If you find a crypto paper wallet on the ground and you’re tempted to scan the QR code, think twice!
According to New South Wales Police in Australia, these fake paper wallets are being scattered around the streets by scammers attempting to steal people’s money and private details.
New South Wales Police posted the following on their Facebook page on November 22, 2022 [1]
This isn’t the first time that a paper wallet scam has been found in Australia. Four months ago in August 2022, A Reddit user [2] posted a thread saying they’d found one of these paper wallets outside of their house. They asked if anyone else had found one. It turns out that many people from all over Australia replied saying they had found the same scam paper wallets in their local area.
Of course, where money is involved, there will always be scammers trying to steal people’s hard-earned money. Some scams in crypto, such as Elon or Vitalik appearing over YouTube video ads to give away free coins, are just blatantly obvious! But some scams are meticulously planned and very difficult to spot.
Below are just some of the other wild scams that we’ve seen over the last few years
Fake Websites
Always make sure to carefully check the domain name of the website you’re using. Scammers make slight changes to the URL hoping to catch unsuspecting users. For example, instead of www.binance.com scammers may replace the i with a 1, or add an extra letter.
Blackmail
Scammers contact users claiming to have a record of their adult website browsing history. The scammers demand payment and/or private keys or else they will publish the user’s browsing history to embarrass them.
Pig Butchering
This strange-sounding scam is a type of romantic scam where the scammer builds romance and trust with a victim through an online dating site. The scammer tries to get the victim to fall head over heels in love with them and then convinces them to invest in a fake cryptocurrency project. The scammer then disappears and the victim has been “butchered”. [3]
The fake paper wallet scam surely won’t be confined to Australia so take care if you find a similar paper wallet in your area.
What would you do if you found a paper wallet on the ground? Let us know in the comments below.
Written by JayXBT
