The dating app profile features a picture of Jim Flex, while the job field only has the elusive “crypto” as the answer.
While this may sound like a less-than-luxurious debut from Netflix (NFLX) – Netflix Inc. Get the Tindler Swindler report, it’s often easy to spot online scams after the fact. While many are being uncovered, new versions of some crypto scams are popping up daily.
The latest scam making the rounds has a particularly gruesome name and is targeting people on dating apps and social media platforms. This is known as “pig slaughter” or “pig slaughter” in reference to “fattening” the victim before it does harm.
Authorities have long drawn attention to criminals using the hype surrounding the success of Bitcoin and Ethereum to trick people into investing in other tokens that are little more than Ponzi schemes.
Why is it called pork?
However, the latest scam is more nefarious as it does not rely on shady emails about “buying crypto”. Instead, the scammer finds a person who is already looking for love and friendship and builds trust by negotiating over weeks or months.
“The perpetrator is getting fat [the victim] To slaughter by building trust,” said Brent Campbell, chief executive of the NXS Crypto Fund, in an interview with The Street.[…] He has a script for a college kid and people in their 20’s and 50’s and retirees. They know how to gain trust in that person over time, and after just a month or two they’re like, ‘Hey, look at this page or token.’”
What happens next is almost formulaic in its simplicity — the scammer sends a victim to what looks like a crypto startup and tricks them into transferring funds to a platform that is actually the scammer’s wallet. is connected to.
Sometimes they wait a few more months for that person to check their balance and if they see it’s a fake “account” they keep adding. But the result is almost always that the page becomes a broken link while both the scammers and the money go away.
While this might only sound like something to the gullible, Campbell said scammers work very hard not only to create a professional-looking website, but also to research victims online to show an interest in their lives. Can you
Who is the potential victim?
This often works because it specifically targets singles who are specifically looking for love or socialization.
Scammers often chat with four or five potential victims at once; While most would recognize this as a scam and race, even a transfer of two thousand would be worth the dishonest effort for them.
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“Pig butcher” is becoming more and more common. This week, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis warned state residents about stealing millions “from unexpected investors” in this way.
A Bay Area scammer persuaded an accountant to wire more than $1.2 million to a nonexistent crypto startup and provided emotional “support” when his father was dying.
Even with established cryptocurrencies like bitcoin in recession and many smaller ones being exposed as scams, some may find it best not to delve into crypto.
But according to Campbell, there are several things that can be done to avoid becoming a victim if the willingness to invest is there. Most importantly, interest in investing comes from personal interest and research, not someone who comes up and says, “You gotta invest!”
“Sometimes it’s so easy to go to Reddit, Twitter (TWTR) – Twitter Inc. Get reports or get crypto twitter and find other people saying, ‘That’s a joke, isn’t it?’” Campbell said.
What to do if someone starts hacking crypto on a dating site
The other obvious advice is to do all trading through an established platform like Coinbase.coin) – Receive reports from Coinbase Global Inc or Binance where every account and transfer can be tracked.
“If you really want to buy crypto, it’s better to have an exchange where you do everything from one wallet,” Campbell said. “But anything related to finances in the first few months will already put you on high alert.”
Other ways to protect yourself are reading about the company (are there any big company news articles about it?) and evaluating the website (does it have misspellings or a bad user interface?).
Since scam sites can look pretty professional, another option is to run it through the Wayback Machine to check how long ago it was.
While everyone wants to be “what bitcoin knew,” a new token is a big red flag — even if major players like bitcoin and ethereum are down more than 50% so far. That even legitimate small cryptocurrencies are burning. current recession.
But since investing always involves risk, those who are really interested should at least stick to an amount they are comfortable with losing (say $50-$100) and have the opportunity to learn. Take mistakes as
“There’s a lot of interesting and value-oriented stuff happening in crypto that’s covered with all this scams and crazy stuff,” Campbell said. “Basically, you just have to go out there with your eyes wide open and do the right safety precautions. Don’t transfer $20,000 to a wallet you don’t know how to secure.”
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