Synopsis
Big thanks to all of you who supported and provided appreciation to my previous blog post Chapter 1:FUDers. As promised, I have documented, investigated, and provided the below information on scammer tactics, behavior, and how they react when they are caught with "dirty" hands. I am aware that I will get some dislikes from real scammers who are hiding out there, but I rely on the good community to support this article.
Across my past weeks experienced as a Telegram community mod, I noticed 3 types of peoples who can make some good "damages" to the credibility of a good project:
- FUDers;
- Scammers;
- Spammers.
I will begin to talk about all of these three categories and explain from a mod perspective the categories which I encountered in a chat, what are their "modus operandi", how they react, what is their behavior, and how it can create in a cascade real fear and doubt even in the most loyal investors.
This blog post is the second one, which I will dedicate specially to Scammers, this is why I called Chapter 2: Scammers, let's begin our journey in demystifying this type of peoples.
Definition of scammer: one who perpetrates a scam : a person who commits or participates in a fraudulent scheme or operation
Now, we understand better the definition of a scammer person. But what is different from real life versus the crypto world? In my own opinion, the only difference is the reality. In real life, we can identify it or we can assign a scammer with a "face" in some way, but in the crypto world, the scammers have their own faces behind other faces and in the end, you do not have any clue who is the real scammer, can be even your friend or neighbor and he just got in the crypto market and wants some easy money.
Let's have some "fun" and deep dive inside the mind of a scammer and notice their behavioral and typology of their "masterpiece work".
Regular Scammer
Usually, they create only 1 account with some random details, bio, and photo and integrate it into several telegram groups and chats. At some point, they deep dive into different conversations trying to know the next victim, after they get all the public information they are approaching it in a private message by trying to be the "friendly" person and gaining trust easier with the beginners in the crypto world. They will start to ask a personal question just to get enough information to perform social engineering hack (is a tactic by knowing all personal and private information about a person) so they can try to access your wallets or any investment portfolio. I made an example of how I noticed and investigated into Telegram world, but the same can apply to any social media channel (Reddit, Facebook, Discord, etc.).
In most cases, they will be your friendly "neighbor".
"Pathetical" Scammer
This is a kind of scammer very interesting, and funny at the same time if you are experienced to identify them. They do not speak or know even your language, in most cases, they are using google translate and use your native language in a very funny way. You do not have to be experienced to realize that person does not know even your language and is impersonating and trying to fool you. Usually, this type of person is the easiest to spot which is a fake one.
Professional Scammer
This type of scammer is the hardest to spot since they are doing their job very good, getting all information regarding an admin or moderator from a social media group, stealing his photos, bio, and any kind of personal identification, and creating an almost exact copy of social media identification and are the hardest ones to catch them from an investor point of view since they will write and speak your language in a very good manner and will provide you in the first glance the most official news and information. But, in the end they will provide you with several scam links, or methods for which I am gonna summarize below (the most encountered ones):
"Oficial Support" scammer typology
This type of behavior is the most encountered in a social media group chat (in this case as an example that would be Telegram). They are impersonating so well an official support member of a social chat group, that if you are not familiar or know who are the real ones, even the most experienced on can be sometimes tricked into their play games. They usually try to provide you false information or redirect you to external websites and different methods of scamming you of any crypto assets.
"Send me your crypto..." scammer typology
I have seen many peoples scammed by this type of professional ones, promising them that if you send your (any important crypto assets like btc, eth, etc.) then you will get automatically 2x or even 3x times automatically back to your wallet. Some of them are creating social groups and invite other scammers and post fake photos where they show false proof of their benevolence to you. In most of the cases, this is the efficient way of scamming peoples easier, I have even integrated one time in one of their scam channels and I can admit, they are acting very professional and they seem like a real deal, but is not!
On the other hand, others will try to trick you and send you an identical website of another popular exchange name and will try to input your seed phase or any information which can steal your data and access your crypto coins.
"I have an investment proposal..." scammer typology
When I started my crypto journey, this was the most popular scamming technique which I encountered as a regular user of a social media chat group. They would contact you initially with real photos, bios, and all details, they are friendly with you, asking what are you working, how are you today, and suddenly they throw away with an investment URL or website and try to make you invest and even show you some "fake" images of their own accounts like they are making huge profits, but of course it's not. They are trying only to make you sign up on some website, steal your data, or even credit card information. My advice for you: STAY AWAY!!!
"One in, One out" scammer scheme
This scheme is the most interesting and hardest to catch the real scammers. I noticed this in recent days, one real person is entering in a social group chat and post as a real person (even trying to help others), make a list with all users who have an issue, and forward their post or information to a person who is out of the group with similar support or official project identification person, and impersonate it as he is aware of that issue (with providing details from his own user's information posted public) and trying to scam of his crypto assets. This one is difficult to spot and report since they are acting in an organized way or even block admin and moderators inside a chat, just for staying low and under the radar.
To conclude this investigative article and blog post, I am aware that I did not cover all possible "Scammers" typologies and maybe I missed a lot of other information, but this post was presented to you through the eye of a moderator experience after days and days of deep investigation, research, and documentation.
Disclaimer:
Every investment opportunity or ICO, which I will present and describe does not guarantee you a profit, always do a DYOR before.
In the end:
Thank you for getting the time to read my blog post, you can always support me by appreciating through the TIP, Like, or positive comment (or all of them).
Please take your time and review my previous and first chapter if you did not read it: Chapter 1:FUDers p.s.: Stay tuned for the third and last chapter: Spammers!
This article is participating in the #BinanceFARmer competition!
