During the bull market, any long-term investment strategy seemed to be profitable. Whether it was buying cryptocurrencies or simply holding onto them, investors typically saw returns of 50% or higher. This environment led to the rise of information scam groups, which would use technical jargon and obscure terms to manipulate unsuspecting users and lure them into private chats or sell the very tokens the scammers themselves held.
These groups would often engineer small pump-and-dump schemes, where the administrators would profit from the price movements of the tokens while celebrating their success in deceiving their trusting subscribers. In our opinion, this is a despicable act.
While the bull market has partially destroyed these groups, some still persist. There are three key markers that can help identify such groups:
Secrecy: Posts may appear to have taken days to craft, giving an air of exclusivity and expertise.
Exploiting subscribers' incompetence: It's normal to be inexperienced, but these groups will deliberately make their subscribers feel inadequate, comparing them to the uninformed masses or even portraying them as ignorant.
Boasting about secret tokens: These groups may claim they've made extraordinary returns on secret tokens, without providing any evidence.
The main takeaway is not to fall for the freebies these groups offer. Education should either be free or not provided at all. Incompetent information scammers often try to teach people using neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) techniques and other psychological tricks.
Despite the end of the bull market, these groups continue to try to prey on the pockets of their not-so-wealthy readers. There are now very few people with large capital in the crypto space. Even big funds have gone bust, with the remaining players either in significant drawdowns or, with proper risk management, having withdrawn funds to invest in the real economy, such as real estate. While not the best option, it's wiser than leaving assets in the hands of greedy founders.
