As I was doing research on the rise in the number of people falling victim to scams, I noticed that as cryptocurrency becomes more popular, so do the scams.
Some fraudsters scam consumers by getting them to “invest” in cryptocurrency, while others find clever ways to rob you of your cryptocurrency. And in many cases, cryptocurrency is harder to track and recover.
Sam Zimmerman is the CEO of Sagewell Financial, an online banking and retirement platform geared to helping adults 55 and older. Zimmerman says there are some common scams fraudsters use. Asking people to convert investments into real crypto and tricking them into transferring it—never to be seen again—is at the top of the list.
Capitalizing on the “gold-rush” element of crypto glamorized in the media, scammers will convince consumers to invest in a sure-fire crypto investment through a fake account/purchasing exchange which will often be part of an elaborate Ponzi scheme. Zimmerman warns that scammers will also create fake coins and convince seniors to invest in initial coin offerings, or ICOs.
Some people may have experience or understanding in IPO investments in real stocks but may not properly vet the fake opportunity because they are trying to ‘get in early.’ Scammers will pretend to be the authorities investigating a crime that used someone’s identity/accounts for criminal purposes. In order to extricate or insulate themselves, they will be asked to transfer assets into a “government…
