Crypto Scams are the New Email Scams
Don't get taken, don't get greedy... plus, market cycle analysis, and headlines you might have missed
Please— be careful out there.
Please—buy your crypto directly from a reputable exchange.
And please—don’t click on any links you don’t recognize or any social media posts that come from accounts you can’t verify.
Cryptocurrency scams are huge right now, and only growing. Investment fraud has been big business for decades because criminals have always searched for ways to co-opt the greed of humanity. People blinded by excess are very easy to take advantage of, and those jerks know it.
But the scams are taking a turn.
Remember in the earlier days of email, when it was normal to receive correspondence from so-called foreign princes who needed financial help? Crypto scams are as prolific as those, and appeal to the same naiveté and “get rich quick” mentality. You might have received a few of these yourself—I had to delete a bunch from my email account the other day. I expect to remove many more. And by the way, those princely email scams are still around, and still big business.
Back to the crypto scams—this junk raked in $770 million in 2021 alone. I won’t be shocked if criminals manage to make that a cool one billion in 2022. Much of their effort centered on mining victims found on social media. Not a shock.
As always, apply some best practices when it comes to investing in crypto. Don’t take information at face value, don’t share your private keys, double check website URLs, reject offers that have a fee upfront that must be paid in crypto, and don’t trust anyone shilling a shiny new “investment opportunity”. You can read more on my previous post about this stuff. Sadly, it’s a topic I’m sure we’ll revisit many times.
The other day, I came across a compelling video about market cycles. Kevin is an investor and analyst who makes some of the most interesting content out there. I’m passing this along because it presents an important dialogue about where we might be in the market. And while Kevin is mostly talking about stocks and real estate, his thoughts can also apply to crypto and Bitcoin.
Check it out:
Also, here are some crypto headlines you might have missed:
The SEC delayed its decision on the latest effort to create a spot $BTC ETF (exchange traded fund, which can be purchased on Wall Street). A spot ETF would allow investors to buy shares of an ETF on Wall Street that are tied directly to the current price of Bitcoin, similar to several spot gold ETFs.
Paul Krugman continues to hate Bitcoin, and tagged Bitcoin mining as part of a antisocial behavior he says is emblematic of right wing politics.
NYDIG, a Bitcoin broker, launched a Bitcoin Savings Plan that will allow employees of participating businesses to convert a portion of their paycheck into $BTC.
At least for now, Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of creating a Meta (Facebook) cryptocurrency is over. Diem (once called Libra) sold off assets, and shut down. Also, Facebook is having a no good, very bad week.
The Crypto Connection is for entertainment purposes only and is not meant to be financial advice. Please do your own research before investing in any asset class. Sara Celi is not a financial advisor, and holds several cryptocurrencies. To purchase her books on Amazon, please click here.