The Biggest Crypto Scams (And How To Avoid Them) – Part 1

Let’s talk scams!

In the crypto world, they’re a dime a dozen. In fact, there’s way too many for me to address in one email. So I’ve focused on the ones you’re most likely to come across and how you can avoid getting caught up in them.

Over the next week I’ll be sharing quick tips and actionable ideas to increase your protection. But before we dive in, let me just say one thing.

Please don’t let the scammers scare you off.

I’m not sharing this information to make you fearful, but to give you the confidence to navigate the crypto world safely. Yes, scammers are always lurking, but with a bit of knowledge, you’ll see that you can avoid them very easily.

As I’ve said before, cryptocurrency is the fastest appreciating asset in the world right now and the opportunity for gains is HUGE. So don’t let shady scammers prevent you from creating the life of your dreams. You can absolutely invest in crypto safely.

And over the next week I’ll show you how.

Sound good?

Let’s dive in.

#1. Private keys are your most sacred possession

If you take one thing away from this email, let it be this:

Never, ever, EVER share your private keys or enter them into a website.

The only time you’ll need to enter your keys (also known as your seed phrase), is when you’re restoring a wallet from scratch. That’s it. You don’t need them to confirm a transaction, or verify your identity, or any of the other million ways scammers will try to extract them (and they will try).

Cryptocurrencies are appealing for many reasons. They give us the ability to be our own bank and the power to create our own wealth.

But with great power, comes great responsibility.

Your private keys are like the password to your savings account. Except with crypto, there’s no ‘forget password’ button if you happen to lose them… And if someone else gets hold of, it’s game over.

Protect your keys at all costs, and you won’t have any issues. In fact, you might even have a chuckle with yourself the next time scammers try it on with you….

 

#2. Use a private wallet rather than an exchange 

There’s a popular saying in the crypto world:

Not your keys, not your crypto. 

This might be surprising to some, but when you keep your crypto in a wallet on an exchange, you don’t actually own that crypto.

The exchange does.

Even though it’s under your name, you’ve essentially handed over the responsibility for security to that exchange as a trade off for the convenience of using their platform.

Which is all good and well if we lived in a world without hackers.

The reality is, scammers are attracted to exchanges because they are honeypots with big payday potential. And if an exchange is hacked, its up to them whether they reimburse you for stolen funds. Or not.

The only way you can 100% guarantee that your crypto is yours is to get it off the exchange and into a wallet that you control.

#3. Don’t always trust Google 

For better or worse, we’re used to putting a certain level of trust in Google and we expect to receive legitimate results.

Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.

Almost every popular exchange will have a clone site, meaning it looks and even acts identical to the legitimate site with one difference – it’s designed to steal your money.

But there’s a few easy ways to avoid them.

Clone sites often have paid Google ads, so we recommend you don’t click on them. In fact, you should never click on any Google ads relating to crypto.

It’s disappointing that Google allows these phishing sites to take prime spots on search pages, but if we don’t click, we can avoid being taken for a ride.

Which brings us to point 4….

#4. Use legitimate websites only 

So with Google compromised, how do you get crytpo information safely?

Well, there are a few sites that are known to be trustworthy and have earned their stripes in crypto land. They are kind of like the Wikipedia for crypto!

www.coinmarket.com
www.coingecko.com 

Both sites are chock full of resources and links that you can navigate to safely. Once you’ve clicked on a safe exchange, save it into our browser for easy access.

But if you want to be super, duper cautious, check out point 5….

#5. Check the URL 

A secure site will always begin with https:// (Fun Fact: The ‘s’ stands for secure).

Some clone sites will have a very similar URL, but if you look closely, the ‘s’ is missing…. scammers are a sneaky bunch.

You can’t rely solely on the padlock icon either, so make sure you pay particular attention to the URL. If you see anything funny, such as upside-down letters, weird dots where they shouldn’t be etc, it’s a scam.

And before we wrap up, we’ll leave you with one last tip:

Never click on crypto links that arrive via email. 

Thanks for joining me to learn about crypto scams. In part 2, we’ll take a look at why emotional manipulation is rife in the crypto world, the value of being cynical and why you should avoid fake gurus.