Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency Scams

The grubby Bitcoin scammers have come up with a new version.

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Welcome to the community, @mayflower, but you might want to look at that URL i.e. look at simplifying it. There’s no way I would click on such a link. It looks like, um, some sort of scam. :slight_smile:

One reason to be concerned about posting a link like that is that you may be compromising your own privacy or security.

So between the risk to you and the risk to me, I suggest simplifying that link.

Ignoring all that 
 yes, undoubtedly the scammers will market in countries with celebrities that have the appropriate level of recognition and respect in that country. Maybe Dick Smith or Andrew Forrest just wouldn’t cut it in Singapore.

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I have just reported the latest version of this disgusting scam to Google.

Obviously these bottom-feeding grubs are intent to try to continue this scam by any means, but if there are any persons who are stupid enough to actually believe this particular version, then all I can say is “Caveat Emptor Village Idiot”.

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I’ve been getting plenty of these in my inbox for a couple of months. So obviously a scam, they are deleted without a 2nd thought. Even if they weren’t scammers, I have no interest in what someone I know almost nothing about thinks about investments!

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I have never seen or heard of any Bitcoin scam emails.

All of the incidents I have posted about were ads posing as news articles on various website pages.

Much to their credit, Google have shut down each one which was posted by Google Ads after I reported them.

Obviously the intended victims have, or at least had, more money than sense, but as well as trying to protect them, I also have great satisfaction in helping stop the scammers enriching themselves.

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Any investment that is pushed via cold-calling or another mechanism should be viewed with great scepticism.

I wouldn’t view Bitcoin as an investment at all, although it has its place.

Again, putting aside the possibility, even likelihood, that the “investment” is just an outright scam i.e. you will send money and you will never see your money again.

Keep up the good work.

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The latest offering from these disgusting, bottom-feeding scumbags.

What a shame that these grubs don’t get 10 years in prison.

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The disgusting Bitcoin scammers have sunk to an even lower level with their latest version purporting to be a news item in The Australian.

Pity the left the BSB and the Account # off the fake cheque.

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They keep re-hashing that “Specimen” cheque over and over. Most people who are getting caught don’t look to the numbers at the bottom. It is just a hook to draw the unwary in.

I don’t get these ads so my blocking software and hardware are obviously filtering it out. When I used to click your links before they were cleaned even then often I wouldn’t see the scam. It required turning off hardware and software to actually track the sites or use of a VM sandbox that didn’t have such protections in place to see it. For most people if they put some decent “tools” in place they could avoid much of this trash scammery, but many don’t know of the “tools” or just don’t care.

At a basic level NoScript, Privacy Badger and/or UBlock Origin are good places to start. Many Browsers are putting anti-tracking and bad site blocking tools in nowadays and these if enabled can also reduce the incidence. Hopefully with the warnings and using some decent protecton these scammers will be cut off from their target victims.

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Much to their credit, Google shuts down each version after I report it to them, but the scammers keep changing the style of the ad that is posted on websites alomg with the name they post them under and the celebrity who is supposedly endorsing each one.

If anyone read the body copy in detail, they should be wondering why the celebrities receive their fake cheques when they always state that their :“earnings” are paid directly into their bank accounts every Monday morning.

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It won’t matter so much that they change the name or the look, it is the underlying code and addresses that are the parts that are blocked. Thats why tools like NoScript are effective in helping to minimise seeing these Ads/Scams.

This setting in Firefox is an example of the increased security features:

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I was meaning how they continue to manage to get new versions of the scam posted by Google Ads.

It would be great if Google permanently blocked them.

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Us authorities have charged 3 scammers over Bitcoin fraud after they hacked high profile Twitter accounts.

Hopefully a lot more of theses grubs will be caught shortly.

There are also a number of browser extensions, some from well known security companies, which offer protection as well. These are worth looking at and installing one that best suits ones needs.

We use the one from Norton. It also has a feature where it will open a ‘risky’ website in isolation. This is useful when it flags a false positive website (as it is yet to be categorised by the software).

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But would it really? You are handing over a lot of power to Google, power that is exercised without due process and not even subject to Australian law. Just sayin’ - because I understand your frustration with this scam and others like it.

I was thinking this morning that I have not seen any examples of the disgusting Bitcoin Scams for a whole week, when low and behold, I find a link to “This is how H. Jackman really got rich. Anyone can do that”.

And the genuine website that these scumbags have hacked.

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Thanks, Fred123. I just posted this article from Facebook and did not pick up the date on the cheque.
Thank you!!

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After not having seen any of the Bitcoin Scam ads since 05.09.2020, I saw one yesterday which was a repeat of the Chris Hemsworth one.

It was not a Google ad but I managed to close it and report it but today I saw a new version which cannot be closed or reported.

Hopefully anyone who comes across it will spot that these scumbags have used images of US currency instead of Australian currency.

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The may be scumbags, but they apparently know ‘hard currency’ from our volatile variety. If you had $100,000 would you prefer it in $AUD or $USD?

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Using US currency to illustrate the “profits” that an Australian made does not give the scam much credibility.