Everyone has ever had an email or facebook message from somebody from some place in the country who is actually very rich but still needs your help to get his money. It is often framed with a pathetic story, and if you give something in advance, you get tons back in front of it. Fortunately, we know nowadays that we do not have to react to this and so the scammers have come up with something new. Not a rich person from Nigeria needs your help, but Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin.
Buterin warns for Ether scammers
So be careful when you receive an e-mail from Buterin. In the mail, the Ethereum founder appeals to you because his laptop is literally dead. He would need an x number of Ethereum coins from you so he can buy a new laptop. Of course he also has ether, but his funds are frozen in a cold wallet and he can only get there in a week. In a tweet Buterin warns for these scammers. He indicates that if it appears that he has sent you an email and asks for ether, you should not send anything at all. He recommends first contacting him or if you are lazy to assume that fraud is involved.
Why contact first?
Of course, his tweet is answered by several twitterers with smartass comments. According to one user, anyone who believes that Buterin has only one laptop and all his ether is in a cold wallet, deserves to be robbed. Another twitterer wonders why you should first contact the founder. Does Buterin then often beg for ether? Yet another user compares asking Buterin for ether with Bill Gates asking for a Windows serial number.
Cryptocurrency popular target of fraudsters
Due to the popularity and potential large profits of cryptocurrency, the digital currency has recently become a popular hunting ground for scammers. For example, this month alone a lot of dubious websites have surfaced, which occur as clones of the popular app Binance. These sites refer you to the official site and when you subsequently carry out transactions, they receive a certain reward. These are fortunately still innocent scams, where your money is not stolen. Unfortunately, there are also some more serious scammers, but luckily there are also people who are doing well. The Ethereum Scam Database, for example, is a useful site, where online scams are put together for you.
Fraudsters can also get rid of your identity. Follow these tips to keep your social media accounts private and prevent identity fraud.