4 Ways To Detect Crypto Scams.

It should not come as a surprise to you reading this that the crypto space is awash with many scams.

I have read countless stories of people losing their hard earned money to this crypto scams.

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I know crypto is the hot topic at the moment and it is why even scammers are taking advantage of it.

There was news that OneCoin founders were arrested in the United States a few days ago and are being charged with alleged fraud according to Cointelegraph.

I have been approached by these OneCoin guys before and I have repeatedly refused to join or buy the idea!

I have also been approached by many crypto scams in my country here in Uganda since I am in the crypto space.

Many folks come to me when they find out any of this crypto businesses so that I can join them. It so happens that I can now differentiate between a legit crypto company and a scam.

This crypto scams are really eating our people’s hard earned money.

There was also news last week of a Brazilian crypto scam called Velox 10 Global that disappeared with a lot Kenyans’ money.

It has to be noted that these two crypto scams have something in common, they disguise themselves as Network Marketing companies!

Suspicious Signs of A Crypto Scam

1. Disguise as MLM

I have a bias towards any crypto company that uses the MLM or Network Marketing model.

We all know that MLM works best with health products. I find it disturbing when I see a crypto company that runs under an MLM model.

I have been presented with many such crypto opportunities and the first thing I check out is to see if they run under MLM and you obviously know my reaction !

There is no way any legit crypto company can run under an MLM model(IMO).

These two examples above all ran under an MLM model and see where they are now! Closed.

So folks if anyone comes with any crypto deal or opportunity, but it runs under an MLM model, please run for your life.

2. No Blockchain or Explorer

We all know that crypto runs under Blockchain technology. If by any chance someone presents you an opportunity that he/she claims is crypto, ask them to show you their crypto company explorer where you can view all the transactions.

I can give an example of an explorer like for Bitcoin we have Blockchain.com, block cypher and for Steem we have Steemd.com.

I know there are some crypto scams that have managed to come up with explorers! It should be a basic test though.

I am sure these two examples above didn’t have any explorer for the public to view all the transactions about the company or the purported crypto!

3.Disguise as Trading Crypto Company

I added this point after someone just sent me a text on WhatsApp a few minutes ago pitching me of a crypto opportunity.

I talked him to give me the website and checked it out and they claim to be trading in crypocurrency and forex!

I know there are legit Crypto and Forex trading companies,but there are also many fake ones .

This company this guy pitched me looks like a scam even if I have not researched more about it.

I checked out the website and it promises high returns !
Another alarm is that the website is so basic and the winner is the grammar especially the spellings of some words.

I will show a screenshot below

I know spelling errors can be forgiven but this is a company that claims to be professional!

4. Promise of High Returns

This is another yardstick you should use to determine whether a crypto company is legit or fake.

If it is too good to be true, then run for your life.

Most of these fake companies claim to offer high returns with no risk at all!

If you are reading this and someone has pitched you a deal and it’s promising high returns with no risk,then please run for your life.

I have also realized that most of these fake companies package their “investments” in money packages and also have a duration period.

Most of them offer basic packages like 50$ and you will earn 2% daily for 45 days!!!!

I have a bad feeling that any company that has failed the above steps and then offers such packages is a fake , so run.

There are really many ways to determine when a company is a fake or legit by just making a Google search of that company.

You can just type “Company name review” where company name is the company you are researching about!

So folks these are some of the ways I use to detect these crypto scams. If you know of any other ways then put them in the comments below.

Stay safe from scams Love

Jarau Moses

Originally published at busy.org on March 11, 2019.