Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S6W5 - Common Crypto Scams And How To Avoid Them

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Hello all my friends...
How are you? I hope everyone is healthy wherever you are. I'm fine here too. Today I am grateful that I can still take part in the Steemit Engagement Challenge in the SteemitCryptoAcademy community with its fifth week. I will try to describe this week's topic as follows;

Steemit Crypto Academy Contest Season 6 Week 5 -Common Crypto Scams And How To Avoid Them

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Explain Your Understanding Of Crypto Scam

Crypto Scam is fraud against crypto assets or criminal efforts made by a person or group by tricking users into taking the assets they have. Fraudsters will see the self-potential of the person they want to deceive or it can be said that someone who does not understand or even has just entered the crypto world will become the main target of fraudsters in trapping their prey.

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These scams often target new users who are tempted by attractive offers from a message or in the form of crypto assets. These new users usually have little experience and lessons in the world of crypto, they cannot even analyze the potentials and directions of market movements so that when the perpetrators launch their actions, the victims only see rising market statistics.

Very often we see scammers in crypto who are experts (can access computers, understand the crypto world), they are smart but it is a shame that they use them for crimes. However, most of the crypto scammers, they are also people who have been scammed by other crypto scammers. This is the cycle that has happened the most so far. Crypto Scam is real, and scammers never sleep when they see a great opportunity in front of their eyes and they will do whatever it takes to get it in a smart way.

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Explain The various Types of crypto Scam

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There are various types of crypto scams which I will describe below, hopefully we can find out and learn a lot after knowing these types of scams.

Phishing is Crypto Scam that fraud by luring victims to provide their sensitive data such as passwords or private keys which is a way to get into the victims' wallets. This type of fraud is the most common, even the victims are all around us, people we know and even our own relatives. This type of Crypto Scam is carried out through various mediums such as private messages, social media and e-mail.

On our platform, this type of fraud occurs very often. The perpetrators will send messages on behalf of an important person or important organization that invites the victim to follow instructions where the instructions are sent in the form of a link in which there is already ransomware or spyware. These two things will open sensitive information from our wallet security system such as wallet keys.

If the wallet keys can be stolen, then it is like an account changing hands, all assets can be taken and the keys can be replaced by the perpetrator so there is no way for us to save our crypto assets. And this type also exists in our platform, so we have to be careful.

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Mining scams Is Crypto Scam that fraud in crypto that offers benefits from mining activities or mining certain assets. The perpetrators will offer their victims a large profit that has the same percentage every day. So that victims will be interested and join in this activity because they only see big profits without knowing what crypto assets are.

In order to avoid this type of crypto scam, we must understand that inveMining tools are never cheap and difficult to do and Mining crypto assets also usually will never provide stable profits especially in high amounts.

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Giveaway scam is a type of crypto scam that is giving away crypto assets for free which is wrapped in an airdrop model. This crypto fraud activity is carried out by means of the victims connecting digital wallets to certain smart contracts or following the link provided by the perpetrator which turns out that this activity will drain the crypto assets that the victim has.

In the crypto world, we should verify our own digital address from a giveaway or airdrop. We also have to know what a smart contract is before connecting our digital wallet to an unknown address, because scammers will look for new users who don't understand the crypto world.

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Rug pull is a type of crypto scam where developers leave crypto projects they have created first. The developers will become investors for the crypto project, and after collecting as many funds from investors as possible, the project development team will make a loss pull. This rug pull can be done by project developers because in the project they have embedded a mechanism for withdrawing funds into the code behind the crypto project.

To avoid this scam, we are required to Always verify projects, smart contracts, and the legality of a crypto project ourselves. We can also check the project's whitepaper, view social media, and look for information from trusted sites like CoinMarketCap.

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Pump and Dump is a crypto scame mode that campaigns for a person or organization to buy an asset, push its price up, and then immediately sell it. After successfully pushing the price up, the fraudster will immediately sell in large quantities, trapping and harming investors who have already bought it.

The way to recognize pump and dump is to see the social media activity of a crypto asset that suddenly shoots up in a short time. If the content of the activity is just a promotion to buy and is done by a similar account (they are trying to cheat), it is most likely a pump and dump attempt. We better start investing in clear crypto assets for example Bitcoin or Ethereum.

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This type of fraud is very unique. They fraudsters will pretend or in the name of investment with famous celebrities or influencers by pretending to sell fake types of Cryptocurrency to beginners. Penula who do not understand it will be tempted and do this activity.

Initially the scammers will ask you to send assets like 1 Ethereum for a return of 10 Ethereum. Scammers will provide evidence in the form of forged documents showing that other people are also doing it and benefiting from it. We must know that there is no giving of free assets without doing anything. Studying the world of crypto before plunging further to get profits in a short time will be better and avoid various scams.

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How Can We Do In Other To Spot These Types Of Crypto Scams

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To spot crypto scams In Other To Spot This Types Of Crypto Scams, there are a few things we can learn. This can be a reference for us to avoid the types of crypto fraud as above. And to find it, we can find out a number of things such as;

1. Unreasonable profits💰

This is a common characteristic of scams in the crypto world. The perpetrators will give gifts or crypto assets in which profitn what the asset has to offer is ridiculous. There are no crypto assets that give their coins for free and in large quantities, moreover these profits are always in the same percentage as receiving a 5% profit every day, and this is impossible because crypto assets always go up and down according to market movements.

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2. Suspicious sites and links❗

Sites created by fraudsters usually have different links, even though they look the same as the site they are impersonating too. This is a fraudster's way of spoofing, namely disguising a site or link as closely as possible to the original. We can check the extension at the end of the site link. Or we can also follow them through their social media, how is the activity in it, and if it's just promotion, then we can be sure that the site is fake.

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3. Asking for Money First🙅

In this case, Many scams start by telling us to send certain money or assets before getting a big prize Because we win a certain lottery. Fraudsters will send fake return receipts as a tool to convince victims. But we must know that a legitimate Airdrop or sweepstakes usually will not ask for funds in any form.

Have You Ever Been Scammed Before? Or Have A Person That You Know Ever Be Scammed? Explain To Us The Incident

I've never been scammed before. But I once clicked on a spammer's link that was shared in the comments of my post on the platform. I, who was a beginner at that time, did not know what spam was and what losses I would get. I clicked it and then a message popped up, where the link linked to another person's account again.

^{source from shahzadmushtaq account, and his account has been muted after I clicked on the link}

The link is like an intermediary for us because the real party is a third party. I later went back and asked more experienced ones, and it turned out to be a spam comment. I'm nervous because of the consequences that I was told, but I'm grateful that I didn't continue with the activity, because the next activity will ask me to connect it with everything related to my smart lock. And I realized that nothing is easy to get for free, and if it's just from a lookalike account then forget it, because a real account won't ask us for anything. We got lucky and they gave us the gift straight away.

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How Can One Protect Himself From Crypto Scam

After we know the various types of Crypto Scam, we also have to be careful and always be aware of the possibility of this happening. There are many things we can do to protect our assets from fraudsters who want to steal our assets, as shown below;

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The private key is the most sensitive key that we have to open our account wallet. All accounts have their own private key and if the private key is given to someone else, then don't be surprised that when you wake up, all your assets will be gone. Giving the private key to someone else is like suicide. You can store this password safely in a place that is not accessible to the internet such as in Cold wallet and on paper and then store it in a safe place.

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The world of crypto assets is closely related to the internet network, because only with the internet can we carry out activities in it. Considering that almost all the devices we use are connected to the internet, we need to pay attention to the security of personal data. Therefore, we can add a layer of security by using a variety of available applications called Two-factor Authentication (2FA). This application will authenticate with other applications or devices before being able to access the account that is owned. So that fraudsters who steal cannot access our accounts without additional authentication from smartphones, e-mail, or authenticator applications such as Google Authenticator.

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It's like analyzing all the information about the crypto asset we want to invest. We ourselves have to do research, read the history of the asset, find out who created it, read the whitepaper, and see the project's activity. The most important ammunition against fraud in the crypto world is knowledge. This is why the word or Do your own research (DYOR*) is so often said by many people. We must really understand Cryptocurrency well.

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4. Ignore Unrealistic Offers

The crypto world is often considered to be able to provide big profits instantly and in a fast time. Many investors get a lot of money from the results of this investment. This notion of 'instant profit' is often used by fraudsters to lure their victims. Therefore, we must avoid projects or businesses related to crypto assets that provide the lure of large profits in a short time, especially if the project is still small. As people say, Nothing is free in this world.

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Conclusion

Fraud or Crypto Scam is fraud against crypto assets or criminal efforts made by a person or group by tricking and tricking users into taking the assets they have. Someone who doesn't understand (beginner) in the world of crypto will be the main target of fraudsters in trapping their prey.

We must protect all crypto assets that are in the account wallet as well as possible and store all passwords properly. Never give the private key to anyone because that would be like suicide.

Nothing is instant, so don't be quickly attracted by those who give you big prizes but have to transfer some of your coins first, a real account will never ask for anything. To avoid crypto scams, it would be nice for us to know all the information about the newly built project.

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Until here my participation this week, good luck to all my friends and also thank you for visiting my block, nut before I end my post, I want to invite my friends to also participate in this contest @f2i5 @amryksr @preye2 @nadiaturrina @tocho2 @sailawana @klen.civil @abialfatih @fantvwiki @fajrulakmal99 @patjewell @inspiracion

Finally, see you soon
from your friend,
❤

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