Easy Crypto Saves New Investor 10K from Crypto Scam

As with any investment opportunities, investing in crypto has its fair share of risks involved. Any kind of crypto scam can present a potential threat to those who are unaware of their existence.

Therefore, it’s important as an investor to learn about these threats, and for those who are aware to minimize the risks involved for the rest of us.

Risks such as crypto scams can be mitigated by employing safe investment practices, and also security measures on the exchanges. This is the case with a crypto investor whom we managed to save before succumbing to heavy losses.

Through the vigilance and quick thinking of Compliance Staff at Easy Crypto, an investor, new to cryptocurrency, was saved before losing $10,000.

Crypto scam in the industry

The reality is, the cryptocurrency industry, as with all financial industries, has its fair share of nefarious users looking to profit from newcomers. Crypto scams range across different domains, with the most common being pyramid schemes, fake brokers, and romance scams.

The good news is Digital Currency Exchanges are at the cutting edge of dealing with these kinds of financial crimes.  This month an Easy Crypto customer was saved after the anti-fraud measures the exchange had in place, flagged a suspicious transaction.

As part of the verification process, users must pass a simple to complete, but extensive vetting process. Most of this process is to confirm the user and their account is safe; whilst cementing the reputation and integrity of the Exchange as a safe place to trade.

Using this information, along with other flags, the back-end fraud prevention system blocked the release of the cryptocurrency pending investigation from Compliance Staff.

The user was contacted directly and after ascertaining further details, Easy Crypto was able to reverse the transaction prior to the scammer receiving a withdrawal of the currency. The user in question was extremely relieved to retain her funds and requested others to be wary of her mistakes.

Managing Director Andrew Butler explained “Our user was socially manipulated into sending funds to a wallet that was not in her control. The attacker had cold called her pretending to be a broker who could recover funds and had coached her through the entire process. We are seeing more of these end-to-end scams, where the attacker will step the vulnerable person all the way through the process to ensure there are no roadblocks”

Andrew explained further: “The victims of these crimes come from a wide section of society, it can happen to anyone, which is why education in the crypto space is so important”.

Know your enemy

The Social Engineering Process

Step 1 – Reconnaissance

Initially an attacker will gather publicly available information on their target via web search, social media search and searches against prior known information (such as the users email).

Step 2 – Contact

Once a background of the target is established and a segue way for entry devised, the attacker will approach the user in a soft manner, to establish trust and authority.

Step 3 – The Crime

Once the attacker has gained the trust of the target, they will usually begin to exploit them for cryptocurrency or money.This will usually be in the guise of assisting them to invest or similar.

Step 4 – The Exit

Usually, once the attacker has sensed a loss in trust, they will disappear.  Notably, they will on occasion use an associate to come back later, to assist in ‘recovery’ of the user’s loss, starting the process again from the top.

Crypto Scam Prevention

There is no central voice for the cryptocurrency industry, therefore it is imperative exchanges take the lead in fraud prevention and security to ensure the integrity of Digital Currency Exchanges.

As an investor, it would be wise to learn about the different types of crypto scams out there. Familiarizing yourself with the different scams can help you stay alert and avoid heavy losses on your crypto journey. Learn all about these different scams and how to avoid them by reading about them in this article.

For more tips on how to keep your crypto assets safe, head over to this article.

And for the latest insights and updates for everything crypto, subscribe to our newsletters and explore our other articles at Easy Crypto.