I have always been a lover of technology and digital things, despite this, when I remember what my economic life was like a little over 5 years ago, I do not see myself making any kind of money online and I suppose that like a great majority of Venezuelans did not even know that it was possible.
It was thanks to the arrival of a great economic crisis in the country in which the salary of a professional became worthless and obtaining basic food seemed like a story told from a horror movie (year 2015-2016) that I began to look for ways to earn money that was not in local currency, that's how my adventure began in this new mode of economy that was about to explode (Cryptocurrencies).
The main challenge I faced was the need to convert the little money earned in foreign currencies to local currency that I could use, I created accounts in the different sites that served me for this purpose, I remember that neobux didn't go so badly, what I earned in I could claim USD from paypal but there was no intermediary to convert those USD to Bs and that's when I found airtm.
At the end of 2017 I finally found steemit and since then it has been quite a pleasant adventure, however I had no idea how I could withdraw my earnings since it was my first experience with cryptocurrencies and that was when I got to know UPHOLD, so I I used different pages to go from one currency to another until I got the Bs, although I lost almost 25% of the money in commissions, in the end I could get something to help me in the midst of the economic situation we were suffering.
I remember that of all the pages where I registered, only two required identity documents to create a "verified account", by then I didn't understand much about what it was about but it didn't seem dangerous to me so I sent my documents and got verified , I guess that like me back then many have created and verified their accounts on different platforms using identity documents.
Some people maybe have verified accounts that they no longer use and have done the whole creation-verification procedure just because they wanted to earn money but for some reason they didn't earn anything and left their verified accounts forgotten, for these and for some who do use their accounts but they lack information regarding the case, a tempting but dangerous offer could arrive, that is why I am encouraged to write this informative article in case perhaps someone can save themselves from danger.
Verification of accounts through legal documents..
Some mistakenly assume that the reason an account is verified is to prevent a person from creating a second account on the site where it is verified and gain credibility for the entity to which they have subscribed, this may be true but it is not true. limited to that.
There are simple verifications such as those that are usually done in community accounts, a photo with a piece of paper that contains information in which it can be verified that the person who appears in the image holding the piece of paper with the required data is the account holder, in this case it is true that the creation of a second account for abuse is avoided and credibility is gained.
In the previous case it is viable because you will only write in the community and eventually depending on your work you will be able to obtain rewards from it but the community has no responsibility in managing your funds, here comes the second type of verification that is a little stricter and It is required by those entities that offer to guard your money and allow you to move or exchange it from one type of asset to another.
In this second case, they generally demand the same but adding a legal document that identifies you, ID, passport or driver's license. The second case is stricter because that entity will be the custodian of your assets but not legally responsible for how you obtain them and the latter is what we must take into account...
The Danger...
About a year ago for the first time I heard that there were people buying verified Uphold accounts and many sold their accounts, at the moment I was going through hard times due to the loss of family members and I just listened to the rumor but I didn't feel like tracking the matter down However, recently I received a message from Uphold warning me to withdraw my assets before the end of the current month because they would leave the country, which implies closing the accounts of Venezuelans.
Curiously, and as some kind of coincidence, I came across a piece of news at the same time that highlighted an intense boom for the purchase of verified Binance accounts for amounts that exceed $1,000.
Imagine that you are one of those users who once created and verified an account on Binance but never used it for x reason, you are in a difficult financial situation and someone appears offering $1000 or even $2000 for your verified Binance account, it would seem very Tempting to let that "easy money" slip away, right?
It turns out that once you have verified your account with a legal document you are legally responsible for the use made of this account and if you decide to sell your account you will become responsible for the use made by the buyer who will surely affirm that your account will not have any misuse but the fact that these people do not create their own accounts and are willing to pay so much money for someone else's is already suspicious, don't you think?
In this sense, these accounts can be used to collect kidnappings, extortion, money laundering or any other crime that, in case of agreeing to sell your account, you will be responsible for responding to the authorities that, after tracking the funds involved, will reach your account and because they are government entities I am sure that the service provider will not deny them that photo together with that identity document that you used to verify yourself, the following is not difficult to predict.!
Do not take lightly revealing your legal documents on the internet, in addition to the above, sometimes criminals create a fake site, usually an exchange, and send you a message by email, discord, telegram or some other means of contact making you believe that you have won money that you can collect on that site which will ask you for data to verify yourself, those same data are then used to create an account in your name and verify it on some serious page.
Verify yourself with a legal document only on recognized pages and that you really need to use and once you do, do not sell that account for anything in the world since perhaps your freedom is at stake when doing so. It is only information followed by my advice to prevent those who may be taken unawares by the situation, since apparently Venezuela is being the central focus of this type of event with verified accounts.