Scams are becoming more creative and widespread, targeting everything from your money and bitcoin to your personal information. These scams can take many forms, including phishing emails, fake investment scams and impersonation fraud.

Scammers can target anyone, however, they known to focus on older individuals or people who are unfamiliar with technology, making it especially important for seniors and their families to stay vigilant and take extra precautions to avoid falling victim to these schemes.

Bitcoin can be particularly attractive to scammers because it's global, easily tradable, and irreversible. Once a bitcoin transaction is made, it can’t be undone, meaning there’s no simple way to recover your funds if you’ve sent them to a scammer. This makes it crucial to be aware of common scams and know how to protect yourself.

A key step towards protecting yourself is knowing what to look for. Before getting into Bitcoin and making transactions, you should ask yourself the following questions:

• Are you being pressured to act quickly?
• Are you being promised some benefit, like investment returns?
• Are you sending funds to an external wallet or service that you didn’t set up yourself?
• Have you searched for negative reviews of where you’re sending funds?
• If sending to someone, have you met them in person?

Scammers often use tactics such as time pressure, lucrative promises, or the victim's lack of technical knowledge to trick them. By asking yourself these questions, you can help filter-out likely scams before you get involved. Remember, if you’re in doubt, it’s best to wait and do more research.

Let’s explore some common scams and how to avoid them.

Investment and “Pig butchering” scams

Investment and “pig-butchering” scams involve scammers requesting money (often bitcoin) with a promise that they’ll deliver some benefit, such as investment returns, interest on your bitcoin, or some crypto token or asset. The scammers cultivate long-term relationships with their victims to build trust, often on popular apps such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Telegram, X (Twitter) or via direct messages. Over time, they persuade you to send money as an investment, and may even show that you have an account balance or investment returns on their platform, when in fact the funds are not there.

The term “pig-butchering” refers to “fattening up” the victim with promises of high returns before “slaughtering” them by stealing their investments, either in incremental amounts or in one large theft. Once they’ve taken money from their victim, the scammers cease communication or continue asking for more money to unlock the victim’s previous “investment” before disappearing altogether. Remember, since bitcoin transactions are irreversible, Strike cannot recover or reimburse you after you authorize sending funds externally.

How to protect yourself from investment or pig-butchering scams

• If it’s too good to be true, it probably is: Nobody can guarantee investment returns, and if someone promises high gains, there’s either high risk involved or it’s an outright scam.
• Be wary of online relationships: If you haven’t met the person in real life,stay skeptical and avoid trusting them with financial advice or investments.
• Don’t invest if you don’t understand: Before investing in anything, especially in crypto projects or funds, do your research including searching for any negative reviews.
• Only send bitcoin to people you know: Always double-check wallet addresses, and if you’re unfamiliar with the person or service, it’s best to wait or reconsider.

Crypto, token, and “dApp” scams

Crypto, token, and dApp (decentralized application) scams involve deceptive projects that lure in investors with the promise of high returns, but are in fact worthless digital assets or simply outright frauds. Typically, these scams follow a pattern: promoters hype up the project through aggressive ads, videos, podcasts, and social media, often without revealing their personal financial stakes. This drives up the project’s coin, token, or asset price, allowing the promoters and/or founders to sell at the peak, leaving investors holding highly illiquid assets.

Sometimes the price of a crypto asset is artificially inflated through fake trading activity, known as wash trading, where false transactions make it appear as if the value is rising, but this is done to lure new investors in before the scammers sell and exit. When retail investors try to sell, the price ultimately collapses, and the project never delivers on its stated promises or fails entirely. While the scammers walk away with profits, most investors are left with worthless tokens in a classic pump-and-dump scheme.

How to protect yourself from crypto, token, or dApp scams

• Do your research: Before investing, always investigate the project thoroughly, including the team, technology, financial disclosures, and history, and be cautious of projects with unclear or overly ambitious promises.
• Beware of hype: Avoid projects that rely heavily on influencers, aggressive marketing, or promises of quick, massive gains, especially when the promoters’ financial interests aren’t disclosed.
• Check for liquidity: Always check whether the asset has sufficient and legitimate trading volume and liquidity, ensuring you can sell without crashing the price. Be aware that many crypto prices can be artificially inflated via wash trading.
• Understand the difference between Bitcoin and crypto: Bitcoin is a decentralized, transparent, and secure digital asset with a fixed supply, while many crypto projects are centralized, speculative ventures that often lack security, transparency, regulatory standing, or long-term value.

Relationship or romance scams

Relationship or romance scams typically involve scammers creating fake online profiles to build emotional relationships with their victims, often through popular apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, X (Twitter), or other social media platforms. Once a relationship is established, they often request money under false pretenses, usually for fabricated emergencies, travel expenses, or investment opportunities. Scammers can also use AI to create realistic photos, videos, or even voices, tricking victims into believing they’re interacting with a real person, when in fact they’re not.

How to protect yourself from relationship scams

• Be cautious with online relationships: Never send money to someone you haven’t met in person.
• Don’t trust too easily: Scammers are skilled at creating emotional connections to manipulate their victims.
• Verify any story they tell you: If someone claims they need money for an emergency, cross-check their story with reliable sources.
• Don’t give in to false urgency: Be skeptical of any claims of emergencies or time pressure when an online contact asks for assistance.

Phishing scams

Phishing scams involve deceptive messages, emails, or websites that look like they’re from a trusted source, such as your bank, a government authority, or even Strike, but are in fact fake. These messages or websites may ask for sensitive information like your passwords, or invite you to click on a malicious link to download software, leading to the theft of personal data or funds. If you’ve ever received an unsolicited email or text message that almost looks like it’s legitimate, but asks for personal information or prompts you to click a suspicious link, then you’ve likely encountered a phishing scam.

How to avoid phishing scams

• Check URLs and email addresses carefully: Scammers often use websites or email addresses with slightly altered spellings to trick users.
• Never share passwords or codes: Legitimate companies will never ask for these details via email or text.
• Avoid unknown links: If you receive an email or text message with a link from an unknown source, don’t click it.
• Use unique emails for services: Keeping different email addresses for services can limit the damage if one gets compromised
• Avoid disclosing personal information: By keeping your financial activity and holdings private, you may be less likely to be targeted by scammers.
• Communicate via official channels: Whenever you communicate with your bank or Strike, do so via in-app customer support or via official email channels only.

Impersonation scams

Impersonation scams involve scammers pretending to be someone you know or trust, like a friend, family member, or even a celebrity, to try and trick you into sending them money. These scammers often reach out via popular apps such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Telegram, X (Twitter), or text message apps and change their user profile or photo to look the same as a friend or trusted person.

Scammers can impersonate friends, family members, public figures, tax authorities, law enforcement agents, bank representatives, or even Strike employees, and then use a false sense of urgency to get you to pay them or give up sensitive information.

Remember, you should only communicate with Strike via official channels, such as in-app customer support or by email at support@strike.me. When you connect with Strike support, they will never ask you for your PIN, account email, or confirmation codes and will never ask for a payment from you.

How to protect yourself from impersonation scams

• Verify identities: If someone contacts you unexpectedly, verify their identity through another means of communication.
• Be skeptical of urgent requests: Scammers often use urgency to prevent you from thinking clearly.
• Report and block suspicious accounts: If you receive messages asking for money from someone you don’t know or from a strange account, block them immediately.

Prize or refund scams

Prize and refund scams involve scammers contacting their victim to falsely inform them that they’ve won a prize or are entitled to a special refund or bonus. To claim the non-existent money, the scammers instruct the victim to click a link, download malicious software, provide some personal information, or even send some “deposit money” to claim their reward.

How to protect yourself from prize or refund scams

• Ignore or block offers of free money: Legitimate services won’t randomly offer free cryptocurrency or large prizes.
• Be cautious about refunds: Only engage via official channels when dealing with refunds or any account-related queries.

Job or task scams

Job or task scams involve fraudulent job postings, job training, work tasks, or work opportunities that lure victims into sending money or personal information. Scammers might advertise these fake jobs online, through social media posts, or even directly to their victims via text or direct message, then promise to pay money, remote work, or quick training to entice potential victims. Once they’ve collected their victim’s payment or sensitive information, the scammer fails to deliver on their promises or disappears entirely.

How to protect yourself from job or task scams

• Be cautious of unsolicited offers: If jobs or tasks come to you without you actively searching for work, there is an increased likelihood that it may be a scam.
• Research the company or job recruiter: Before sending any information or money, verify the company or person’s authenticity, including searching for any negative reviews.
• Apply through official channels: Only use trusted job boards or company websites to apply for jobs.
• Don’t pay for job opportunities: Any job or task that requires upfront fees, especially in bitcoin, is likely a scam.

Tax or fee scams

Tax or fee scams involve scammers convincing victims that they owe taxes, fees, penalties, or withholding amounts, and then demanding payment, often in bitcoin or cryptocurrency. These scammers may operate a fraudulent investment or trading platform, displaying account balances or gains, which may or may not exist, and then require their victim to pay a tax or fee to access their funds or to continue investing. In some cases, scammers may also impersonate tax authorities, pressuring victims to send money to avoid fake penalties or fines. It’s important to remember that legitimate tax authorities only communicate through official channels and never demand payments in bitcoin or cryptocurrencies.

How to protect yourself from tax or fee scams

• Do your research: Thoroughly research any trading, investment, or crypto platform before signing up or sending funds, including searching for the negative reviews.
• Be wary of cryptocurrency tax payments: Be skeptical of anyone asking for taxes, fees, penalties, or fines to be paid in bitcoin or cryptocurrency.
• Communicate via official channels: Always contact government or tax authorities through their official communication channels.
• Take your time: Don’t rush decisions, especially when it involves sending irreversible bitcoin transactions.