Funds lost due to Fraudulent Google Ads

Indeed, the cryptocurrency market is a kind of “El Dorado” for the most sophisticated hackers and scammers. They can receive huge funds, thanks to thousands of small investors who are looking for easy money and think that they have taken advantage of the financial opportunity of their lives. In this context, in many aspects, the legal context does not yet exist, or is still too weak to protect a person from such mistakes. Thus, it provides the best opportunities for illegal actions.

The high attractiveness of cryptocurrencies reinforces this trend, which, unfortunately, is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. Faced with this growing number of scams, investors should ensure their safety through in-depth fundamental analysis in the upward direction in order to identify inconsistencies related to projects. Let’s discuss in this article a few tips on how to easily detect fraud.

Recently, the method of “hacking” has been widely used, which consists in creating fraudulent cryptocurrency exchange sites in order to better “clean” the wallet of an Internet user who connects to them.

If the cryptocurrency sector is known for stories about people who have achieved large capital gains, it is also a reason for high risk. Some currencies that you can learn about from Coinmarketrate.com, launched since 2017, were an outright scam. And then there is the phenomenon of “hacking”. Whether it’s detecting errors in currency codes, or DeFi applications, or even deceiving certain Internet users, tricks are common. The one we are describing here is an excellent recent example.

If you enter the phrase “Pancakeswap” in the Google search engine, then you will get access to this decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX). But what did the users get? More recently, the first two results displayed by Google are sites practicing “phishing” (displaying a fraudulent website that scrupulously copies the appearance of the original). The real PancakeSwap website appears only in third place. Also note that the first two sites are advertisements in the Google Advertising system.

If a person clicks on one of the first two results, the site will ask him to connect to his wallet. The wallet in question (for example, Metamask) will request the Internet user’s secret access key. This key consists of 12 words that must remain secret. Usually, the wallet does not request this, but on this day the stars have come together, or it is enough to distract a little, and the Internet user then dials this key, believing that Metamask is performing a security check. I did, but then the cryptocurrencies are not there.

How to protect yourself from scammers

This particularly annoying situation has become commonplace. The Check Point Research (CPR) report is sounding the alarm: more than $500,000 was stolen over the weekend. Some even wonder: how much is Google responsible for this situation? Shouldn’t the California giant be more wary of such use of AdWords for fraud purposes? Until this issue is resolved, how can we avoid such piracy?

First of all, you should know:

• Your wallet will never ask you to enter a passphrase unless you connect from a device on which you have never used this wallet.
• Do not click on Google ads if you want to connect to the cryptocurrency exchange.
• Choose only natural links.
• Always check the website URL before clicking on it.

How to Avoid Cryptocurrency Fraud

In this crazy race for wealth, many scammers are desperately trying to implement false projects that are very realistic for the most naive users. As a result, too many investors become victims of fraud.

Since this practice is widely used in the world of cryptocurrencies, it is the most successful scam for the most vulnerable investors, and it is the most difficult to detect even for confirmed analysis. Use our guide explaining the basics of analysis to distinguish good projects from fraud.

Here is a summary of what you need to remember when investing in cryptocurrencies:

• Find out about the project team (if they want to remain anonymous, you should already ask yourself questions).
• Take a look at Bitcointalk.org to find out about any announcements about the launch of the project.
• Before making any investments, it is necessary to read the information document. If he’s not there, run away.
• Viewing the source code is also an important point that you should not neglect.
• Even if it is excessive, the quality of the site should attract your attention. What if it doesn’t match the financial ambitions of the project?
• Find out about the trading platforms on which the cryptocurrency is listed (names recognized in the cryptographic field are encouraging to all players).

Platforms for cloud mining or lending

Cryptocurrency mining is a system that revives the blockchain. Miners earn cryptocurrency in exchange for their services. Theoretically, the more miners there are, the faster the transactions, which is beneficial for the functioning of the blockchain.

However, the equipment required for this activity is too expensive and does not allow everyone to access this activity. Don’t be afraid, because the biggest enthusiasts can contribute to the existence of the blockchain by making money using cloud mining.

Indeed, some companies with sufficient computing power may offer individuals the lease of part of these resources to participate in the mining of cryptocurrencies and, consequently, to make a profit.

But now this benefit has become a feeder for scammers who can somehow “intercept” the initiative in their own interests. How do they do it specifically? They create attractive websites and promise future investors a huge return on investment. In fact, they have nothing but a bank account. It is difficult to detect fraud in this type of activity. The only thing to do is to find out, if possible, the existing opinions on the most famous forums, such as Bitcointalk or Redit, for example.

You can also check the company’s clients easily enough to see public and provable results, especially through press releases or other media that are strong enough to be trusted.

Otherwise, if the project promises you a daily income equivalent to the income of Elon Musk (well, maybe a little less), and moreover for life, the only advice we can give you is to run while there is still time. Why? Yes, because we are talking about a financial pyramid scheme from which you will never be able to return your hard-saved money.

Identity theft

This scam most often occurs on social networks, including Twitter, and is carried out in two ways.

Attackers will imitate the original account, for example, some industry leaders or celebrities. Or they directly comment on the publication of official reports, which makes it easy to increase the number of victims.

The most used methods are when spammers ask people in messages to send cryptocurrencies, such as ETH, to the address and promise to multiply your bet tenfold as soon as the requested amount is delivered to the wallet. Situation familiar to you? In such situations, no one gets their money back.

You should know that money doesn’t fall from the sky, so no team will ask you to send them money, especially on social media.

Twitter is obviously used as an example, but all social networks are full of fraud, which, although carried out in different ways, will be based on the same method of impersonating official teams.

The same is true with collective messengers, such as Telegram, where problems arise regularly, especially for popular projects, when the billing address on an often overloaded website does not allow you to receive money from investors. Their first noble impulse is to go to Telegram. But there they are waiting for bad channels, unfortunately, created by scammers who do not hesitate to turn out the pockets of users, indicating an address different from the address specified for the project.

However, the scammers do not stop there, because they act by sending public or private messages, as well as emails through fake accounts of people from the team representing the ICO, using the addresses they managed to collect.

You understand: the world of cryptocurrencies can be dangerous for anyone who acts in a hurry. You need to be especially careful and anticipate every situation you find yourself in.

Tools for exposing fraud

Google image or Yandex, the search system is less used by the General public. These tools are a formidable weapon to fight fraudsters. Indeed, these search engines offer very powerful features that allow you to find the sources of images used on all sites on the Internet.

Such a network is a powerful solution offering a variety of measures that allow for in-depth audience analysis. This tool allows, for example, to verify the validity of comments made by members of the project team. For example, if a community manager claims to have raised millions of dollars, but the site has an audience of about 5,000 visits per month, you have every right to ask yourself questions.

The smartest scammers are thinking about buying Internet traffic. In this case, you can always see where the traffic is coming from. For example, an ICO, the headquarters of which is located in the USA, and the entire audience is located in eastern countries or on the African continent, should attract your attention. The way the site allows us to interpret the numbers attracts users and encourages them to think seriously before making any investments.

Summing up

The cryptocurrency industry is still relatively young, and it is likely that we will see more fraudulent schemes. Therefore, it is important to remain vigilant: every time the platform makes an unusual request, it is best to think and consider the possibility of hacking.

And we should not forget about such a useful resource as a blacklist, which lists all websites specializing in crypto assets that are not authorized to engage in their activities, or have been caught in fraud at least once.