As more and more people get into cryptocurrency, the crypto scams keep on coming. For our crypto-investor friends out there, it’s important to keep tabs on crypto-scammers’ activities — with that in mind, here’s what we’ve found at Trend Micro this week.

WalletConnect

Scammers are impersonating the popular crypto wallet platform, WalletConnect. Users have reported receiving email messages such as the above that claim there is some account-related issue. (If you analyze the above text, several incorrect word choices and strange phrasing will become apparent.)

The links in the message will lead to phishing pages — these are fake log-in and recovery pages — where your personal information is at risk of being stolen. If you follow the link, you’ll be asked to provide sensitive log-in credentials like recovery phrases, and there’s a good chance they’ll be harvested and then sold on. Watch out! For your reference, below is one fake WalletConnect page and one real.

Lastly, watch out for this malicious URL that is used in the scam:

• https://www[.]63db15493dca6190317027[.]webhosting[.]club/wc1[.]php?session=63e20dcb6adbf

Hickmirelimited[.]org

The crypto-scam website, hickmirelimited[.]com has been causing chaos and monetary losses to many investors recently. They purport to be a cypto-profit generating machine. All you need to do is invest in their platform with any cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin and Litecoin, and they will pay back what profit they accumulate.

The problem is that this is essentially a Ponzi scheme. While they will pay the first small payment, once you deposit a large payment you will be ghosted by the so-called company. See the below reviews as reference. It’s a mystery who 4-star-John works for…

There is in fact a REAL company called Hickmire Limited based in rural England, UK — but with a completely unrelated service. You can see their profile on the official Gov.uk website. What the scammers have done is steal the name and authentic reputation in order to convince would-be victims. Tellingly, the real business dates back to 2006 — this fake crypto website is only a few months old!

Protect Yourself with ScamCheck

• Double-check people’s contact details — and URLs.
• Reach out to official websites and support pages directly for help if in doubt.
• NEVER use links or buttons from unknown sources! Use Trend Micro ScamCheck to detect scams with ease: ScamCheck is an all-in-one browser extension and mobile app for detecting scams, phishing attacks, malware, and dangerous links — and it’s FREE!

Given you’ll be required to enter personal information on these kinds of platforms, ID Security will also ensure you’re never the victim of a data breach. Check out this page for more information on ScamCheck.

As ever, if you’ve found this article an interesting and/or helpful read, please do SHARE it with friends and family to help keep the online community secure and protected. Lastly, consider leaving a like or comment below. Happy investing!