Safeguarding against scams: Binance highlights common fraud schemes and prevention strategies

With the rise of the digital economy, Binance continually raises awareness and provides education on how to spot and avoid common scams. User-focused decision-making is at the core of every choice Binance makes, underscoring the importance of shedding light on how users can better avoid common scams.

It is crucial to know and identify potential scams as this could prevent personal information from being accessed by the wrong people and emotional distress.

Binance shares prevalent scams to look out for and how to avoid them. 

Phishing attempts via WhatsApp:

As the social media landscape expands, so do the tactics of malicious actors aiming to exploit unsuspecting individuals. WhatsApp, being one of the most popular methods of contact for millions globally, is vulnerable to being used by scammers.

Here’s how a phishing scam on WhatsApp would typically look:

• Impersonation: A scammer creates a fake WhatsApp profile resembling a well-known company. 
• Urgent issue: They claim an urgent problem with a user’s account, such as suspicious activity.
• Information or funds request: The scammer asks for sensitive information such as account credentials and two-factor authentication codes or requests that users transfer them some crypto.
• False trust: They share some details that seem credible, potentially from public sources.
• Isolation and vanishing: The scammer insists on secrecy and discourages users from discussing this with anyone else, claiming the situation is sensitive and needs to be handled discreetly. Finally, they disappear after users send their information, leaving them with losses.

Investments and Employment scams

Investment scams involve a fraudster promising high returns if users invest their money through a “highly recommended” website or crypto broker and they tend to claim to be experts who will multiply your funds tenfold. While with employment scams, the job posting is likely to look real and the income is usually well above the industry average. However, there’s a catch: Employment scammers will send out a rewarding job listing that requires applicants to pay a deposit fee if they want the job. 

OTP Scams

These scams involve scammers attempting to deceive individuals into providing One-Time-Pins (OTPs), usually through phishing or social engineering techniques. OTPs are temporary codes sent to a user’s mobile device or email address to authenticate a transaction or login attempt; scammers fraudulently send them codes, and verification questions, or engage in sim swap attacks via SMS.

Always be cautious of unsolicited communications requesting personal or financial information. Click on the [Binance Support] icon at the bottom right of the screen for assistance.

Email Scams

These emails are designed to trick users into releasing crypto before having received any payment in their bank accounts.

Fraudsters have become more sophisticated in their methods, making it harder for people to identify and avoid such scams. .They use Phishing emails, these emails often include a call-to-action, enticing users to click a link. 

The link, however, will direct them to a counterfeit website designed to closely mimic a legitimate one or a delayed payment method where users receive an email stating that, due to a network issue, the transfer will be delayed. 

How Binance Will Contact You

There are legitimate ways that Binance may contact you or you can reach out to us:

• Via the Binance customer support team, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on our customer service portal.
• Via our official X (formerly known as Twitter) account: @Binance 
• Via Telegram. Make sure, however, that you have verified the identity of the contact with the Binance Verify service. This tool lets you check a website, e-mail address, Telegram ID, or other point of contact to see if it’s legitimate. 
• You should also carefully examine any community group you belong to. Our Keep Yourself Safe From Community Group Scams guide will help you do just that.
• Through email. Use Binance Verify to carefully check the sending address.

About Binance

Binance is the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider with a financial product suite that includes the largest digital asset exchange by volume. Trusted by millions worldwide, the Binance platform is dedicated to increasing the freedom of money for users and features an unmatched portfolio of crypto products and offerings, including trading and finance, education, data and research, social good, investment and incubation, decentralization and infrastructure solutions, and more. For more information, visit: https://www.binance.com