Hello,

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I hail all colleagues and professors in the Cryptoacademy. Most especially professor @yohan2on who has taught us Crypto Scams and how to avoid them

Question

What are Crypto scams?
Make your research on any Cryptocurrency scam. (Attach a few references to the news surrounding that scam crypto project)

There are cryptocurrency investors and traders, as well as people looking for ways to steal money from them. There have been numerous frauds and scandals involving cryptocurrencies that have resulted in the loss of billions of dollars in investments and assets. Occasionally, the missing monies are found and their owners are compensated; however, this is not always the case.
Cheating is a serious offense. False exchanges, ICOs, Ponzi schemes, apps, other sorts of market manipulation strategies, cryptojacking, fake web home address generators, phishing, and trusted trading are just a few of the programs available. Scams are so common even to the extent that fraudsters use fake smart contracts to deceive other con artists!

FORMS OF CRYPTO SCAMS

Fake Exchanges

The number of cryptocurrency wallets, exchanges, exchangers, and other businesses has expanded dramatically in recent years. Of course, fraudsters took advantage of this to set up their own exchange facilities, which do not deal with exchanges but rather steal money. Users are typically attracted to such sites by ostensibly closed information or profitable ideas about how much money can be made by trading currency swings.
They guarantee the user a profit if they buy digital currencies in legitimate exchanges and then resell them on a phony site. In such methods, real exchange platforms are employed to increase confidence in users so that they believe that they are real too.

The scheme's basic premise is that the participant purchases cryptocurrency for money on a legitimate platform. Then he goes to the fraud site, which has very attractive crypto to the fiat exchange rate. However, there is no exchange. When a user submits the money to a fraudulent exchange, he loses it immediately.

Social media scams

Individuals nowadays are astonishing in their generosity for likes on social media. If you look at the answers to a popular tweet, you'll notice that one of your favorite influencers or crypt projects is pleased with the offer. The operation will be to return 10 times more if you send them just 1 coin! Doesn't that sound a little too good to be true? This is, unfortunately, one of the most typical sorts of deception.
It's extremely unlikely that you'll find a genuine giveaway that requires you to send money first. You should be suspicious of such messages on social media since they can come from accounts that look exactly like those you know and love, but this is part of the plan. The scores of answers thanking the specified account for their generosity are all phony accounts or bots that were employed in this giveaway.
To summarize it all, you should just disregard it because genuine firm personnel will never urge you to be the first to send money to earn benefits.

Blindly follow an idea or suggestion

In the cryptocurrency sector, the term DYOR means "Do your own research," which indicates you should consider and think with your own head before making a decision, and there's a valid reason for it. You should constantly think about your decision on your own, rather than accepting someone's word for it when deciding which asset or tokens to invest in because you can never know what their genuine motivations are later. Even famous and well-known people might be paid to promote an ICO or have their own substantial interests. Remember that no endeavor will thrive without risk, and many might fail.
A mix of elements must be considered in order to obtain an objective appraisal of a project. Everyone has their own method for locating excellent investing opportunities.

Phishing

Phishing is a term that even individuals who are new to the crypto world are likely to be familiar with. Essentially, a fraudster poses as a person or corporation to acquire access to the victim's personal information. This can happen by phone, email, phony websites, or chat logs, among other methods. Scams involving messaging apps are extremely common in the cryptocurrency world.
When it comes to gaining access to your personal information, scammers don't follow any set of standards. You may receive an email informing you that there is a situation with your online wallet and that you must click on a link to resolve the problem. This link will take you to a false website that looks exactly like the real one, prompting you to log in. As a result, your credentials and maybe your cryptocurrency will be stolen by an attacker.
Scammers on Whatsapp and Telegram frequently hide in legitimate groups dedicated to specific cryptocurrencies or exchanges. Whenever a user in this community reports an issue, the fraudster approaches him privately, posing as a representative of the support staff or a member of the team. They will request to share your confidential info or seed phrase in conversation, and such person will be done for.

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Recommendations

• Make sure the URLs of the websites you visit are correct. Scammers frequently register a domain that is remarkably similar to a legitimate company's domain.

• Make a list of your most often visited websites. Malicious websites might appear at the top of search results.

• If you have any reservations about the communication you got, disregard it and contact the company or their official spokesman using the contact information provided by a trustworthy source.

• Your private keys password, and encrypted seed phrase should only be known and accessible to you.

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How to take caution?

Attackers follow well-established tactics that enable them to gain users' trust in order to fool them.

• Most fraudsters rush their victims and don't give them enough time to notice what's going on. Deception and intimidation are frequently used to achieve this goal. Do not be led astray by those who wish to confuse and rush you; instead, get acquainted with all accessible facts and do not be led astray by those who wish to mislead you.

• Scammers frequently use the sneaky bugs tactic to attract interest. Scammers frequently disseminate information about a supposedly erroneous exchange rate or profitable exchange processes on social media. Both are merely a ruse.

• If you need to send tokens or make a transfer in a payment system with a poor level of data verification, such as QIWI, you should be extremely cautious. Fraudsters frequently make use of these systems' features. Nonrefundable transactions exist with cryptocurrency.

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No refund is guaranteed once scammed

Users who have been scammed have the option of contacting law enforcement organizations, but there is no guarantee that the stolen monies will be reimbursed.
It is possible that fraudsters will make a mistake and be detected, but even in this instance, the crooks may be out of money.

Even if law enforcement agents had a strong desire and authority, cryptocurrencies might not be reclaimed. The sheer nature of cryptocurrencies indicates that central entities do not have a management function.
If we're talking about crypto exchanges that are registered in normal regulatory jurisdictions and have a decent reputation, there's a good probability of getting a refund even if the exchange is hacked and customer funds are stolen. But not guaranteed.

Make your research on any Cryptocurrency scam. (Attach a few references to the news surrounding that scam crypto project)

PlusToken

PlusToken, a Chinese cryptocurrency wallet that promised investors up to 25% profits, but was ultimately shown to be a Ponzi fraud. The total amount of money lost in this scam was about $6 billion.

News surrounding PlusToken scam
Link 2

The method was set up in such a way that the scheme's originator enticed investors with the promise of profitable and consistent returns with almost no risk. The investment approach is frequently regarded as a trade secret or too complicated for anybody other than system developers to comprehend. The scheme's entire effort is geared at luring new investors, whose funds are subsequently utilized to benefit those who entered earlier.

When there was a steady stream of money from investors, the program was good. The operation of this scam collapsed as the inflow of money began to decline, and the creators of this initiative vanished in the blink of an eye.

Because the plan was located in Asia, some Asian countries were disproportionately affected. However, a few investors from Europe and America were also impacted. The sweet deal was to receive a percentage of PLUS tokens purchased with ETH or Bitcoin that was equal to or more than 16 percent.
The PLUS tokens are expected to be worth around $350, according to the proposal. Furthermore, the initiative claims to make money from cryptocurrency mining, exchange fees, and special offers.

This loss recorded from this project was much and has not been fully recovered till today. PlusToken project was a scam that took the form of Ponzi because it benefited earlier investors through other investors money that joined along the way before it all crashed

Question

To what extent have Crypto scams affected the Crypto space?

There has been a lot of people who feel like Cryptocurrency is the way through to the future, but they withdraw and take a step backward because they felt that it is not just good to get scammed of hard-earned money (capital) or asset which sometimes occur majorly with newbies and novice.
A lot of Cryptocurrency scams succeeded and millions of life's and finances were affected because they fell for the fraudulent schemes while it looks like the sweetest deal, or maybe because some are not familiar with procedures to manage and maintain their investment in the Crypto space, and this is the advantage most of this Crypto scammers use to exploit new people and novice investors who are coming into the Crypto space.
In general:

• Scam has brought about a lack of trust in the Cryptocurrency system.
• It bought limit to mode at which investment can be made because investors want to minimize risk
• Some people even thought of Cryptocurrency as a gambling system where two things are involved either you are scammed or you gain. This idea will negatively affect people's mentality for massesadoption.
• The Lamentations of those who have been scammed has attracted the attention of government authority of different countries, and this led to some Countries Government thinking Cryptocurrency is not ideal for citizens to engage in and thereby placing a ban on it. While some government authorities used the avenue of what the Crypto scammers have done to establish their wish to counter the adoption of Cryptocurrency while they stylishly support the traditional financial system.
• Scammers have successfully scammed people of billions of dollars already, and this has resulted in the loss of investment capital, financial loss, and financial instabilities.

Question

Will regulations in Crypto add value to the Crypto space?

Regulation in Crypto will add value to crypto space in some areas, that is right, but regulation will also have an impact on cryptocurrency decentralization form.

But from another perspective, I don't want to agree that regulation can finally cub the ways of how scammers operate in the Crypto space.

Taking for instance, in the traditional financial system that is highly centralized, there are regulations everywhere, and despite that, there are still scammers all over. (In Nigeria, some people might call or text you to update your bank information, claiming to be your financial manager, and asking for sensitive information from you, and whosoever falls for that scheme will be scammed and his or her money might be cleared from their account). Scam doesn't begin in cryptocurrency, yet regulations have not tamed this unethical character.
Only those who are aware of how scammers operate will be able to avoid falling into the trap. The best way to protect the Crypto space from the grips of scammers is for individuals to have the understanding that there is Scam everywhere and the way of surviving is to DYOR (Do your own research) and to be careful when a deal seems too sweet. Because one major characteristic of a Scam scheme is that it appears to be the best and highly profitable which is the trick to lure people.