Bitcoin Scam Education – Phishing Sites

Although the following is not a particular Bitcoin scam in the traditional sense, the goal is to defraud digital currency users by luring them into a false sense of security with a phishing site. The concept of such websites is nothing new, as any major platform or service has come to face with a clone of their site being used by internet criminals to obtain customer details. Users need to be aware of these websites, although it is not hard to spot the fake site in most cases.

Also read: Ethereum Technical Analysis for 3/27/16 – Head and Shoulders

Phishing Sites Targeting Bitcoin Users

No one will be surprised to hear internet criminals have been targeting Bitcoin users for quite some time now, and they are using a variety of methods to do so. Bitcoin ransomware is one of the most harmful solutions to achieving that goal, but do not underestimate the power of phishing sites either.

The main purpose of a phishing site is tricking visitors into thinking they are using the official website platform, as it looks and feels identically the same. However, most legitimate websites will store some of the information previously used to log in, such as a username, email address, or Bitcoin wallet ID. Phishing sites, on the other hand, will have none of this information, which should act as a warning sign in its own right.

But things can get dicey when looking at one of the obvious Blockchain.info phishing sites, called Blockchlan.info. Although the spelling error is not hard to miss, the fact this phishing site is listed on Google as the top search result – in some countries – for Blockchain.info is quite worrying. Search engines should know better than showing phishing sites on the results page, even if the platform owner paid for it.

Other Bitcoin phishing sites have come to fruition over time, though. Bitstamp, one of the leading Bitcoin exchange platforms in the world, was cloned at one point to create a copycat site as well, in the hopes of obtaining logins and passwords. Bitcoin has become a high-profile target for internet criminals, due to its high value and global availability.

Source: Bitcointalk

Images credit 1,2

If you liked this article follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin and altcoin price analysis and the latest cryptocurrency news.