S1: Hello. The meteoric rise of cryptocurrencies means many fortunes have
S1: been made, but money's been lost too. And not just
S1: because cryptocurrencies are so volatile. I'm Jonathan Pierce from the
S1: Money Mine team and today we're tackling the five things
S1: you need to know to avoid cryptocurrency scams. The number
S1: of scams has gone up as fraudsters cash in on
S1: the hype over cryptocurrency. In just two years from 2018
S1: to 2020, Singapore investors have lost around 29 million dollars
S1: to fraud and cheating in cryptocurrency investments. So what are
S1: the warning signs of a cryptocurrency scam and how can
S1: investors protect themselves? Today we have with us home to
S1: you from crypto exchange. Tokenized Exchange also a crypto investor
S1: who wishes to be known as the school she lost
S1: almost all her life savings in a crypto investment scheme.
S1: Thank you both for being here and welcome to the show.
S2: Thank you for having us.
S1: John. All right. Let's start with you. What are some
S1: methods scammers are using to cheat investors?
S3: Yeah, the common scam is is that are imposter to
S3: pretend they are either the buyers or seller of cryptocurrency.
S3: Many will pretend as a buyer because from there they
S3: can get a cryptocurrency from the genuine seller and an
S3: outsider can those people? But there's a short seller or
S3: some merchandise seller and who then transfer the signals to
S3: the genuine crypto sell and get a cryptos. It's very
S3: common and common trend that we can see the seller to.
S2: Another would be something like what I was part of,
S2: which was talk.
S4: Talk would
S2: give you a percentage every day when you stick your
S2: money with them or you stick your crypto
S4: with them as you are
S2: sticking your crypto with them, they will give you bank
S2: a very small percentage, like 0.4 percent or something like
S2: that every
S4: day and
S2: you just accumulate the crypto, also known
S4: as. And they said
S2: that talk
S4: is worth 0.05
S2: U.S. dollars or
S4: USD. So at
S2: the end of it, we were able to withdraw our
S2: coins and we were able to
S4: also very easily
S2: switch it to other currencies. But unknown to us, we
S4: actually are
S2: unable to cash out the crypto because it didn't
S4: exist. I found out that
S2: it didn't exist only later on because I was able
S2: to cash out and withdraw my crypto several times over
S4: the year.
S2: And it was this year New Chinese New Year that
S2: we were unable to withdraw any of our crypto assets
S2: in there or any crypto that has been converted from coins.
S1: On hindsight, would you describe it like a Ponzi scheme?
S2: I wouldn't say is exactly a Ponzi scheme because a
S2: Ponzi scheme has to have like several layers. We were
S2: our own layers, so to speak. When they told our
S2: leaders
S4: to recruit us,
S2: our leaders actually
S4: told us instead of recruiting
S2: friends, we could put ourselves and our own
S4: accounts. We can put
S2: minimum
S4: in each up to
S2: seven levels down. We actually will get back more percentage
S2: every day than if we were to put a very
S2: big amount in just one account. So they told us
S2: how to split our money into tiny little portions and
S2: put them in altogether.
S4: I think
S2: 49 accounts.
S4: But it was a
S2: little different for me because
S4: I was
S2: a little skeptical in the beginning, so I started off
S2: with one account. So from the first
S4: line, I meet
S2: enough to buy another minimum account. And then when I
S2: meet enough again, I'll buy another minimum account. I wouldn't
S2: see my entire life savings was there, but it was
S2: a huge amount.
S4: The opportunity
S2: cost was actually worse than the
S4: amount itself. Yeah, definitely. OK.
S1: Let's bring you back into the conversation. No scams are
S1: not a new thing. What is different about crypto scams?
S3: The fundamental of the scam is still pretty much the same,
S3: and I try to do a little investor using the great,
S3: you know, they don't believe there is no business model
S3: behind the object is to either store their customer precious
S3: monies in terms of prey
S1: earlier in school. You also spoke about the use of
S1: legitimate websites, even bank websites. Maybe. How did they get
S1: around this and how can we tell the real ones
S1: from the fake ones
S2: they use
S4: what we call phishing P-H
S2: as
S4: AMG? They don't
S2: have the same website, obviously, but they have website addresses
S2: that are very
S4: similar. Their logo
S2: will look very similar, but
S4: not quite, and it
S2: would also have all the features and the same description
S2: and
S4: details, but it's actually a
S2: phishing site. So to be able to decipher
S4: those type, you have to
S2: be around long enough and
S4: you need to double check reviews
S2: on the app because usually the real sites and real
S2: applications will have a lot more reviews. Fake ones usually
S2: don't have much reviews, or if there
S4: are reviews, then it
S2: would be saying that. They are fake.
S3: Yeah. Maybe like it is. I think the purpose for
S3: this kind of scam surfacing is the scammer or the
S3: hacker behind the scenes one the user to enter the TV,
S3: a real password. This is not just happening in the
S3: crypto industry. I think Banes has faced this tremendous time
S3: to show that they are over the website address, almost
S3: as similar to banks by imposters, right? So they get
S3: your password after that and try to lock in and
S3: hide your account. So if those users will be then
S3: use multi-factor authentication, the account can get compromised
S4: as well, not just their
S2: account being
S4: compromised. They actually
S2: have all the
S4: wallets set up, so people
S2: will put in the money into the
S4: wallet.
S2: So a lot of them are like new users who
S2: don't know better.
S1: So how can a social media account in terms of
S1: looking at reviews and also trying to assess which ones
S1: are the real ones?
S3: Facebook or even any other social media, you can do
S3: a verification and you get a boutique. And the good
S3: thing is that the beauty is the ID, so only
S3: trust those bits where there is a move. That's one
S3: in which I read the page on identity.
S1: OK, so let's be careful before we have to be
S1: careful of sites that are using phishing to get your details.
S1: They look very similar to the actual sites, but just
S1: something may be a bit off looking for reviews also
S1: help checking it out on social media what people are
S1: talking about, so that would be another thing to take
S1: note of. The next thing, I guess, would be how
S1: do you spot the scam? So you knew what you
S1: were saying when something sounds too good to be true?
S1: Should investors be hearing warning bells?
S3: Yeah, but the real challenge of the travel industry is
S3: that they are all platform. I know they require really
S3: a lot of what we call it the you do
S3: your own research. The researchers need a lot validations and
S3: tuning capital sizing right only put the money. That loss
S3: is very crucial. And another thing is also that for tokenized,
S3: you go to a licensing process if you have a
S3: third base and that then simple photo licensing process to
S3: really give retail investor confidence and on the base of
S3: acceptability
S2: talk didn't have any of those red flags. They had
S2: a proper governance. They had a proper board of directors,
S2: the directors
S4: that were very well
S2: known in the crypto
S4: industry. They had
S2: people who were giving talks
S4: every week, and now they
S2: still say that they are not a scam. It's just
S2: that someone ran away with all the money and he
S2: was not authorized to treat. I think the best
S4: thing is to tell
S2: newbies not to trust any
S4: platforms, go to
S2: trust, to
S4: exchanges a lot of
S2: exchanges
S4: right now. You are able
S2: to use your seeing pass to sign up. That is
S2: a sure sign that it's definitely not a scam site.
S1: In addition to this MySQL, I assume you are still
S1: investing in this. What safeguarding measures are you taking now
S1: to protect your crypto investments?
S2: I'm treating myself, and I managed to treat and get
S2: back whatever I lost in part, which was very fortunate because,
S2: as I mentioned, it was a bull
S4: run and they said they were trying
S2: to shut a bull run, which is impossible. So the
S2: bull run was very lucky because we've tricky. I meet
S2: back the 30k that I lost. So yeah, that was
S2: a super lucky thing.
S4: So right now, I'm just more
S2: careful and I wouldn't be investing in other people's platforms
S2: because I think my own trading get better returns
S1: to you on the other side. What are some of
S1: safeguards that you guys have in place to help
S3: for tokenized one of the fall license arrangement? Ensure we
S3: put all of regulations at a Singapore. You're saying that
S3: final face to optimal license under a mask governance? This
S3: are the measure that we want to give our users confidence.
S1: What do you guys do in terms of surveillance? Maybe
S1: tell me about the hot and cold wallets as well.
S3: Oh yeah, sure. Most of the attention we have to
S3: wallet structure in place, we have all small threshold in
S3: how fair is for operation purposes so that clients can
S3: withdraw their funds in real time. Then majority of the
S3: crypto we put in the core, which is a so-called
S3: custody where all the disconnect from the internet is just
S3: a safe environment for me.
S2: I don't really have a cold wallet, but what I
S2: do is that I buy. Then I sell and then
S2: I withdraw into Singapore dollars straight away. It's not as convenient,
S2: but well, I get my money out of the exchanges
S2: very frequently.
S1: Well, that's interesting. So in other words, you're in and
S1: out a lot faster than you were before. That's a
S1: new change.
S2: Yes, I sell as soon as I make money in,
S2: I buy again when it drops. So is the buy
S2: low sell high.
S1: All right, so let's recap a bit. First of all,
S1: we have to look out for suspicious websites that are
S1: using phishing. I've also heard about fake initial coin offerings.
S1: You have to check our claims on social media, look
S1: for reviews. Other warning signs could also be in terms
S1: of your own research. Right? That's what you were talking about.
S1: And also, maybe it's good to. Go with the exchanges
S1: that are more famous, that come more recommended, and of course,
S1: those are linked to the thing path in Singapore is
S1: a legitimate site going forward, though. Where would you get
S1: your research now, this school? Which sites do you go
S1: to to find out whether this is a good trip
S1: to Iran?
S2: I go to CoinGecko and I go to Germany. They
S2: have all the latest crypto news.
S4: I also check out other websites about cryptocurrency
S2: as Cointelegraph as well. I do a lot of reading
S2: and a lot of research. So any claims that I'm
S2: interested in? Well, I'm actually interested in like three of
S2: the coins at the moment. So I read up about
S2: all the 30 coins. What are the latest developments?
S4: I try to keep abreast
S2: of all the latest developments and there are many and
S2: they are happening almost every day
S1: to you. What is your advice for investors? Where can
S1: they get the right information?
S3: I really agree with full schedule and even tokenized. We
S3: also have large divisions in our Telegram and Facebook, so
S3: I'll try to help our users and community to enhance
S3: our knowledge in this space and keep them up to date.
S2: Yeah, for cryptocurrency, knowledge is really power, so I'll have
S2: to read more, do more research, do your own due
S2: diligence as well.
S4: So that's why I
S2: learned from this scam that I was
S4: involved in. So very glad
S2: it happened early when I didn't have that much money
S2: to lose.
S1: I think on that note, that's a good place for
S1: us to leave it. So the lessons to learn here
S1: research as much as you can. Knowledge is power. If
S1: you say use technology to call wallets to store your investments,
S1: look out for warning signs. Phishing sites check the claims
S1: of the social media to as much looking at reviews
S1: and things like that. Beware of Ponzi schemes and others,
S1: and especially be wary of offers that are too good
S1: to be true. All right, so for everyone listening, I
S1: hope you picked up a tip or two to join
S1: us again next time. And thank you so much, visco
S1: and to you for joining us today. Thank you
S2: very much. Goodbye.
S3: Bye bye.