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Anatomy of a cryptocurrency scam
- Eleanor__shaw 2y ago[dead]
- EdouardMaverick 2y ago[dead]
- cedrickyren 2y ago[dead]
- turnerhelen021 2y ago[dead]
- antonellaleo 2y ago[dead]
- deaverpamela 2y ago[dead]
- antonellaleo 2y ago[dead]
- sarahwoods 2y ago[dead]
- MELEKE 2y ago[dead]
- MELEKE 2y ago[dead]
- gryt67 2y agoGo file an email complaint to ( support (@) deftrecoup (.) com ) to know your chances of getting back your loss to any scam. Get your finances and sanity restored. PS. This is not an advert, they helped me on a different case but they are credible.
- MELEKE 2y ago[dead]
- MELEKE 2y ago[dead]
- brunogabby 2y ago[dead]
- MELEKE 2y ago[dead]
- yieldcrv 2y agolots of scams are able to continue by getting the victim to do things they wouldn't report to the police, or even to their relatives out of embarrassment although I think it is an interesting idea that scammers intentionally make typos and absurdities, just to weed out discerning people in favor of easier victims, I think there is a larger market for meticulous more legitimate looking scams as well this one fits somewhere in between
- Algemarin 2y ago> I think it is an interesting idea that scammers intentionally make typos and absurdities, just to weed out discerning people in favor of easier victims This is an apocryphal anecdote or theory that gets passed around, but I'm not sure how true it actually is, and certainly not universally true. In that, I think scammers are way more likely to just make typos than to setup an elaborate low-level target filter. Regardless, I've also never actually seen scammers admit to this.
- the_snooze 2y agohttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/why-do-nigerian-scammers-say-they-are-from-nigeria/ https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/why-do-...
- Algemarin 2y agoThis is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about, taken to an extreme. A lot of theorizing about ROC curves and optimal operating point formulae, and absolutely no empirical, qualitative evidence (such as any interviews with actual scammers). For example, there is no actual sample data provided to substantiate even the premise, let alone the conclusion of this claim: > In choosing a wording to dissuade all but the likeliest prospects the scammer reveals a great sensitivity to false positives.
- bediger4000 2y agoThanks for being more eloquent about critiquing that paper than I could be. But that leaves the observation about grammar and spelling in spams and scams unexplained. How should we explain scams terrible presentation?
- wslh 2y agoI suggest you the following exercise to see it with your own eyes: enter a Telegram channel on a top 100 cryptocurrency, say that you are trying to recover your wallet and... Suddenly a lot of scammer will contact you in less than 5' with techniques that you cannot imagine are real. For example, telegram handles with the same name as the channel admin but using unicode characters to make tou think it is the same account.
- TheDudeMan 2y agoWhat is the standard solution to this type of phish? This problem did not exist in the ASCII world, of course. Unicode is useful, but what is the best way to prevent this malicious use of it?
- omneity 2y agoThis problem extends beyond character encoding. The average joe (and not so average alike) seems to have a hard time to distinguish official channels from non-official scammy ones, even more so when the official channel doesn't exist on a given platform ("we don't offer support via Telegram" kind of situations). Cue in some greed as well and you got a perfect recipe for disaster. The root issue is the lack of skepticism and verification. At the same time humans have limited energy and verifying everything causes significant fatigue over time, so the problem might as well be intractable.
- pessimizer 2y agoIt's not about average Joes, it's about large numbers. If the scam works on 1/100 people in the US, that's 4 million people. If you're automating pitching it to 500 people a day, that's 5 wins a day. If your average haul is $500, that's $2500 a day. That's $900K a year.
- raincole 2y agoI do think it's good for certain things to be ASCII-only. People will say it's Americentrism or Anglo-Saxon-centrism. Ok so be it. Make the account handles and email addresses not inclusive and ASCII-only.
- Algemarin 2y agoThis scam is successful because it is predicated on the same appeal that ventures like lotteries, sweepstakes, slot machines, or giveaways have (albeit accentuated with a seemingly guaranteed win, that these other ventures don't have): the belief that you can just luck into a giant treasure chest of money by expanding minimal effort. Broadly, this is a modern version of what's known as an advance-fee fraud, which has been around for hundreds of years - paying a small amount upfront (hence the 'advance fee') under pretense of receiving a much larger amount later.
- nradov 2y agoThe difference is that while lotteries and casinos are out to take your money they're at least honest about it. If you win they'll pay out in real money. They're not rug pull scams.
- Algemarin 2y agoThe dishonesty lies in obfuscating the actual odds of winning, making the honesty about the payout a moot point as it's not particularly applicable for most entrants.
- nradov 2y agoWhere is the obfuscation? Most lotteries post the odds right on the main game page. What more do you want? https://www.calottery.com/draw-games/superlotto-plus#section-content-4-3 https://www.calottery.com/draw-games/superlotto-plus#section...
- Algemarin 2y ago> What more do you want? For it to be clear how unrealistic the odds are. They're not exactly broadcasting "you're 40 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to win the jackpot", instead their site screams "Millions Could Be Yours!". That is the dishonesty and obfuscation. Millions _could_ be yours, but they are very unlikely to be yours, in fact realistically approaching zero. While advance fee scams say "millions will definitely be yours", with the odds being absolutely zero. But neither are meaningful odds. Though regardless, my original point wasn't about odds but about the lure and the appeal of both of these things: the potential for getting a lot of money for doing virtually nothing (other than spending a bit of money up front).
- isawczuk 2y agoIf it was not a scam, you are ok to steal someone's savings. Maybe those type of scams are instant karma?
- grotorea 2y ago"You can't cheat an honest man" But there are plenty of cryptocurrency scams that don't require that. Just some place that looks like an exchange but is actually a money hole.
- jfengel 2y agoYeah, that expression is how people protect themselves. "Of course you got hurt. You were dishonest. It therefore cannot happen to me." Honest people get cheated every day.
- grotorea 2y agoOh sure but at least honest people can avoid being swindled by this stuff or falling for some types of pump and dump or pyramid schemes.
- jwrallie 2y agoIt reminds me of a scam they tried with my mom: and old person that apparently cannot read asks you about a lottery ticket, another “random” person comes and checks the lottery results from their phone, and you have a winning ticket for millions in your hand. Old person says it is hard for them to do cash it and asks for help, the random person pulls you in a corner and says you could offer some money to buy the ticket and cash it. Well, mom was naive enough to believe it but honest enough to reject it. It flips the who is scamming and who is the scammer around so that you think you are the one getting an advantage, much like here where you would withdraw some money that clearly is not yours. Much less likely to report. Also makes the scammers feel less guilty when you also tries to scam another person.
- m3kw9 2y agoFirst ingredient is the scumbag itself
- georgeecollins 2y agoOne thing I feel like I have learned from Reddit/ TikTok is the average person is terrible with money. Some VCs argue we should lower the bar to investing to democrative it. I am all for democracy, but maybe we would be better served if the average person didn't try to be a tycoon.
- SkipperCat 2y agoOne of workplace tragedy in America is how we moved from professionally managed pensions to individual 401k retirement plans. Most folks have no business deciding asset allocation, managing risk, etc.
- virtue3 2y agogood thing the investment firms kept the fees the same tho :)
- pizzalife 2y agoMost 401ks will just default to a target date fund, which is usually a total market stock ETF + bonds. That will certainly perform better than most actively managed pension funds.
- paulryanrogers 2y agoBut worse than the defined benefit pensions that 401k's were leveraged to replace.
- throwaheyy 2y agoDefined benefit pensions are unsustainable Ponzi schemes though. Attempting to guarantee market returns is silly.
- paulryanrogers 2y agoYeah, I wish we'd at least have tried scaling the benefits based on company's ability to pay. Or if they were guaranteed yet more realistic. Ultimately maybe only something market-based is realistic. Yet if we must do that then I'd prefer gov workers be forced to use the same system. Also 401Ks being born out of a carve out for executives feels like an awkward fit for regular employees. Perhaps a unified system not tied to employment could be the best of both worlds.
- smeej 2y agoThis is...not realistic on any level. I've been professionally investigating cryptocurrency scams/thefts/fraud since 2017. This is at least twice as convoluted a process as is necessary to separate people from millions and millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies if the site stays up for a week. People don't bother spinning up stuff like this when the easy stuff works just fine.
- paulpauper 2y agoYeah a fake livestream of Elon Musk or Mike Saylor still makes hundreds of thousands of dollars/day undetected and untraced, no FBI involvement or arrests at all, still going strong to this day. Why waste time with this crap.
- redorb 2y agoI've been reporting fake tesla and space x accounts so often on youtube - that I eventually wrote a script to copy and past into the report. Most of the time they do get removed - sometimes successfully before the QRcode is displayed. They even bot the streams so it appears like 30-40k people are watching creating 'social proof'
- atlex2 2y agoWhy does google video search still allow scam users to show up as ‘SpaceX’ on YouTube? Doesn’t YouTube have a unique username system??
- kiba 2y agoI assume a lack of manpower and lack of concerted attention to specific scams. Another option is a Kafkaesque reporting mechanism in which a scammer took down their own videos before they could be reviewed by moderators. This is rarer but possible.
- dullcrisp 2y agoBut don’t you want to buy the book to learn how not to fall for these scams?
- MaintenanceMode 2y agosmart enough to do all that, but not smart enough to spot the scam? LOL!
- hamasho 2y agoI recently watched John Oliver's video[1] about the "pig butchering" scam. It's a brutal scheme where scammers invest months in building fake relationships, gain a ton of trust, and then rob all of their money. Even though I'm pretty tech-savvy, I'm not sure I could totally avoid falling for this. These scammers don't ask for money directly; they casually mention how they're making big bucks through crypto trading on some app. Naturally, you get curious about the app, but you're still cautious. Then you see it's got a ton of good reviews on the app store, so your trust increases a little. You install the app, and it looks legit - like it was made by a solid dev team. It offers some limited-time crypto deals where you can't withdraw for a while. The victim invests a little, watches the crypto value climb, and sees their "money" grow on paper. So they put in more. When they finally try to cash out, they realize they can't. They panic and turn to their "romantic partner" for help. That's when the scammers and the fake app squeeze out the last bit of cash, claiming it's for taxes or fees, and they need to put some money. And the victim loses everything. It's not unreasonable for the victim to think the relationship is real if they've spent months chatting and calling, sharing really personal stuff. Plus, the app seems totally legit, both from the store reviews and how it looks and works. I really hope these scams will disappear soon. [1] https://youtu.be/pLPpl2ISKTg?si=15RzmtRGMpptF-Dv&t=539 https://youtu.be/pLPpl2ISKTg?si=15RzmtRGMpptF-Dv&t=539
- mashlol 2y agoI watched the video but I wasn't fully sure what the scam was. Where it became unclear to me was where it transitioned from a chat to an app. The app mentioned in his video (MetaTrader 5) is still up - and seems actually legit... at least I think? So is the scam that they send links to fake versions of the app? How'd the reviews look legit then? Or is there some sort of scam they run on the app where they actually have control of your account? EDIT: nevermind, I found this[1] post that explains it - the app connects to brokers and is not one itself. So they basically just make a fake brokerage and convince you to use it. So John Oliver's explanation was a bit lacking on that part, and misleading/incorrect about MetaTrader 5 itself. [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1b4070o/eli5_how_does_a_pig_butchering_scam_that_uses/ksvuwxt/ https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1b4070o/...
- rr808 2y agoBest crypto scam I see right now is the (MEV) bot scam. There are a bunch of promoted videos like below. Just download some code, connect it to your ETH wallet and you'll make 20-50-100% profits daily. I reported some over a month ago but still up. Has nearly half a million views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK6U9P9pt6A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK6U9P9pt6A
- jamesyates 2y ago[dead]
- julianacox02 2y ago[dead]