Nobody aims to fall victim to a scam. Unfortunately, it happens. And when a market becomes lucrative, you can bet that crooks will flock to it. Justifiably, people nowadays are hyper-sensitive about Bitcoin scams.
Top up your prepaid mobile phone instantly with Bitrefill Accounts.
But if you do fall victim to a scam, where can you go to receive help? In many places, the answer is unclear. It is often unregulated where it is legal, and those countries take different stances regarding fraud protection. For example, Colombia will not provide legal support, and the United States outlines the difficulties in recovering stolen funds. Instead, private exchanges, like ones in Japan and the United States, are taking the lead to insure Bitcoin.
It is often unclear or impossible to receive help for Bitcoin fraud in most countries. So, you must take extra caution when deciding how and where to spend your Bitcoin.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST FRAUD
Here are some tips to avoid becoming the victim of a scam.
- Do not click suspicious links. These may hide malware that will damage your computer.
- Do not trust social media. Crooks find it easy to pretend to be others on these platforms. Moreover, no legitimate business would insist that you could only make transactions on social media.
- Do not share your private key. Crooks pretending to be legitimate businesses will ask for your Bitcoin key in clever ways and steal it. No legitimate business would ever ask for your private key.
- Do not believe get-rich promises. As we mentioned before, nobody can guarantee that you will become wealthier by investing in Bitcoin. If anybody does, s/he may be a crook. If it seems too good to be true, it is. Stay away.
We recommend three tactics to protect yourself.
- Conduct research. If a business is legitimate, it most likely can be found elsewhere on the internet. For example, Bitrefill has a page in Crunchbase, a trusted database of startups, with Twitter comments left by users.
- Check for a secured URL. If a website begins with “https,” it is most likely secure. If it does not begin with “https,” it is most likely not secure.
- Make a small purchase. If you suspect that a business is fraudulent, do not make a large transaction of Bitcoin. Instead, make a small transaction to test the service. For example, you can purchase a few prepaid mobile minutes at Bitrefill. If the transaction occurs, then you can trust that the service is legitimate and make larger purchases in the future.
The blockchain is a fantastic innovation that provides more security for financial transactions, but crooks will find new means to try to rob people of their hard-earned money. Unfortunately, not everybody around the world has the proper legal mechanisms to receive help. We have provided you with some suggestions to protect yourselves against crooks. Please, keep these in mind to ensure that you keep your Bitcoins out of their hands.
