If you are a curious person, then you are probably interested in understanding the way the Crypto Trading Scam works. Investing scams in general, have existed throughout history, and Crypto is just the newest one. It has been going on since the infamous Bitcoin Bubble of 2018, and continues reinvesting itself.
The basic premise of the Crypto Investing Scam is the same, with its sole purpose of separating unsuspecting people from their money. The scammers do this by offering “investment” services, but it is actually a more like an offshore laundromat.
Professional Spam Emails – Step 1
The scam starts with an email like the one shown in the image above. This email is just one of the many Crypto trading offers we receive to our inbox daily. How did they get me email address? Because , I once made the mistake of signing up for a investing offer I found on Facebook.
Once you have signed up for a “Get Rich Quick” or “Make Money” website, you can expect to be bombarded with multiple emails every day. The emails are all basically the same, with just different subjects to entice you to open it.
Side Note: Although the email spammers will many times sell your address, the unsubscribe button usually works. A general rule we with spam emails is, if the sender includes a working unsubscribe button, it works to click it.
Otherwise, it is like other spam that there is nothing to do about it.
Fake News Website Article – Step 2
We took the bait, and clicked on the link in the email. We came to an article which looked really interesting!
Have you seen a news article like the one above?
It included “As Seen On” logo’s from some legitimate news websites, and testimonials from average looking people who have made thousands of dollars. But wait! Did you check the website? Worlds-Greatest-News.com.
This is where the Crypto investing scam starts. The article is fake news, and actually it is really an infomercial. All the links in the article are pointing us to a Fake Trading Bot called Bitcoin Code.
Fake Crypto Trading Bot – Step 3
This is just the third step in the Crypto trading scam, to convince you to lose your money.
Bitcoin Code is not the only Fake Crypto Trading Bot we have found. Scammers have used every word in the dictionary, and associated it with Bitcoin to make fake trading robots. They have the Bitcoin Loophole, Crypto Trader, Bitcoin Circuit, Bitcoin Revolution, and the list goes on and on. You can see reviews of almost 200 trading apps and bots listed here.
If you look at the website address of the trading bot you want to use, many times it has no correlation to the actual software. In our case, we were directed to a website Codenet-Systems.com. Where is the real Bitcoin Code website, and who created it? No one knows.
Automated trading systems or Robo Advisors, can work nicely with long term stock market investing. When you are day trading Crypto Currencies with a CFD broker, you need to be watching to market at all times.
In the world of Forex trading, many people do Copy Trading, which means they are following a live person actual trades.
Offshore Crypto Currency Broker – Step 4
The actual Crypto trading scam happens at the offshore broker. After clicking the link in the email, reading a fake news article, signing up for a crypto trading bot, we arrive at the website of another offshore Crypto CFD broker.
Before asking us to verify our email address, phone number or verifying our identify, they want us to deposit money.
Do you know what a CFD is? CFD stands for Contract for Difference. The broker you are looking at is not a Crypto Currency Exchange, but rather they are a CFD broker. CFD’s are financial instruments that must be regulated by the FCA, BaFIN, CySEC, ASIC, or your local financial regulator.
Although many people believe that Crypto is not regulated and decentralized, Trading Crypto is actually regulated, and all providers, brokers and exchanges must have a license!
Every day another offshore Crypto broker opens a website, and starts looking for the next sucker to lose their money.
Conclusion
If you are still interested in Crypto Trading, then look at any of the FCA or ASIC regulated brokers. At brokers like Pepperstone or ForTrade, you will find a legitimate trading environment.
Many people get sucked into these offshore scams because they think a $250 gamble is worthwhile. But that is the scam! You start with $250, and before you know it, the slick salesman convinces you to deposit $10,000.