What are Phishing Scams?

What is Phishing and how to avoid it?

In the technologically and innovatively developing world, investors are advised to be vigilant of the ever-changing dangers in the new age to prevent falling victim to scams that are, nowadays, even found on social media.



Scams in the crypto world have been found in numerous forms, but all of which have taken tolls on wary victims nonetheless. A scamming method commonly found is phishing, which can be present even in comment sections or email inboxes, inviting for participation in various non-existent activities or free coin giveaways.





What is Phishing?



Phishing is a form of scam and cyber attack that relies on making victims believe they are being approached by a recognized or popular figure. The goal of these scams are to draw investors’ private information out for personal use. Such pieces of information can include passcodes, account number, credit card details and even private keys.



Readers may have even witnessed transparently obvious scamming attempts in social media comment sections that are detailed to persuade users to inbox them or participate in cryptocurrency airdrops through entrusting them with personal information.



Phishing can also be in the form of emails that attach fake or spoofed website links with identical features to real versions to trick users into feeding passcodes and information.





Phishing in Cryptocurrency



In general, phishing in cryptocurrency takes the form of luring victims into a planned out scheme involving voluntarily transferring coins to another wallet or giving up a user’s private key. However, with ever-changing times and technology, scammers have kept up with their criminal ways in terms of trickeries that involve allowing users to believe they are paying for legitimate services on a spoofed website. By doing so, victims would fill in their details with consent, believing they are truly paying for financial services.



Other than websites, fake applications have also been a widespread criminal trend in recent times that have caused immense damage towards helpless users. In such events, users are drawn in to register for services on application platforms, often DeFi, by entering their private information. Such sets of data can include private keys. For investors new to cryptocurrency and unaware of this matter, private keys are never meant to be displayed to anyone else, not even trustworthy service providers.





Methods of Prevention



Investors can initially observe and learn. By learning the behavior of scammers using the phishing technique, they’d be able to recognize that asking for coin transfers would be extremely suspicious. This is due to the fact that credible platforms would never be part of such activities, along with the fact that one should never transfer funds to strangers or provide them with any personal information either.



Another effective method is to check for certification, credibility and transparency. Platforms or exchanges that can be verified as trustworthy are often found to be regulated by governmental organizations or institutions in order to provide investors ease of mind before using their services.



Investors are required to acknowledge the fact that private keys should never be exposed to others, they are private for a reason! If others are given private keys, they would be able to access not only the user’s account but also their funds. Private keys should be noted in a personal place where only the user can obtain access.





Conclusion



In the age of digital disruption, scammers and criminals have adapted to the times in pursuit of acquiring victims’ personal information and assets. Investors are highly advised to conduct adequate research, along with initiating risk management strategies to be able to monitor and prevent such crimes. Also, be aware that one should never reveal personal data and private keys to any other individual or platform as they are never required for registration and such.





Reference



Binance Academy, Coindesk, Investopedia