With cryptocurrency becoming more and more popular, there appeared to be a lot of new opportunities to earn money. While many choose to earn the rightful honest ways, others choose the dishonest road to earn (or steal) their ways. I hope this article will be helpful and make people more aware.
Top dishonest ways to earn crypto
- Creating phishing websites that imitate popular online exchanges and Bitcoin wallets. Users can be lured into visiting these sites even by Google ads.
Creating and distributing extortion viruses that demand ransom payment made with Bitcoins. Usually, victims are found through mass email spam campaigns.
Deliberately launching fraudulent ICOs. Owners collect money but the project is not planned for implementation.
Launching financial pyramids and Ponzi schemes. There are even automatic pyramids working on smart contracts.
Blatant deception with the help of social networks. Numerous fake Twitter accounts have been created recently. Elon Musk impersonator claims he will donate 1 ETH to every person who sends him 0.2 ETH.
Impersonation of members of certain blockchain projects, and sending fake emails on their behalf about fake token sales at discount prices to interested people. This often happens right before the official ICO.
Cryptojacking – infecting websites and servers with hidden miner programs that mine cryptocurrencies using the resources of website visitors or using the resources of hacked equipment. Sometimes crooks create very big crypto mining botnets.
Hacking online exchanges and wallet services. For example, criminals stole the secret keys from the Mt. Gox exchange. Hackers just copied the wallet.dat.
Creating viruses that substitute the wallet addresses when you copy it to the clipboard. There was a case when the address of the wallet was changed not by a malicious program, but by the TOR proxy site.
Personal trading on the exchange using your client’s or employer’s crypto assets. For example, this Chicago trader has been charged with fraud after stealing hundreds of Bitcoins from his employer.
Physical theft. In Thailand, a young couple was attacked by fake Interpol agents who forced to pass them the secret keys. In Ukraine, a man was kidnapped and had to pay the ransom in return for his freedom.
Be Safe and always Aware!
If you guys like this, let me know what you think or even add to the list if there are other ways of getting scammed.
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