams is by doing your research before making any online purchase or investment in cryptocurrencies. Researching a coin before investing in it and then researching where your coins have come from after receiving them is recommended. By then, you can easily trade in the crypto market without any issue and have significant growth in the wallet balance.