According to reports from the FTC in the USA, since the start of 2021, more than forty-six thousand people have reported losing over an estimated total of one billion dollars to scam including cryptocurrency scam. Why do people take the risk? Most people are unaware of the tactics of mental manipulators that seek targets solely for the purpose of financial abuse. This means authorities in general are not equipped to deal with the situation, in fact, social media is the main point of contact for this type of abuse, and there is no regulation that provides safety for users on any social media platform.
Awareness of financial abuse is a first step in armouring against potential victimization. When someone manipulates another person out of their money, legally they are committing the act of fraud, which is material abuse. Other types of financial abuses are theft, exploitation, pressure to invest, misappropriation, or misuse of a person's money, property, will, and inheritance. Financial abuse also includes damaging a victim's property, relationships with creditors, business reputation, financial worth, and wellbeing. A person who is experiencing this type of abuse may be difficult to recognize, however, these abuses occur frequently to citizens, especially the elderly, and vulnerable. Aspects that create vulnerability with individuals is loneliness, lack of knowledge, and accessability.
Cryptocurrency scam is on a whole new level. Conspiracy theorists state that the deep state, or "the 300," is intending the world exist in digital currency, as stated in the biblical book of Revelations, no-one can buy or sell anything without the mark, or "chip." Digital currency is more easily controlled, where measures can be taken to freeze accounts, etc. This seems unlikely, but if the "300" don't get on top of these scammers, our current financial system will crash due to them, regardless of whether they view it a means of a more secure monetary measure.
Banking was once a brilliant way to create a sophisticated civilization, nothing else had the power to create wealth, or equality the way the banking system has in countries such as Canada, Britain, Australia, and the USA. This was never a defect, even though interest is considered sin, so is burying a beautiful woman up to her neck and stoning her to death for failing to wear a hijab. Regardless of all the things that exist like bias, racism, monopoly, and boycotts that cause people to fail financially using the current banking system, replacing it with an unregulated digital currency will not be free of abuse, in fact it is a far greater evil for those who chose to use it for gain.
Due to the industry being unregulated, absolutely nothing can be done regarding the abuses that occur with cryptocurrency mining. Miners these days are a dime a dozen. There are so many impersonators slithering around on social media, no one is safe. Social media is the playing field for scammers, and for very wealthy social media influencers that mine for profit, that have their own following of independent miners using their identity. Nothing can be proven as to the real intentions, and independent acts of certain miners, but one thing is for certain, we only have a fraction of people reporting abuse. Billions of dollars are stolen from people willing to take a risk when they think they are conversing with someone that is honest, and forthright. People are losing their life savings, and nothing can be done to help them. Who should be responsible for this?
Five Questions you should ask before investing as suggested by the US Securities and Exchange Commission are:
1) Is the seller licensed? Con-Artists use persuasion versus delivering verifiable facts that protect. Use BrokerCheck, Investment Adviser Public Disclosure Website, SEC Action Lookup-Individuals, or call the SEC (800) 732-0330.
2) Is the investment registered? Smart Investors check to see if their investment is registered with the SEC by using the EDGAR database, or contacting the SEC.
3) How do the risks compare to the rewards? High risk can yield greater return, or greater loss. Beware frauds are pitched as high return opportunity, with little risk, report these to the SEC.
4) Do you understand the investment? As a rule, never invest in something you don't understand, if you are confused that is an indication a trusted financial professional is a wiser choice for consult, as well as taking more time to make a decision. Don't let scammer use time as a bargaining tool.
5) Where can you turn for help? If you have any questions about investments, contact SEC, FINRA, or state security regulator if your in the US. If your in Canada, contact the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and submit an incident report, or speak to them directly.
Beware, there are many types of scams, including extortion. I was confronted by a bitcoin scammer regarding this website, and this is what the scammer had to say for himself:
From: jerome@jeromemaldonado.com Date: November 2, 2022 at 4:27:57 PM PDT To: hi@ihealcorner.com Subject: Website Has Been Hacked Reply-To: "jerome@jeromemaldonado.com" <jerome@jeromemaldonado.com> Your Databases Has Been Hacked. Y0ur Site Has Been Hacked PLEASE F0RWARD THIS EMAIL T0 S0ME0NE IN YoUR CoMPANY WHo iS ALL0WED T0 MAKE IMPORTANT DECISI0NS! We have hacked y0ur website https://www.ihealcorner.com and extracted y0ur databases. H0w did this happen? our team has found a vulnerability within y0ur site that we were able to exploit. After finding the vulnerability we were able t0 get your database credentials and extract y0ur entire database and m0ve the inf0rmation t0 an 0ffsh0re server. What d0es this mean? We will systematically go thr0ugh a series of steps of totally damaging your reputati0n. First your database will be leaked or sold t0 the highest bidder which they will use with whatever their intenti0ns are. Next if there are e-mails f0und they will be e-mailed that their inf0rmation has been s0ld 0r leaked and your site https://www.ihealcorner.com was at fault thusly damaging y0ur reputati0n and having angry customers/ass0ciates with whatever angry cust0mers/ass0ciates do. Lastly any links that y0u have indexed in the search engines will be de-indexed based 0ff of blackhat techniques that we used in the past t0 de-index our targets. H0w d0 i stop this? We are willing to refrain from destroying y0ur site’s reputation f0r a small fee. The current fee is $3000 in bitcoins (0.15 BTC). Please send the bitcoin t0 the f0llowing Bitcoin address (C0py and paste as it is case sensitive): 33SBCLZHgNmoXNrnqFf8WuVtoDDNzRbCLM 0nce you have paid we will aut0matically get informed that it was your payment. Please note that you have to make payment within 3 days after opening this e-mail 0r the database leak, e-mails dispatched, and de-index of y0ur site WiLL start! How do i get Bitcoins? You can easily buy bitcoins via several websites or even offline from a Bitcoin-ATM. What if i don’t pay? if y0u decide n0t to pay, we will start the attack at the indicated date and uph0ld it until you do, there’s n0 counter measure to this, y0u will only end up wasting m0re m0ney trying to find a solution. We will completely destroy y0ur reputation am0ngst go0gle and your cust0mers. This is n0t a h0ax, d0 not reply t0 this email, d0n’t try t0 reas0n 0r negotiate, we will not read any replies. 0nce y0u have paid we will st0p what we were d0ing and y0u will never hear from us again! Please note that Bitcoin is an0nym0us and no one will find out that you have complied. Finally d0n't reply as this email is unmonit0red.
Although we live in a cryptocurrency scam culture, and everybody is trying to get ahead. Don't be fooled, the Good Shepherd created a system for those believers that works....it goes like this: you work, pay your bills, keep your nose clean, pay your taxes, and you get the benefits of living in a world that provides opportunity to those who seek it within,"The Matrix"created. Most people believe God created all things, that would include the monetary system, yet it's attributed to human construct by those that think of it as especially evil, yet spend their dollars on pleasures, as does everyone else.
References:
Canadian Centre for Cyber Security: https://www.cyber.gc.ca/en/individuals
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:
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