Unraveling the Deception: Have You Fallen Victim to Bogus Bitcoin Mining Investment Messages?

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In the exciting world of Bitcoin, where opportunities abound, it's crucial to be aware of the lurking danger of Bitcoin scams. As more people embrace digital currency, scammers are getting creative with schemes like fake investments and tricky phishing tactics. Stay informed and arm yourself against the darker side of Bitcoin with the knowledge to protect your investments and identity. Here, we are explaining misleading posts circulating on social media.

Social Media Posts:

“Internet investments hasn't been my thing from the start but when my friend referred me to Rosie Mary a l invest with her and I get my profit successfully I started with 200,000 and got 2,000,000 within 5 hours and I also want everyone to enjoy for this investment it's real and trustworthy. Y'all should give it a try with my mentor and send her a direct message:” The posts in question were disseminated on Facebook in the following manner.

Facebook | Archived Link

A chain of posts on this theme has been published on Facebook here, here and here. Archived Link | Archived Link | Archived Link

Fact Check :

Bitcoin operates as a decentralized digital currency, allowing direct buying, selling, and exchanging without the need for intermediaries like banks. The process of validating Bitcoin transactions and recording them on the public blockchain ledger is known as Bitcoin Mining. Within the blockchain, transactions undergo verification by Bitcoin users, necessitating validation from participants in the network. Individuals equipped with the required hardware and computational capabilities are referred to as miners.

But when these social media posts, like the ones mentioned earlier, exaggerate things, creating a sense of urgency to invest or promising unrealistically high profits, it raises a red flag. So, we have initiated a thorough examination of this phenomenon.

As per those Facebook post tags, a certain Rosie Mary was cited as one of the individuals promoting Bitcoin Mining for investment. We conducted a reverse image search on the woman's photo obtained from that Facebook page to verify this claim. Surprisingly, we discovered that she wasn't associated with Bitcoin or cryptocurrency instead, she turned out to be Mary Toolan, a child recovery specialist.

Upon reaching out to her official Facebook page, we sought clarification on this matter. Mary Toolan's Executive Assistant, Hazel, confirmed to us that there is no affiliation between Mary Toolan and the Rosie Mary Facebook account. Assurance was provided that appropriate measures would be taken to address this situation.

Cyber security expert Asela Waidyalankara

We sought the opinion of cybersecurity expert Mr Asela Vaidyalankara on this matter, and he unequivocally labelled it as a scam. According to him, individuals who shared the aforementioned social media posts downloaded a crypto application (Apps) that granted access to other applications on their phones. As a result, unauthorized updates were posted on Facebook from their accounts without their consent. Mr Vaidyalankara suspects a potential security breach in this scenario.

An Indian web report points out that crypto scammers are more likely to hack accounts through such messages. The scary aspect of this is that the victimized account has been used to target victims without its user's knowledge.

A casual glance is unlikely to give any hint of the scammers going about with their clandestine mission to cheat people who are looking to make a quick buck.

cyber-security company CloudSEK came out with a report on a high-profile scam in which Indian investors were looted of Rs 1,000 crore by fraudsters in 2021. The scam, CoinEgg, uses “fake domains and social media accounts to coax users into investing in fake exchanges”, it said. Click here to fine more.

Central Bank of Sri Lanka

Moreover, there have been reported cases of individuals falling victim to financial scams related to such investments. The Central Bank has issued warnings, advising people to exercise caution in such matters.

In a recent announcement, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka highlighted a significant surge in fraudulent activities associated with cryptocurrency investments.

Exercise caution when receiving unsolicited messages pushing you to invest or making promises of unusually high returns. Always bear in mind that if an investment seems too good to be true, it likely is a scam. This is emphasized in the information provided.

Fraudulent advertisements, particularly prevalent on social media, frequently lead individuals to seemingly professional websites, disguising their deceptive nature. These platforms often disseminate misleading information, promising significant returns or expertise in cryptocurrency trading. It has been highlighted that certain scammers are even organizing classes or awareness sessions to propagate their deceptive methods.

Facebook

The Central Bank provides insights into the utilization of cryptocurrency and outlines the associated investment risks.

Multiple ways to fraud users

There have been other instances of cryptocurrency fraud on Instagram as well. For instance, some users also receive private messages on chat from strangers, mostly women.

The conversation starts normally, but it switches to crypto investments after the first few messages. One commonly used trick is putting up investment links and manager’s handles on Instagram posts. Scammers pose as crypto trading experts when Instagram users connect them through direct messages.

While the names of well-known crypto exchanges like Binance are dropped to win the trust of users, fraudsters share the link of a fake crypto exchange posing as a legitimate company.

So, how can users avoid falling into the trap of scammers? One of the ways to identify fraudsters is to keep a tab on the language used by hackers and impersonators while messaging on Instagram. A quick scan through these messages will show the repeated use of words written as “y’all”, “legit”. A lack of punctuation and grammar can flag users about a possible scammer at work.

The trend of posting phishing crypto links has been noticed across social media platforms. Users must change their passwords whenever they notice someone else’s account is hacked. Moreover, one should avoid clicking on any of these links put up on social media or interacting with random accounts discussing cryptocurrency. More information on this is here.

What do cryptocurrency scams look like?

“Bitcoin Revolution,” “Bitcoin Evolution”, and “Aussie System” are three common cryptocurrency scams circulating in 2019 and 2020.

All are functionally the same scam, periodically being re-used under a new name and promising similar results. They generally claim to be some kind of investment opportunity and use made-up celebrity endorsements to spread on social media. Recently, these scams have been pretending to be cryptocurrency trading bots.

These posts are often spread through a combination of paid advertising, bots and compromised accounts.

People who follow the link in these social media posts will usually arrive at a website that’s been dressed up to imitate a legitimate news outlet with a made-up story about the scam product and fake testimonials.

Victims who sign up for these kinds of scams are generally led to make some kind of payment into an account, which then creates the illusion of profits. In the past, the Bitcoin Revolution has simply used a random number generator to create this illusion.

The scam generally continues until the victim decides to try to withdraw these apparent profits, only to discover that none of it is real.

Sometimes, they will be put in touch with an “agent” who will tell them they have to make additional payments before they can withdraw their funds.

Cryptocurrency trading bots are real, but they are not risk-free money machines as these kinds of scams suggest. Similarly, there are safe ways to buy and sell Bitcoin, but it’s not a risk-free money machine either. Read more about this here, here and here.

How to Spot a Crypto Scam?

Unsure whether a particular crypto website is a scam or not? Use this checklist to help sort legitimate providers from those platforms you’re better off avoiding altogether.

Does the website connect securely over https (not http)? If the address starts with “http” instead of “https”, the data you send to the website is not secure.

Can you see the word “Secure” or an image of a padlock in your web browser’s address bar? This indicates that a website is secure.

Does the website’s URL have any noticeable spelling mistakes or errors? If so, it could be a fake.

Does the site feature bad grammar, awkward phrasing or spelling mistakes? If it does, this doesn’t necessarily indicate a scam, but it does mean you should proceed with caution.

Does the website promise abnormally high returns? (For example, does it claim you’ll be able to double your investment?) This should raise a big red flag and is a common indicator of a scam.

Is there an “About us” page? Does it show the real people behind the company? Does it provide any details about where the company is registered? If there’s little or no information about who the company is and what it does, you could be dealing with a scam.

Do legitimate, reputable websites link to this site? This could indicate that the site is trusted and respected.

What do other users say about the website? Are there any negative reviews, and if so, what do they say? The crypto community is usually pretty quick to spread the word about scams.

Who is the registered owner of a domain or website? Is the owner hidden behind private registration? Has the domain been registered for less than six months? The more you can find about the people/company behind a website, the better.

Is there anything else about the website that raises red flags or just seems too good to be true? If there’s something that just doesn’t seem right, trust your gut.

Does the website claim any celebrity endorsements? Many investment scams use fake celebrity endorsements to get people to lower their guard.

Did you first hear about it on social media, or did they approach you first? Social media and unsolicited messages are common ways for scammers to reach new victims.

Please note that this checklist is far from foolproof, as it’s possible for a website to pass several of the above tests with flying colours and still be a scam. The important thing to remember is to do your due diligence before providing any personal or financial information to any website or app. Read information about this here and here.