The cryptocurrency world has always attracted hackers, scammers, criminals, and other unsavory types who try to part you from your money. Let’s take a look at some of the most common scams and how to avoid them.
The freedom to transact with anyone, anywhere, in any amount, with a fast, cryptographically verifiable settlement, has been one of the most fundamental and important qualities of Bitcoin.
This freedom not only attracts peaceful people looking to take back control of their personal finances, the irreversible and pseudonymous nature of the Bitcoin payments also attracts thieves.
Many early Bitcoiners have fallen victim to a wide array of elaborate and more or less effective scams over the years. As a global Bitcoin business, Bitrefill has its own fair share of scammers trying to make off with our customer’s precious Satoshis. Let’s take a look at how to avoid these pitfalls.
Common scams to avoid when making a purchase with Bitrefill
Fake customer support asking for Bitcoin
If someone does ask you to send them money in one of our Telegram groups, Reddit, Twitter, or any other communication channel, they are trying to scam you. They may even have a Bitrefill logo or domain in their profile to create false credibility. Do not send them funds, and please report/block the user profile.
We never ask for any funds in any of our support channels.
Fake communication from Bitrefill
Similar to the fake customer support, this can be emails but also other channels like fake Twitter accounts, fake Facebook accounts or fake Telegram group. The end goal is usually for the attacker to steal credentials or private access ( remember that if you share your invoice link someone else can read your gift card code ), and can also be used to direct users to a fake Bitrefill website.
Fake Bitrefill website
Many scams involve creating a mock Bitrefill website, and diverting real customers to the fake site, for scam purchases. They create a clone of our website and hosts it on a URL that looks similar to ours like
- bitreflill.com
- bitrefiil.com
- bltrefill.com
- bitrefill.app
On the fake website everything looks similar but the payment address will be different and the money will be sent to the attacker instead. This scam can also be used to steal credentials, if you log in to your Bitrefill account on the fake website the attacker will have access to your login credentials on the real site. This could allow them to steal your account balances, or unused gift card codes.
Fake Bitrefill hack
Usually, on some social media chat group or shady forum, the attacker will claim he has a way to fool our system and receive free money/free products, or at a discount. To do so they ask the user to install a browser extension or paste some code in their brower's console. This results in the user getting an address replacer malware on their computer, which will replace Bitrefill's or any other crypto addresses you want to pay.
Other regularly encountered Bitcoin scams
Aside from the scams which target Bitrefill specifically, Bitcoin has many similar scams that are common ways for new users to be taken advantage of. Here are some scams you may come across, that you can easily avoid.
Fake Bitcoin giveaways
Social media is full of scammers impersonating well-known people or popular influencer accounts, who promote “Bitcoin giveaways” where they say they will send back double the amount of Bitcoin that you send to them. They never send a single Satoshi back to anyone.
Fake giveaways have become more elaborate over time, with automated bots posting comments saying they have just been awarded a large amount of free bitcoin,and others should try it. Some have even gone as far as live streaming recorded interviews with famous people to trick victims into thinking the giveaway is real.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a kind of malware that encrypts the user’s data so that they are unable to access it. They are then extorted for the key to unencrypt the data, by the attacker. They are asked to send a payment in Bitcoin in order to regain access.
These attacks often target organizational infrastructure, but many individuals have also been targeted, as well. To avoid ransomware, don’t click on strange links, or download unknown software or attachments from shady emails.
Cryptojacking
Cryptojacking is malware which clandestinely installs or runs cryptocurrency mining software on an infected machine or browser. Machines compromised by cryptojacking often infect other machines and create giant mining botnets across hundreds or thousands of computers and use the pooled hijacked-resources to mine cryptocurrency for the attacker.
To avoid cryptojacking, don’t click on strange links, or download unknown software or attachments from shady emails, and use an anti-malware app to routinely scan your machine and prevent websites from running mining malware in your browser.
Blackmail Scams
Scammers often attempt blackmail scams with social engineering designed to trick the victim into paying a blackmail payment in Bitcoin. A common example is the famous email where a hacker claims to have hacked your webcam and recorded you in a compromising situation, and threatens to release an embarrassing video to all your social media accounts and followers if a payment is not made.
These are usually false claims designed to frighten a victim into making a payment to the scammer.
Sim Swapping
Sim swapping is a scam where the victim’s mobile provider is convinced by the attacker to reassign the victim’s mobile number to a sim card on a mobile device the attacker controls. Once they gain access, they often reset the passwords and remove 2FA and then raid all the victim’s cryptocurrency wallets and exchange accounts, by using their access to the victim’s accounts through their mobile device.
Many mobile carriers will honor a customer’s request to deny requests to assign a mobile number to a different device. It’s recommended that you instruct your mobile provider to never change your sim without your in-person authorization.
Ponzi Schemes
Ponzi schemes are fraudulent investment scams that promise incredible returns, and prey on a victim’s greed. They are extremely popular in Crypto, especially in developing economies. A Ponzi scheme promises outsized returns, and pays the earlier investors with the funds from the people who invest after.
Ponzi schemes often become extremely popular as early participants actually do earn outsized returns and provide social proof as they earn a commission for bringing others in. They are paid with the funds invested by those they bring in under them, until the whole thing becomes unsustainable and collapses, leaving everyone with a zero balance. Ponzi schemes in Crypto often center around “investment clubs”, “trading bots”, or “cloud mining”.
Fake Exchanges and Wallets
Scammers often create fake Bitcoin services, apps, and businesses and steal from funds from everyone who deposits Bitcoin to the service. It is very important to research the Bitcoin wallet, application, exchange, or peer to peer platform you plan to use, before you ever send a single Sat to it. Not every Bitcoin exchange is regulated or trustworthy, and some key generators, apps to recover forked coins, or wallets are designed with malware to steal user funds.
Fraudulent tokens, pump & dump schemes
Many ICO/DAO/DEFI scams have either been a project which has exit-scammed, or grossly misappropriated investor funds.
Some are completely fake projects, and others are elaborate and coordinated pump and dumps, where early investors dump their bags on inexperienced ones. In all cases, the scammer makes a shit-ton of money, while investors are stuck holding a bag of worthless tokens, or even nothing at all.
Trading bots, classes, and paid trading signal groups
Social media is full of would-be trading gurus who have very little actual knowledge of financial markets, all of them offering you their “secret” to become rich as a crypto trader. What they never tell you is that their secret is to dupe a bunch of naive subscribers into paying a monthly fee for almost random trading calls.
If they were as successful as they claim, they would not be selling subscriptions to a group or class, they would be making money hand over fist trading the markets.
This is just scratching the surface of the scams one can fall victim to in the world of Bitcoin. Always be skeptical, don’t trust, verify, and remember the golden rule, “Not your keys, not your coins”.
If there’s any other common scams to look out for, let us know on Twitter, in our Telegram Chat, or in our subReddit, r/Bitrefill. Thank you for using Bitrefill!
