I am by no means an expert on crypto, bitcoin or NFTs. I am quite honestly the opposite.
But so much about crypto, bitcoin and NFTs seems to be about scams. In fact, many people’s Instagram accounts have been hacked to promote and endorse crypto and bitcoin scams and contain fake bank transaction screenshots saying that the hacked victim invested $500 with some fraudulent investor scam Instagram user and got back $10,000 in just 3 hours and claim that it’s real and legit.
Many hackers have even forced their victims to film a video of themselves saying that they invested $500 with a particular fake fraudulent investor and got back $10,000 in just 3 hours and that it’s real and legit. These hackers tell their victims that if they do this video they will get their account back but the hacker instead puts that video on the victims profile and stories and sends it to the victims followers. Some hacked Instagram accounts contain a picture of a car and/or house and say that purchasing these were only possible due to the cryptocurrency and forex investments they made.
When crypto was made I don’t know if the founders had the intention for a lot of scams to be based on crypto and bitcoin. I sure hope this was not the founders’ intention.
To some degree crypto and bitcoin disgusts me because of all of this if any of my friends, colleagues, acquaintances and even relatives on Instagram or Facebook asks me anything about crypto I will just block and assume they are hacked.
Could anybody please tell me.
Is there more to crypto and bitcoin that all of these frauds and scams?
I am asking this because whilst I have heard that in reality it is not a get rich quick scheme and that it is very risky and volatile and is not for everyone to invest and only those who know about it well, I get the impression that it is largely just a scam.
The internet is for porn, and bitcoin is for buying recreational ICBMs on TOR. Ethereum is for trading pokemon cards - I mean prestigious monkeys.
there's no value in them, you buy them for speculation purposes i.e., expecting the price to increase and sell it to the next sucker
until cryptos aren't used in day-to-day services and recognized by businesses and Gov't as a legitimate means of payment, I won't touch them (never did).
if you have some excess capital I personally find it wiser to invest in tangible investments (RE, equities, crowd-funding for smaller projects, etc.) because those satisfy ongoing needs, meanwhile cryptos were just a modern tulip mania.
also, there's no need to envy people that made a fortune from them because you can't envy luck (and I really hope that those that became rich from that were humble enough to allocate it to Vanguard and not think that luck = above average expertise or innate talent to pick superior investments, because this mindset will surely bring them to the point of bankruptcy in the future).
Thanks for your reply.
What is it about crypto that has led to so many scams, get rich quick schemes and scammers hacking people's social media accounts and asking their victims to make a video of themselves earning high amounts of money from investing in crypto after a few hours?
something that's misunderstood (and no intention to dig deeper) + FOMO + greed = people falling easier to crypto schemes/scams
regarding people that got hacked, I'm not familiar with that, but my guess is that those accounts may redirect viewers to a link/certain websites that were specially built by scammers. The idea is that the more people get exposed to it + the more legit the account seems (contrary to bot accounts) = the easier it is to attract more victims. You may ask why those guys that got hacked don't report that their accounts were hacked and don't caution followers. My guess is one of the following: a) some of them do and close their accounts; b) others invested a lot of time and effort into their accounts, so they are ready to do what those hackers tell them; c) those hackers may persuade them by offering a % of the money spent by users. Another idea that pops into my mind is that hackers may target precisely those accounts that criticized some of the platforms that those hackers aim to promote, so it may also be a type of revenge.
FTX is a good example of how a reputable company was in reality a fade, so when using some crypto brokers or crypto startups (especially the ones pointed out by those hacked accounts) the risk of being scammed is higher. If it's not a scam, it's either pure speculation, or founders built something with no value just to become rich overnight.
I think that the person behind BTC is a genius, but everything else is just built by people that wanted to get rich by riding a wave (a la dot com bubble) so avoid it at all costs (now the wave is AI, so be wary of "investment opportunities").
Restless
Do you mean that since people don't really understand crypto well and they have FOMO since it appears to be somewhat popular this makes them likely to fall victim to get crypto-related get rich quick scheme scams?
I myself was a victim of hacking. I fell victim to a get the number in the picture correct to get $1,000 scam on Instagram from my ex-boss's account which I am guessing got hacked where you have to change your email address to the one given by the hacker (since the hacker was being so pushy etc) but yes it still is my fault since I should have just blocked him and yet all the time I thought I was really speaking to my ex-boss. My hacker said if I do videos promoting investing with peggy rose with $500 and getting back $10,000 in 3 hours, I would get my account back. I later got my account back after 7 video selfie verifications since my first 6 were rejected.
When my account was hacked, I reported that the account was impersonating me and asked all my friends to do so but Instagram didn't take any action. Sometimes it said that Instagram wasn't able to view the report due to so many reports being made and other times it said that my hacked account didn't breach community guidelines. I think that some people do the bitcoin hostage scam videos because they really think their hacker will give them back their account if they do the video and don't realise that the hacker will instead upload it onto their account partly since the victim is desperate to get his/her account hack. I don't think that hackers may persuade their victims by offering a % of the money spent by users. Though I have read that some hackers demand money from their victims (in bitcoin) to get their account back but even if the victim pays the hacker doesn't give the account back.
Do you mean that you think that the "founder" of bitcoin - Satoshi Nakamoto who himself is a presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, is a genius?
I just find it really strange and wierd that nobody really knows who invented bitcoin which has become somewhat popular in some places and even declared legal tender in El Salvador... it kind of makes bitcoin a somewhat mysterious thing to me.
Scammers are going to scam regarding of what they do it through. Day trading, dropshipping, forex... If you haven't done your own research before getting into something, you have no one to blame but yourself. The same applies to every other asset that exist. FTX is also a centralized cryptocurrency exchange. That has nothing to do with Bitcoin or any specific cryptocurrency. I think that if you decided to be involved with crypto but you don't even know how to store it correctly, that's playing with fire.
To each their own but I'd be curious to understand what research you've done on bitcoin or other cryptos that led to "disappointment" for you. I think there are a shit ton of crypto scams out there but there are also solid projects being built on top of bitcoin. People and teams dedicating their time and wealth on building stronger infrastructure for bitcoin. Hope you see that is more than just something you buy and sell...
I suggest you look into the developments going on in Bitcoin before claiming there is "no value" in them. Usually the ones who claim it is just speculation have not done any research past skimming clickbait headlines, or watching youtubers tell people to buy and sell. Also saying that believing in cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, AFTER governments recognizes them, goes against the reason why cryptocurrencies were creating. I assure you there's much more to projects like Bitcoin, then buying and selling.
new scan on internet is trx scam
dont send unknown wallet to deposit trx check twice when transact trx
Absolutely! Checking and double-checking the wallet address before any TRX transaction is crucial. One small mistake can lead to big issues. Better safe than sorry!
Well. There's just much hype around this, and everyone tries to get money. For most of users bitcoin is just like lottery. But as for NFT, it's a great way for artists to prove their ownership. Anything else is just another hype, not worth any attention
I believe the exact opposite. A lot of people who support bitcoin heavily have done research into things like projects being built on top of bitcoin. Infrastructure being created to support bitcoin. Rather than watching some random influencer say "buy here sell there". 99% of all NFT's are going to go to 0. There are much more use cases for NFT's then just digital art.
The founding members of this movement intended for the technology to have anonymous transfer of value over the internet with no third party risk in controlling or devaluing it. You had cryptographic ownership of your stuff, no else does. So the individual had complete ownership of their asset, not the government, or the bank. The modern day of money underneath the mattress.
This will be more of history lesson so you can get a perspective on how this came to be. Now, yes, it is rifled with scams but it makes it all too important to conduct your standard research, which is pretty easy to do. I don't think it would be any different once you get a lay of the land but that is for a different day. Now onto the boring stuff:
The founding members of this group were known as cypher-punks, which was a collective of hackers, cryptographers, programmers, mathematicians, and tech enthusiasts who shared the belief in the power of cryptography to safeguard individual privacy and foster social and political change. They had a mailing list in the 90s that discussed issues like philosophy, cryptography, privacy, and potential for digital currencies and it was a place for them to come together to debate and work on these ideas.
When looking back at the thread, many would pick at the idea of ownership. Discussing their natural distaste for governments consistently devaluing their currency or banking rules on how you can deposit, invest, or pull out your funds. They would discuss that one of the philosophical tenants of digital individualistic freedom would be total control of your stuff in the digital world, your personal data, amongst other things.
Essentially, they wanted to provide a technology that gave individuals the ability to own and transact without a third-party intermediary (banks, government, etc). Removing the friction of government and banking controls. For example, if you wanted to move any amount of your assets around the world, you didn't have to interact with levels of banking compliance and government regulations. It simply removed the middle man. Like for Bitcoin, if you own assets in your wallet and you have the ability to transfer them, no one can tell that their is a threshold of moving your money. It will be there within a day (generally), no matter the amount. For example on Ethereum, without the pain in the ass process of giving your information over to the bank to get banking services, if you have value on the ethereum blockchain, you have exposure to pretty much any banking product you want.
Now as you can gather, I have a crypto-bias but I see the overall technology as a net gain for the financial industry as a whole. My belief is similar to the internet bubble with 95% of these projects failing with a couple of them changing the way finance can be done.
Ok but I would like to ask the following:
Why is Instagram full of fake fraudulent investor profiles that promote and endorse bogus get rich quick schemes where you can invest $500 with them and get back $10,000 in just 3 hours?
Also what is it about crypto and bitcoin that has caused these fake fraudulent investor profiles on Instagram to upload pictures of fancy houses, fancy cars and expensive holidays and claiming that crypto and bitcoin enabled them to purchase all of this?
Why do so many of these fake and fraudulent crypto investors hack Instagram accounts and put posts on the hacked profiles about making high returns in 3 hours just through investing in crypto and/or bitcoin with them and about the new fancy car or house that they bought which they were only able to do due to investing with the fake fraudulent crypto/bitcoin investor?
I believe we can come together here. I am going to be speaking more 'logistically.' You are correct; the space has a lot of scammers that will display their 'service' of a get-rich-quick scheme.
Easy/Natural Marketing - The space is with members that naturally conduct their life/business online through social media and chat servers. They understand the digital environment and its ease of Market to so many people. I see it all the time; it is easier to reach many people this way through social media campaigns & automatons.
Target Market - They will market their services on those same channels. Those same channels will often have members that are 'younger (grew up in the digital world)' that often do not have the financial literacy of 'that is probably too good to be true, it is pretty hard to make money, it is a no from me.'
Lack of Clarity - Now, you combine this with the need for more clarity for finance professionals to help clients with their exposure to this space.
Young Market + Uneducated Investors + No Financial Clarity = High Scam Exposure
I understand that my formula above is crude, but it is easier for me to think this way. When a financially incentivized environment had this combination, it usually always had a high rate of scams. So, unfortunately, at this moment, this is where we are in crypto. It is a nasty cocktail.
Now I guess what I am trying to say is to separate the scammers/grifters from the protocols/blockchains. There are many ways to research a protocol/blockchain by looking into their whitepaper, smart contract audits, dao governance, blockchain analysis, etc, into their legitimacy. Many of these means are free to look into and have several analysts online continually providing content on what is happening.
Otherwise, when talking about the 95%, I also included scammers/grifters into that pile as well.
Bro, it's the exact same with "Forex", "Dropshipping", "Copywriting", "Real Estate", "Day Trading". Every scammer posts expensive things then sells you a course. Scammers scam. You can't turn a blind eye to everything else and then say Bitcoin or crypto is the only problem.
I mean the stock market and real estate is also a breeding ground for scams as well. There is a new Ponzi scheme or insider trading case every other day. Whenever, there is money to be made quickly, snake oil salesman will be drawn to it.
Remember the hey day of online poker? One of the main sites turned out to be a huge scam and the “pro” players all absconded with millions with zero repercussions.
Crypto is the same. I’m sure the intent was noble, a currency free of government interference and truly market based and giving everyone access to a decentralized monetary unit. But of course the world isn’t made of all good people and for all the shortcoming of the government, their regulations do try to help the retail investor.
I think for now, you should view crypto like a very volatile commodity. Like the type of alternative investment you dedicate 5 - 10 percent of your portfolio to and accept it could go to zero as easily as it could shoot to the moon.
I personally agree with you, if you didn’t invest in it super early, then it’s not worth it at this point and the scams are too prevalent. I mean the main “face” of the industry turned out to be a Bernie madoff lol. Until the government can implement some controls, I will just casually follow the topic.
But the fact that all these scams happen, all those hedge funds went bust and the giant scam that was FTX happened in front of everyone and no one being the wiser; all that and still people pour money into crypto, I think that means it’s here to stay and a place one can make speculative bets. The chance of easy money will always draw people like flies to honey.
Buying and investing in stocks may have scams but is not full of fraudulent fake "investors", "traders" and get rich quick schemes on Instagram and Facebook in the way that crypto, bitcoin and forex are full of it.
Everything in life has scams like movie tickets, concert tickets, flight tickets, insurance, charity donation, property viewings but these things are not synonymous with scams. Similarly social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are full of scams and scammers and yet Instagram and Facebook are not synonymous with scams. However, crypto and bitcoin are synonymous with scams.
So basically could it be argued that crypto and bitcoin have largely been misused and abused?
It also appears that crypto being untraceable and irreversible is a reason why its used for criminal purposes like money laundering and Instagram account recovery scammers who claim they can help to recover your hacked account but just take your money charge you in crypto. Similarly that appears to be why people who hack Instagram accounts tell their victim that they will give them their account back if they pay them in bitcoin but even if the victim pays the hacker does not give the account back.
So basically if I invest as little as $100 into bitcoin then I should be prepared to lose all of it.
Is that correct? If that is correct then is that why crypto is considered as a form of gambling?
Far from correct. Bitcoin is pretty traceable, small criminals just hope no one is willing to pour in enough resources to catch them. It wouldn't be worth it. And to say that crypto is full of fraudulent scams where as stock investing isn't, is just silly. In 2020 alone, there were enough day traders and scammers on social media to make my eyes bleed. If you can only related bitcoin to being synonymous with scams, I think you might be focusing too much on crypto clickbait headlines. Try searching up projects that are being built on top of bitcoin right now and I assure you that there's much more than "buy here sell there".
Facilitating cross-border remittances for one.
No, not really. There is no good justification for a technology to be locked behind a made up currency, in my opinion.
I totally understand how you feel about this and you are very right to block anyone who comes to talk to you about bitcoin on facebook. Entertaining such discussions could be very dangerous. Information I got from a company that offers pro hacking services (spirassp . com) reveals that the crypto scam is bound to rise by 50% if care is not taken. Anyone familiar with the quadriga scheme in Canada back in 2016 will know they come at their victims in different ways. Quadriga was never listed but started selling shares and stopped publishing audits. They were later banned from selling shares after BCSC issued a cease trade order (CTO) for not submitting audit. What kind of entity operates like this?
Totally get your concerns about crypto scams—it's frustrating to see. While there's a darker side, legit use cases exist. Cryptos offer decentralized transactions and blockchain tech has real potential. Just be cautious, do your research, and separate the legit from the scams. It's not all bad, but vigilance is key!
While concerns about numerous scams are prevalent, it's crucial not to overlook their potential utility. The underlying blockchain technology presents broad prospects across various sectors. Despite the risks, virtual currencies carry innovation and investment potential. Acknowledging the multifaceted nature of the crypto landscape.
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