To exchange rubles for currency and transfer money abroad, Russians are turning to bitcoins and stablecoins. However, when trying to purchase crypto, it is easy to become a victim of scammers. How attackers deceive those wishing to exchange cryptocurrency and what you need to pay attention to during a crypto exchange transaction
After February 2022, transferring currency abroad for Russians became fraught with various difficulties and restrictions. Banks have begun to introduce high commissions for SWIFT transfers; money flows unstably and can be stuck for months. Under these conditions, in Russia cryptocurrency has become a popular tool for cross-border transfers and payments. Many Russians began to use the services of peer-to-peer platforms for exchanging and transferring cryptocurrencies, chats on Telegram, or visiting crypto exchangers in person.
However, those who want to exchange rubles for cryptocurrency or perform a reverse transaction sometimes encounter deception and cunning fraudulent schemes. Sometimes even personal presence during the exchange does not save the client from losing money. How does this happen and what is worth knowing if you need to buy or sell cryptocurrency?
"Triangle"
One of the popular cryptocurrency exchange scams is called the “triangle”. Those who want to buy or sell cryptocurrency get into it in search of a more favorable rate on the websites of large exchangers. Another place to search is Telegram chats, in which participants offer to buy or sell bitcoins or stablecoins. These groups have become an accessible analogue of cryptocurrency exchanges or platforms, because not every person knows how to use Binance or p2p services. In addition, you can quickly find someone who wants to buy or sell cryptocurrency in Telegram chats, without complicated registration and waiting for approval from the administrations of crypto exchanges.
“Let's say you want to buy a couple of bitcoins with cash. You find an exchanger’s website or a Telegram contact who allegedly acts on behalf of the crypto exchanger. They offer you a very pleasant course and invite you to Moscow City. You arrive, the tower has a pass in your name, and you go up to a pleasant office,” explains the head of InDeFi Smart Bank, Sergei Mendeleev, of the scheme. Then the crypto exchanger’s employees count the buyer’s cash, make sure that everything is fine, and ask to send the wallet address to Telegram for transferring the desired bitcoins. However, in the end, the buyer receives nothing.
Why is this happening? The fact is that a fraudster who corresponds on behalf of a crypto exchanger, after you have agreed on a deal with him, himself contacts the real crypto exchanger. There he talks about his desire to purchase bitcoins and explains that a courier will arrive with cash and need to issue a pass. The victim, who is considered a courier in a real crypto exchange, arrives with money. When the money is transferred to the exchanger, the victim, who is asked by the exchanger’s employees to send her wallet details to Telegram, sends them to the scammer - after all, it was he who corresponded with her on behalf of the crypto exchanger before. Meanwhile, the fraudster himself sends his wallet data to the real crypto exchanger’s Telegram. As a result, no one suspects anything - except the fraudster.
Newcomers who prefer to look for opportunities to sell cryptocurrency in Telegram chats especially often become victims of the “triangle,” notes Roman Kaufman, co-founder of the Weezi CRM system for crypto projects. Fraudsters who use this scheme trap their victims by creating websites similar to those of popular crypto exchanges, or posting ads on their behalf in Telegram chats, Mendeleev explains. To avoid falling into a “triangle” when transferring money in person, you need to clarify all the parameters of the transaction directly with the person in the office of the exchanger to whom the person wishing to buy or sell cryptocurrency is transferring money, and also show him the dialogue in Telegram and compare it with the dialogue on his smartphone, adds He.