- Cryptocurrency scams are believed to be rising in the post-COVID-19 world.
- Cryptocurrency mass adoption is increasing by many folds.
- Increase in cryptocurrency adoption increases the chance of risk.
The post-COVID-19 world has seen a new precedent set by the leading digital payment processing firm PayPal, due to increase cryptocurrency adoption to its 487 million users. On the other hand cryptocurrency scams are a growing concern the come with quickly rising mass adoption.
What makes a user susceptible to cryptocurrency scams?
While the justice department is reporting a significant increase in cryptocurrency scam since before the pandemic hit the world, the reasons often elude regular users and readers. US government a further rise in the scams as early as April 2020, while a recent report reveals that over $1 billion was lost theft and cryptocurrency scams across the globe.
The FATF data further supports that the Bitcoin ransomware scam has also seen a new precedent set during the pandemic. This increase provides another reason to believe that scams are rising. In most cases, the victims of these ransomware attacks are unsuspecting institutions such as public schools and users with a low level of data security knowledge. As many as five county schools were reported to have been a victim of ransomware attacks in the past. The reason, low security, and unsuspecting network administrators lost control of their school server and in turn the school computers to the hackers.
Another unsuspecting and rather a naive area is the low literacy on the legality of cryptocurrency and other digital financial services. This low literacy gives way to the unregulated players to lure into unsuspecting naive newbies into believing that they are about to get rich, or securing their money in the form of digital assets. However, in most such cases users end up with either a legally protected loss of their money or a complete fraud.
Cryptocurrency scams are also quickly becoming an area where money laundering agents come in, seeking cover from authorities. The pandemic has caused a verifiable significant rise in the unemployment rates, which is considered a direct of increased crimes not just in the cryptocurrency sector but pretty much all crimes. However, implementing proper security measures and in-depth research before making investments can secure your time and money.
