The Most Common Cryptocurrency Scams To Look Out For

Unfortunately, in the world of online trading there are many scammers looking to not only steal money but identities, data and much more. Ensure you are aware of some of the riskiest practices to avoid being a victim. We’ll take a look at some of the most common forms of scam used in 2023 and we’ll also discuss how to use investment fraud attorneys if you do ever find yourself in a situation where you have been defrauded.

Phishing

A phishing scam is typically run via a website that has been set up as a mirror (identical version) or a well-known website. You will then receive an email or text message asking you to go and change your password or something similar to that, when you go to the mirror website and enter your username and password it has then been stolen, you maybe won’t realise at first until you then go and login to the real website and notice that your password hasn’t changed.

There are lots of phishing websites set up, particularly for trading platforms as people have so much money deposited in them and with cryptocurrency it is difficult to get that money back once you have lost it. The way to stay safe and avoid this kind of scam is to always ensure you go directly to the website yourself, don’t click on links in emails, just type in the URL of the site yourself and that way you can ensure you are landing on the correct website and not a fake version of it.

Ponzi Schemes

This is another very popular scam when it comes to cryptocurrency and it centres around the trading platforms that enable you to buy and sell different forms of it. People deposit money in to their wallet, they trade by buying and selling and then typically keep their money in their account to try and grow their earnings. A Ponzi scheme is when the owner of the site is taking money out of it that he/she can’t afford meaning that there isn’t enough money to pay people out who want to withdraw their money so they end up having to take money out of another persons account to cover it.

Eventually, it all comes down like a house of cards when there isn’t enough money available to pay all of the withdrawal requests. Before you know the owner of the site has made off with tens of million of dollars and customers are left with nothing. In this scenario, it is essential to use wealth recovery attorneys who may be able to get part or all of your money back to you.

Fake NFT’s

NFT’s have become big business in the last year or two with mainstream artists now selling digital work. On the marketplaces where these items are sold there are frequently copies/duplicates of the original meaning you are effectively buying a print (but the digital version) and people pay tens of thousands of dollars thinking they are real. It is always essential to do your research, follow the artist themselves on social media and ensure the are you are looking at is actually the real thing and not a copy.