Reminescence of a Scam Operator (ANTI SCAMMER GUIDE)Reminiscent of the roaring 1920s, the 2020 epidemic and the inability to work for many people brought an influx of new retail investors to the public market. Furthermore, the FED's decision to prop up the market by dropping interest rates combined with stimulus checks handed out by the U.S. government lured in even more investors who were hungry for profits. Although the market sensation also brought a rise of omnipresent scams across all trading platforms.
Lack of workforce, sophisticated methods, and automated bots often play into the hands of perpetrators who try to get ahead of the platform and its users. Therefore, we decided to write this concise article with the purpose of helping new investors to recognize good apples from bad ones.
The most common means of communication for criminals is to use private chat, public chat, comments, ideas, and headline references. Several examples of red flags are shown below.
RED FLAGS AND OTHER POINTS:
Asking for personal information and TradingView account information
One common tactic criminals use to exploit their victims is to ask for personal information or account information (login and password). This information should not be disclosed to anyone, including someone claiming to be a platform's employee/support (as these people tend to have access to this information).
Asking for trading account information
Another standard method bad actors use is asking for trading account information. On such occasions, a perpetrator asks for existing account information or requests a victim to create a new account; then, a perpetrator usually asks the victim to invest money into the account and let them use it in return for shared profits.
False promises
The third point probably accompanies every other point on our list. This point relates mainly to false promises about trading achievements, which often include statements about having a high win rate, high net worth, and an unbeatable trading system.
Financial gurus and lavish lifestyles
A high follower count and strong social media presence do not equal reliability. Perpetrators often portray lavish lifestyles across social media platforms to entice more people and trick them into buying a trading signal service or trading course (or any other service). The public image does not necessarily have to match a person's authentic lifestyle. Indeed, trading as a career is highly time-consuming and does not come with trading from a vicinity of a pool or ski resort; that is just public perception.
Trading signals and trading courses
Unfortunately, most of the time, trading signal services (for buy) lack performance and do not consider subscribers' risk tolerance and account sizes. In regard to trading courses, we hold a similarly low opinion of them as we think learning a skill to trade goes far beyond a few hours of any trading course.
Unrealistic win-rate claims
Most brokerages report that their retail clients lose about 50-90% of the initial capital, especially when trading CFDs. Therefore, we would like to put in perspective how realistic claims about a high win rate really are. Professional traders tend to peak at approximately a 50% win-rate over a consistent period. Thus, claims about a 90% or higher win rate are likely to be false.
Guaranteed moves and risk-free investments
Another tactic of scamming utilizes guaranteeing moves in the market. However, there is nothing like a guaranteed move since the market constantly changes and is influenced by complex factors.
These are just few points we included, however, we ask a public to share their own points in the comment section.
DISCLAIMER: This content serves solely educational purposes.
Theft
TOTAL MARKET CAP and some disturbing figuresPersonally I find it disgusting that there is a central entity out there with enough control over this space to pull the rug which equates to the GDP of dozens of countries within a half an hour/ with no regulation to back any of it up... Being sold Tether by some entity which has nothing to back it up while the US government does nothing to regulate it... It seems to me that the US government which actively go's around overthrowing other nations that try to issue their own currencies or nationalize their economies, is fine with some random source issuing so called stable coins... Or maybe its the corrupt US government that is behind it all... At this point there is no way a few key figures called "whales" can control the prices to the degree of pulling out 20+ nations worth of annual nominal gdp in about a half an hour.. There is no whale out there with that much money! Period
This is beyond criminal.. Having 40% of an entire markets value sucked dry within 2 months is just insane and to think that people out there will continue to do it while no regulation comes in shows how messed up this world really is... 12 million starve to death every single year and this criminal market go's unchecked..
CALL FOR PUBLIC ACTION : Kraken XBT/EUR 13% drop on 11/29This is the form you guyz can sign up to : goo.gl
If you also want to help them by sharing some contacts of a specialized attorney or any person who may help in this situation. Feel free to sign up as well and leave a message in the comment field.
Thank you guyz for your support to my user. He really needs your help and I thank for this.
Canadian Exchange "Hacked," all funds "gone."Imagine logging on to your exchange platform, a place where you sought refuge from the impending market crash , to find that the site is gone. To find your funds, your BTC , ETH..... what have you - is gone. Maplechange is the name of the exchange that Hackers took down just in the past few hours.
Your 2fa didn't help, neither did your 12 digit, cryptic password, because they took down the exchange itself. There are folks out there whom at this moment are wishing they hadn't sought refuge there. Who are trying to figure out where there reserve for times of hardship have gone. People left with even more uncertainty and even less money with which to ride out the impending crash.
Hackers are in a continual tug of war. Code makers and code breakers as it were , have actually been struggling with one and other for centuries , but in this computer age - with the tools available to a hacker it seems the scales have tilted towards the code breakers , at least for today.
MapleChange had some 2,000 followers on Twitter. That measure is not a very reliable metric, but at least 2,000 people trying to make a profit in this market , as hard as it is already , have lost what for many likely constitutes a large portion of their savings, if not all of it.
There is no FDIC in Canada, and with varying levels of de-centralization across the crypto spectrum, there is little hope of those funds ever finding their way back to their rightful owners.
MapleChange , according to the news at least , is apparently broke. Bank records will only be written proof of loss, of theft. Look to Palladium - this precious metal is inside likely every electronic device you own , and in those to follow. No hacker can go and steal all of it.
Shelter from the Storm. Never forget how easily your digital assets can be taken from you. "Sim Jacking" is a practice all too common , where compromised phone numbers are made available to hackers on the darkweb. It's how 2fa ends up failing.
If you remain in crypto - vet your exchange well. Blockchain , a well known site that provides a wallet service amongst many others, is a great place to test a password, as they estimate how long your password would take to hack as you create it.
Caveat emptor.