Scamming schemas around exchanges you should know about

Suppose you have decided that your business needs to be present in the crypto world or create a business there from scratch. Or you’re a trader or simply an exchange user who likes to trade occasionally and store some digital assets for your benefit. No matter what role you play in the crypto market, you must understand that it’s still kind of a wild jungle out there and take all the safety measures to avoid the loss of your money.

The crypto market is maturing now. Market decentralization is not only a big plus that erases the state’s borders, but it is also an excellent opportunity for fraudsters to create thousands of tricky scenarios to get the money and is not punished for that. One of the most comprehensive analyses regarding hackers and scammers of crypto, the Annual 2022 Overview of the Web3 Cybersecurity, shows alarming numbers of crypto projects and users’ loss in 2022. 

We collected tips on protecting yourself from losses and which schemes are the most popular for crypto exchanges. You’ll find advice for both projects and exchange users because you can’t go too far in knowledge and awareness regarding your safety. 

Fake exchange representative

A fake exchange representative will write to you with a corporate profile picture of the exchange. Their email may simulate the official one or be precisely the same. Also, fake exchange representatives will have a place of work on the exchange in their biography, and there even may be a dedicated page on Linkedin where the place of work is indicated. 

This person can offer you any exchange services, asking only for access to your wallet for some “demonstration” or “validation” of your account or request. But as soon as this person accesses your wallet and receives your money, they will dissolve. Their photo, profile, and account—are all fakes.

Unreliable/fake listing partner

Listing partners are great people in their own right because they can list you on several exchanges without problems and offer marketing and special discounts. But not all of them are as reliable as they suppose to be. You must know those who care about getting money from you, selling an offer and dissolving.

Scam applications and groups

If you register on the exchange and contact the community groups for the first time, it is imperative to check on the exchange website if that’s their official group, application, etc. The market is full of scams, and your data can be stolen, leading to loss of money and control over your assets. Moreover, the users that come after you to the scam group or use the fake app will blame you, and the reputation of the token may be irreversibly destroyed.

Last year alone, the P2B exchange encountered dozens of mining apps that used our name and visual style. The app looks like it’s our exchange and slips fake addresses of wallets for deposits. As a bonus, it also steals the password, so users can’t retrieve access to their wallets without additional help.

For each of them, there was a separate process to alert selling platforms about scamming nature of those apps and to delete them. But they have enough time to drink the blood of users of the exchange, and that’s the most horrible thing. 

Officially, we don’t have an official app because it’s still in development. 

Anyway, if you’ve stumbled upon scammers that fake official communities or other communication channels, be sure to inform the original exchange so that they can quickly deal with this situation and block the withdrawal of assets to scammers. 

Also, be aware of those scammers offering exceptional support service, special conditions, or discounts for exchange services in the community, being simply the same community participants as you, not official supporters or representatives.

Unrealistic promises in marketing

There is a lot of scam in crypto marketing offers. When the crypto project begins, typically, there may be no resources to assemble an in-house marketing team because professional crypto marketers cost a fortune typically because of their specialization. Therefore, while looking for cheaper alternatives, you will always be offered a rainbow-like variety of offers, and it is important to check them all for at least sanity.

How to save money and recognize scams in marketing 

• If you are offered millions of investors and dozens of performed activities for a couple of thousand dollars, this is a scam since marketing starts from setting goals, positioning, and strategic monthly work with measured results. And only after getting the first results, the strategy can be scaled according to the budget and bring you the expected results.
• If your crypto marketing superstars cannot give you any proven statistics on previous campaigns, there is most likely none. And you shouldn’t try their services blindly. Your expenses will significantly prevail over the benefits they bring, or the results of the campaigns won’t be manageable because they are chaotic.

• If you hear promises to collect 100 thousand on an IEO with a small project community for a tiny budget of a few thousand dollars, you will be disappointed right in the first round when you collect only 5-10 thousand. Although this will already be a good result, not the same bright future that you’ve been promised.

Getting an email scam

You get an email that looks like one from the official exchange. The email’s design and tone of voice maybe 100% the same as from the exchange, but don’t let those scammers soothe you! And even the triggering event like restoring the password might be in a time like, indeed, you had sent the same request a couple of minutes ago.

Also, such scam emails might contain a plea for a money transfer or any other actions regarding your wallet. Or it may be any other action, like going on another website to confirm something. This is the first ringing bell that should warn you. 

After you conduct the action requested in the scam email, your data and assets will be compromised and under the hazard of unauthorized access.

Scammers won’t succeed if you stay alert and attentive

The list of scamming schemas is not limited to those we’ve mentioned above. You can name a few others, we believe so. But any scam won’t go if every participant in the chain of the market activities—from the crypto projects, exchange users, traders, and listing partners to the exchanges themselves—is serious regarding their security and cares about the security of others.

We wish you only the best experience with P2B and will keep you updated regarding any new scam schemas we’ll discover. We aim to make the crypto market a safe space for anyone with good intentions and impossible for any existing scamming schemas.