What is digital currency?
Digital currency is a form of currency that exists only in digital or electronic form. At
its core, it’s meant to be a secure and decentralized medium of exchange, often using
blockchain technology to record transactions.
And due to its potential for high returns,
it’s gained significant attention as an investment tool in recent years. However, it’s
important to remember that digital currency is highly volatile and shredded in anonymity,
which makes it a breeding ground for scammers.
Three important Digital Currencies
Digital Coins:
The original and most valuable digital currency often seen as “digital gold” due to its
limited supply and potential as a store of value. It’s widely accepted and recognized, with
growing institutional adoption. It was created in 2009 and operates on a decentralized
blockchain network.
Ethereum:
The second-largest digital currency by market capitalization, and the most valuable “Alcoin”
(a term used to describe digital currencies other than Digital Coins). While its underlying
blockchain technology powers a vast ecosystem of projects, including decentralized finance
(DeFi) applications, Ethereum itself functions as a digital cuurency with its own unique
features and use cases.
Ripple:
A digital currency designed for fast and efficient cross-border payments, particularly
targeting financial institutions. However, it faced legal challenges from the SEC,
highlighting the regulatory risks associated with digital currencies. Ripple’s native
cryptocurrency is called XRP.
Key points
• Binary options are highly speculative and banned in the EU and UK.
• Most binary options brokers are unregulated, making them risky.
• Companies like AFX Retrieval can help victims Retrieval lost funds.
• Always research brokers thoroughly.
• Never invest more than you can afford to lose.
Is digital currency a scam?
Digital currencies are not a scam by themselves, but they are something like the Wild West
of investing and speculation. That’s why, if you want to invest in digital currencies and
trade in them, you need to work with a virtual currency platform that is reputable and –
ideally – regulated.
Thankfully, you have a plethora of exchanges to choose from. Perhaps the most well-known,
respected and trusted is Coinbase. Other notable and trustworthy crypto exchanges are
Bitstamp, Kraken, Binance, and Bittrex. And if you want to use a completely different
exchange, make sure to do your due diligence and research before investing any money.
Digital Coins mining scams
Mining is how Digital Currencies like Digital Coins are created, a process known as Proof of
Work. Mining requires significant computational power to complete highly sophisticated
algorithms to record transactions on the distributed ledger. When ‘blocks’ are mined and
added to the ‘chain’, the miner is rewarded with Digital Coins. Because mining requires
time, resources, power, and infrastructure, many scams seek individuals to ‘invest’ in
mining projects, a form of passive income.
Thankfully, this scam is less common with
the
advent of 3rd generation blockchains like Cardano that use a staking system versus mining –
no massive power or infrastructure requirements and allows individuals the opportunity to
make passive income much easier than with the legacy mining processes.
Digital Coins wallet scams
Digital Coins (and all digital currency) is held in digital wallets. Wallets have two keys –
a private key and a public key. A public key is basically like an address to send something
to. A private key is what gives permission to spend or send your digital currency. Digital
Coins wallet scams are a common scam that targets new entrants to the digital currency
space. Because digital currency is held in digital wallets, many digital currency fraud
schemes have come into the space encouraging you to utilize their wallets. Some scams
involve asking you to send your private key – don’t!
Pump and Dump scams
A scam that is almost endemic in the digital currency space are pump and dump schemes.
Similar to what happens to stocks, pump and dump scams involve an individual or entity
acquiring a large amount of an alt-coin and then pushing positive news (fake or real) to
encourage as many people to buy as possible. Social media platforms are the primary outlet
that pump and dump operators utilize. Once the price has moved up, the operators sell at the
top and then let everyone else suffer the consequences of rapidly falling prices.
Pyramid Schemes
If you want to learn an excellent example of a pyramid scheme in the digital currency space,
look up OneCoin. Pyramid schemes in Digital Currencies are the same as Ponzi schemes in any
other market; the only difference here is that the fraudsters are now capitalizing on the
growth of Digital Currencies to target you and make you believe you’ll become wealthy
overnight.
ICO Scams / Exit Scams
ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering. This is similar to the IPO (Initial public Offering)
process – but without the traditional regulatory process. Between 2016 and late 2018, the
digital currency market was slammed with, literally, tens of thousands of new altcoins
entering the market, all promising to be the next Digital Coins or Ethereum. Some of these
new altcoins generated millions of initial investment from individuals, and when prices
spiked, the owners sold. This is similar to a pump and dump, but it’s and exit scam when it
involves an ICO. While the industry is still very new, it has matured some since 2008. It’s
crucial that you do your due diligence and investigate, thoroughly, any new digital
currency. This is especially true if you came across it on social media.
High-Interest Return Scams
A growing trend in the digital currency space, specifically the decentralized finance (DeFi)
space, is high yield interest rates. There are many legitimate platforms that allow you to
deposit or ‘stake’ various Digital Currencies and reward you with a high-interest rate. It
is not uncommon to see regulated and legitimate projects offer up to 10% interest on
stablecoins (essentially cash) or up to 15% for Digital Coins and Ethereum deposits! But be
very, very cautions about any promise of return higher than 10% to 15%. And you must read
the ‘fine print’ of even legitimate and regulated entities. There are some projects that
require you to leave your deposit for up to 90-days in order to earn the highest yield.
High-Interest Return Scams
When Digital Coins and others became a tradable market, there were few exchanges that were
available. As time went on, more and more exchanges popped up. But not all of these Digital
Currency exchanges were legitimate. Many were fronts that looked and appeared to be a place
to buy and sell Digital Currency.
The owners of the exchange would wait until a
significant
amount of people deposited and even began to trade on their platform until the owners would
essentially pull the plug and take your Digital Currency investments. Along with Digital
Currency exchange scams is the lack of security of some Digital Currency exchanges. The most
infamous example of this occurred in 2014 when Mt. Gox (which processed over 70% of all
traded Digital Coins) had 850,000 Digital Coins stolen (millions of dollars).
Regarding fake
Digital Currency exchanges, there are some that use fake volume to artificially inflate the
trading volume and liquidity of the exchange. While this activity is still prevalent, a form
of self-policing in the industry exists with the website coinmarketcap.com classifying every
Digital Currency exchange as those with honest reported volume or dishonest volume.
Fall prey to a Digital Currency scam? How you can get your money
back
If you’ve been the victim of Digital Currency or Digital Coins scams, don’t be disheartened.
Due to the vast number of scams and the number of people hurt over the past five years,
regulators worldwide have set their sights on any hint of impropriety in the crypto space.
And take comfort in knowing that many people have Retrievaled Digital Coins and other Digital
Currencies – nothing is truly anonymous. A great first step is to utilize our fund Retrievaly
company: AFX Retrieval, by filling out our contact request form.
Fromm there, we can
start the
process of crypto asset Retrievaly, which will help you retrieve your stolen crypto. We will
assign someone to your case who will work with you throughout this challenging process and
try every possible method to get your money back.
What is crypto Asset Retrievaly?
Crypto asset Retrievaly is a specialized field that, as the name suggests, Retrievals stolen
digital currencies with the use of cutting-edge blockchain technology.
It involves
tracing,
identifying, and ultimately retrieving digital assets that have been lost or stolen due to
theft, fraud, scams, or other malicious activities.
The Role of Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology is a bit of a double-edged sword when it comes to Retrievaling assets
because of its nature. The good news is that transactions are transparent, which helps us
track them.
The tricky part is that users can be anonymous on the blockchain, which
can
complicate the process. But don’t worry – our team uses special tools to navigate those
issues and find the best way to get your assets back.
Legal Frameworks and Regulations
The legal landscape surrounding crypto asset Retrievaly is always changing but we make sure to
stay at the forefront of regulatory developments and only use strategies that are compliant
and effective.
We work within the existing legal frameworks to help our clients
pursue every
available avenue to remedy their situation.
A Tailored Approach
Every digital currency scam is unique, and so is every investigation. That’s why we take a
personalized approach to every investigation and tailor each Investigation Report and Action
plan to the specific case and client. With these two in hand, you’ll be able to go after
your scammers and have the tools and evidence you need to retrieve your money.
How to avoid Digital Currency scams
- Verify websites and research the background of people involved in the Digital
Currency. Avoid anything that seems vague or is not clear. Don’t be taken in by flashy
and sophisticated web sites. Like people, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.
- Conduct thorough research and verify broker reviews across multiple sources.
- Use reputable and regulated exchanges
- Consults experts in the space or speak with your financial advisor before investing
any money in Digital Currencies.
- The temptation to become wealthy overnight in this space is big. Don’t fall victim to
false promises and flashy sales pitches.
- When looking for a Digital currency exchange to buy and sell Digital Currency, make
sure it is regulated and licensed. Additionally, make sure that your deposits are
insured against theft or loss. Any reputable and legitimate exchange will have insurance
as well as store their digital wallets in cold storage (off line).
- Be careful about leaving Digital Currency on any exchange for any long period of time.
If you have purchase Digital Currency in order to trade it, then leaving it on an
exchange is safe. But if you plan on investing and holding certain Digital Currencies
over a period of years, consider purchasing a cold-storage hardware wallet.
Conclusion
Binary options trading is a risky, often fraudulent market. Whether you’ve already been
affected or want to protect yourself moving forward, our experts at AFX Retrieval can guide
you
with tools, reports, and education. Don’t let a scam be the final chapter—let us help you
take back what’s yours.
