How to Spot and Avoid Scams in Cyberspace
One thing never goes out of fashion in the digital world – you are right, scams! With the idea of metaverse and crypto growing in popularity so do cryptojacking and financial fraud.
How can you spot scams and additional threats to your safety in cyberspace? Here are some tricks and tips that help you detect and avoid scammers.
Phishing scams
These are the most common scams nowadays – phishing emails and websites. Scammers send you emails or links pretending to be a well-established company asking for your personal data, passwords, ID information, and/or even private keys.
How it works:
- • You typically receive an email from an email address that looks exactly the same as the email a company uses.
- • There may be links that include the company’s name.
- • The email uses fear tactics to solicit your personal information, download strange-looking attachments, or visit the site DIRECTLY from the email.
- • If you do any of those things, the scammer is then able to access your personal information.
What to look out for:
- • The email comes from an unknown sender.
- • Requests you to supply personal information by clicking on links in the email and prompts you to open an attachment.
- • Applies to urgency, fear, or desire – such as issues with your account, a package shipment, etc.
- • Many of these emails will contain spelling and grammatical errors.
If you receive a phishing email, try to make sure you don’t open it and delete it immediately.
NOTE: Propy will never email you and ask you to give personal information or send money directly from an email.
Remote access scams
Fraudsters gain access to your device (desktop computer, mobile phone, or tablet) and can then access your personal information (files, funds).
How it works:
Scammers contact you and say that vulnerabilities/viruses have been detected in your computer. They may also claim that a suspicious transaction has been finalized from your account. They request access to your device to fix the solution.
What to look out for:
- • A suspicious email that prompts you to log in via the interface you are used to that actually leads to a fake page.
- • An attachment that you open that infects your computer.
- • The scammer asks you to download an app on your device and to give them remote access while they are pretending to help you resolve your issue.
NOTE: Propy may call you for specific reasons, but we also inform you about it via email. We’ll never ask for your credentials, passwords, payments, or access to your devices.
Ponzi schemes
These scams have been popular in crypto since its creation and they claim to offer you a great investment opportunity. Unfortunately, they are not an opportunity that will turn you into a millionaire, they are scams.
How it works:
Current “investors” that invested in the early stage of the pyramid get paid with funds collected from new “investors” who have just “joined.” the pyramid scheme needs to enroll new members constantly in order to keep running. Scammers will promise you high profits and little or no risk.
NOTE: Propy will never give financial advice or prompt you to invest in a certain project.
Invest and send 1 Bitcoin, Receive 2 back scams
A scammer asks you to invest and send 1 BTC and wait for someone to give 2 BTC back? Does it sound too good to be true? It probably isn’t. These scams are also known as the “make money easy and fast” scam that requires you to send funds to a certain address.
How it works:
The scammer contacts you and asks you to invest a certain amount of funds. You will be promised a profit from a small investment in a short period.
NOTE: Propy will never ask you to invest in such a program.
Scammers pretending to be working at Propy
Scammers may contact you saying that they are Propy employees, and tell you that your account has been frozen and you need to pay a fee (to a certain address) in order to access it again.
How it works:
- • You are contacted by someone pretending to be part of Propy who asks for your credentials, password, and other personal data.
- • This attempt could even take place via email, phone or social media channels.
- • The scammer may ask you to click on a fake page, connect your wallet or to open malicious attachments.
NOTE: No one from Propy, or our CEO Natalia Karayaneva, will ever ask you for your personal information or to send money to a crypto address.
Cryptojacking
Cryptojacking is the unauthorized use of someone else’s computing resources and power to mine crypto. Hackers usually seek to hijack any kind of systems they can take over such as desktops, servers, cloud infrastructure, and more. Then they use the devices to mine cryptocurrency.
How it works:
Cryptojacking code typically works quietly in the background as unsuspecting victims use their systems normally. The only signs they might notice are lags in execution, slower performance, overheating, excessive power consumption, or abnormally high cloud computing bills.
Be aware and be safe
It’s better to be skeptical and safe than naive. Take your time when reading information. Always be cautious on the web and watch out for scammers who want to steal your information.
If you do accidentally fall for a scam, contact the “impersonated” company immediately to alert them about what happened. You should also change any passwords that you have provided.
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What is the one thing that never goes out of fashion in the digital world – scams. With the idea of metaverse and crypto growing in popularity, so do cryptojacking and financial fraud. But, you can still protect yourself by knowing what to watch out for.! Here are a few examples for how to spot threats and fakes in cyberspace. Send us your own tips and recommendations.
Better safe than sorry!
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