Coinbase, one of the leading crypto exchanges in the industry has issued a statement on the growing cases of online scams targeted especially at the Gen Z demographic.
Coinbase which is widely popular in the United States sounded this warning via a Oct 8 blog post where it revealed the most common crypto scams at the moment and how not to fall victim.
In the blog post, Coinbase outlined four trending crypto scams in the country and they include social media fraud, romance scams, fake websites and recovery schemes.
Coinbase stated that crypto users must take personal responsibility in safeguarding their crypto assets, unlike traditional banking where the responsibility falls on the banks.
It reminded its users that the individual is the biggest threat to the safety of crypto assets as far as Web 3 is concerned.
Social media scams
Coinbase highlighted the menace of social media scams while confirming that this is one of the scams directly targeted at the Gen Z demographic. Here scammers create fake profiles and impersonate popular or influential people.
They now go ahead to lure victims into fraudulent investment schemes where they lose all their money.
A good example of this scam took place in Vietnam where scammers were able to lure victims into romantic relationships and cajoled them to invest in fraudulent schemes.
This scam resulted in a loss of over $700,000 belonging to Vietnamese citizens.
Romance Scams
Another type of scam raised by Coinbase is called Romance Scam or Pig Butchering. This scam often involves scammers building a long-term romantic relationship with their victims before getting them to invest in a fraudulent scheme.
This scam is also pretty common in Vietnam and the term Pig butchering originated from the region.
According to the Coinbase report over 67,000 online scams were reported, in 2023 with the median loss reaching $3,800.
Coinbase stressed that the motive behind their blog post was raising awareness and obliged crypto users to report suspicious activity as this can help prevent others from falling victim to similar scams.
Suspicious activities and scams should be reported to law enforcement and platforms like Coinbase to aid in the fight against cybercrime.
What to Know
- Crypto scams are a huge threat to the growth and integrity of the industry and various on-chain security firms are created to tackle the menace of bad actors in the industry.
- Other forms of crypto scams include Exit scams, Rug pull by developers and direct hack of crypto platforms by expert black hat hackers.
