Looking to buy Bitcoin? Don’t fall for fake celebrity endorsements leading to cryptocurrency scams. Here’s why!
Bitcoin is on the rise once again, and investors are anxious to see just how high it will go. The rush to invest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency derivatives has opened the door to online scammers, eager to get their “piece of the pie.”
The quickest way to bring in new clients is to establish credibility, which these scammers attempt to do by putting fake celebrity endorsements in their advertisements or use verified social media accounts to memic celebrities especially Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk.
A Bitcoin scam identified by Hackread.com yesterday
The Latest Trend in Online Investment Scams
This newest scam is just another development from the same people who have infested online trading for years. The endorsements themselves are part of affiliate advertising networks. Partners receive a cut of the scam’s proceeds for directing traffic to the scammer’s websites. This extra layer of anonymity helps protect scammers, who are often difficult, if not impossible, to track down.
Anyone who tries to invest with the scammers will soon find that they aren’t buying Bitcoin, but instead, derivative assets, called contracts for differences (CFDs). This means investors never own any bitcoin. They’re essentially betting on whether the price is going to go up or down.
