Crypto scam – If you happen to be a good player in the Nigerian crypto market, you’d sure affirm the fact that crypto scam is very rampant, to this end, a number of newbies who seek to play in the market have been defrauded countless times, this arguably swiftly declines interest amongst these victims.

To further buttress this fact, an Israel based blockchain analysis firm Whitestream has released a wild report citing a number of scams as originated in Lagos, Nigeria.

It’ll be a dis-service to undermine the booming effect of bitcoin trade in Nigeria, however, the dark end is the rising cases of scams bedeviling the market geometrically.

According to Whitestream, the recent crackdown on Bitcoin by the Nigeria’s Central Bank may not be partly unconnected to the rising scam rate associated with the market.

Whitestream in its remark noted that the scam is prevalent on social media platform Instagram.

It noted that the Instagram accounts used in perpetrating the scam are designed to appear as though they are from Europe or America, Whitestream in its intelligence was able to track such accounts as domiciled in Nigeria.

In their strategy, these scammers will always engage their victims with demand that they should send in bitcoin directly to them for investment with expected yield in view, when this happens they’ll simply cash out in fiat and zoom off.

Bitcoin valued in tens of thousands have been cashed out using this strategy by these scammers who will stop at nothing to defraud their unsuspecting victims.

Some of the strategies being highlighted  are Instagram photos displaying unanimous brokers living luxurious lifestyle from series of crypto earning.

To further disguise their identity, these scammers will use VPN which will make it look as though their IP is from the US.

For instance, during the COVID-19 these scammers create fake reality for bored investors on Instagram who thereby lose savings to these fake accounts.

Whitescreen CEO Itsik Levy  however argues that the prevailing social media platforms had done little or nothing to combat this trend.

While these accounts have already been flagged as scams, Facebook and Instagram should follow suit by suspending and deleting such accounts to enable investors feel safe again, Itsik Levy added.

“The accounts are still active and the scam is still attracting new people, it makes no sense at all.”

What’s the way forward?

Prospective and returning investors should endeavor to pitch tents with reliable and notable crypto exchanges like Koinwa who has over time not only proved reliable, but has demonstrated great competence in facilitating transactions in Nigeria with maximum transparency in line with the world industry standard to avoid further crypto scam.