Common scam tactics

Fraud Under the Pretense of Part-Time Work and Order Brushing

Order brushing fraud is a common type of online scam. Criminals typically approach victims under the guise of offering part-time jobs, promising simple tasks and attractive commission schemes. This method aims to exploit people’s laziness and greed. The following are common tactics:

1. Recruitment Promotion: Criminals post fake job ads on social media, job sites, WeChat, QQ, etc., claiming to recruit part-time workers for order brushing. They usually claim the work is easy, flexible, and highly profitable.
2. Fake Interviews: Scammers conduct fake online interviews to create a legitimate work atmosphere, giving the impression of a formal recruitment process.
3. Request for Payment: Once hired, scammers often ask victims to pay "onboarding fees," "training fees," "order brushing advances," or other charges to obtain the victim’s personal information and money.
4. Order Brushing Operations: Victims are asked to perform order brushing tasks on designated platforms to earn wages or profits, but these are usually fake transactions.
5. Fraudulent Tactics: Criminals offer "random" airdrop rewards, such as increasing commission multiples for order brushing advances, to entice victims to invest more money. Once users pay, they are often asked to invest even more or pay taxes before they can withdraw, but the money can never be recovered.

To avoid becoming a victim, stay vigilant, be cautious of part-time job offers from unknown sources, do not trust jobs that require payment, and avoid participating in projects with unreasonable commissions. If you encounter suspicious situations, report to the police and relevant authorities promptly.

Investment Scams and Withdrawing to Scam Platforms

Criminals often lure victims with promises of high returns. Their typical routine involves four steps: targeting victims, gaining trust, inducing investment, and then absconding. The following are common tactics used in investment scams:

1. Fake Investment Platforms: Scammers create seemingly legitimate virtual currency investment platforms, claiming to offer high returns with professionally designed and attractive user interfaces.
2. Exaggerated Returns: Scammers promote fake investment opportunities via social media, email, or online ads, exaggerating potential returns to attract investors.
3. Emotional Manipulation: Scammers exploit emotional factors such as family, friendship, or romance to lower the victim’s guard and increase trust.
4. Forced Transactions: Once victims register and transfer funds to the platform, scammers force or induce them to make more transactions, making it harder to withdraw funds.
5. Fake Transaction Records: Scammers provide fake transaction records or account screenshots to make victims believe their investments are growing.
6. Difficulty Withdrawing Funds: When victims try to withdraw funds, scammers may block or delay withdrawals. Once enough funds are collected or they sense exposure, scammers may shut down the platform and disappear.

To prevent virtual currency investment scams, investors should remain cautious, verify the legitimacy of investment platforms, be wary of promises of excessive returns, avoid transferring funds to untrusted platforms, and conduct thorough research before investing.

Marketing Activity Scams

Marketing activity scams are a common form of fraud where criminals exploit people’s desire for prizes and discounts to lure victims into providing personal information or money. The following are common tactics:

1. Enticing Participation: Criminals use various methods such as email, SMS, social media, or phone calls to send victims tempting marketing activity information, such as lotteries, promotions, or limited-time offers.
2. Fake Prizes or Discounts: Criminals claim victims have won big prizes, received unique discounts, or enjoy other attractive benefits to spark interest and participation.
3. Request for Personal Information: After claiming the victim has won or received a benefit, criminals may ask for personal information such as name, email, phone number, bank account details, or digital asset account information.
4. Payment of Fees or Taxes: Criminals may require victims to register a digital asset exchange account to pay certain fees, so-called taxes, or handling charges in order to claim prizes or discounts.
5. Fake Verification: Criminals may impersonate legitimate organizations, sending fake verification emails or calls to convince victims they need to pay fees or provide more personal information to receive prizes or discounts.
6. Nonexistent Prizes: Ultimately, after the victim pays, the criminal disappears, resulting in financial loss.

To prevent marketing activity scams, individuals should stay alert, be cautious of activity invitations from unknown sources, avoid providing personal information, and refrain from paying any fees, especially if unverified. If in doubt, proactively contact the relevant organization or company to confirm the authenticity of the activity.

Impersonation of Officials, Judicial Authorities, or Friends for Fraud

Impersonation fraud is a common scam where fraudsters pose as officials, judicial authorities, friends, etc., to contact victims and defraud them of their assets. The following are common tactics:

1. Impersonating Officials or Judicial Authorities: Scammers may use phone calls, SMS, or social media to impersonate government officials, law enforcement, or other official representatives, claiming the victim is involved in illegal activities and must act immediately.
2. Fake Warnings and Threats: Scammers use fake warnings and threats to intimidate victims, claiming that failure to cooperate will result in serious consequences such as account freezing or asset seizure.
3. Providing Fake Information: Scammers may provide seemingly official documents, certificates, or case information to increase their credibility.
4. Request for Fines or Bail: Scammers impersonating officials or judicial personnel often ask victims to pay fines or bail, claiming it is the only way to avoid legal consequences.
5. Specifying Digital Asset Payments: Scammers may require victims to pay using digital assets for quick, anonymous transfers, making tracking more difficult.
6. Social Engineering and Impersonating Friends: Scammers may obtain victims’ personal information via social media, then impersonate friends or close contacts to make urgent requests for digital asset assistance.

To prevent impersonation scams, individuals should stay alert, be cautious of unverified communications, not trust sudden warnings or emergencies, and avoid transferring digital assets without careful verification. If in doubt, contact the relevant institution or friend through independent channels to confirm the authenticity of the information.

Scams When Privately Purchasing Digital Assets or Goods

When privately purchasing digital assets, scammers may use low-price bait, false information, and unofficial payment methods to commit fraud. This article analyzes these tactics to raise consumer awareness and protect your assets.

1. Low-Price Lure: Scammers use social media, online ads, etc., to post information about digital assets or goods (such as fuel cards, game cards, etc.) at prices far below market value to attract potential victims.
2. False Information: Scammers may fabricate transaction backgrounds, digital asset details, or provide fake supporting documents to deceive victims about the authenticity and reliability of the transaction.
3. Unofficial Payment Methods: Scammers require payment via methods such as bank transfer or virtual currency, which are hard to trace, allowing them to collect funds quickly and reduce the risk of being tracked.
4. Fake Websites or Platforms: Scammers create fake websites similar to real brands or shopping platforms to boost their credibility.
5. Manipulating Urgency: Scammers emphasize the urgency or limited-time offers of digital assets or goods (such as fuel cards, game cards, etc.) to pressure victims into making quick decisions without verifying information.
6. Delivery Risks: Once payment is made, victims may receive inferior products, low-quality digital assets, or nothing at all, making it difficult to defend their rights.

To avoid becoming a victim of private digital asset purchase scams, consumers should stay alert and use official trading platforms whenever possible. Research thoroughly before shopping, verify the authenticity of websites and merchants, be cautious of low-priced digital asset offers from unknown sources, and avoid using unofficial payment methods. If you encounter suspicious situations, report to the police and relevant authorities promptly.

• Case 1: "Arbitrage" and Similar Scam Projects

Scammers flaunt high returns by sharing screenshots, build an image as investment experts, or gain trust through online romance/friendship, guiding users to invest on designated platforms, ultimately making it impossible for users to withdraw funds. Additionally, scammers may use fake official mining activities to lure users to participate, allowing them to earn some profits initially, enticing them to invest more or invite friends. In the end, the scammer manipulates the contract and transfers all principal and profits from the account, causing financial loss.

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• Case 2: Impersonating Investment and Wealth Management Experts

Scammers claim "smart contract auto-return of high profits," "incremental interest," "arbitrage," etc., to induce users to transfer ETH to a certain wallet, promising to transfer OKB to users proportionally. In reality, the assets transferred by the scammer are not real OKB. Once users withdraw to the scam address, those assets are lost forever.

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Mnemonic Phrase Sharing and Token Giveaway Scams

Recently, on Twitter and other social media, many fraudsters have displayed wallet mnemonic phrases, using excuses such as "quitting the scene" to give away tokens, luring others to import the wallet mnemonic and defrauding them of the transaction fees they deposit.

Typically, the wallet is a multi-signature wallet under the scammer’s control, requiring multiple signatures to execute any operation. Therefore, even if the mnemonic is displayed, you cannot control the wallet after entering the mnemonic. Usually, the wallet contains a certain amount of valuable tokens, such as USDT, but lacks transaction fees. After you transfer in the fee token, such as TRX, a built-in program in the wallet will automatically transfer out the fee, and you will not be able to withdraw any assets from the wallet, resulting in asset loss. Therefore, if you encounter such scam information, especially in comments under official platform media or widely spread in groups, please stay vigilant, do not believe it, and never transfer fees or assets to any wallet address.

[Image row: Mnemonic Phrase Sharing Scam 001]

How to Prevent Fraud?

1. Carefully distinguish all kinds of tempting information such as high returns, expert guidance, arbitrage, interest, swaps, incremental, mining, etc., and avoid transferring digital assets to unknown platforms.
2. Be alert when approached via private messages about projects or sent unknown files or links; do not click easily.
3. The safety of private transactions cannot be guaranteed and is often fraudulent; try to use official trading platforms for transactions.
4. Do not easily trust private messages from strangers in IM, especially those claiming to be official customer service or operations staff. Identify them through official verification marks and stay vigilant! The platform will never ask you to perform any buy/sell, withdrawal, or transfer operations; anyone claiming to be a partner or official staff guiding asset transfers or investments is likely a scammer.
5. When it comes to account asset security information, never share your screen, take photos, or send screenshots. Stay alert.