Beware of scammers and fraudsters

The following chapters offer a small introduction to dating & romance scams and how these work. Please read through this section carefully and see if any applies to your situation. ------------------------- Romance scams start out from a dating website, cold email, a social media message, or even a phone call. This initial stage is commonly known as “catfishing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfishing)”, as the communicating party will usually portray a persona that they are not (e.g. a m...

The following chapters offer a small introduction to popular investment scams and how these work. Please read through this section carefully and see if any applies to your situation. ------------------------- Fake ICOs Fake ICOs became very popular in 2017 and continue to operate on a global scale. They are usually promoted on BitcoinTalk, Twitter, or within Telegram groups. It is rather easy to recognize them by checking the following: - The whitepaper of the project is usually...

The following chapters offer a small introduction to popular broker scams and how these work. Please read through this section carefully and see if any applies to your situation. ------------------------- Unregulated brokers & Exchanges There are hundreds of unregulated exchange platforms and brokers that allow users to exchange cryptocurrency. Too often, these platforms will promise unrealistic signup bonuses with your first deposit and claim they already have a large userbase ac...

The following chapters offer a small introduction to popular rental scams and how these work. Please read through this section carefully and see if any applies to your situation. ------------------------- Airbnb Bitcoin scams Popular vacation rental marketplace Airbnb is well known for its fake listings. The supposed owners of the rental home request Bitcoin payments prior to your arrival only to later disappear without a trace. Their listings are usually lower priced compared to sim...

The following chapters offer a small introduction to eCommerce scams and how these work. Please read through this section carefully and see if any applies to your situation. ------------------------- ECommerce has seen massive growth over the past year, due to its increased convenience and product availability. Users can purchase items from online stores, platforms, or marketplaces, usually at a better price than brick-and-mortar retail. Unfortunately, the world of eCommerce has a fair sh...

The following chapters offer a small introduction to popular scam schemes and how these work. Please read through this section carefully and see if any applies to your situation. Fraudulent wallets Mobile wallets are a great option when it comes to storing cryptocurrency, especially for those relatively new to industry. Nowadays, most of the available crypto wallets offer state of the art UI and non-custodial storage, which makes them even more secure. And while this development has been...