The era of cryptocurrency
As cryptocurrencies are becoming more common to people, more people understand that this is an alternative to real currencies, and many questions about what cryptocurrency is are being answered. This leads to an increase in awareness and popularity.
Due to their nature, cryptocurrencies are not regulated, which carries loss for investors and risk of market volatility. However, the experts believe that the risk of security and frauds is vastly reduced when using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It is true that, due to their highly secure nature of transactions, purchases or transfers cannot be traced, but does that save people from getting fraud?
The biggest accounts in the world were made to tweet a bitcoin scam:
We all know how Elon Musk keeps tweeting about his favorite Dogecoin, which leads to double the price of that cryptocurrency. And eventually, Elon Musk was the first hacked Twitter account tweeting: “I’m feeling generous because of COVID-19, I’ll double any BTC payment sent to my BTC address for the next hour. Good luck, and stay safe out there!”. The tweet had an address where people could send bitcoin.
It was quickly clear that Musk was hacked, and it wasn’t just him. The official accounts of Coinbase, Gemini, and Binance had posted suspicious tweets shortly before Musk did. Then a deluge of tweets appeared from Apple, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Floyd Mayweather, Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden, Kanye West, Michael Bloomberg, Uber, Warren Buffett, Wiz Khalifa, and others all posted tweets like Musk’s in short order. Some accounts posted multiple tweets while under the hackers’ control.
Out of all the big names, hackers targeted the Indian audience through Realme India’s official support Twitter account. Hackers changed the profile name to “ T e s l a”, while everything else remained the same. Hackers didn’t exploit the account using new tweets, instead, they went to Elon Musk’s profile and began spamming with his own tweets with a message, “ Win a lot of Bitcoins in our broadcast, we start in 3 minutes”. This message had a link, which was the gateway to the scam.
Consumers lost over $2 million in cryptocurrency to scammers impersonating Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk over the last six months, reported the Federal Trade Commission.
How can you prevent yourself from cryptocurrency fraud?
1. Check the tweet twice and find the originating account, mostly they’re impersonated accounts.
2. Don’t fall prey to double your money scams, all of them are fake.
3. Always transfer your money to a crypto wallet after properly verifying.
While doing online transactions(other than cryptocurrencies), use a platform like Vouch to ensure the buyer's hesitation is also taken care of. With Vouch, the risk of Fraud is Non-existent. Freelance, Buy and sell with peace of mind. You will always be in control of the order and the money.
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This is Fraud Story #9. Check back here for more fraud chronicles and scams that you can protect yourself from.
Safety is not just about protecting your credit or debit card number. It's about having control of your money till you've delivered the product or service you contracted to!
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Note: This is a good-faith initiative to educate the world about how to avoid frauds like these. Do you have a fraud that you would like to report? Please write to us at letstalk@iamvouched.com
