Share on
- Copy link
With Bitcoin hitting a new peak, at about $7,400, many scammers have upgraded their ways to fool people,
Last updated Feb 22, 2023 at 04:34 PM
Posted Nov 3, 2017 at 08:46 PM
With Bitcoin hitting a new peak, at about $7,400, many scammers have upgraded their ways to fool people, as Jason Hall of Perth, Australia, recently discovered, informs CCN.
He explained that scammers were able to manipulate Google search results for his trading website and were able to gain access to his real account. From there on, it was a piece of cake to steal his money.
“I was in a rush, I wanted to make a trade, I saw an opportunity and I wanted to do it quickly before I went to sleep,” remembered Jason. The website he had logged into turned out to be a scam website copying a legitimate one. It took him a week to figure out that he was played, but the time he contacted the real website’s support, all his Bitcoin assets were gone, losing AU$1,600 worth of cryptocurrency to the hackers.
Alex Saunders, a Bitcoin trader from Launceston, Australia, who has been trading in the digital currency for five years, revealed that such Bitcoin scams, that use phishing scams, pyramid schemes and websites that promise extraordinary returns, are rapidly adjusting to a market that grows everyday.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), October saw 245 reports of Bitcoin-related scams, totalling $92,000. An ACCC spokeswoman said that last month’s tricks included unexpected prize and lottery scams, investment scheme scams and reclaim scams.
To avoid becoming victims, due diligence is necessary when trading Bitcoins. Many digital currency scam are too good to be true and are simply there to make money off of unsuspecting users, so keep that in mind.
Over the past week, Bitcoin’s value has increased from $6,000 to over $7,400, meaning that the digital currency market is now considered a heaven for those who want to make illegal money.